Wins on Earth and in Space

 

Hungarians voted in record numbers—77% of those registered—April 12th to rid themselves of Prime Minister Viktor Orbàn, whose authoritarian rule had been systematically destroying Hungary’s democratic institutions. From rigging elections to controlling media, universities, and courts, Orbàn believed in “my way or the highway.” 

Hungarians had clearly had enough of far-right “illiberal” government, not only throwing out the prime minister but electing to parliament a supermajority with more than two-thirds of the opposition party (Parliament building on the Danube in Budapest  pictured). They intend to undo as much of Orbàn’s anti-democratic policies as they can, beginning with electoral structures that gave him and his party an advantage (like U.S. gerrymanders).

From 1945 to 1990, Hungary was a Soviet satellite but became a relatively liberal democracy after the Soviet collapse. Hungary joined NATO and the EU, building on a knowledge-economy supported by good public education including free university for those qualified. (Hungary has 67 universities including several of Europe’s oldest. So many Hungarian physicists and mathematicians worked in the Manhattan Project unlocking the secrets of nuclear energy that a running joke was that it must be Hungary’s water. What it was, of course, were universities strong in math and the sciences.) 

Orbàn’s rule saw rising prices and widespread corruption as well as close ties to Putin’s Russia, all highly unpopular with the public. In the U.S., Orbàn’s policies were a model for the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, the framework for Trump Administration policies. Trump even sent Vice-president Vance to Hungary to help rally Orbàn supporters. Vance failed. Hungarians wanted their free democracy back and chose to side with Europe, not Russia or the U.S. Hungarians got what they wanted by voting in record numbers. Democracy works.

On April 13th, Canadians elected three new Liberal Party members to the House of Commons, giving Prime Minister Mark Carney a clear majority. Carney earned a doctorate in economics at Oxford, worked at Goldman Sachs, was governor of the Bank of Canada then of the Bank of England, followed by several years as UN special envoy for climate action and finance.

Carney’s rousing speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year marked him as one of the influential leaders of the free world. Carney said that U.S. economic and foreign policies during the past year, especially tariffs, have “ruptured” the largely stable relations among most nations that have endured for nearly 80 years. With his new governing majority, Carney plans to reduce Canada’s dependence on the U.S., certainly in trade. It’s not a divorce, however. A Canadian was a crew member on the recent Artemis II Moon mission.

In Greek mythology, Artemis is the daughter of Zeus, king of the gods, and Leto, a Titaness. Artemis is goddess of the hunt, of wilderness, and of nature. NASA’s Artemis II was our first manned flight to the Moon in 50 years. The Orion spacecraft was launched by a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket April 1 from Kennedy Space Center on a 10-day mission to test how well the Orion works in deep space, to study crew health, to test optical communication with Earth, to photograph the far side of the Moon, and to prepare to return humans to the lunar surface and eventually establish a permanent base. 

The Orion crew included U.S. astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. As they passed above the Moon’s far side, they were 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than humans had ever been. Quite a ride!

 

  

                        Taxes: for the Common Good

 

Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha” and one of America’s most successful investors (current net worth about $141 billion), has complained for years that his secretary pays a higher overall tax rate than he does. He considers this unfair.

It is, and the results are punishing for most Americans. The top one-tenth of one percent of Americans (households with a net worth over $45 million) own about as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent of all families combined. The richest 1% control $55.8 trillion of assets, more than the GDPs of the United States and China combined. So much of our nation’s wealth in the pockets of so few is why most Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck and struggle to afford necessities like housing, food, healthcare, and childcare. 

How did the huge gap between the rich and the rest come to be? One major reason has been tax cuts mostly benefitting the rich under Republican administrations from Reagan’s in the 1980s through Trump’s in 2017 and 2025. The Trump cuts were the largest transfers of wealth from the rest to the rich in our history, and for the first time, the rich paid a lower effective tax rate than the working class.

A Times study found that the tax rate of the 400 richest Americans dropped from 56% in 1960 to 53% in 1970, to 33% in 1985, and to 23% in 2018. While most people live off taxable salaries, the rich live off their often untaxed wealth. Seven years ago, when he was still CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos’s taxable salary was $81,840, but he owned about 10% of the company, whose 2023 profit was $30 billion. Amazon and most large companies don’t give their profits to shareholders as dividends, which are taxable, but reinvest them, making shareholders even richer. If they need money, they borrow against their assets.

Once upon a time, the rich lived off taxable corporate profits, but those maximum rates have dropped, too, from 52% in 1960 to 34% in 1990 (Reagan tax cuts) to 21% in 2020 (Trump cuts). Most estate taxes have been eliminated, as well. 

One way to reduce the wealth gap is the Ultra-Millionaire Tax proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren. Her bill would have the wealthiest .15% of households pay 2% on wealth over $50 million, close tax loopholes, and rebuild the IRS weakened by Trump so it has the resources to enforce the Ultra-Millionaire Tax and conduct stronger audits of high-income households. Warren’s bill also includes an exit tax requiring those with more than $50 million in wealth and who renounce U.S. citizenship to pay 40% on wealth above $50 million, give the IRS tools to accurately assess hard-to-value property like private businesses and artworks, and penalize banks and third parties for underreporting or hiding wealth.

Other ways to shift wealth to ordinary workers include raising the federal minimum wage, supporting labor unions, using antitrust laws to break up dominant corporations that raise consumer prices, raising taxes on corporations who pay top executives hundreds of times more than their workers, banning stock buybacks, and eliminating most tariffs, which are, in effect, taxes on consumers. Also, states can prevent corporations from making political contributions, most of which support Republican campaigns that support favoring wealth, not work.

We can change the tax system to favor work, not wealth, so government will be able to provide what every other rich country provides: universal healthcare, childcare, paid parental leave, free or low-cost public higher education, and more. And the rich can still be rich. We can do it by voting for candidates devoted to the common good, not to the private good of their rich donors. Government work is for public service, not private profit. Vote!