Two months ago, the House adopted a budget resolution that outlines the Republican majority's ambitious plans to slow the growth of federal entitlement spending. If implemented properly, entitlement spending restraint can address the long-term fiscal imbalance in a way that promotes economic growth and freedom.

Political dysfunction. Partisanship at record levels. Attack politics run amok. And public approval of Congress scraping the single digits (Sen. John McCain is fond of saying it's down to blood rlatives and paid staff).

All levels of government face growing pressures to restrain spending. One downside to the rapid growth in tax-financed health spending that I have documented in several prior posts is the vulnerability of the health system to measures taken to curb government spending. But the degree of such vulnerability varies dramatically across different components of the health sector.

In the transition from an old dictator to a new one, some observers were losing faith in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, believing it had lost its magic touch in the arts of dissembling. Others had deeper faith, though, and they were rewarded last week when the State Department proudly announced the umpteenth breakthrough toward the goal of denuclearizing North Korea.

The US-Pakistani intelligence relationship is on shaky ground. The ISI may be supporting terrorist organizations and should disband.

Leonard E. Burman's tax and health care reform proposal would be a considerable improvement over the policies that are likely to prevail in the absence of reform.

Variations in service use across regions are smaller for the private sector than for Medicare, suggesting better management in the private sector.