Outside the Beltway

When you tax sin, you need more of it.

A bill that was never about the thing it’s called doesn’t do that thing.

Joe Manchin has come around on a pared back BBB, surprising just about everyone.

Are plurality winners less legitimate than popular vote losers?

The West Virginia Senator has pulled away the football yet again.

The US armed forces are looking for a few more good men and women.

The pressure and expectations of a king, but with considerably less power.

This will just reinforce minority rule in the US.

Growth continues.

The role of American political institutions.

A follow on from yesterday.

Crises tend to be distracting.

The President is taking a page out of Elizabeth Warren’s playbook.

Most people liked it more than I did.

65 million Americans are fully vaccinated but just 35 percent are boosted.

The West Virginia Senator has taken the football from Charlie Brown and gone home.

A long peek at history in the making.

An interesting but rather misleading report from a Biden Treasury official.

Some suggested stories.

Magical? Impressive? Or just too much money?

The least controversial subject in school is suddenly controversial.

On fiscal policy and historical comparisons.

Jimmy Carter’s Vice President and the 1984 Democratic nominee has died at 93.

We can all agree that it’s important but not what it is.

An interesting proposal to improve tax collection.

The Senate parliamentarian has ruled against ramming it through in the COVID relief bill.

The talk radio megastar has died, aged 70.

An opportunity for unity and a restoration of normal order.

Gracious concessions are the norm except when they’re not.

We’ve just had an election, not psychoanalysis.

Trump needs them both.

Some surprising poll numbers.

Injecting data into the conversation.

A long-winded and esoteric discussion about an elusive idea.

More on SCOTUS expansion and other issues.

Legitimacy hangs in the balance.

The convergence of design flaws in the constitution and a flawed leader have brought us to brink of an electoral crisis.

Online instruction is an inferior product. But it’s more expensive to deliver.

President Trump is behind 14 points in the latest NYT poll.

Exactly the opposite of what we need in a crisis.

We may be seeing the beginning of the end.

Nate Silver now gives Biden an 87% chance of winning the nomination outright.

A partial rejoinder.

Having failed to form governments after two successive elections, Israel is headed for a third election inside of a year.

Andrew Yang is upset about the fact that he’s largely being ignored at the Democratic debates. He’s right, but that’s at least partly his fault.

Blue & White Party Leader Benny Gantz was unable to form a new government, throwing Israel into another political crisis.

After just two months, Mark Sanford is dropping his challenge to the incumbent President.

After more than a year of Trump’s trade war, the trade deficit, which he promised to reduce, has increased.

Tuesday’s elections continued a trend in which Republicans have lost support among suburban voters, even in deeply red states. Guess who’s responsible for that.