Currently: Policy Director, @SenateBudget / @SenJeffMerkley. When I grow up: Major League Baseball-Playing Supreme Court Justice.
Washington, DC
Joined September 2008
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"Obviously it stinks for those attending."
This is college football in a nutshell in 2026: Scheduling a rivaly game at 10 am local, not caring about the players or the fans or the alumni. The true "customer" is a rando who didn't go to a football school but likes watching on TV.
The thing is, the College Football Overlords are right! The game has never been more profitable, never had such high TV ratings. So what if century-old rivalries go away? So what if West Coast schools are in the Atlantic Coast Conference? So what if games are at 10am or 10pm? 🤑
Joshua Smith retweeted
Good article today from the NYT. I have still yet to hear one good reason why we should get rid of a broad, multi purpose space to satisfy one thing and one thing only. It defies imagination and what PUBLIC space is meant to be.
nytimes.com/interactive/2026…
Joshua Smith retweeted
[president dumps huge pile of White House debris on East Potomac Park]
The President: behold Trash Island
Trump: "Trash Island,' Washington, D.C., the nickname for the broken and dilapidated Golf Course that is the subject of frivolous litigation in the United States Court System, before a judge that seems not to want Greatness for our Capital or our Nation (but who knows?), has been badly managed for so many decades that it is a completely nonviable and unsafe Project. Our Plan, developed to the Highest Levels and Standards of Golf, will turn Trash Island into an Island of Beauty and Success! It will be one of the Most Wonderful and Spectacular Golf Courses anywhere in the World. The United States Department of the Interior, and its Experts, are so proud of what has been designed that any delay would be sad, both for them and the Public, which is anxiously waiting for something that is really special! President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Tearing down the East Wing and ruining the Reflecting Pool are bad, but symbolically so. This makes the experience of living in DC as a normal person – turning a place for cycling, fishing, birding, picnicking, and cheap golf into a playground for the rich – materially worse.
The most recent non-Trump violaiton of the Impoundment Control Act was in 2006 under W.
This makes nine (9!) seperate times in less than two years that the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has determined the President has illegally withheld Congressinally appropriated funds. gao.gov/legal/appropriations…
The President broke the law by illegally withholding funds to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. gao.gov/products/b-337872
The President also broke the law by illegally witholding funds from EPA's Community Change Grants program, part of the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants Program, and illegally terminating the grants. gao.gov/products/b-337485
This makes nine (9!) seperate times in less than two years that the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has determined the President has illegally withheld Congressinally appropriated funds. gao.gov/legal/appropriations…
Every $1 spent on flood adaptation saves $1.80 in federal disaster recovery costs. Seems like a good investment imo
CBO examines how spending for flood adaptations today might affect the federal government's potential costs for disaster relief later, and what households are likely to pay for flood insurance that is subsidized by the federal government. cbo.gov/publication/62554
This is a load-bearing "provided that."
“I applaud this administration,” [Mark Iwry, a former senior Treasury official] said, “provided these measures are implemented responsibly, in good faith, and free of conflicts of interest, corruption, and ulterior motives.”
New from us:
Last week's Trump Accounts changes mean that millions of kids will get individual stocks that they can't reject and can't sell for five years.
wsj.com/politics/policy/trum…
Come on now. This can't be real.
DOJ is reviewing whether the special prosecutor’s office that investigated the Watergate break-in committed misconduct, according to people familiar with the matter, more than half a century after that scandal led to Nixon’s resignation. W @PhilipWegmann
wsj.com/politics/policy/deca…
Joshua Smith retweeted
News in Punchbowl News Midday:
Merkley and Murray will try to UC a bill later today that would block the White House’s pocket rescission
