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vanessawilliamson.bsky.social
Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution & Tax Policy Center. New book! "The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History" (Basic Books, coming September 2025!)
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TUE at 9AM: @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social & former IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel join to discuss what the cuts to IRS staff will mean for tax season. ❓Are you an IRS employee? How have these cuts impacted you? ❓Have you changed your tax filing plan in light of these layoffs?

submitted 1 hour ago • 0 comments

I wrote about the role of the media in the burgeoning protest movement against the Trump/Musk.

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

110 of 363 Taxpayer Assistance Centers and 5 of 10 call centers are going to be shut down, per a meeting that just happened at the IRS. During tax season.

submitted 4 days ago • 135 comments

10000x more of this, please: A 30 veteran of USAID talking about what the agency means for the world and here at home, focused locally and published in a state newspaper.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

There's this old joke: "War is how Americans learn geography." I guess DOGE is how Americans learn what government does.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

How many federal workers would DOGE need to fire to make up for Musk not paying his fair share of taxes? Answer: 677,000. That's 44% of the entire non-DoD federal workforce. Again, this power grab is not about the budget. It’s about politics.

submitted 11 days ago • 62 comments

In other news, I have found my Halloween costume for this year. (How have I not already done this??)

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

DOGE is trying to fire thousands of IRS workers in the middle of tax season. What does it mean for taxpayers? A quick thread on enforcement and customer service.

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

Some brief thoughts from someone who studies public opinion. The federal firing spree can be made unpopular because it is being done in a haphazard way, there will be huge economic effects not just in DC but also across country & it's also likely illegal in many cases. But how to make that argument?

submitted 13 days ago • 36 comments

I signed this along with 660 other political scientists. urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=htt...

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

Hundreds of political scientists sign letter "to express our urgent concern about threats to the basic design of American government and democracy" and ask administration to "reverse course" on actions that "can undermine democracies and destroy the rule of law." drive.google.com/file/d/1lGk2...

submitted 13 days ago • 20 comments

Protest at the Capitol today

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Historically, business is often too slow to recognize the vast economic costs of authoritarianism, but they can be a vital force in sidelining the far right and stabilizing democracy. www.brookings.edu/articles/dem...

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

All I want for Valentines Day is a 100% tax rate on billionaires. For more details, see what @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social and I wrote for the Florida Tax Review about Thomas Paine’s billionaire tax. Seems more relevant now than ever!

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Scoop: The databases powering DOGE.gov are insecure, and people outside the government have already pushed their own updates to the site to prove it: www.404media.co/anyone-can-p...

submitted 17 days ago • 437 comments

An independent civil service is essential to democracy. It ensures that: > Government data is not distorted for partisan ends, so the public has accurate, unbiased information. > The resources of the state are not used to reward political allies or punish political enemies.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Many well-meaning people will underestimate the gravity of the crisis we are in if they are unclear about *why* the federal bureaucracy is a critical bulwark of democracy. Here's the short answer I wrote last year: www.brookings.edu/articles/dem...

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

SCOOP from @nbcnews.com — A senior FEMA official instructed subordinates to freeze funding for a wide array of grant programs Monday, just hours after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration — for the second time — to stop such pauses. www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...

submitted 20 days ago • 178 comments

There is no clearer voice on democratic erosion than Steven Levitsky. This piece is perfect. It will help clarify the worried thoughts of those who already know things are bad, but it also explains what is happening to those who don't yet know. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

submitted 20 days ago • 3 comments

I spend a lot of time writing about many of the horrors of American history, but one consistent bright spot, something about which it is right to be proud, is that we've never had a king.

submitted 20 days ago • 9 comments

You may have missed some of my Pamphlets, Broadsides, Octavos, & c. So here's a Video on why anti-tax politics is always anti-democratic politics. (Seriously, watch. @brookings.edu comms are brilliant. The video's got a crying Confederate general, and that's the energy we all need right now.)

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

I wrote about how sectors of civil society---the media, the academy, business, and voluntary associations---are responding to the constitutional crisis. So far the response from many mainline institutions has been wholly inadequate, but the tide may finally be turning.

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

8 years ago, I wrote something for Teen Vogue. I reread it today. I think it is still useful. Here's a line I had forgotten: "As Tocqueville notes, 'A despot easily forgives his subjects for not loving him, provided they do not love one another.'" www.teenvogue.com/story/how-th...

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Insightful and energizing essay from @ejdionne.bsky.social: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

I am growing increasingly irritated at how Democrats and mainstream-aligned people who are ostensibly nonpartisan give moderate Republicans this exalted cultural place as the only legitimizing voices in American politics today. 🧵

submitted 21 days ago • 16 comments

Here's my piece with @rooseveltinstitute.org colleague Emily Divito on how the Musk-Treasury payments scandal is worse than it appears. When people lose trust in the money and payments systems, that's how panics, bank runs, and financial crises happen. 1/ news.bloomberglaw.com/tax-insights...

submitted 25 days ago • 11 comments

There is a norm that former presidents avoid speaking publicly about the actions of the current president. I think it's time that Barack Obama and GW Bush, ideally together, speak publicly on the limits of executive power. All presidents swear to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.

submitted 23 days ago • 4 comments

“Though the Constitution specifically invests spending power in Congress, Musk and Trump budget chief Russell Vought have argued they should have authority to slash spending unilaterally.” They’re defying the Constitution’s basic design. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

submitted 23 days ago • 139 comments

✅ 1. Cow partisan elites with independent populist appeal (2016) ✅ 2. Stack judiciary with allies (2019) ✅ 3. Cripple govt systems by displacing expert staff (Jan ‘25) ✅ 4. Install loyalists into positions of security (Feb ‘25)

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

"THE TRUST GIANT'S POINT OF VIEW: What a funny little government!" (1900) digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/aacb8b...

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

Thus far in his second term, according to the Times, Trump has “lobbed,” “opened the throttle,” “disrupted,” “torched,” “run around with flamethrowers,” “gone on a fiery posting spree,” and now he is fighting. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...

submitted 24 days ago • 34 comments

Here's what's happened, if you're just tuning in: 1. Musk ally Tom Krause told the Treasury career staff to cut off USAID payments 2. The career staffer resisted, saying doing so is illegal 3. The career staffer was ousted by Trump team 4. Krause has now been installed as head of the payments system

submitted 24 days ago • 80 comments

I linked DOGE staffer Marko Elez to a deleted X account that advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act, backed a “eugenic immigration policy,” and wrote, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity." He just resigned. www.wsj.com/tech/doge-st...

submitted 25 days ago • 1573 comments