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New York Legislature Moves to Help Congress in Power Struggle With Trump

While congressional Democrats are taking their demand for President Trump's tax returns to federal court, intensifying the sprawling and historic balance-of-powers conflict between the White House and Capitol Hill, Democratic legislators in New York are engineering a work-around.

The state Senate passed legislation Wednesday afternoon that would give the congressional tax-wiring committees access to three forms of Trump's state tax returns (corporation, real estate transfer and personal income), which in theory will contain much of the same financial information as the forms he has filed with the IRS but refused to show anyone.


Because the president is a New Yorker, the state Legislature "has a special role and responsibility to assist Congress in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities," the measure's sponsor, Democrat Brad Holyman of Manhattan, told theRochester Democrat and Chronicle.

All of Albany is under Democratic control, so passage by the state House along party lines looks likely. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signaled he will sign the bill, so long as it applies not only to Trump but to any New Yorkers whose taxes fall in the sights of Congress.

A little-used law allows Congress to obtain any individual's federal returns, but this week the Treasury Department denied a request from the House Ways and Means Committee for six years of the president's filings, setting up a legal fight that could reach the Supreme Court. That would pose one of the defining tests of the congressional oversight powers Trump has challenged at every turn.

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"Trump's White House has decided to wage war on the principles of transparency and oversight, arguing in a series of recent confrontations with the law enforcement community and Congress that the executive branch has the authority and independence to decide for itself whether it has to respond to – and even recognize – checks on its power," Timothy O'Brien, a Trump biographer and the executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion, wrote in a columnTuesday.

On Tuesday night a day after The New York Times reported on Trump's tax returns from 1985 through 1994, showing he lost more than $1 billion through his business dealings in that time. Trump's tweeted response Wednesday:

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Large Bipartisan Majorities Oppose Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid

The Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland releases a new survey, fielded February 6-7, 2025, with a representative sample of 1,160 adults nationwide.

Pexels, Tima Miroshnichenko

Large Bipartisan Majorities Oppose Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid

An overwhelming majority of 89% of Americans say the U.S. should spend at least one percent of the federal budget on foreign aid—the current amount the U.S. spends on aid. This includes 84% of Republicans and 94% of Democrats.

Fifty-eight percent oppose abolishing the U.S. Agency for International Development and folding its functions into the State Department, including 77% of Democrats and 62% of independents. But 60% of Republicans favor the move.

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A Super Bowl of Unity

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Getty Images, Adamkaz

A Super Bowl of Unity

Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love, and perhaps it is fitting that the Philadelphia Eagles won Sunday night's Super Bowl 59, given the number of messages of unity, resilience, and coming together that aired throughout the evening.

The unity messaging started early as the pre-game kicked off with movie star Brad Pitt narrating a moving ad that champions residence and togetherness in honor of those who suffered from the Los Angeles fires and Hurricane Helen:

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The Paradox for Independents

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The Paradox for Independents

Political independents in the United States are not chiefly moderates. In The Independent Voter, Thomas Reilly, Jacqueline Salit, and Omar Ali make it clear that independents are basically anti-establishment. They have a "mindset" that aims to dismantle the duopoly in our national politics.

I have previously written about different ways that independents can obtain power in Washington. First, they can get elected or converted in Washington and advocate with their own independent voices. Second, they can seek a revolution in which they would be the most dominant voice in Washington. And third, a middle position, they can seek a critical mass in the Senate especially, namely five to six seats, which would give them leverage to help the majority party get to 60 votes on policy bills.

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The Bureaucrat’s Dilemma When Dealing with a Charismatic Autocrat

A single pawn separated from a group of pawns.

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The Bureaucrat’s Dilemma When Dealing with a Charismatic Autocrat

Excerpt from To Stop a Tyrant by Ira Chaleff

In my book To Stop a Tyrant, I identify five types of a political leader’s followers. Given the importance of access in politics, I range these from the more distant to the closest. In the middle are bureaucrats. No political leader can accomplish anything without a cadre of bureaucrats to implement their vision and policies. Custom, culture and law establish boundaries for a bureaucrat’s freedom of action. At times, these constraints must be balanced with moral considerations. The following excerpt discusses ways in which bureaucrats need to thread this needle.

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