Outside the Beltway

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.

Republicans passed their tax bill yesterday. What that means for the economy and the 2018 midterms is another question.

Some Democratic Senators are suggesting that Al Franken should reconsider his decision to resign from the Senate.

House and Senate Republicans say they have reached agreement on a final tax bill, and Democrats are engaging in an effort to delay a vote in the Senate until Doug Jones can be seated.

As expected, Minnesota’s Governor has named his Lt. Governor to replace Al Franken in the Senate.

In what amounts to an electoral perfect storm, Democratic nominee Doug Jones pulled off a win last night in the Alabama Senate Election.

A top Republican political analyst is warning that a Roy Moore victory in Alabama could pose real problems for Republicans in 2018. If it does, they’ll have nobody to blame but themselves.

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.

The Senate passed a tax cut bill last night, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

A Los Angeles reporter says that Minnesota Senator Al Franken groped her and engaged in other inappropriate conduct during a 2006 USO tour.

Republican Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray say they’ve reached a bipartisan deal to fix an important part of the Affordable Care Act.

Just three weeks after their home was hit by a devastating storm, Donald Trump is attacking Puerto Ricans for not recovering from the storm sooner.

Reports are indicating that President Trump will decertify the nuclear weapons deal with Iran. This would be a foolish and potentially dangerous mistake.

Most Americans don’t support President Trump’s statements about the protests by N.F.L. players, but it’s just another example of him using hateful rhetoric to pander to his base.

Senate Republicans have ten days to act on their last-ditch attempt to ‘repeal and replace’ Obamacare, and it’s not at all clear if they have the votes to do so.

The Senate appears ready to get rid of another procedural move designed to block judicial nominees.

Trump makes a DACA deal, apparently.

Perhaps it’s time to consider getting rid of the debt ceiling entirely.

Donald Trump made a deal with Democrats on spending and the debt ceiling, but it was an exceedingly bad one.

The pardoning of Joe Arpaio was distasteful and an affront to the Rule of Law, but it was completely within the powers of the President and should not be a ground for impeachment.

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

Even members of his own party don’t trust Donald Trump enough to make it possible for him to make recess appointments.

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.

With the defection of two more Senators, the latest effort to ‘repeal and replace’ the Affordable Care Act has gone down in flames.

Senate Republicans have introduced their latest version of a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Donald Trump’s first Cabinet Meeting looked like something out of a Maoist propaganda video.

The latest CBO score for the American Health Care Act is bad news for Republicans.

There seems to be no question that the decision to fire James Comey was motivated largely by the President’s frustrations over the fact that his campaign is under investigation.

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.

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.

As expected, Senate Republicans invoked the so-called ‘nuclear option’ to move the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch forward to a final vote on Friday.

The failure of the AHCA shows that Donald Trump doesn’t know the slightest thing about leadership or how to be President.

Let the games begin.

Day One of the questioning of Judge Neil Gorsuch went very well, and it suggests that his path to confirmation is basically clear of serious obstacles.

Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearings begin Monday morning, but it’s Senate Democrats who are in the hot seat.

Senate Democrats are divided on how to approach the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, making it likely that he’ll be confirmed.

The Congressional Budget Office delivered some bad news yesterday to House Republicans on their replacement for Obamacare.

President Trump has issued a revised ban on travel from six predominantly Muslim nations.

A new head for the DNC at a time when the Democratic Party finds itself reeling and eager to take on Donald Trump.

Judge Gorsuch isn’t much of a fan of Donald Trump’s comments about the judiciary.

There were fireworks on the floor of the Senate last night, but it was really just politics as usual.

With a relatively smooth announcement, Donald Trump has named a solid and qualified conservative who will likely be confirmed to the nation’s highest court.

The Acting Attorney General was fired last night after announcing that she would refuse to defend President Trump’s Executive Order on immigration. As a result she was fired. Contrary to some arguments, this was not improper.

President Trump hinted today that he’s likely to name his Supreme Court choice next week, and the list to appears have narrowed to three men.

The new leader of the Senate’s Democrats says he regrets supporting the filibuster reforms his party passed in 2013.

Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on Middle East peace was largely correct, but his words are pointless given the fact that neither Israel nor the Palestinians seem serious about peacefully resolving their differences.

The head of the biggest energy company in the world is reportedly Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of State.

As things stand, Democrats will have a hard time winning back control in the Senate in 2018.