Sadly this program is being killed by the current admin. This repo looks great. The scala fact graph is super neat and there is clearly a lot of care that went into making the tutorial for it.
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I'm sure everyone working on this knew it was doomed before the first line of code was written, and that it would be killed as soon as the next (R) was in charge. It was a great accomplishment to get working software released before that happened, but I'm sure nobody was kidding themselves into thinking it would last. The pay-to-file tax lobby is too strong and corrupt.
I don't know about that. Inertia is a strong force but it goes in both directions. Had this administration been a Democratic one four years might be long enough to establish it strongly enough that it would be very difficult to remove. Look at the Affordable Care Act. Imperfect though it was, Republicans have pledged over and over that they're going to get rid of it but when it power it seems they just can't.
I hope you're right, but this administration so far has found almost no limit to the number of projects, lives, roles and institutions it can destroy or at least attempt to destroy. And the party that is supposed to be acting as the Opposition is basically letting them do whatever they want unhindered. Unless you consider "holding up little signs and making frowny-faces" to count as "doing something."
> Opposition is basically letting them do whatever they want unhindered
what do you propose they do, being entirely out of power?
I feel like the Dems need to be doing a lot of PR, the public needs to hear them attack the Low-IQ autocrat every day. Maybe they're doing this but the media aren't reporting it, in which case they need to engage with the media better...
Without this engagement, even if it's just futile noisemaking, the voters will surely think in the next election cycle "why should we vote for you, when you haven't done anything the last 2 years?"
Where are Dems supposed to make this noise? They don't have 120 million subscribers like Joe Rogan does.
Where is the bullhorn the democrats are supposed to be using that isn't literally owned by a rich guy who benefits from lower taxes when the democrats are not in power?
Twitter is owned by Elon. Facebook by Zuck.
The right did not grow their propagandists and build their bullhorn overnight. They have been planning and moving their chess pieces for decades. Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Laura Ingraham... This network and its audience was carefully and strategically built and cultivated over at least 40 years. It's going to take actual planning, hard work, and long hours for the other side to catch up.
What do you see as "the media"? The media landscape is so fractured, everyone has their own "feed".
I have seen Dems constantly attacking Trump, if you haven't consider the news you consume may simply be different. There is not one mainstream to push anymore.
My main media is Reddit, Youtube, and a few other sites so I do in fact see some fight coming out of the D's. There should be much more given the severity of these various issues, but I see some hope. It is sad that legacy media has almost completely given up on reporting most of this stuff, though.
as for the "mainstream social media", I'm not sure how effective the instagrams, tiktoks, etc. are at delivering these messages. I know some congressmen on are on there. Perhaps not enough, though. Or perhaps they don't get how to reach their people.
I think it's less about trying to get wins (most understand that congress dems are the minority) and more about resisting these anti-citizen acts as much as possible. Having 4 or 5 democrats vote on an R bill a few months back really put a nasty taste in people's mouths. Among all the crazy cabinet appointments that some voted on
Basically, the democrats want fighters. We're well past bi-partisan tasks where we should just faciliate any kind of bill that comes up. Because very few are reasonable.
> Basically, the democrats want fighters.
Trump called and got Jan 6th.
Democrats called and nobody could be bothered to show up to vote.
Practically, anything besides what Schumer does?
fllibuster so hard the majority finally decides to nuke it
In the Senate, they could force filibusters on everything, and impose maximal procedural roadblocks on everything. They did this successfully for a Duckworth-sponsored anti-trans bill, which could not muster 60 votes to break the filibuster.
In the House, or rather out of the house, they could get their media circus in 10,000% better shape than it is in right now, and consistently deliver a powerful, viral, troll-y, and savvy message about Trump, 8 times a day, across many different media environments.
This has veered fully into politics, but... In addition to that bare minimum obstruction they should be doing but aren't, they could also be working on the policy and people that they see winning in 2028. Where is the Democrat's own "Project 2029" document? The Heritage Foundation has been publishing their detailed, written plans since at least Reagan. Where is the Democrat's version of Trump that can win back rural populists? Why isn't he on TV every day hyping up their base like Trump hypes up his base?
It's about the IRS, so politics is inevitable.
