Cover Story: Who's Better Off?
A Special Report on the State of the Union
We offer a different view of the state of the union, and a twist on Ronald Reagan's memorable line from 1980.

In Search of Common Ground
By Bill McKibben
Why do we stand by as jobs vanish, schools deteriorate, and health care becomes a luxury? In an age of individualism, maybe we've simply decided nothing much matters—except ourselves.

Class Dismissed
By David Goodman
No more teachers, no more books. In Oregon and elsewhere, a combination of budget cuts, federal underfunding, and a Dick Armey-led tax revolt are devastating the schools.
P L U S :
Reading, Writing, and Landscaping
By Dave Eggers
How teachers make ends meet

Whose Hospital Is It?
By Arthur Allen
In the brutal economics of today's health care business, there may no longer be room for institutions like Philadelphia's MCP Hospital—or for the communities they serve.

Contracts with America
By Michael Scherer
From Iraq to homeland security, the Bush administration is turning over crucial government jobs to private contractors— including the task of policing the contracts.

Stats of the Union
Painting America, by the numbers

Losing Friends & Alienating People
By Clyde Prestowitz
Career diplomats weigh in on the Bush foreign-policy record. And the verdict is sobering.

The End of Empire
By David Rieff
Rather than launching a U.S. quest to remake the Middle East, Iraq may signal the end of the neoconservatives' grand vision.

One Liberty at a Time
By Anthony Lewis
As go the rights of Padilla, Hamdi, and the other detainees, so go the rights of us all.

Editor's Note
Masthead
Contributors
Backtalk

OUTFRONT
Is the Pentagon pushing pathogens?; the quotable Mr. Byrd; one widow's year of lobbying dangerously; misadventures of a middle Shrub; Medicare's new Golden Rule; and a Hellraiser who brings low power to the people

EXHIBIT
The Radio Flyer goes off-road; plus playing with the president

PUBLIC DOMAIN
The No-Exit Strategy
By George Packer
Four honest lessons from the war

THE SLANT
The Stump Speech
By Ian Frazier
I Am the President, I Speak for the Trees

EXPOSURE
For their God and country?
Photograph By Sye Williams
Chips off "The Rock"

MEDIA JONES
Debra J. Dickerson reviews the human fallout of New York's drug-sentencing laws; truth teller Billy Bragg on Bush, Blair, and American Idol; plus more book, music, and film reviews

REACTION
Resources for getting involved

P.S.
Fancy Footwear
Cartoon by Greg Clarke