Do Veterans Decrease Polarization in Congress?
If the timing of this post doesn’t make it obvious, the use of “veteran” refers to lawmakers with prior military experience, not the length of one’s tenure… Read More
What’s Missing in the Polarization Debate? Congress.
Currently, the debate over American polarization is dominated by electoral considerations: gerrymandering, sorting, PACs, campaign finance, etc. Most of these arguments are based on underlying assumption that the American people,… Read More
Voting Against the Debt Limit Is for Losers!
Greg Koger at the political science blog Mischiefs of Faction has an interesting post this morning entitled “Fiscal Conservatism is for Losers.” In his post, Koger uses… Read More
Funding the Government, Defunding Obamacare, & Innovative Procedure
As Congress steps closer to the various fiscal cliffs over the next week, the pressing question for Republican leadership is how to defund Obamacare. Several Republicans have indicated they will… Read More
Simulating the Syria Resolution Vote in the Full Senate
Yesterday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10-7 to approve President Obama’s request to conduct military strikes against Syria (one member of the committee–Ed Markey–courageously voted “present”). Read More
Why Immigration Won’t be Discharged (Wonky)
Immigration reform is the issue that keeps finding its way into the news. After the Senate’s heroic efforts to find common ground on the bill, it’s seemingly inevitable demise in… Read More
How Can We Explain the Amash Vote to Defund the NSA?
A peculiar thing happened in the House last week. An amendment offered by Justin Amash (R-MI) narrowly failed on the floor, with a majority Democrats voting for the amendment (offered… Read More
Are Members of Congress “Truthful?” A Response to the PolitiFact Study
The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) at George Mason University released a report examining PolitiFact ratings gauging Republicans’ and Democrats’ “truthfulness.” PolitiFact developed their so-called… Read More
Follow Up: Simulating Elizabeth Colbert Busch’s Vote on “The Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act”
Tuesday’s post simulated Elizabeth Colbert Busch’s roll-call record taking into consideration the 1st district’s partisanship and the campaign contributions she has received from unions. The main point was that voters in the 1st district… Read More
Is the GOP Debt Ceiling Proposal Constitutional?
Over the weekend, House Republicans unveiled a debt ceiling proposal that’s the subject of some controversy. Shocking, I know. The controversy hinges on the fact that, while Republicans tout themselves… Read More