Outside the Beltway

Congressmen apparently regularly make investment moves based on the information they learn. Of course, for them it isn’t illegal.

Less than a year ago, Herman Cain was denouncing a tax plan that is remarkably similar to the one he now advocates.

For the most part, all those plans the candidates release are barely worth the paper they’re written on.

Yes, again with the EC.

Ahead of his big foreign policy speech, Mitt Romney has unveiled his “Foreign Policy and National Security Advisory Team” which “will assist Governor Romney as he presents his vision for restoring American leadership in the world and securing our enduring interests and ideals abroad.”

Is money the only thing that matters in post-Citizens United American politics?

Can someone who doesn’t look like a GQ model make it in politics anymore?

When the old rules don’t apply anymore, the system breaks down.

The latest Gallup poll shows a record 81 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the nation is being governed.

Of the institutions designed by the Framers, the electoral college is the one that deserves the least amount of defense if one’s defense is predicated on assumptions of the genius of said framers.

Allocating Electoral Votes by Congressional District is an idea whose time has come.

With the economy at the forefront of the public’s mind, the GOP needs to be careful in its response to President Obama’s new jobs bill.

Let’s see if there is evidence to support the assertion.

The bloom is off the rose for some of the President’s most ardent 2008 supporters.

The White House is still smarting over the fact that they got burned by John Boehner, again.

A political scientist whose formula has correctly picked every presidential winner since 1984 says Barack Obama will be re-elected.

We often conflate intentionality with design. However, even designers may not fully understand how what they have created will work.

The US came a lot closer to something resembling a parliamentary system than most people think.

House Republicans are being criticized for utilizing a tactic they learned from Senate Democrats.

The reviews are in on the debt negotiations, and the public isn’t happy.

Michael Cohen argues that our system is broken because Republicans will no longer compromise.

Once again, the debt ceiling deal is raising questions about the President’s leadership.

Much like bills named for dead children, there’s a very high likelihood that any bill with “protecting children” and/or “pornographers” in the title is a) a very bad idea, b) a very stupid idea, c) of dubious Constitutionality, or, as here, d) all of the above.

The Senate killed the Boehner Plan but the debt ceiling crisis is still unresolved and the way out is murky.

How the reelection incentive and parliamentary procedure are affecting the debt ceiling debate in Congress.

It’s another Friday of drama in the debt ceiling crisis.

John Boehner’s debt ceiling plan is being amended. And not in a good way.

The main problem remains the House.

Steven Metz muses, “Scholars argue that too much political mobilization can make democracies dysfunction. Is that where the US is today?”

European leaders have put another Band Aid on the Greek sovereign debt crisis while America’s leaders are trying to stave off a self-inflicted financial default.

Speculation about Michele Bachmann’s health continues.

Freshman GOP Representative Allen West is a loose cannon and unfit for office.

Moody’s is on the right track. The current debt ceiling law has done more harm than good.

The House GOP has scheduled a vote next week on a debt ceiling package that is solely designed to mollify the base.

Should we assume that a deal will eventually be struck and simply stop paying attention to the debt ceiling debate?

President Obama has walked out of negotiations on the debt ceiling with an agreement is nowhere in sight.

More than any other time in the past, the GOP is now firmly under the control of its most conservative members.