Kevin R. Kosar

An (Un)happy 50th Birthday for the Congressional Budget Process
An (Un)happy 50th Birthday for the Congressional Budget Process

President Joe Biden’s White House recently delivered to Congress its “Mid-Session Review” of the federal budget. The bottom line in this late July ...

September 2, 2024
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How Congress Lost, Part IV: Washington, Foreign Policy, and the Emergence of Presidential Governance
How Congress Lost, Part IV: Washington, Foreign Policy, and the Emergence of Presidential Governance

Jay Cost, How Congress Lost, Part IV: Washington, Foreign Policy, and the Emergence of PresidentialGovernance, American Enterprise Institute, August 2024. This ...

September 2, 2024
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How Congress Lost, Part III: Hamiltonian Energy and the Washington Administration
How Congress Lost, Part III: Hamiltonian Energy and the Washington Administration

Jay Cost, How Congress Lost, Part III: Hamiltonian Energy and the Washington Administration, American Enterprise Institute, June 2024. This report by ...

September 2, 2024
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Nixon Resigned Because He Lost Congress
Nixon Resigned Because He Lost Congress

First day of the House Judiciary Committee's formal impeachment hearings against President Nixon, May 9, 1974. Source: Wikipedia. Once President Joe Biden ...

September 2, 2024
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How Congress Lost, Part II: The Constitutional Presidency
How Congress Lost, Part II: The Constitutional Presidency

Jay Cost, How Congress Lost, Part II: The Constitutional Presidency, American Enterprise Institute, March 2024. This report by Jay Cost, the ...

July 12, 2024
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Picking the Wrong Fights: Why We Must Fix Our Broken Budget Process
Picking the Wrong Fights: Why We Must Fix Our Broken Budget Process

Philip Wallach, Picking the Wrong Fights: Why We Must Fix Our Broken Budget Process, American Enterprise Institute, March 2024. Key points: Deficits ...

July 4, 2024
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Americans dislike deficits and debt. So why don’t they vote that way?
Americans dislike deficits and debt. So why don’t they vote that way?

Annual deficits make for ever growing debt. Source: St. Louis Federal Reserve. Do voters punish politicians who increase budget deficits and ...

June 6, 2024
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Want government to work better? Then have it do fewer things.
Want government to work better? Then have it do fewer things.

Last month, President Joseph Biden announced new tariffs on steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles and some other items. His ...

June 4, 2024
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The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government
The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government

Fergus M. Bordewich, The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government ...

May 30, 2024
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What Is the Congressional Review Act?
What Is the Congressional Review Act?

The Congressional Review Act was enacted with bipartisan support in 1996. This statute establishes a process for Congress to ...

May 16, 2024
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What Is the Right of First Recognition in the Senate and Why Does It Matter?
What Is the Right of First Recognition in the Senate and Why Does It Matter?

Sen. Alben W. Barkley (D-KY), who stumbled then succeded in gaining the right of first recogniton in 1937. Source: Library ...

May 9, 2024
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Report of the Subcommittee on the Power of the Purse
Report of the Subcommittee on the Power of the Purse

Nolan McCarty et al., Report of the Subcommittee on the Power of the Purse, Princeton Initiative on Reclaiming the Constitutional ...

May 6, 2024
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Congress Is Weak Because Its Members Want It to Be Weak
Congress Is Weak Because Its Members Want It to Be Weak

Yuval Levin, "Congress Is Weak Because Its Members Want It to Be Weak," Commentary, July/August 2018. The title of this ...

May 2, 2024
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Yes, Congress Actually Is Doing Substantive Things
Yes, Congress Actually Is Doing Substantive Things

Source: MajorityLeader.gov. Yes, Congress has troubles. The budget process is in shambles. It suffers a surfeit of mindless partisanship. Our national ...

April 29, 2024
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How to Salvage Congress
How to Salvage Congress

Mike Gallagher, "How to Salvage Congress," The Atlantic, November 13, 2018. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) penned this essay not quite two ...

April 24, 2024
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The Case for Filibuster Reform
The Case for Filibuster Reform

Thomas Harvey and Thomas Koenig, "The Case for Filibuster Reform," National Affairs, 2023. The authors write: "The more conservatives support and help ...

April 23, 2024
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Being an Effective Lawmaker from Day One
Being an Effective Lawmaker from Day One

Craig Volden and Alan Wiseman, Being an Effective Lawmaker from Day One (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2022). Professors Craig Volden and ...

April 23, 2024
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What is the Motion to Vacate the Speaker of the House of Representatives?
What is the Motion to Vacate the Speaker of the House of Representatives?

A Speaker of the House vacated as imagined by DALL-E. The motion to vacate, as it is commonly called, is a ...

March 29, 2024
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Who Tends to Win Races for the Speakership of the House of Representatives?
Who Tends to Win Races for the Speakership of the House of Representatives?

Matthew Green is the coauthor (with Douglas Harris) of Choosing the Leader: Leadership Elections in the U.S. House of Representatives ...

March 27, 2024
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Staffing Congress to Strengthen Oversight of the Administrative State
Staffing Congress to Strengthen Oversight of the Administrative State

A great deal of lawmaking occurs in the form of regulation. This paper observes that Congress has not given itself ...

March 11, 2024
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