Democrats who want to spend more money than a reasonable government budget will allow often talk about “improving tax compliance” and the “tax gap,” suggesting that there really is enough money to pay for lots of new spending if only the tax code was enforced more aggressively.

One year ago, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in part because the U.S. had hoped for the best after withdrawing its forces from the country, without adequately preparing for the worst. In dealing with the Taliban today, President Joe Biden’s administration can afford no such illusions.

One of the most important features of the Inflation Reduction Act — which makes massive investments in renewable energy to curb climate change, drives down prescription drug costs and more — is what it is not: an irresponsible spending spree pushing up the federal deficit.

The past three months have seen mass shootings of schoolchildren in Uvalde, Texas, and July Fourth celebrants in Highland Park, Illinois. Cries for greater gun control to stop such avoidable, premature deaths grow after each event. President Joe Biden recently signed a gun control measure into law, but overall, little substantive change has occurred and is unlikely to occur anytime soon.

When attempting to make sense of the news, comparing different countries can inform how we think about political problems and possible solutions.

“O, what portents are these?” demands a deceptively observant character in “Henry IV.” Former President Donald Trump must be wondering much the same, after FBI agents searched his home at Mar-a-Lago on Monday. The rest of the country could use some answers too.

Not long after Donald Trump’s 2016 election, Vox’s Zack Beauchamp traveled to Hungary, where its authoritarian leader, Viktor Orbán, had implemented many of the populist-right policies that had energized the American president’s most ardent supporters. Notably, Orbán militarized Hungary’s southern border to stop the “invasion” of migrants — and he has made base racial appeals.

As former President Donald Trump desperately clung to power last year, and his agitated supporters violently invaded the Capitol, a number of flaws in the U.S. election system became all too clear. Thankfully, one of them may soon be fixed.

Let me start by stating the obvious. The execution of a federal search warrant at the residence of a former U.S. president is more than an extraordinary occurrence.

It’s become tiresome to see progressive politicians act like a pouting teenager who seems to think it’s a sin to ever admit satisfaction with anything. Their lukewarm reaction to Senate passage of the Inflation Reduction Act won’t help energize the voters Democrats need to avoid conservatives regaining Congress in the upcoming midterm elections.

Partisans quickly retreated to their corners late Monday when news broke that the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Florida home.

It will be some time before the nation knows exactly what the FBI was looking for, and what it found, during Monday’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home and resort. But the known factors so far all point to a strong presumption of legitimacy for the operation. FBI Director Christopher Wray is a Trump appointee. Attorney General Merrick Garland is known for his caution. A judge had to affirm the probability of finding evidence of criminality before granting the warrant.

When I first was outed at age 14, I realized I would have to learn how to navigate a world that didn’t fully accept me. Part of that was figuring out how to access health care as a gay person and a minor at odds with his parents. Though my family knew of my sexuality, they didn’t accept it.

I would like nothing more than to be wrong about this. But the reckless response by the GOP-Fox News axis to the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago makes it feel as though we’re falling into the abyss.

They really did it. The Inflation Reduction Act, which is mainly a climate change bill with a side helping of health reform, passed the Senate on Sunday; by all accounts it will easily pass the House, so it’s about to become law.

Over the past few years, many students have told me about their frustrations about possibly needing to move back to their hometowns and into their parents’ homes for financial reasons.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), announced in late July by Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., includes $369 billion in tax incentives to boost wind, solar and other clean energy. Although a step in the right direction, the bill will not by itself be enough to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050. To make bigger gains more quickly, we’ll need to directly remove carbon from the atmosphere.