Only in America

A Massachusetts lawmaker has proposed making it a crime to call someone a bitch. Democrat Rep. Daniel Hunt’s bill, which free-speech advocates said is clearly unconstitutional, would classify as a “disorderly person” anyone “who uses the word ‘bitch’ directed at another person to accost, annoy, degrade, or demean,” with offenders fined up to $200 and/or jailed for up to six months.

A Missouri jury has awarded nearly $20 million to a gay police officer who was told to “tone down” his gayness. Sgt. Keith Wildhaber was passed over 23 times for promotion, with superior officers describing him as “fruity” and “way too out there with his gayness.” The jury foreman said the award sends a message that “if you discriminate, you are going to pay a big price.”

National debt nears $1 trillion

The U.S. federal budget deficit increased 26 percent over the past fiscal year and is expected to top $1 trillion in 2020, the U.S. Treasury reported last week. That puts the deficit at its highest since 2012, following four straight years of red ink. The deficit has jumped nearly 50 percent since President Trump took office, largely because of shrinking tax revenues. Massive tax cuts in 2017 have not paid for themselves, as Republican backers promised, and federal spending is now rising at twice the rate of revenue. In a decade, the national debt is projected to represent a bigger share of the economy than at any point in U.S. history, except the period immediately following the massive expenditures of World War II.

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November 1, 2019 THE WEEK