In "It’s Even Worse Than It Looks," congressional scholars Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution and Norman Ornstein of AEI identify two overriding problems that have led Congress — and the United States — to the brink of institutional collapse. Mann and Ornstein call on the media as well as the public at large to focus on the true causes of dysfunction.

Washington is already in mini-crisis mode over North Korea’s planned launch of a “satellite” (actually, an intercontinental ballistic missile)...Now comes word from South Korea that Pyongyang may also be planning another nuclear test.

Population did not boom because people suddenly started breeding like rabbits, but rather because they finally stopped dying like flies: the "population explosion" was in reality a "health explosion," with improvements in longevity driving the entirety of this increase in human numbers.

We need good economics over politics, now more than ever. That means sensible tax reform, a Fed focus on maintaining liquidity, and rationalization of the European monetary system.

The current poor economic climate is not as bad as it is going to get. Some say the economy is going to get worse before it gets better.

Momentum on reducing the deficit is building in Washington as Congress and the White House consider reform to benefit entitlements.

Patients would be better off if states were able to tailor the benefits that Medicaid covers—targeting resources to sicker people and giving healthy adults cheaper, basic coverage.

There are reasons besides partisan rancor why Republicans might hesitate to support the $819 billion stimulus bill.