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garlicksauce.bsky.social
UVM political scientist. Congress, lobbying, state politics. Author of "Pre-Existing Conditions: How Lobbying Makes American Health Care More Expensive" (to come in 2025, OUP) www.alexgarlick.com
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Just checking in on taxes. I think it's fair to say Congressional Republicans are still on track to pass a tax cut bill, BUT the ambition keeps getting curtailed (likely because they're not finding agreement). First it was 2 recon bills, now just 1. Topline cuts and spending cuts are also shrinking.

submitted 6 hours ago • 1 comment

Hear me out: "Respondus Lockdown Browser" except for faculty who need to finish grading final exams.

submitted 9 hours ago • 1 comment

Staking this claim now: should we be so fortunate as to get another Democratic trifecta, it should be judged a failure if it does not 1) jail the people responsible for this, 2) abolish or in some other way dismantle and disarm ICE

submitted 2 days ago • 11 comments

Ah, so the House is using the same reconciliation playbook from "Repeal and Replace" where they're hoping the Senate will be the "adults in the room." From my ACA repeal history in UNDER THE IRON DOME

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Professors love an end of the semester debate over pedagogical challenges. It is almost as if we are all getting online to procrastinate from something...

submitted 2 days ago • 4 comments

This is a total mess at Middlebury. Budget problems in higher ed are clearly a national norm, but these cuts seem particularly unfair to long term employees.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

There's a paradox in health care financing when it comes to staffing. The deteriorating conditions faced by nurses has spiked the cost of nursing services as these jobs have become unattractive, investing in nurses could eventually ease health care inflation. Via MASSter list

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

alright I'll bite. How do you tariff a movie? On the foreign production cost? On each ticket sold? On distribution rights?

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Somebody check on the New England members of the house during this trying time.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

The seams are showing on the DOGE effort, which has wrecked the capacity of many federal agencies without gaining any of the efficiencies it promised. As Massie says here, without Congress formally cutting these costs, they're not actually reducing the spending. www.notus.org/congress/mus...

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Come for the members of GOP leadership sniping at each other, but don't overlook the SALT caucus trying to stick together when there's gonna be some tough math with Trump's tax wish list ahead x.com/Fritschner/s...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

They are not following basic constitutional rules (like "Congress makes the laws") because basic constitutional rules protect us from nonsense like this. Our laws deserve "due process" as well.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

"I'm going to govern in econometrics" is a winning campaign slogan for the ages.

submitted 10 days ago • 20 comments

Short version: 1) break grant approval process 2) NIH can't spend it's money on unapproved grant 3) Cut NIH funding because they have a "surplus"

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

The Impoundment Crisis is alive and well. An anonymous NIH staffer explained to @donmoyn.bsky.social how Trump's team has used the federal register to disappear "study sections" that would have approved grants THAT WOULD HAVE BE GOING OUT RIGHT NOW. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nih-bu...

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

Doomerism annoys me for a lot of reasons but a big one is it means you've put faith in Trump about his own bullshit. Defeating Trumpism will require contesting school boards and putting up flyers and yelling about tariffs at happy hour but doomerism means Trump is a king now so it doesn't matter.

submitted 14 days ago • 2 comments

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Judge Gives Trump Administration 3 Days To Return Her From El Salvador Prison

submitted 14 days ago • 84 comments

New rendition of "Actually, We Did Start the Fire" just dropped.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

A disconnect I've been struggling to articulate is that there are few things in academia that have a more "market-style" sensibility than NIH funding, in which researchers go through hyper-competitive expert peer review to fund their work *and often their salaries*

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments

One of the core failings of at least much of the "popularism" discourse is treating public opinion as exogenous to elite political rhetoric.

submitted 16 days ago • 7 comments

A secular ranking of holidays, based on the candy my kids collect from them, but which I eat. 5: Christmas, too much peppermint 4: Thanksgiving, chocolate turkeys slap 3: July 4, red white and blue aren't great candy colors 2: Easter, pb eggs and jelly beans is a great core 1: Halloween, the goat

submitted 17 days ago • 2 comments

We are pleased to announce the revival of the Mischiefs of Faction, now on Substack. What started in 2012, now in it's fourth evolution, is reformed as a "community blog" for political science and related fields. Read more about our vision and subscribe. open.substack.com/pub/misofact...

submitted 17 days ago • 2 comments