'Has the government simply become too big to manage?'

'America blew almost $2 trillion. Make it stop.'

Kathryn Anne Edwards at Bloomberg

Congress has a chance to get the federal budget under control, says Kathryn Anne Edwards. Next year, it can decline to extend costly provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The law's "authors sold it as a fiscal miracle drug" that "would simplify taxes" and boost revenue, jobs and economic growth, but it cost nearly $2 trillion, "while failing to deliver the promised benefits." Stopping the bleeding will show lawmakers can benefit from "lessons learned."

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'Electric cars emit more particulate pollution'

Michael Buschbacher and Taylor Myers in The Wall Street Journal

California's plan to ban new gasoline-powered car sales by 2035 "would do little to reduce particulate emissions, and it could even increase them," say Michael Buschbacher and Taylor Myers. Generating the power to charge electric cars produces emissions. Tire wear, which sends "often toxic" particles into the air, is another factor. Battery-heavy EVs cause more emissions from tires because they wear them down faster, so they can exceed total emissions from lighter gas vehicles with particle filters.

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'Will Biden or Trump win "double haters"? Unhappy voters may decide 2024 election.'

Celinda Lake and Christine Matthews in USA Today

The 2024 presidential election might be decided by "double haters," say Celinda Lake and Christine Matthews. Polls indicate that President Joe Biden has a double-digit lead over former President Donald Trump among the 17% of voters who dislike them both. But these unhappy voters will be difficult for either of the likely major party candidates to harness. It's "questionable" whether they'll turn out, and a plurality leans not toward Biden or Trump, but to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

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'Why Democrats need to win Congress'

Kimberly Atkins Stohr in The Boston Globe

The presidential election gets the "feverish" headlines, says Kimberly Atkins Stohr. But Democrats need to step up the urgency of the battle for Congress. Republicans, aided by eager GOP-appointed judges, are on a "concerted crusade to strip federal agencies of their power." If voters want to preserve agencies' power "to keep our air clean, our waters safe, our financial institutions honest, and our democracy intact, they can't let the GOP control either congressional chamber — let alone both."

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