“Budget reconciliation” is a technique that lets important bills in Congress pass the Senate with immunity from the filibuster. The bill must have direct relevance to budget issues, not policy, and the Senate Parliamentarian (not an elected official) is the one who makes the call (though bills intended to pass via reconciliation are drafted with…

In Austin, a man has deliberately crashed his private plane into an office building. Thankfully, no one has yet been reported killed, though there are people injured – details are still coming in and we probably won’t know the full extent until tomorrow. The man, Joseph Andrew Stack, also left a suicide note online in…

Daniel Larison argues that the Obama Administration is making a mistake of giving up on engagement with Iran: First, Washington believes that the “international community” objects to Iran’s nuclear program and is prepared to punish Iran for it. The truth is, Iran is more economically and politically integrated around the world than it has ever…

Today is the one-year anniversary of the landmark stimulus bill which most economists agree has staved off a second Great Depression. The evidence that the stimulus has worked is overwhelming – the New York Times has an in-depth article looking at its actual impact on jobs, and an indispensable graphic showing a timeline of key…

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