An Income Tax Seeks to be Part of a Balanced Solution to Alaska’s Budget Deficit JUNEAU – Today, Senator Tom Begich (D-Anchorage) introduced legislation to establish a flat five percent income tax based on your federal tax rate. Senate Bill 100 would generate new state revenue from residents and non-residents earning an income in […]
Presidents shouldnât have blanket pardon power
Clemency and pardons are ripe for abuse â but ending the practice entirely would be unjust too.
By David ShribmanUpdated December 17, 2020, 3:00 a.m.
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Michael Flynn, who was President Trump s first national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI but got pardoned by Trump.Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
In the next few weeks, President Donald J. Trump, with his unerring instinct for provoking controversy, very likely will issue a flurry of pardons or commutations â to several of his onetime aides, perhaps to whistleblower Edward Snowden or lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, maybe even to members of his family and to himself. A blizzard of outrage will follow, just as it did when Gerald R. Ford pardoned Richard M. Nixon, when George H.W. Bush pardoned former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger and other Iran-Contra officials, when Bill Clinton pardoned financier Marc Rich, and when Barack Obama commuted