The Republican Study Committee’s framework for a second reconciliation bill aims to make life even more miserable for immigrants, including legal residents. @anne-s-kim.bsky.social unpacks the proposal in the Monthly's weekend newsletter.
The House Republican Study Committee's next plan is to strip all *legal* immigrants (green card, refugees, asylees) of any access to federal benefits.
Me @washingtonmonthly.com, plus reax from our writers on Iran, and more:
open.substack.com/pub/washingt...
Scrapping unlimited Grad PLUS borrowing was a start toward ensuring public buy-in for higher education. Now federal loan policy should align debt limits with what graduates are likely to earn.
If Moscow were stronger, the Iran strike never would have happened. If Trump weren’t so authoritarian, he might not have risked it, @markoskounalakis.com writes.
“All the Ways Trump’s War on Iran Is Disastrous” — my latest for @washingtonmonthly.com
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/03/03/a...
"'Normal international relations' are impossible if a head of state can be murdered whenever another head of state feels like it."
@billscher.bsky.social on why we should be deeply disturbed about what follows the targeted assassination of a foreign leader.
Trump pulled us out of the imperfect but functional Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran, leaving us blind, without our strongest allies, and crossing our fingers.
NEW @mattizcoop.bsky.social in @washingtonmonthly.com
“sticking with the JCPOA … would have made sense. We’d still have our allies. We wouldn’t be alone, save for Israel.”
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/28/t...
Me in the @washingtonmonthly.com
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/28/t...
Millions are failing college math. Advocates say the problem isn’t students, but decades-old curricula requiring Cold War-era algebra skills.
England Respects the Rule of Law. Why Don’t We?
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/26/e...
Could New Orleans Be the Model for Fixing Public Schools?
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/25/n...
Often derided as worthless or a fast track to a lower income, the humanities promote the kind of critical thinking that’s needed even in an AI world, Elwood Watson writes.
Despite the Supreme Court’s rebuke, President Trump’s compulsion to tax imports is unabated and poses large-scale risks for the economy, argues Rob Shapiro.
It's hard to find positive stories in the news, but here's one: the turnaround in New Orleans' public schools from the worst in the country to the fastest improving.
My interview with Reinventing Government's David Osborne for @washingtonmonthly.com -
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/25/n...
"Civic participation is not ceremonial. It is protective…We are calling a new generation to civic leadership as an investment in our shared future and in democracy’s power to protect our most basic rights and values." —Wesleyan University's @kbdphd.bsky.social in @washingtonmonthly.com #JesseJackson
“Don’t Panic About Trump’s Election Threats” by @joshuaadouglas.bsky.social for @washingtonmonthly.com
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/23/t...
The Washington Monthly is delighted to welcome submissions for the 2026 Kukula Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Book Reviewing.
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/23/h...
The president has no authority to run federal elections. In this year’s midterms, the big threat to democracy is apathy and complacency.
Contributing Writer David Masciotra wrote a book about Jesse Jackson, and they became friends. The cynics didn’t, and still don't, understand how Jackson fused moral simplicity and political profundity, Masciotra writes.
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/20/r...
Contributing Writer Tamar Jacoby's friend, an entrepreneur turned exemplary officer, was killed in action in eastern Ukraine this year. Like his comrades, he knew what he was fighting for.
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/20/u...
The Fifth Circuit embraces a radical vision of endless detention, as does the Trump administration. Will it be too much even for the Roberts Court?
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/19/d...
The federal government is one of the largest holders of cryptocurrency in the world. It is also one of the least prepared to keep it safe, Jacob Smagula writes.
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/19/c...
I sat in on the 4Q earnings call for The GEO Group, one of the nation's largest prison companies. Executives reported $520 million in contracts in 2025—“the largest amount of new business we have won in our company’s history."
More @washingtonmonthly.com
open.substack.com/pub/washingt...
This leaves Josh Turek and Zach Wahls in the D primary
Don’t sleep on Iowa. It’s a longshot but no more than Texas
Recent Change Research poll has Turek/Wahls trailing likely R nom Ashley Hinson by 3
More in my @washingtonmonthly.com Senate preview washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/13/d...
Presidents’ Day invites debate about the best. But history may be far clearer about the worst.
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/16/w...
MAGA is not an interest group, but a mass movement of the kind Hannah Arendt saw in Germany before she fled, @robertjshapiro.bsky.social writes.
From a Hong Kong prison cell to a Mediterranean yacht, two publishers embody radically different threats to the press.
Jonathan Alter (@jonathanalter.bsky.social) has learned that Trump will kill Netflix’s bid for Warner Bros and help Paramount win, giving the president control of Fox, CBS, CNN, and TikTok.
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/17/t...
To be clear, there is still hope for blocking a Paramount–Warner merger. But as @jonathanalter.bsky.social notes, we need a loud public outcry.
