Politics

RBReich: Your regular reminder that if not for the Trump and Bush tax cuts, federal revenues would keep pace with federal spending indefinitely.

Taylor Swift is arguably the most famous person in America, and while she's largely avoided politics, her stratospheric fame raises questions about whether an endorsement from the pop star could help decide the next president. Exclusive polling conducted for Newsweek by Redfield & Wilton Strategies found that 18 percent of voters say they're "more likely" or "significantly more likely" to vote for a candidate endorsed by Swift. Seventeen percent said they would be less likely to vote for a Swift-backed candidate, while 55 percent would be neither more nor less likely to do so. Of all the respondents, 45 percent said they were fans of the singer, and 54 percent said they were not. Only 6 percent said they were not familiar with Swift

House Republicans hope a hearing today will bring them a step closer to a vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a push that comes after a yearlong investigation of the situation at the southern border. At today's hearing, members of the House Homeland Security Committee will discuss the impeachment articles against Mayorkas. A formal impeachment vote in the full House could come as soon as next week, a source said.... It has been 148 years since the last successful impeachment of a Cabinet member, and Mayorkas' impeachment would only be the second in U.S. history.

President Biden deliberately avoided the word for nearly three years, using euphemisms like "the other guy" and "my predecessor," Axios' Alex Thompson writes. Now his speeches are peppered with it: Trump! Biden's shift in rhetoric shows his team is in general-election mode — and wants to frame the race as a choice between Biden and Donald Trump, more than as a referendum on Biden's presidency. Biden began making a point of mentioning the former president by name in late November. The mentions have become more frequent since then, according to a review of his speech transcripts.