--- title: Five Best: The U.S. Congress is in Crisis description: The U.S. Congress is in crisis, taxes on tobacco are the most effective, least-used tool in public health and more. canonical: https://time.com/4902786/the-u-s-congress-is-in-crisis/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-16T16:00:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:34.758Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The U.S. Congress is in Crisis og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4902786/the-u-s-congress-is-in-crisis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The U.S. Congress is in Crisis twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The U.S. Congress is in Crisis by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 16, 2017 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 16, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**The U.S. Congress is in crisis.**](https://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2017/8/8/16112574/cmf-congress-survey-crisis) By Lee Drutman in _Vox_ **2\.** [**Taxes on tobacco are the most effective, least-used tool in public health.**](https://medium.com/@Union%5FTBLH/tobacco-tax-the-most-effective-least-used-tool-in-public-health-997a769f7372) By Johanna Dollerson in the _Union_ **3\.** [**Vaccines are difficult and expensive to make. Now scientists have ‘hijacked’ a plant into growing one.**](http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40925343) By James Gallagher at _BBC News_ **4\.** [**How do we teach our children about existential threats?**](https://daily.jstor.org/how-do-we-teach-children-about-existential-threats/) By Livia Gershon in _JSTOR Daily_ **5\.** [**AP courses and testing are vital to meeting America’s STEM needs. Here’s how to let more kids in.**](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future%5Ftense/2017/08/how%5Fonline%5Ftextbooks%5Fcould%5Fhelp%5Fmore%5Fstudents%5Ftake%5Fap%5Fexams.html) By Lindsey Tepe in _Slate_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4902786/the-u-s-congress-is-in-crisis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4902786/the-u-s-congress-is-in-crisis/"},"headline":"The U.S. Congress is in Crisis","datePublished":"2017-08-16T16:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:34.758Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4902786/the-u-s-congress-is-in-crisis/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Congress","Innovation","tobacco","Vaccines"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4902786/the-u-s-congress-is-in-crisis/","name":"The U.S. Congress is in Crisis"}}]}] ```