Outside the Beltway

A legendary statesman has passed.

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

Health care policy analysts seem united in their assessment of the House GOP’s replacement for the Affordable Care Act, and it’s overwhelmingly negative.

Delegating the morning briefing to advisors isn’t actually that unusual.

According to reports, Vice-President Biden is on a Clinton campaign short list for Secretary of State.

Many pundits are arguing that the victory for ‘Leave’ presages good news for Trump in November, but there’s no reason to believe that.

Americans don’t trust their government or each other. There’s no reason to hope it’ll get better.

Some analysts are already suggesting that Russia’s two month old intervention in Syria is becoming a quagmire. That seems to be a premature judgment, but it’s not accomplishing much more than anything the West is doing.

The attack in San Bernardino has seemingly left the Administration’s anti-terror strategy in disarray, so the President is addressing the nation tonight to say, well, something I guess.

President Obama’s confrontational approach to opponents of the Iran Nuclear Deal ignores legitimate questions.

The problem goes beyond the War on Drugs.

The sources of new immigrants to the United States are changing, but it’s unclear if that will have any impact on the political debate over immigration reform.

President Obama thinks that it would be a good idea if everyone were forced to vote. He’s wrong, and his idea is most likely unconstitutional.

The Atlantic has a fascinating cover story by Graeme Wood titled “What ISIS Really Wants.”

Most in the international relations community are not amused by the president’s National Security Strategy.

The budget bill Congress set to pass Congress would effectively reverse the will of the voters of Washington, D.C., who just voted to legalize marijuana.

Quietly, oil prices have been falling for months now. That’s potentially a very big deal.

While the world pays attention to Syria and Iraq, Yemen is once against lurching into chaos.

My latest for War on the Rocks: “Don’t Believe Everything You Read in the Papers.”

Is ISIS’s reach about to exceed its grasp?

The Iraqi government seems to be panicking.

It might not be pretty.

Nearly six months later, it’s hard to find any good in the July military coup in Egypt.

There are many choices in dealing with Iran’s nuclear program there are many choices, but some are better than others.

Even as it defies China’s illegal territorial claims with military flights, the Obama administration is urging US airlines to comply.

The U.S. sends a mostly weak signal to the Egyptian military.

Not raising the debt ceiling will create a true constitutional/legal crisis.

The American jobs market continues to disappoint.

The Air Force can’t find enough people to volunteer to fly remote controlled planes.

The 10th anniversary of McCain-Feingold teaches a lesson we should already have learned.

The events of the last week in Egypt raise a whole host of questions.

Egyptians celebrated last night, but the future is far from clear.

Yesterday saw some of the biggest protests ever to rock Egypt. Where does it go from here?

A new GOP would make it very difficult to get a good read on the state of the nation’s economy.

2012’s election represented a significant change in voting patterns in the United States. What’s unclear is if the change is a permanent one.

So what, exactly, is going on in North Korea? And how should we respond to Kim’s bluster?

A rich child is 45 percent more likely to earn a four-year college degree than a poor one.

Another mostly disappointing report on the state of the economy.

The Presidency costs taxpayers a lot of money, but that’s been true for many, many years now.

Brookings Institute scholar William Galston says election night might end early this year even if the race remains tight.