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Taking the classic Tip O'Neill "all politics is local" approach, The Cook Political Report examines the 435 House races individually. That step-by-step process indicates that Democrats will lose 30 seats, 10 shy of what Republicans need to take control. But this year, the overall national environment must also be taken into account.

As April 15 arrives like an incoming monsoon, millions of Americans brace for the pain of writing checks to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Even worse, this annual discomfort begins even earlier, as taxpayers generate a cyclone of documents just to calculate their tax liability.

The Republican party must break with its long-established instinct for caution and make a bold stand for first principles of freedom and constitutional limitations on government — from full repeal of Obamacare to rolling back multitrillion-dollar deficits. This is not so much a reproach of past Republican conduct as it is a recognition of...

When Supreme Court Justices retire, there is usually some pious talk about their “service,” especially when it has been a long “service.” But the careers of all too many of these retiring jurists, including currently retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, have been an enormous disservice to this country.

I suspect millions of others get these fundraising calls from the GOP and write those checks for the same reason. I'd like to keep sending in that money, but I really can't with the current Chairman of the RNC in office.

Gov. Pat Quinn called it a "political earthquake" when the state's Legislature recently voted (by margins of 92-17 in the House and 48-6 in the Senate) to reform pensions for state employees. There is now a cap on the amount of earnings that can be used as the basis for calculating benefits.

While many Americans believe the national press is biased toward the left, a more damning charge is now being debated: Are U.S. media outlets actually corrupt? Those who believe they are point to the cheerleading of Barack Obama's presidential campaign and to the recent reportage on the Tea Party movement.

Nuclear doctrine consists of thinking the unthinkable. It involves making threats and promising retaliation that is cruel and destructive beyond imagining. But it has its purpose: to prevent war in the first place.

Last summer, President Obama spent several months publicly anguishing over what he would or wouldn't do in Afghanistan. Finally, he agreed to ramp up troop levels but warned that he intended to start getting American troops out in 18 months. After anguishing in several columns over the president's anguishing, I concluded in November 2009...

It’s been almost a week since I was presented with some interesting feedback about my Mercatus working paper on the stimulus. As you may recall, the original findings in my study showed that there wasn’t any correlation between stimulus spending and where unemployment was the highest or where unemployment had deteriorated the fastest since...