Outside the Beltway

Democrats have unveiled what appears as if it will be their first effort to end the shutdown, but there are already signs Republicans will reject it.

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

Begun, the 2020 campaign has.

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

California is set up throw a huge curve ball into the 2020 Presidential nomination fight.

New polling indicates that President Trump is getting the blame for the ongoing government shutdown.

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.

Faced with the prospect of a large field like the one Republicans had in 2016, Democrats are trying to figure out how to handle debates. So far, the ideas being put forward are as bad as what the GOP ended up doing.

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.

Good news for Notorious RBG.

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.

Christmas is behind us, but don’t expect any progress when it comes to the government shutdown, which is in its fifth day.

More evidence that Trump does not know what he is doing.

While it has an admitted populist appeal. the idea of Congressional pay being withheld during a shutdown is a non-starter due to the Constitution.

President Trump announced today that James Mattis would be out as Secretary of Defense by the end of the year.

President Trump has lost another one of his top advisers on the fight against ISIS.

One of the strongest climate regulations in the country is almost certainly unconstitutional.

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

President Trump is now apparently on the warpath against the Federal Reserve Board Chairman he appointed only a year ago.

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.

Trump doesn’t understand (nor respect) the role of the Fed.

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

The Pentagon is being ordered to draw up plans to withdraw roughly one-half of the American forces remaining in Afghanistan. It’s about time.

With just hours to go, a partial government shutdown is becoming more and more likely.

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.

The North Korean government is making clear what it means when it speaks of denuclearization, and its far different from what the United States means.

New York State seems likely to join the list of states where marijuana has been legalized sometime next year.

Tennessee will have an open Senate seat in 2020 thanks to Lamar Alexander’s decision to retire at the end of his current term.

The Senate passed a bill that keeps the government funded through the beginning of February, but fails to provide any funding for the President’s border wall.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed major reforms in Federal sentencing and related laws. As the name of the bill implies, it’s a first step, but a good first step.

The latest entry in the unity third party presidential candidate genre is just as bad as they always are.

The mystery surrounding a secret proceeding in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation has at least partly been solved.

With three days to go before a government shutdown, there are at least some signs that the President may be backing away from his threats to shut down the government over funding for his border wall.

Under fire from the New York Attorney General, Donald Trump’s questionable charitable foundation is shutting down.

With the Friday night deadline fast approaching, nobody in Washington seems to know what’s going on.

Republicans scored a win in Court last week, but it seems likely to lead to a political loss in the long-term.

After a barrage of criticism, New Jersey Democrats are abandoning a controversial redistricting proposal.

Mystery continues to surround a proceeding that has been making its way through the Federal Courts in Washington, D.C.

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

Former Vice-President Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders are, not surprisingly, leading the early polls for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

An argument against “bothersiderism” in this case and, yet again, noting the problem with single seat districts.

On the way out the door, Scott Walker signed a bill to take powers away from his successor (and demonstrated a lack of understanding of Venn diagrams).

Eight years after it was signed into law, a Federal Judge has ruled the Affordable Care Act to be unconstitutional.

In a small, but meaningful, step, the Senate has rebuked the Administration’s policies toward the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Jon Kyl was named to replace John McCain back in September, but as expected he’s already announcing that he’ll be leaving at the end of the year.