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The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact Federalism at Its Best

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Early voting records should scare GOP

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House opens HR 1 debate, fine print still emerging

The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumMar 06, 2019
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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As the House kicks off debate this afternoon on the Democrats' signature "good government" package, party-line passage on Friday continues to look close to guaranteed.

And that seems true no matter which, if any, of the dozens of potential amendments to HR 1 get adopted to alter the new majority's sprawling wish list for tightening campaign finance regulation, expanding voter registration and access to the polls, overhauling government ethics rules, and depoliticizing the drawing of congressional districts.

The 622-page legislation is so expansive, in fact, that almost no attention has been focused on some of provisions that would have sweeping impact should the bill become law – which has minimal chance of happening because the Republican majority in the Senate has no interest in even considering it.

The measure, for example, would make it illegal for inaugural committees to solicit, accept or receive donations from "a person that is not an individual," effectively banning the sort of corporate giving that has put the organizers of President Donald Trump's festivities two years ago under heightened scrutiny. Roll Call has a detailed roster of 10 of these important but under-the-radar provisions.

The ground rules for debate set by the Democratic leadership permit debate on 72 potential amendments, of which only 10 have been proposed by Republicans. Those ground rules also automatically deleted language making Election Day a federal holiday, a provision in the bill that had been subject to particularly intense GOP ridicule.


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Social Security faces automatic cuts in 2032 and Medicare in 2033. New polling suggests that gives Democrats a powerful election issue. Here’s the case.

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Will the Debt Crisis Engineered by Republicans Succeed in Cutting Social Security and Medicare?

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The Republican Party’s long game to reduce administrative state entitlement spending centers on creating a debt crisis to provide an excuse for limiting such spending. It may soon pay off. That strategy involved a quarter-century of engineered tax cuts responsible for the stunning rise in sovereign U.S. debt, threatening an eventual economic crisis.

Social Security benefits are projected under current law to be automatically cut in 2032. And Medicare benefits are projected to be automatically cut in 2033. Congressional Republicans intend for those automatic cuts to occur, opposing new taxes to prevent cuts. And they are using the ballooning national debt as an excuse to also oppose new general revenue spending to prevent benefit cuts.

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​Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and U.S. President Donald Trump followed by Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan and U.S. first lady Melania Trump arrive for a state dinner at the White House.

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When Leaders Disagree, Ceremony Plays an Important Role

When Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived at the White House on 24 September, the U.S. welcomed him with an elaborate display of ceremony. The Army Herald Trumpets sounded a fanfare, the Chinese and American national anthems were played, and the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps performed. A military review was followed by a flyover involving a B-2 bomber and four F-22 fighter jets, according to the White House. It was an extraordinary production for two countries that still disagree on some of the most important issues in international politics.

Talks between President Donald Trump and Xi touched on trade, artificial intelligence and Taiwan. The visit was marked by warm words and some signs of cooperation, but it did not erase the fundamental competition between the United States and China. So why was all this ceremony staged? It is tempting to dismiss political pomp as mere window dressing: an expensive historical relic surrounding the serious business taking place behind closed doors. As a music historian, however, I think this misunderstands what ceremony does. Ceremony can become particularly valuable when words alone are not enough.

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Despite the consistent determinations that US elections are secure across the country and there is virtually no evidence of non-citizens voting, in reports released as recently as September 2026; President Trump has doubled down on his claims that voter fraud is a major problem in America and on October 20th, he announced a new $25 Million Fraud Whistleblower program to be administered by the Department of Justice.

This announcement achieves a variety of the president’s goals: (i) It intentionally perpetuates the misinformation, that voter fraud is a serious problem in the United States; (ii) it undermines the trust in the voting systems, as well as in the states administering the elections; (iii) it fosters distrust amongst neighbors, who are more likely to suspect people of color and report them for a reward. This has the concomitant benefit of (iv) intimidating people who are in fear of going to the polls and (v) It gives the illusion that the federal government is prepared to give away more free money (along with the Tariff rebate checks, the Trump Accounts, the DOGE dividend, the direct payments for healthcare and the $5,000 for supporting GOP midterm candidates.)

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Democracy rests on a kind of sportsmanship agreement. The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr put it well: man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but his inclination to injustice makes it necessary. B. R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of India’s constitution, called democracy a method of bringing revolutionary change without bloodshed. Both understood that the system works only if the losing side agrees to try again next time instead of burning down the field. Americans in both parties are forgetting how to do that.

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