Outside the Beltway

The government shutdown is starting to have effects in the “real world.”

Not raising the debt ceiling will create a true constitutional/legal crisis.

Speaker Boehner told his caucus members that he will not allow a default over the debt ceiling but don’t look for a change in strategy.

A comment from one Congressman sums up the attitude of the small group of Congressman and Senators who have placed us in this situation.

President Obama had some potentially market-moving news for Wall Street.

If you want to understand why Republicans in Congress are acting like they are, just look at the polls.

There’s no sign that the government shutdown will end any time soon.

Chris Christie had some words about the crisis in D.C., and they almost sound like they could be part of a 2016 campaign message

Nick Gillespie advances the counterintuitive argument that President Obama is responsible for today’s government shutdown.

Republicans don’t seem willing to let go of the Obamacare issue just yet. But, how long will that actually last?

It’s now clear that, absent an unlikely miracle, there will be a government shutdown.

The House will reportedly vote on a new Continuing Resolution with conditions that would seem to make a shutdown inevitable.

With key conservatives pushing for sanity, the grown-ups have a chance to take back the GOP.

Ted Cruz is going after the Speaker of the House.

Republicans reportedly have another plan to get what they want on Obamacare and other issues.

Ted Cruz becomes a little more honest about his plan to “defund” Obamacare.

The House is going to make it more likely that we see a government shutdown at the end of the month.

The GOP’s plan to defund reality becomes even more disconnected from reality.

Given that the vote count seems to be heading that way, this is a question worth examination.

Would House Republicans really defer from voting on a Syria resolution to prevent embarrassing the President on the world stage?

Congress isn’t spending much time in Washington these days but that’s only one of the reasons it isn’t accomplishing very much.

Ted Cruz is either being incredibly cynical as he deludes his fellow Republicans, or he’s living in a fantasy world.

As expected, President Obama’s latest “pivot” to the economy is less than meets the eye.

Republicans aren’t happy with their leadership. The reason why is also the reason why Republicans are in trouble politically.

The latest House GOP pronouncements on immigration reform make it exceedingly unlikely that any bill will pass this year.

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.

The sequestration cuts are two months old, and it seems pretty clear that the claims of doom we heard before they went into effect were heavily exaggerated.

The odds that any of the Senators who voted no on Manchin/Toomey will pay a political price for doing so is low.

One Virginia Republican Member of Congress recently got a lesson in what going against the GOP’s hyperpartisan atmosphere feels like.

A bit of musing on parties, elections, and governance,

Institutional dynamics in the US constitutional system are the key to undertstanding our current predicament.

Once again, politicians in Washington are engaging in irrelevant partisan battles rather than trying to solve the nation’s problems.

Ezra Klein argues that the voters already decided how the sequestration fight should play out.

t’s been more than two-and-a half years since the United States passed major legislation.

The political antics surrounding the sequestration cuts is a prime example of what’s wrong with Washington.

The sequestration cuts are fast approaching, and the political battle is continuing.