Outside the Beltway

As the government shutdown enters through its twenty-fourth day, attention is shifting to Senate Republicans who could be pressured to break ranks and potentially force a resolution.

The government shutdown has now entered historic territory, and the Trump Administration is moving closer to a “national emergency” or other extra-legal means to get money for his wall.

President Trump is claiming he never said Mexico would directly pay for the wall, except for all those times when he said Mexico would directly pay for the wall.

Iowa’s Steve King has long expressed anti-immigrant and racist views, now he’s asking why that’s a bad thing.

New polling clearly indicates that the President is losing the battle for public opinion over the government shutdown.

President Trump’s speech on the border wall and the shutdown was fact-free, misleading, and overall a bomb.

President Trump is claiming that he could use authority to declare a “national emergency” to build his wall even if Congress doesn’t authorize it.

Terrorists aren’t walking across the desert to get here. Flying is so much easier.

As the shutdown drags on, the President is digging in his heels even further.

President Trump began 2019 pretty much how he ended 2018, with irrational rants on Twitter.

That’s not how it works.

President Trump is now threatening to close the border if he doesn’t get funding for his border wall.

As 2018 draws to a close, there’s no sign that the government shutdown will end any time soon.

The TPP is about to go into effect without the US.

Congress will not be returning to Washington until some time next week. Thus guaranteeing that this shutdown will last at least through January 3rd.

Is it possible that the solution to the government shutdown is letting the President pretend he got funding for his border wall even though he didn’t?

The numbers should guide policy, not silly symbols.

With the economy appearing to sour, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is quickly becoming the President’s latest target of criticism.

The Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by the Trump Administration to have an injunction against its new asylum policy lifted.

There was no progress on resolving the government shutdown today, and little hope that anything will happen before late next week.

While the political media is spending a lot of time talking about it, the actual impact of this latest government shutdown is likely to be limited and possibly even unnoticeable to most Americans.

The government entered its third shutdown of the year with little sign of an immediate resolution.

In what clearly appears to be a rebuke of the President, Defense Secretary James Mattis is retiring as Secretary of Defense.

Hours before the House was set to vote on a temporary funding bill for the government, President Trump has apparently changed his mind.

As Washington heads into the final days of a budget shutdown, Republicans find themselves on the losing end of a public relations battle.

Once again, President Trump is threatening a shutdown over the border wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for.

This month’s budget fight is likely the last chance the President will have to get any funding for his border wall.

Current attempts to take power away from the state executive branch illustrates a lot of what I have been writing about for years.

Defense Secretary James Mattis has announced that the deployment of U.S. troops to the Mexican border will be extended through the end of this year.

A brewing fight over funding for the President’s border wall could throw a monkey wrench into plans to pass a budget by next Friday.

A decade after being bailed out by the Federal government, the giant automaker is slashing jobs.

A bad look for all concerned.

Yes, there can be real problems with election activities, but that does not excuse POTUS’ lies about fraud.

Now that the election is over, President Trump and his sycophants in the right-wing media seem to have completely forgotten about the “invading” “caravan” of Central American asylum seekers.

Losing the midterms is not going over well with the President.

The next head to roll in the Trump Administration appears to be frequent Trump target DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

Last week, the Mexican Supreme Court pushed that country further down the road toward legalization of marijuana for all purposes.

One hundred years after the end of World War One, the forces that led to it are waking up from a long slumber.

My latest for The National Interest.

On Tuesday, Michigan joined the ranks of the states where marijuana is legal and several other states legalized it for medical purposes.

Whether as candidates or as voters, Democrats can thank women for many of their victories on Tuesday.

Donald Trump’s lies became even more frequent during the recently-concluded campaign season.

In addition to winning back the House, Democrats also made gains in Governor’s races.

As expected, the midterm elections ended up being a split result that gives Democrats and Republicans alike reason to celebrate.

The 2018 midterms were mostly about Donald Trump. The results were idiosyncratic.

When do we stop pretending that Fox News Channel is anything other than State Run Media for the Trump Administration?

Faced with the probability of losses today, President Trump is already getting ready to blame everyone but himself.

In addition to being mandated by the Constitution, birthright citizenship goes to the core of what it means to be an American.

The GOP is likely to lose control of the House of Representatives tomorrow, but could this actually help Trump?