Outside the Beltway

Top Democrats are starting to voice public concerns about 2012.

With most of the public looking at the future and not seeing anything good, the President is suffering

Did Speaker Boehner insult President Obama by snubbing his speech request? If so, so what?

The White House is still smarting over the fact that they got burned by John Boehner, again.

Ben Bernanke didn’t offer many clues in his speech today, but one wonders if he really has any tricks left up his sleeve.

With a hurricane bearing down on the East Coast, the House Majority Leader is engaged in an accounting exercise.

In the book he released last year , Rick Perry advocated far reaching changes to the Constitution.

Denying the Tea Party’s role in the downgrade of U.S. debt is to deny reality.

Should President Obama call Congress back into session? Not if there’s nothing to do he shouldn’t.

Michele Bachmann is claiming that the debt downgrade proves she was right about not raising the debt ceiling.

If we cannot adequately diagnose our problems it will be even harder to fix them.

A political science-y response to the question of whether the system is broken.

The defense spending lobby is already engaging in fear-mongering over very modest defense cuts.

We are being warned once again that the Postal Service is on the verge of financial collapse. There really is only one solution.

The immediate reaction among the political class to the debt downgrade was the play the same old stupid games.

The main issue driving the downgrade appears to be lack of faith in the political parties to act responsibly and compromise over entitlements and revenues.

The agenda of the Tea Party movement doesn’t necessarily coincide with what voters say they want from Washington.

The job approval numbers for Congress are at historic lows, but will that matter in 2012?

The “super committee” created by the debt ceiling deal is already the subject of criticism, most of it unwarranted.

Congress is failing to complete even simple tasks thanks to a bitter partisan divide.

House Republicans are being criticized for utilizing a tactic they learned from Senate Democrats.

Has a precedent been set for future requests by the President to increase the debt ceiling?

The reviews are in on the debt negotiations, and the public isn’t happy.

The cuts to Pentagon spending in the new debt deal are further revealing a split in the GOP over foreign policy and military spending.

The problem with the ever popular complaint about kickin’ the can down the road.

You thought you’d seen the worst of Congress in July? Oh, you silly American you.

Once again, the debt ceiling deal is raising questions about the President’s leadership.