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Senators propose ban on individual stock holdings by members of Congress

Two Democratic senators, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, want to prevent a revival of ethically questionable investing on Capitol Hill by proposing legislation to prevent lawmakers and senior aides from trading in individual securities.

Their measure would build on some of the toughest ethical restrictions Congress has imposed on itself in recent years: Seven years ago, Congress passed the Stock Act, which focused on preventing members of Congress from using insider information to profit in the markets.


The bill faces at least initially uphill prospects in the Republican-run Senate. Roll Call reports it would give members six months to sell their portfolios or put them into blind trusts for the duration of their time in office. They would then be allowed to trade only in mutual funds. And members would be barred from the boards of public companies, a provision added to the House-passed political overhaul HR 1 after a GOP House member, Chris Collins of New York, was indicted last year for insider trading in a drug company on whose board he sat. The case was one of the highest-profile alleged ethical transgressions on the Hill in recent years, but Collins won anyway.

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Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Populist podcasters love RFK Jr., and he took the same left-right turn toward Trump as they did

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services in the new administration. The idea of Trump, a Republican, appointing Kennedy to his cabinet would have been surprising just a few months ago.

After all, Kennedy began his presidential run last year as a Democrat and is the scion of a Democratic dynasty. Nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Kennedy spent most of his career as a lawyer representing environmental groups that sued polluting corporations and municipalities.

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Donald Trump
James Devaney/GC Images

Project 2025: A cross-partisan approach, round 2

Earlier this year, The Fulcrum ran a 32-part series on Project 2025. It was the most read of any series we’ve ever published, perhaps due to the questions and concerns about what portions of Project 2025 might be enacted should Donald Trump get elected to a second term as president of the United States.

Project 2025 is a playbook created by the Heritage Foundation to guide Trump’s first 180 days in office. Our series began June 4 with “Project 2025 is a threat to democracy,” written by University of Iowa professor emeritus Steve Corbin. He wrote:

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Jennifer McCoy

‘There are very few democracies that are as polarized as we are today’: A conversation with Jennifer McCoy

How worried should we be about the state of democracy in the United States?

According to Jennifer McCoy, a professor of political science at Georgia State University and a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has been studying democracy, both in the United States and in other countries for more than three decades, there is ample reason for concern.

McCoy believes that a form of “pernicious polarization” is crippling Washington, eroding the ability of our leaders to engage in the normal work of politics, including legislative compromise. Even more worrying, this polarization is seeping into the groundwater of our culture, pushing Americans into two increasingly hostile political camps.

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Victorious Republicans are once again falling for the mandate trap

Sen. John Thune speaks at a press conference after being elected the majority leader on Nov. 13.

Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

Victorious Republicans are once again falling for the mandate trap

In September, I wrote, “No matter who wins, the next president will declare that they have a ‘mandate’ to do something. And they will be wrong.”

I was wrong in one sense.

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