Republicans and conservatives have loudly protested the Democratic plan to expand the IRS vastly, and especially its enforcement arm, with an infusion of $80 billion included in the misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act. The $80 billion is, by many accounts, far more than the IRS needs, and Republicans are suspicious about how it will be spent.

In addition to reporting the nuts and bolts of the FBI’s unprecedented raid on former President Donald Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, much media coverage has also focused on angry Trump supporters, who are portrayed as being whipped up by Republican politicians and MAGA agitators.

Here’s a line at the end of an Axios newsletter that sums up everything that is wrong about media coverage and public discussion of the FBI’s unprecedented raid on the home of former President Donald Trump. “These investigations are top secret,” Axios’s Mike Allen wrote. “So more likely than not, we won’t get the full picture any time soon.”

You’ve probably heard Republicans say the Inflation Reduction Act, the massive spending bill just passed by Senate Democrats, includes provisions to hire 87,000 new IRS agents. The number seems too big to believe. The IRS has just 93,654 employees, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

You’ve seen the polls showing that large majorities of Democratic voters want the party to pick a new nominee for president in 2024, bypassing incumbent President Joe Biden. Now we’re seeing the living embodiment of those polls as some important Democratic lawmakers distance themselves from, or outright oppose, a reelection run by the nearly 80-year-old president.

It is not common practice for senior U.S. government officials to visit Taiwan. The last time a really high-ranking official visited Taiwan was 25 years ago, when then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich traveled there. Gingrich remained the highest-ranking U.S. official ever to visit Taiwan until today, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) arrived in Taipei.

An odd atmosphere has descended on Washington, D.C. At the precise moment the government announced that the economy shrank for the second consecutive quarter, the popular definition of a recession, Washington pundits began talking about what a great week President Joe Biden was having. And they meant it sincerely, not ironically.

Did you know that it is still the position of the Biden administration that the U.S.-Mexico border is “closed?” “The fact of the matter is, the border is closed,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in late June.

This morning the Commerce Department announced the economy shrank by 0.9% in the second quarter of 2022. That comes after the announcement last April that the economy contracted by 1.6% in the first quarter of this year. Now, the United States has had two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, which is the popularly accepted definition of a recession. So it’s official: The U.S. is in a recession.

The 2004 presidential election was a relatively close one. Republican President George W. Bush won reelection with 286 electoral votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry’s 251. (No, that does not add up to 538. In a move that has never been fully explained, one “faithless elector” voted for Kerry’s running mate, Democratic Sen. John Edwards.)

A new poll in the Casper Star-Tribune shows Republican and Jan. 6 committee star Rep. Liz Cheney losing big to challenger Harriet Hageman in the Wyoming House GOP primary. The survey has Hageman’s support at 52% and Cheney’s at 30%, with minor candidates or undecideds making up the rest of the total.

News reports are filled with stories about growing Democratic unhappiness with President Joe Biden. It’s not just a little frustration. A lot of Democrats are really, really, really upset about Biden’s performance in the White House.

Is showrunner James Goldston the most important force on the House Democratic Jan. 6 committee? There’s no doubt the former president of ABC News is shaping the committee’s presentations, episode by episode.