Outside the Beltway

The FDA is declaring war on trans fats. That’s a bad idea on many levels.

Finally, the FAA acts to end a pretty dumb rule.

Even if it were functioning properly the Federal Health Care Exchange website would still have problems.

The bad roll out of the Affordable Care Act is starting to lead to calls for delays in enforcement of the law.

Air Force lieutenant colonel (designate) Erik Brine is so unessential that it hurts.

The news PPACA controversy appears to be based on a complete misunderstanding of one provision of the law.

The federal government won’t have money to pay its workers come Tuesday but it’ll spend like a drunken sailor on Monday.

The VA created an incentive system that rewarded fast, half-assed claim processing that denied complicated requests.

The Pentagon is considering making military retirees ineligible for civil service pensions.

The DMV experience sucks just as much if you’re Tim Geithner.

There really is no reason for Congress to confirm so many posts.

There are over 1,000 Executive Branch positions requiring Senate approval. That seems excessive.

A new round of documents from the IRS, that aren’t really new, doesn’t really change the basic narrative on the IRS “targeting” story.

Several top Administration officials have secret email addresses, the Associated Press reports.

Shouldn’t medical advances available in Germany be available in the United States and vice-versa?

Apparently, some people don’t want to let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

When does politics become the “primary activity” of a 501(c)4?

Inside the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration investigation into the IRS scandal.

Almost no one can confidently explain, let alone define, the specifics of the 501(c)4 designation.

What happened at the IRS looks a lot more like deliberate political bias than simple incompetence.

Recent comments from an FDA official raise the prospect that the agency is considering minor’s access to caffeinated beverages.

Ezra Klein has a really smart piece titled “How Van Halen explains Obamacare, salmon regulation and scientific grants.”

The man who played Captain Kirk is not amused by an IRS training video featuring his iconic character.

Passengers may soon be able to use approved electronic devices during all phases of airplane flights.

There’s an innocent explanation for giving a huge bonus to a financial exec going into government. And it still stinks.

The Big Gulp ban won’t ban Big Gulps. But it’ll ban 2-liter Cokes with your pizza and pitchers at Chuck E. Cheese.

Why the bureaucratic tyrants at the FDA regulate your yuletide drinks.

The career of Larry Schwartz, who is the Counselor for Public Affairs at the US Embassy in Cairo, is over.

A former Obama official says government should learn from business, but is private industry really more efficient?

An object lesson in bureaucracy and the reason why infrastructure projects aren’t as easy to complete as some think.