Outside the Beltway

The president’s skinny budget would eliminate most funding for science and the arts to fund more Defense spending.

Part Two in a series of observations about health care and health insurance in light of the introduction of the House GOP’s health care plan. This post examines several ideas advanced by conservatives, and the reasons they aren’t complete answers to the problems we face.

Part One in a series of observations about health care and health insurance in light of the introduction of the House GOP’s health care plan.

Health care policy analysts seem united in their assessment of the House GOP’s replacement for the Affordable Care Act, and it’s overwhelmingly negative.

Reports indicate that President Trump will seek to increase military spending. We don’t need to, and we can’t really afford it.

Budget hawks in the GOP face a showdown with Donald Trump’s spending ambitions this year that will likely decide whether we’ll ever get spending under control.

Backers of the losing candidate for the Democratic nomination are surprised that they’re not getting their way.

Bernie Sanders won another primary last night, but he continues to fall behind in the race for delegates nonetheless.

Five months after becoming Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan seems to be running into some of the same difficulties that John Boehner did.

As expected, Hillary Clinton won big last night while Bernie Sanders largely floundered, thus going further toward making Clinton’s victory inevitable.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed in the final debate before the Iowa Caucuses in the context of a race that has appeared to become tighter than it was before Christmas.

After oral argument today in a high profile case, it appears likely that public employee unions are likely to suffer a major legal defeat later this year.

The Supreme Court is now considering a case that deals with the problem of overly broad civil asset forfeiture laws and a Defendant’s right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment.

As expected, the Senate easily passed the two-year budget deal early this morning.

With only a handful of opposition, Paul Ryan was easily elected the 62nd Speaker of the House.

Compromise is simply necessary for the country to function.

Paul Ryan is blasting the process that led to the new budget deal between the GOP and the White House, but one suspects he’s secretly quite pleased with the fact that it makes his job-to-be a lot easier.

Congress and the White House have reached a tentative deal on the budget and debt ceiling that promises to make Paul Ryan’s initial months as Speaker a lot easier.

Paul Ryan has yet to say if he will run for Speaker of the House, but that hasn’t stopped the opposition on the hard right from forming already.

Yes, Ben Carson’s comments about the debt ceiling are silly, but it’s the fact that a lot of Republicans agree with him that’s dangerous.

With the last legal hurdle to Obamacare cleared, “death panels” have made a quiet comeback.

The events of the past two weeks could allow the Republican Party to move forward.

Aides to Governor Chris Christie apparently think there’s still a way he can run a credible campaign for President, but it seems unlikely.

Five years after it became law, the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act appears to be over.

A federal judge has ordered the people of California to foot the $100,000 bill for sexual reassignment surgery for someone serving a life sentence for murder.

As expected, New Jersey’s senior Senator has been indicted.

After nearly 20 years in office, Harry Reid announced early today that he would not seek reelection in 2016.

A powerful Democratic Senator looks like he’s about to be in a whole lot of trouble.

Sen. Charles Schumer says Democrats made a mistake by concentrating on getting health care reform passed instead of on fixing the economy.

A critic of the imperial presidency becomes an imperial president.

Should the Legislature take back legislating from the Executive?

As we head into a new conflict, perhaps we ought to give more thought to fiscal issues than the President is to overall strategy.

Two prominent Republican groups point out the blindingly obvious.

It’s hard for a party to win four straight presidential elections. The Democrats may pull it off.

In 1995, the Speaker predicted Medicare is “going to wither on the vine because we think people are voluntarily going to leave it.”

The people with the biggest voices in the GOP seem to be leading it to positions that most Americans disagree with.

It seems unlikely that Eric Shinseki will have a job for much longer.

The latest chapter in an all too familiar story.

A Tea Party battle in the Cornhusker State

Bureaucracy at its finest.

It might not be pretty.

The anti-vaccination movement has earned a dubious achievement, the return of a disease that was effectively eradicated 15 years ago.

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next week in an important First Amendment case.

After many ballyhooed glitches, 7 million Americans have signed up for ObamaCare. Now what?

Don’t expect much out of Congress for the rest of 2014, or for the two years after that either.

Another day, another delay.

A budget deal has been reached, now it has to get through both Chambers of Congress.