When the bodies of the two American diplomats murdered in the Sudan were brought home last month, a State Department official commented to the press, “I hope this outrage lets everyone know we’re not a bunch of cookie-pushers in striped pants. We’re a corps of highly competent, professional people, in a highly difficult, demanding, dangerous […]
James Fallows
James Fallows, who began his career at the Washington Monthly, is the author of 12 books and writes the “Breaking the News” blog on Substack.
Posted inMagazine
Busting Our Mental Blocks on Foreign Aid
During the fall of 1971 my wife and I were living in West Africa, working with Ghanaians on construction projects in the bush. Shortly before we were to head back to a more familiar life, news came that the U. S. Senate had voted to cut off foreign aid programs, apparently as a slap at […]
Posted inJanuary 1973, Magazine, Political Animal, Politics
The Screwing of the Average Taxpayer
Late this month, as Congress reconvenes, Representative Wilbur Mills will announce that tax reform season is with us again. A year or two later, after debates, studies, vetoes, and compromises, a Tax Reform Act of 1973 or 1974 will emerge, advertised no doubt as a significant step toward tax justice, a boon to the average […]
Posted inMagazine
Picking Up the TAB
Watching the performance of politicians and the press, the average man might be tempted to conclude that welfare reform is the issue no one wants to touch. Hasn’t President Nixon abandoned his Family Assistance Plan, brushing off the crocodile tears as Congress refuses to pass it? Hasn’t George McGovern found his $1,000-per-person grant a bigger […]
Posted inMagazine
Why Presidents Like to Play with Planes Instead of Houses
A review by James Fallows
