Finally, Congress can go back to its normal business. You can read about how the shutdown ended in today’s Morning Dispatch. Needless to say, this is a welcome development for your friendly neighborhood Hill reporter.
It wasn’t like I had nothing to write about while the government was closed. The Senate was still in session, and House Democrats were in town for a good portion of the shutdown. But House Republicans were gone, and the House of Representatives wasn’t doing anything, so I got a little tired of staking out the Senate basement.
Plus, the mood on Capitol Hill was just bad for most of the shutdown. People in Congress were frustrated (more than usual) that it kept dragging on, and there were multiple instances of lawmakers confronting each other in the hallway. For a while, there was no end in sight.
But now the end has arrived, and we can get back to just the normal level of frustration and bad blood between the two parties on the Hill. And you can learn all about the future chaotic developments here at The Dispatch.
Top Stories From the Dispatch Politics Team
Despite calls from President Donald Trump, Senate Republicans are holding steady on their refusal to eliminate the filibuster—for now, at least. Fed up with Democrats using the storied Senate rule to block a bill that would end what has become the longest government shutdown in history, Trump told the Republican Senate conference at a breakfast last week to kill the requirement that a bill gets 60 votes to end debate and move to final passage. “It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster,” he told the GOP senators. “It’s the only way you can do it. And if you don’t terminate the filibuster, you’ll be in bad shape. We won’t pass any legislation.”
One of the most common economic claims of the modern era holds that the wealthy do not pay their fair share in federal taxes. Some versions of this argument go a step further, asserting that the average billionaire pays a lower federal tax rate than many working-class Americans. Former President Joe Biden made both claims in his 2024 State of the Union address, and politicians such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have used it to justify sweeping proposals for a “wealth tax” on unrealized capital gains. While most legislative efforts to “soak the rich” originate on the political left, some populist Republicans in the circles around Vice President J.D. Vance have quietly warmed to the idea of a “millionaire tax,” aiming to bump the top marginal income tax rate up from 37 percent.
Rural Americans do not love tariffs, government shutdowns, or economic chaos—and 1 in 4 Virginians lives in a rural area. Consider which states are similar in that way: Pennsylvania (23.6 percent rural), New Mexico (24.7 percent), Georgia (26.6 percent), Michigan (27.1 percent)—states that lately are in play in presidential elections and that most often go for the winning presidential candidate (8 of 10 for Pennsylvania, 7 of 10 for New Mexico, 7 of 10 for Georgia, 8 of 10 for Michigan, and a modest 6 of 10 for Virginia). As Barry Goldwater once put it in a less happy context: You want to hunt where the ducks are.
Last month, Trump Media & Technology Group announced that it would be introducing prediction markets to its Truth Social platform, allowing users of the president’s flagship social media app to gamble on everything from the score of an NFL game to who will win control of Congress in the midterm elections. The move comes as one of the president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr., has invested in and allied himself with some of the country’s largest operating prediction markets. Like his family’s extensive investments into the cryptocurrency industry, the president’s foray into online gambling and prediction markets presents a clear opportunity for Trump-controlled entities to reap financial rewards from presidential decision-making, adding to a growing list of potential conflicts of interest in regulatory matters throughout the administration.
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