It is good that we will have some disclosure of the mega-donors to the spate of super PACs that have dominated the landscape and the airtime across the presidential primaries and caucuses so far — but it is ridiculous that reporting requirements are so lame that the first disclosure in six months will not come until after the Florida primary.

We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

You know politicians are serious when they move from campaigning to governing. Something like that may be happening on the Republican campaign trail -- but, unfortunately, not at the Obama White House.

Up on Capitol Hill, there appears to be progress--bipartisan progress, even--toward changing our immigration laws to reflect current and emerging realities.

Supercommittee Republicans offered a plan to eliminate tax preferences and reduce tax rates, as in the 1986 bipartisan tax reform. They argued that high tax rates would squelch economic growth.  They didn't make the case that their proposals would also address income inequality. But Paul Ryan, in a paper based largely on a CBO analysis of income trends between 1979 and 2007, has done so.

The failure of the Congressional Super Committee means that major economic policy decisions are likely to wait for 2013. The government will be funded and not bump up against the debt ceiling, and perhaps some modest initiatives might go forward such as renewing payroll tax cuts or extended unemployment insurance benefits.

Regulatory drag can be reduced only as part of a reform that credibly promises to ease burdens and protect the public. Such reform is possible, but it needs to start by changing how Congress approaches regulation: lawmakers must assume responsibility for rule-making.