Outside the Beltway

While Gerrymandering Congressional districts to benefit incumbents and the dominant party in the state legislature is an old game, they play it with especial intensity in Illinois.

The main issue, above all else, is taxes.

Arguments for the Ryan Plan that characterize it as being “against bureaucracy” are apparently oblivious to the fact that private health insurance is full of bureaucracy.

Across the country, Republicans are pushing laws that will make voting harder.

Dan Balz titles today’s column “Romney bets his candidacy on the economy.” My reaction upon seeing that was, that’s a pretty safe bet.

A majority of Americans think homosexuals account for at least a fifth of the population.

As Congress left town for the long weekend, the Senate Minority Leader threw a grenade into the budget negotiations.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul wants a full debate on the PATRIOT Act. What’s Congress so afraid of?

It’s just one Congressional District out of 435, but that won’t stop everyone from trying to turn the results in NY-26 into a national referendum on Medicare reform.

Voters in New York State may help move the budget debate on Capitol Hill.

The bungled politics of the Ryan plan.

Some think that 2012 will be like 1992. However, that analogy is problematic.

Mitch Daniels, the candidate of George Will and a host of mainstream Republicans hoping for something better in 2012, has announced he will not be running for president in 2012.

With the customary hand-wringing over the low quality of the presidential field well underway, the corollary pining for other candidates to join the race is starting.

It has now been 60 days since American involvement in Libya commenced. Congress has failed to act, and that’s their fault.

We’ve reached a turning point in the debate over same-sex marriage.

Part of a speech that Mitch Daniels made in 2009 is setting off a firestorm among some conservative bloggers.

Rand Paul has borrowed a bad idea from the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Senate fails to revoke tax cuts for big oil.

All signs are that Michele Bachmann is running for president. What impact will she have on the race?

As of today, the United States is legally barred from borrowing money to finance its operations. Thanks for nothing, Congress.

Newt Gingrich says the coming presidential election will be the most important since the Civil War.

Mitt Romney began his effort to confront what is likely to be his biggest political liability in the 2012 campaign.

How much of public opinion is about tribal political identification and how much is about the actual policies themselves?

Republicans are playing politics with the National Debt. Please don’t tell me you’re shocked.

For the first time, a majority of Republicans support creation of a third political party. Does it really mean anything?

The first round of appellate arguments over the Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act took place today in Richmond, Virginia.

Boehner wants some pretty big cuts in exchange for a vote on raising the debt ceiling.

New rules for the 2012 primary open the door for a Tea Party candidate to take the GOP nomination.