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Just the Facts: Are FAA Staff Cuts Causing Current Airport Delays?

Chinese Investments in Cuba Demonstrate a Waning U.S. Influence in the Region

Chinese Investments in Cuba Demonstrate a Waning U.S. Influence in the Region

Just the Facts: Canadian Tariffs

Just the Facts: Canadian Tariffs

Redistricting

Redistricting

Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs on stage

Luke Combs, politics and healing our nation's divide

VA Secretary Doug Collins Faces Bipartisan Criticism at Senate VA Committee Hearing

VA Secretary Doug Collins Faces Bipartisan Criticism at Senate VA Committee Hearing

Podcast: Fear and loathing in Washington: The debt ceiling

Podcast: Fear and loathing in Washington: The debt ceiling
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumMay 15, 2023
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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Here we go again. Congress is facing a June 1 deadline to avoid a totally preventable “debt ceiling” crisis. If no one flinches in this dangerous game of chicken, the U.S. economy will be dragged into a cataclysm, destroying America’s global reputation and unleashing unfathomable pain for every American family.

An artifact from World War I, the debt ceiling comes back every few years to provide existential drama — the battlefield of partisan politics. It all sounds a bit insane, but it’s only the latest crisis to be spawned by our increasingly dysfunctional political system.

On this week’s episode, Fernando is joined by Washington uber-insider Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, to discuss her mounting fear that a “default is possible” and what we can do about it.

Also, Fernando chats with Nellie Gorbea, former Rhode Island Secretary of State, for the latest installment of the X-Ray Vision interview. In this quirky conversation, Nellie shares her dream superpower, transformative leadership vision, and why Puerto Rican rum is superior to scotch.

Listen.

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Just the Facts: What Is a National Emergency?
Governance & Legislation

Just the Facts: What Is a National Emergency?

Child Victims of Crime Are Not Heard
Rule of Law

Child Victims of Crime Are Not Heard

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Following Jefferson: Promoting Intergenerational Understanding Through Constitution-Making

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Getty Images, Douglas Rissing

Following Jefferson: Promoting Intergenerational Understanding Through Constitution-Making

Towards the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson became fatalistic. The prince and poet of the American Revolution brooded—about the future of the country he birthed, to be sure; but also about his health, his finances, his farm, his family, and, perhaps most poignantly, his legacy. “[W]hen all our faculties have left…” he wrote to John Adams in 1822, “[when] every avenue of pleasing sensation is closed, and athumy, debility, and malaise [is] left in their places, when the friends of our youth are all gone, and a generation is risen around us whom we know not, is death an evil?”

The question was rhetorical, of course. But it revealed something about his character. Jefferson was aware that Adams and he—the “North and South poles of the Revolution”—were practically the only survivors of the Revolutionary era, and that a new generation was now in charge of America’s destiny.

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The Hidden Moral Cost of America’s Tariff Crisis

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Getty Images, Kannika Paison

The Hidden Moral Cost of America’s Tariff Crisis

In the spring of 2025, as American families struggle with unprecedented consumer costs, we find ourselves at a point of "moral reckoning." The latest data from the Yale Budget Lab reveals that tariff policies have driven consumer prices up by 2.9% in the short term. In comparison, the Penn Wharton Budget Model projects a staggering 6% reduction in long-term GDP and a 5% decline in wages. But these numbers, stark as they are, tell only part of the story.

The actual narrative is one of moral choice and democratic values. Eddie Glaude describes this way in his book “Democracy in Black”: Our economic policies must be viewed through the lens of ethical significance—not just market efficiency. When we examine the tariff regime's impact on American communities, we see economic data points and a fundamental challenge to our democratic principles of equity and justice.

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Balance – The Golden Mean

Old empty scales in brass colour against grey background.

Getty Images, OsakaWayne Studios

Balance – The Golden Mean

“Next to love, balance is the most important thing.” ~ John Wooden

Would John Wooden, UCLA’s winningest basketball coach, who took his team to ten national championships in 12 years and was named the “Coach of the Century” by ESPN, speak so of “love” and “balance” if they were not absolutely critical to a winning formula?

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Understanding The Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA)

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Getty Images/Stock

Understanding The Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA)

Background

In November 2024, Elon Musk posted on social media, “There should be no need for [Freedom of Information Act] requests. All government data should be default public for maximum transparency.” His statement reignited discussions on the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, a federal law enacted in 1966 that requires federal executive branch agencies to disclose information in specific ways. Since its original passage in 1966, FOIA has been updated three times to tighten agency compliance, account for digital records, and allow citizens to request records online. Under FOIA, government agencies must disclose information by:

FOIA includes nine exemptions to protect against harms that might result from divulging certain records; these exemptions include cases like invasion of personal privacy, information related to national security, and information that would interfere with law enforcement proceedings.

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