It is a dumpster-fire finale for a volatile Republican Congress — a fire set by internal GOP frictions, an impulsive president and ever-more-polarized parties. More fireworks followed on the explosive news that the president was mulling firing Jerome H. Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve. That’s a bit shy of the postwar average: Between 1947 and 2018, unified party government lasted roughly three and a half years. Leaning on the Democrats’ 2013 move that banned filibusters of all other judicial nominees, Senate Republicans in 2018 confirmed 18 appellate and 47 trial judges to the federal bench. A fiscal reckoning awaitsDuring the two years of Republican rule, the national debt grew by $1.9 trillion to reach $21.9 trillion.

Source: Washington Post December 27, 2018 12:00 UTC