Outside the Beltway

The Senate leadership has agreed to exempt 1/3 of nominations from the confirmation process.

Two Senators are proposing a Constitutional Amendment to redefine what it means to be an American citizen.

The House has voted to repeal the broken system of financing presidential elections.

It is always easier to compromise on more spending and less taxes.

Once again, it looks like efforts to reform the Senate’s filibuster rules have fallen victim to that old devil politics.

Time for midterms.

In a move that surprises nobody, the House voted today to repeal last year’s health care reform law. Now it goes to the Senate where it will die.

The current approach of the GOP to health care is not dissimilar to its approach to fiscal policy: not a lot of substance.

It’s Lee-Jackson Day again in Virginia, and, once again, I find myself wondering why the South continues to honor a dishonorable legacy.

There appears to be bipartisan support for repealing one of the most egregious tax rules in last year’s Affordable Care Act

Sarah Palin released a statement today about the Arizona shootings and the debate that has followed. It’s unlikely to help her.

Faced with mounting debt, the lame duck Illinois legislature rushed through a massive tax hike in the wee hours this morning.

We have laws preventing the sales of gun to crazy people. We’re not enforcing them very well.

When determining the effects on the deficit of a certain legislative action, both revenues and spending have to be accounted for. Indeed, you can’t determine whether there is a deficit, surplus or balanced budget without both variables.

House Republicans want to do away with the increasing number of “czars” in the White House.

The filibuster reform package that Senate Democrats unveiled yesterday has much to recommend to it. Unfortunately, it’s probably doomed.

Is the filibuster essential for the Senate to function as designed?

President Obama is likely to issue a signing statement in order to keep his Gitmo options open.

The author of AZ’s SB1070 has a new idea.

The next round in the health care reform wars is about to start.

Will the Tea Party Movement grow up?

208 years ago today, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to The Danbury Baptist Association that has resonated through the years.

The lawyer who argued The Pentagon Papers case points out how Julian Assange is not Daniel Ellsberg, and how prosecuting him could have disastrous results for press freedom in the United States.

President Obama and Chief Justice Roberts are calling for bipartisanship in the New Year.

Like it or not, the U.S. Constitution has always been a political document, evolving depending on the players on the stage.

The seemingly sensible end-of-life counseling that was originally part of the Health Care Reform Bill is making a comeback.

Hawaii’s new Governor is taking on the Birther myth.

Frustrated that it couldn’t achieve desired environmental legislation despite huge majorities in both Houses of Congress, the Obama administration has decided to govern by executive fiat.

Those who argue that tariff increases, and not slavery, were the key reason for secession have some basic problems with the historical sequence.

The abuse of the filibuster is just a symptom of a much wider problem.

For the first time in 35 years, the Senate may finally be on the verge of reforming the filibuster.

President Obama is supporting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Is this the end of America?

The Federal Communications Commission is using a statute from the 1930s to try to regulate the technology of the 21st Century. It’s a mistake.

What the Haley Barbour situation illustrates is that we, as a country, have not fully accepted or dealt with our own past.