Outside the Beltway

Are the worries about China overtaking the United States realistic?

The first two months of Rick Perry’s campaign are a good example of why it helps to start a Presidential campaign early.

Rick Perry’s immigration positions aren’t at all unreasonable, and that presents a problem for him inside the Republican Party.

It turns out DOJ didn’t have $16 muffins after all–they were just charged $16 for each muffin.

Making sure millionaires pay more tax than their secretary isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Bill O’Reilly makes a convincing argument for raising taxes on the wealthy.

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

Republicans have a plan to wrest half of the Keystone State’s electors from Obama.

Measuring our progress a decade after the 9/11 attacks

Whether it’s a “Ponzi Scheme” or not, Social Security has serious systemic problems that must be addressed.

Did World War II teach us anything about spending-as-stimulus? Not really.

Matthew Yglesias resurrects an argument that should have died off when Napster disappeared.

How would a Democrat-equivalent of Rick Perry be received?

Political journalists aren’t like you and me. Well, you, anyway.

The immediate reaction among the political class to the debt downgrade was the play the same old stupid games.

Does it matter which candidate the GOP nominates?

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

The main problem remains the House.

Some things are worth repeating.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has proposed a simple deal to break the impasse on the debt ceiling: Cede power to raise the ceiling to the president, with a few minor caveats.

Georgia Congressman Paul Broun has a radical suggestion: While we’re playing chicken with the nation’s debt, let’s cut $1.3 trillion from the debt ceiling!

I have been only peripherally aware of the trial–and then only in the way that I’m aware of Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and reality TV.

There’s precedent for this sort of thing happening and the candidate making the comeback. And you don’t have to go back too far.

Wall Street says raise the debt ceiling. The Tea Party says no. What will the GOP do?

Modern life requires us to put a high degree of trust in those to whom we delegate responsibility

The ability of people to put aside rational judgment when it comes to political figures is, in a word, puzzling.

President Obama has pledged no slaughter and no ground troops for Libya. He may well be forced to pick one.

The last chapter of nonfiction books is almost always lousy. Here’s why.

Paul Krugman admits that he doesn’t bother to read conservative commentary. Should he?

Being unemployed, especially in the long term, makes it less likely to get hired.

Is the Chinese economy headed for a correction?

Al Jazeera English is kicking the butts of the American news networks on the Egypt story. Why?

The post-Sputnik innovation wave was sparked by government investment, not the entrepreneurial spirit.

Compromise in politics involves more than compromising one’s principles.

Julian Assange is a loathsome human being. Is he also a rapist? Under Swedish law, maybe.

The unemployed are predominately poorly educated non-voters. Some argue that they are therefore getting far too little attention from the political class.

Those of us who think we’re overreacting to terrorism should remember that we’re in a tiny minority.

The Republican talking point that lowering taxes lowers spending and raising taxes increases spending is denied by reality.

The Chevy Volt’s $33,000 price tag makes its modest fuel savings hard to justify.

The People In Charge telling us that something is Necessary For Our Own Good makes a large number of people accepting of the inconvenience, no matter how asinine or unsupported by evidence.

The odds that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will be repealed anytime in the near future are fairly close to zero thanks to the results of last Tuesday’s elections.

With Democrats set to maintain their majority in the Senate, some on the left are pushing for filibuster reform. However, it seems unlikely that Harry Reid has the votes to change a long-standing Senate rule.

Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina didn’t lose because of corporate baggage or resentment over how much they spent on their campaigns but because they were Republicans.

If the polling is anywhere close to accurate, a Republican wave will come crashing down today, repudiating the first two years of the Obama administration. What does it mean?

Is angry and violent language which dominates blog comments sections a sign of broader trends in our political culture?