The popular opinion is that presidents win government shutdowns, but a review of polling evidence paints a different picture.
Members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., second from right, walk toward the Capitol building, Jan. 4, 2019.
AP/Andrew Harnik
Banned since 2011, pork-barrel spending may well help Congress pass bills on schedule. Now, a powerful Democratic lawmaker said she’d like to resurrect the practice to make passing budgets easier.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has proposed a separate day to celebrate Indigenous Australians.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
It was a week that saw the ABC’s managing director and the chair of its board go, with many questions still to be answered; meanwhile Scott Morrison gave the ongoing controversy over Australia Day a new lease of life.
The Carr Fire tears through Shasta, California, July 26, 2018.
AP Photo/Noah Berger
Climate change, development, past forest management policies and current firefighting practices are creating conditions for large, costly wildfires.
Fighting wildfires with air tankers, like this one dropping fire retardant on the Willow Fire in California on September 2, 2015, is expensive and not always effective.
USFS
Jenni Henderson, The Conversation e Rosanna Hunt, The Conversation
The 2018-19 federal budget will be handed down to parliament on May 8. But before that, take our quiz to test out your memories of the previous budgets.
U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson is Trump’s nominee to lead the VA.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Richard Lachmann, University at Albany, State University of New York
While the White House scrambles to fill the VA’s top post, the agency’s deep issues of inadequate funding and low access for veterans continue to fester.
The new plan is supposed to boost the construction of new roads, bridges and other public works projects.
AP Photo/Seth Perlman
The $1.5 trillion plan he’s proposing would do the most for ventures that don’t really need the government’s help and ignores some major obstacles to private investment.
Research dollars don’t stay locked up in academia and government labs. R&D collaborations with the private sector are common – and grow the innovation economy.
AIDS activists stage a ‘die-in’ in 1992 in Houston about lack of funding for AIDS research under President George H.W. Bush.
Rick McFarland/AP
New treatments and prevention programs have inhibited the spread of HIV/AIDS since June 5, 1981, when the CDC first reported what would become HIV. Here’s why it’s important not to cut funding now.
Waving an American flag along 5th Avenue.
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
In past wars, taxes were increased to cover some of the extra spending. That’s not the case for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the costs are adding up fast.
An ageing population is making the retirement system unsustainable.
Allan Porritt/AAP
The fact that a university has a surplus doesn’t mean it has a profit to be either reinvested or returned to shareholders. Grants, for example, should be spent on the projects they’re intended for.
The big four banks will be hit with a new bank levy.
Joel Carrett/AAP
What are research dollars actually spent on? Rather than looking at artifacts like publications and patents, a new initiative directly tracks the people and businesses that receive research funding.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne