Outside the Beltway

Thanks to the help of a group of Tea Party Freshman in the House. Congress has finally cut off funding for a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that the Pentagon never wanted.

President Obama’s new budget involves nothing less than a thumb in the eye of anyone who hoped he would seriously address federal spending in his first term.

Four Senators who just happen to be up for re-election next year are silently looking for alternatives to the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.

Oddly, the Democratic Party seems to be responding to the 2010 midterms by moving further left.

Rep. Jane Harman is leaving Congress to become president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Some in Washington are claiming the intelligence community missed the warning signs of unrest in Tunisia and Egypt in what looks like little more than an effort to create scapegoats if things go wrong.

The debate over Senator Rand Paul’s proposed $500 billion spending cut plan has focused almost exclusively on one issue, and one nation.

Virginia Thomas’s political activism is once again a political issue.

In response to charges that it was attempting restrict abortion access beyond the boundaries of the Hyde Amendment, the GOP has agreed to drop the phrase “forcible rape” from its abortion bill.

The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” would remove the exception for non-forcible rape.

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

The GOP is facing a battle between its fiscal conservatism and i’s military adventurism.

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.

The initial instant reaction to the President’s speech last night was largely positive, but does it really matter?