Outside the Beltway

Is 435 the right number?

The Sunbelt continues to dominate.

Was the Jobs Report released one month before Election Day 2012 rigged? Despite a new report, there’s no evidence to suggest that it was.

China’s Communist Party has announced a significant change to the nation’s infamous “One Child” policy.

Once again, pretty much everybody hates Congress. However, it’s unclear if that will matter come Election Day.

The battle for marriage equality has scored a number of victories in a short period of time, but that’s about to change.

(And a Postscript on Recent Discussion of the South)

To borrow a phrase from Stephen Colbert, if you want to understand how Congress works, you better know a District.

With just hours to go, the Republicans on Capitol Hill seem prepared to take a big political risk.

It remains to be seen whether Congressional Republicans will force a government shutdown. What’s already clear is how counterproductive it would be.

The high cost of raising children is making it difficult for many Americans to have multiple children.

A new theory circulating on the right asserts that IRS targeting of Tea Party groups had an impact on the 2012 elections by diminish the Tea Party’s effectiveness. It’s mostly nonsense.

Yes, it ended slavery. But at a huge cost.

There are risks to Republicans in blocking immigration reform, but there are also incentives for them to block immigration reform. Getting past that contradiction to passage isn’t going to be easy.

Republicans are fighting over how best to deal with their demographic problems, but they seem to be fighting the wrong battle.

The April Jobs Report was good, but not exactly anything to write home about.

A new GOP would make it very difficult to get a good read on the state of the nation’s economy.

2012’s election represented a significant change in voting patterns in the United States. What’s unclear is if the change is a permanent one.

Southerners lie about their weight–but not as much as those lyin’ Yankees.

The odds for a party switch in the House of Representatives remain quite low.

About 8.1 percent of U.S. workers have commutes of 60 minutes or longer and nearly 600,000 have “megacommutes” of at least 90 minutes and 50 miles.

In a bold move, the Census Bureau has removed “Negro” from its racial categories.

We’re having trouble counting Hispanics. Should we be trying?

Some proposed reforms just need to be ignored.

President Obama is taking some heat over the fact that his Second Term cabinet selections have been very white and very male.

There are very rational reasons behind the current gridlock on Capitol Hill.

Republicans used to dominate California. Now, they’re barely a factor in the state’s politics.

President Obama is likely to win re-election while overwhelmingly losing the white vote. Does it matter?

As in 2010, Scott Rasmussen’s polling in 2012 has shown a distinct bias in favor of Republicans.

All eyes on Northern Virginia.

While the conspiracy theory is nuts, there are legitimate reasons to be skeptical of some elements of September’s Jobs Report.

September’s BLS Report will likely be significant but, behind the numbers, things don’t look all that great.

The arguments of the people claiming that every single poll showing Mitt Romney is unfairly biased do not stand up to scrutiny.

The Obama campaign’s 4.5 new private sector jobs claim is true, but only if you forget the first year of the Obama Administration.

My latest for The Atlantic, “Stop Feeling Sorry for American Veterans, has posted.