Outside the Beltway

150 years ago today a group of men gathered in Charleston, South Carolina and made one of the gravest mistakes in American history. They should not be honored for it.

The repeal of DADT may open the doors for ROTC to return to many elite institutions, if cost doesn’t get in the way.

How likely are more sweeping health care reforms in the US? Not very likely at all.

The Congress has passed a repeal of DADT.

The 20th Amendment was supposed to eliminate lame duck sessions, but it didn’t.

Did we have a free market in health care prior to the passage of PPACA? No.

The new health care law’s individual mandate was the subject of another bruising court battle yesterday, but the real question in the room was what, if any, are the limits on Congressional authority?

Since when is working the week before Christmas sacrilege?

The incoming House Republicans aren’t making a good first impression.

Despite yesterday’s victory for opponents of the Affordable Care Act, the prospects in the Supreme Court are not good.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows and, when it comes to the debate over the extension of the Bush tax cuts, anti-tax Republicans are making common cause with soak-the-rich progressives.

A Federal Judge in Virginia has handed the first legal defeat to the President’s health care reform package.

Inspired by the reaction to the Julian Assange case, a feminist writer proposes dangerous changes to American rape laws.

The Senate has constructed the legislation to correspond to the Obama-McConnell deal, sweeteners and all.

Republicans have blocked a bill that would have helped rescue workers who became sick helping others at Ground Zero.

Senate Democrats cancel vote on DREAM Act, meaning the immigration measure is likely dead for the year.

Just weeks after voting for a broad ban on earmarks, Republicans are looking for ways to get money to their districts without calling it an “earmark.”

Amid signs that Democrats in Congress might rebel against the tax cut deal he struck with Republicans, President Obama took to the airwaves today to defend it at the same time that his base is rebelling against it.

President Obama is already taking heat from the left for his compromise on tax cut extensions, but will it actually hurt him in the end?

Would returning to indirect election of Senators really have a significant impact on the growth of the Federal Government? Probably not.

Republican maneuvering to extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans appears about to pay off.

Democrats are losing the debate over the extension of the Bush tax cuts, but when you look at the playing field it seems pretty clear that that they never had a chance.

The Senate rejected an effort to limit the extension of the Bush tax cuts based on income level. At this point, the only question is when Democrats will concede defeat on this debate.

If 33 states can muster support to kill a law, how would it have gotten enacted to begin with?

Incoming House Speaker John Boehner plans a radical overhaul of how Congress spends our money.

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley wants to fix the filibuster by making Senators actually filibuster. It’s a good idea.

Another Federal Judge dismisses a Constitutional challenge to the health care reform law, and demonstrates just how unlikely it is that any of the lawsuits against the law will be successful.

The Republican Party is united on the issues in a way it hasn’t been in a long time, but personalities threaten to tear the fragile coalition apart.

The Feds famously got notorious mobster Al Capone on tax evasion charges. Will WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange be done in by sex crimes?

Tom DeLay is a sleazebag and has been found guilty by an Austin jury for skirting the law. But it may in fact be a miscarriage of justice despite the victim being as unsympathetic as it gets.

Looking to avoid airport body scanners? You might not be able to do it on any form of public transit if Janet Napolitano gets her way.

Ron Paul has introduced a law (the “American Traveler Dignity Act”) that would punish TSA agents for groping and x-raying Americans.

Congress will vote on extending the Bush Tax Cuts in December, and new polling shows that the public agrees with Democrats that the cuts should be limited to the “middle class.”

Unless there’s an emergency, is it proper for representatives who have been defeated in a mid-term election to be voting on controversial legislation?

Some Republican Senators-elect are imploring Harry Reid not to consider any treaties during the lame duck session.