Congress | AEIdeas

Saturday, May 25, 2013

We hit the debt limit again. Shall we take the bad or good way out?

Abby McCloskey | May 21, 2013, 9:39 am

On Sunday, the US hit the debt limit, triggering the Treasury to engage in “extraordinary measures” to keep the government paying its bills. The ensuing debate could go one of two ways. We saw the bad way in August 2011. … read more >

Image credit: Frontpage / Shutterstock.com

Economics, U.S. Economy

Privatizing Fannie: Déjà vu all over again

Edward Pinto | April 30, 2013, 10:53 am

The Bloomberg headline trumpets “Paulson Leads Hedge-Fund Lobby Push to Privatize Fannie.” It should have read: “Hedge-Fund Lobby Seeks Repeat of Disastrous 1968 Fannie Privatization Plan”. The hedge-fund lobby proposes to “privatize” Fannie and Freddie by converting the US Treasury’s … read more >

Image Credit: Susan E Adams (Flickr) (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Politics and Public Opinion

Polls on terrorism and the Tea Party

Karlyn Bowman and Andrew Rugg | April 26, 2013, 8:56 am

Give the government some credit: The polls in recent weeks have been filled with bad news for Washington. When Gallup asks about the most important problem facing the country, around 15% in recent months have spontaneously mentioned dysfunction in Washington. … read more >

Economics, Taxes and Spending

The Internet sales tax: How Congress ‘not working’ works very well

Max Eden | April 25, 2013, 3:22 pm

The Senate is currently considering the Marketplace Equity Act, the internet sales tax my colleagues James Pethokoukis and Abby McCloskey have reviewed favorably in the past few days. The law is sound on principle: it merely allows states to collect … read more >

A bronze sculpture of the New York Stock Exchange Bull is seen at the Museum of American Finance in New York October 2, 2008. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Economics, Pethokoukis, Regulation

7 reasons why Washington might not break up the big banks

James Pethokoukis | March 21, 2013, 9:47 am

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke isn’t just a central banker, he’s a banking supervisor and regulator. And in that role, he said something very interesting Wednesday. While acknowledging that markets “to some extent” now think it more likely government would … read more >

Foreign and Defense Policy

Something Congress shouldn’t do, aircraft edition

Danielle Pletka | March 19, 2013, 2:41 pm

So, here’s an embarrassing confession for a foreign policy geek: I’m afraid to fly. And I mean — medication, alcohol, hold-the-hand-of-strangers afraid to fly. Do you want to hear about the problems with the Airbus 380 and wing strut cracks? … read more >

Politics and Public Opinion, Polls

God in the Super Bowl, young hope, and priorities: What you may have missed in the polls

Karlyn Bowman and Andrew Rugg | February 1, 2013, 9:15 am

Roundup of the week’s most interesting polling data. read more >

Politics and Public Opinion, Polls

The fiscal cliff and the book on Washington: What you may have missed in this week’s polls

Karlyn Bowman and Andrew Rugg | January 11, 2013, 9:37 am

Post-mortems on the Fiscal Cliff: Gallup was first out of the box to gauge reactions to the fiscal cliff deal with a one-day (January 3) survey, and the organization found 43% approving and 45% disapproving of the “agreement to avoid … read more >

Politics and Public Opinion, Polls

Congress less popular than head lice

Henrik Temp | January 8, 2013, 2:21 pm

Public Policy Polling, the Democrat-aligned polling firm that called the 2012 election more correctly than any other polling organization, has released a new poll today that shows just how unpopular our Congress has become. read more >

Politics and Public Opinion, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate

5 myths about the 112th Congress

Henrik Temp | January 8, 2013, 10:04 am

Two of Washington’s best Congress-watchers—AEI’s Norm Ornstein and Brookings’s Thomas Mann—recently released a list of five myths about the 112th Congress. read more >