I do agree that that is the biggest issue in both DNC and RNC though. There's been a clear divide between what DNC wants to run and what the actual democrats want out of the party. Polls suggest from the latter that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is one of the biggest role models of a proper opponent in 2028, but it's been clear the DNC has been fighting against that for almost a decade now, for a variety of reasons.
RNC has a similar issue, once Trump is gone. There's already cracks forming in various different interests of republicans, but they all loosely rally around Trump. If/when Trump kicks the bucket, I don't see who can hold that cult of personality. Vance has very low charisma, and Mike Johnson seems too establishment (for voters that very much voted against establishment). I don't really see a protégé that is carrying whatever that MAGA mindset people want out of the movement.
No, this isn't politics. It's basic patriotism. I share or have shared a good portion of the criticisms that Trump is using to rile people up. Just because he is talking about these issues does not mean that he is doing anything meaningful about them. It's the same old pattern of politicians pretending to care about people's concerns, to just steal, loot, and enable more corporate control for sponsors. The differences with Trump are his degree of shamelessness and that his sponsors seem much less aligned with overall American interests.
My understanding, from some interviews earlier that I can't point at right now, was that the plan is: 1. Stay quiet for a while to avoid being the boy who cried wolf. Let Trump's actions speak for themselves. 2. Prepare behind the scenes. 3. Start campaigning closer to next election.
No clue who they'll run with. Americans have been pretty clear that women are still second-class citizens and should not attempt to reach too high, but hopefully it'll at least be someone a few decades younger.
Notice that Trump explicitly ran on disclaiming Project 2025, even though once elected Project 2025 has been a solid 50% or more of the organizing principles for his administration. So it's a bit misleading to suggest that some Democratic equivalent ("Project 2029", say) would necessarily be part of the electoral platform and outreach. Of course, it would be nice if it was.
The House budget bill is likely to separate more people from health insurance coverage than the ACA increased it by. It may not be an explicitly "repeal the ACA" act, but practically speaking, it will have a similar effect.
A couple of decades ago tax code transparency and making it easier and cheaper to file your taxes would have been a very Republican policy. Point taken that the current administration is particularly destructive, but I wouldn't expect Democrats to be very staunch in support this either. The tax/accountant lobby would influence both parties.
But Democrats created the program? Why do you expect they wouldn't support it?
We've clearly had a more neoliberal congress body in the last decade. So their principles (or outright bribes) to focus on privatization of services would get in the way of such acts.
Tax return on a postcard is still in the Republican area of ideas, but they can't seem to get enough actual Congressional Republicans to come on board. It's frustrating. The problem to me is that the Democrats have become so uncompetitive in large swathes of the country, that too many center/moderates/status quos adapt Republican cover to get into office.
I'm sure Democrats can complain about their Senators in the same language.
It may be a Republican talking point but it's never really been an agenda item for them. All this Direct File stuff is Democrat effort.
It is not typical for an (R) administration to aggressively reverse every decision made by their predecessor. Historically, citizens, businesses and government agencies could all expect significantly more stability from one administration to the next.
I don't think so - the destructiveness of the current administration is really unprecedented.
> it was doomed before the first line of code was written
The Direct File system was live more than a year ago, I thought: https://www.usds.gov/impact-report/2024/directfile/
…or did you mean “eventually doomed” rather than “doomed to not ship at all”?
All software has an expiration date.
The bill was introduced by the Republican party (Nick Langworthy, co-sponsored by William Timmons). Don't spread misleading/fake information.
No, I think you have it mixed up. It's quite clear that the authority came from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which was was well known to have passed without a single Republican vote. It's also quite clear that in the context of the top-level comment, "this program" mentioned means the Direct File as it operates, not the release of source code.
> The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law in August 2022.1 Section 10301(1)(B) of the IRS provided the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with $15 million to establish a task force to design an IRS-run, free direct electronic filing (e-file) system commonly referred to as “Direct File” ...
https://www.tigta.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2025-03/20...
You're bringing up an unrelated law that didn't even exist at the time of the launch of Direct File in early 2024.
I was under the impression that the OP was talking about the SHARE It Act.
That would be the current ruling party
That is the current ruling party. Nobody is trying to kill the SHARE It Act. The Direct File was a pilot program. There are other options: https://www.irs.gov/filing/irs-free-file-do-your-taxes-for-f...
It was a massively successful pilot that half the country used. The other option is free fillable forms which is dogshit.