People know why the Senate is Weird, Quick Hit Style
We’re swinging back into a semi-normal routine after vacation. If you haven’t already read the BE Press Forum on the Senate, it has several very solid articles from… Read More
Unfairly picking on Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein wrote a article about “No Labels,” a non-partisan group dedicated to “Not left. Not right. Forward.” I don’t have a qualm with either the group’s objective or… Read More
Budget Process Improvement Act of 2011
A new bipartisan budget reform proposal is out. My representative sent this most recent bill to my email labelled as a plan to fix the budget process. Representatives Daniel Webster… Read More
On Conference Committees: Three Fallacies Perpetuated During Today’s House Debate
I wanted to take a moment to correct three falsehoods perpetuated during today’s House payroll tax debate. As you probably know, the (at times heated) debate centered on the use… Read More
Most Bizarre Reform Proposal Ever?
Face the Nation’s Bob Schieffer seemed to step off the deep end this past Sunday. He gave his short editorial at the end his show on congressional reform. His proposal… Read More
On (the lack of) Gun Control Laws: How Much is the NRA to Blame?
Following the horrific events in Tucson last Saturday, it is little surprise that Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and several other members of Congress are moving to re-instate several gun… Read More
On Perry’s Plan: The Relationship Between Congressional Salary and Political Corruption
The other day Rick Perry released his plan to “uproot” the federal government. The first item on Perry’s list is a proposal to create what he calls a “part-time citizen Congress.” Presumably,… Read More
Stocks and Members of Congress
This weekend 60 Minutes’ aired an excellent piece on members legally trading stocks on insider information. Earlier this year we reviewed some research on this exact topic. The authors… Read More
Galston and Polarization, Take 3…
I’d like to mention a couple of things on William Galston’s NYT article that is making its way through the polisci blogs this week. Jon Bernstein and John Sides do… Read More
Things Institutionalists Know that You Should: Timing is Everything
Moving forward with the third installment of our institutionalism series, I’m going to discuss the relevance of time in new institutionalist literature. So far, Nate and Jordan have discussed how… Read More