Outside the Beltway

It’s Day Two of the Federal Government shutdown and there are few signs of a quick resolution.

The government is shut down and Washington is playing the usual blame game. In reality, there’s plenty of blame to go around, and one of the guilty parties is the American people.

Both #TrumpShutdown and #SchumerShutdown put the blame in the wrong place.

One year after his Inauguration, Donald Trump is the most unpopular new President since the invention of modern polling. However, his numbers are generally the same that they’ve been for some time now.

With just hours to go, it seems increasingly unlikely that the Senate can reach a deal to keep the government open.

With less than two days to go, the prospects for Congress finding a way to prevent a government shutdown aren’t looking good.

With only days to go, Congress seems unable to come up with either a funding deal for the Federal Government or a solution to the DACA issue.

Donald Trump’s Jerusalem decision reveals yet again that he is an appallingly bad deal maker.

The current temporary spending measure reached by Congress in September expires on Friday, and Republicans haven’t come up with a solution yet.

With time running out in the year, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that the Senate GOP will be able to meet its deadlines on passing a tax reform bill.

It’s been two years since John Boehner stepped down as Speaker, and he’s got a few things to say about his former colleagues and the state of American politics.

At least for now, Republicans seem to be giving up on repealing and replacing the PPACA. That’s not going to make the base happy.

Former Trump aide Steve Bannon is declaring war on Republicans in the Senate.

Catalonia’s independence referendum is one day away, and nobody seems to know what to expect.

Kurds in Iraq voted overwhelmingly for independence in a non-binding referendum, and the result is threatening to create a new conflict in the Middle East.

Winning was easy.  Legislating is hard.

Donald Trump is threatening to shut the government down if Congress doesn’t pay for the wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for.

They may both be Republicans, but the relationship between the President and the Senate Majority Leader is bad and seems to be getting worse.

A new poll shows that most Americans want Republicans want to move on from their failed effort to ‘repeal and replace’ the Affordable Care Act.

Seven years of rhetoric on health care reform ended early this morning with a narrow vote on a bill that even Republicans didn’t really support.

The Senate is back from its recess, but no closer to a health care bill that has any realistic chance of passing.

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

The Administration suffers another defeat in defense of its effort to ban Muslim immigrants.

President Trump’s speech on Islam was a change of tone. However, as critics noted, it was short on substance and is unlikely to accomplish anything.

Another day in Court for President Trump’s Muslim ban.

As usual, an attempt to explain congressional behavior brings us back to the issue of our basic institutions. The way we elect congress matters.

Once again, the GOP punts on ‘repeal and replace’ because they don’t have the votes.

With a government shutdown looming at the end of the week, the Administration has appeared to back away from a demand that a government funding bill include money allocated for the President’s promised border wall.

As he nears the end of his first 100 days in office, President Trump continues to suffer from bad poll numbers.

Faced with the fact that it has little to show for its first 100 days in office, the Trump Administration is pressuring Congress to come up with a new health care reform bill before the end of next week.

Two more losses for the Trump Administration.

The announcement of a new Muslim travel ban Executive Order has been delayed once again.

Once again, Donald Trump has played his supporters for suckers.

Even if you’re not sure who you should vote for, it’s obvious who you shouldn’t vote for.

Two of Chris Christie’s closest aides were convicted in the criminal trial resulting from the ‘Bridgegate’ scandal.

Two Republican Senators are exchanging barbs over the idea that the GOP should block any attempt by Hillary Clinton to nominate anyone to the Supreme Court if she becomes President.

In which Ted Cruz endorses the guy who called his wife ugly and said his father was involved in the Kennedy assassination.

President Obama is being criticized for remaining on vacation while Louisiana deals with historic flooding.

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

The American people do not seem to support the Republican position on whether President Obama’s expected Supreme Court nominee should get proper consideration by the Senate.

The President has another plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. It’s as likely to be well-received on Capitol Hill as all of his other previous plans on this issue.

Republicans are putting much on the line in their refusal to consider any Supreme Court nomination from President Obama.

As if to further demonstrate just how fair off the rails the GOP has gotten, Donald Trump’s unconstitutional, wrong-headed, racist notions are supported by wide majorities in the party that still claims to the by the “Party of Lincoln.”

Not your average DC-area snowstorm.

Donald Trump is out with his first television ad, and it’s about what you’d expect.

The anti-Muslim rhetoric Donald Trump has been using on the campaign trail has shown up in a recruitment video for an al Qaeda off-shoot group.