Outside the Beltway

Why blaming “the Democrats” or even “leadership” ignores a basic fact of American politics.

What the shutdown should have been about.

A lot of pain for . . . not much.

Democrats are digging in.

The standoff is in its 35th day.

Here we go again.

Things are not operating as Madison intended.

Senate Republicans are balking at several measures, but fixing those would make passage in the House impossible.

No. But it won’t matter.

Maybe they weren’t serious about fiscal discipline after all?

The polls are showing a really weird dynamic.

Don’t let the door . . .

A little ethnic cleansing coming right up.

A small step to reclaim Congress’ rightful authority.

Only a handful of Republican Senators have objected. Mildly.

It is too soon to tell.

The President-Elect is testing the guardrails early.

Why it’s inevitable and what it means.

The inmates are running the asylum.

The Senate Republican Leader had another concerning incident.

The 81-year-old Republican leader seems to still suffering from his fall.

Contrary to a Politico headline, the GOP response to Trump’s anti-constitution talk continues to underwhelm.

Mitch McConnell and other senior Republican Senators foolishly believed their colleagues would do the right thing.

Mitch McConnell is testing out his spine again.

It will be symbolic, but the symbol will be an anti-democratic one.

The junior Senator from Kentucky is drawing a lot of attention to himself on “fraud.”

Too little, too late.

An unconvincing attack on the Democratic position.

Yesterday’s testimony by Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman including information particularly damaging to the President and his defenses to the charges against him in the Ukraine matter.

There are several months to go before a budget must be passed but there are already signs that the White House and Congress could be headed for an impasse.

Congress appears to be near a deal on border security and government funding, but it’s unclear if the President will be on board.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned the President against using a national emergency to fund his border wall.

The Senate rejected Republican and Democratic proposals as expected but there are some signs of movement forward.

In a late first-day session, Congress passed a series of bills designed to reopen most of the government, but they’re already ‘dead on arrival’ in the Senate.

Corey Stewart may be the darling of the Trumpidians in the GOP, but he won’t be getting any help from Senate Republicans.

Republicans are planning on pushing judicial nominees through the Senate in case they lose control in November. Meanwhile, the possibility of a Supreme Court vacancy raises the stakes.

President Trump appeared to change positions on several gun control ideas, but he probably doesn’t mean it.

Congress appears to be moving closer to a budget deal even as the President tries to throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing.

Congress seems no closer to a DACA deal than they were in January.

After spending much of 2017 trying to do it, Republicans are giving up on any effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act before the midterms.

The current budget deal expires in six days and Congress doesn’t seem to know what it’s going to do about it.

Getting to a DACA deal isn’t going to be easy.

Republican Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray say they’ve reached a bipartisan deal to fix an important part of the Affordable Care Act.

Once again, a bad CBO score is casting doubt on a Republican health care reform bill.

Congress is running out of time in its effort to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act.

The President’s choice for Labor Secretary withdrew his name from consideration yesterday, but this is just the latest example of what has been a transition that has largely consisted of fumble after fumble by the Trump team.

The Trump campaign is out with its own ‘short list’ of potential running mates.

Congress has just over a week to pass a funding bill, and it’s not looking very good.