Lawrence J. Korb: Rep. Ryan’s Plan Fails to Address Defense Spending

  Any serious proposal to reduce the federal deficit has to put defense spending on the table. Why? Let me count the ways:

    * The baseline defense budget comprises 20 percent of the overall federal budget and 50 percent of the discretionary portion.

    * The U.S. share of worldwide defense spending grew from one-third to one-half in the last decade. This means 5 percent of the world’s population accounts for 50 percent of the world’s military spending.

Cameron Smith: Nothing "certain" about taxes

  This time of year, flowers are blooming, birds are singing and most Americans are indoors putting together their tax returns. In 1789, Benjamin Franklin famously stated that "in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

  Unfortunately for many Americans, taxes are anything but certain. Yes, they must be paid, but how they are paid is a source of considerable heartburn for households across the nation.

Charles C. Haynes: School wars over religion heating up (again)

  Just when First Amendment principles seem to be working in public education, new fights over student religious speech threaten to reignite culture-war battles in schools across the country.

  It’s little known that many public schools made significant progress toward getting religion right over the past decade. Thanks to consensus guidelines supported by advocacy groups from left to right, I have found that constitutionally protected student religious expression is way up in schools — and unconstitutional school promotion of religion is way down.

  If schools now backslide into litigation and shouting matches, administrators who ignore (or misinterpret) the law have only themselves to blame.

Eric Alterman: 'Brave, Radical, and Smart'

A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.

  - Robert Frost

  It’s a truism that conservatives are tougher than liberals. It’s also true. But the odd thing about this phenomenon is that while right-wingers are, indeed, tougher, nastier, and more dedicated to achieving their appointed tasks than their liberal counterparts, they get a great deal of help from members of the so-called liberal media who are always praising their courage—which is usually mustered to find a new way to screw the poor and middle class on behalf of the wealthy.

Sheldon Richman: Emperor Obama

  We were warned. “Who can deny but the president general will be a king to all intents and purposes, and one of the most dangerous kind too; a king elected to command a standing army.... The President- general, who is to be our king after this government is established, is vested with powers exceeding those of the most despotic monarch we know of in modern times.... I challenge the politicians of the whole continent to find in any period of history a monarch more absolute....”

  That was written by Benjamin Workman under the penname “Philadelphiensis,” one of the Anti-Federalists who warned in 1787-88 that the proposed Constitution would centralize power to an appalling degree, particularly in the executive branch.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: The Alabama 2014 crystal ball

  It is always fun to look towards the political horizon and take a glimpse into the proverbial crystal ball and speculate as to the future of our potential Alabama political players.

Marshall Fitz , Raúl Arce-Contreras: “Border Security First” advocates block real immigration reform

  The “border security first” mantra is a popular refrain in Congress these days. The Republican-led House of Representatives has held numerous border-focused hearings and many more are expected. House Republicans are expected to introduce legislation soon that would require the Department of Homeland Security to provide a five-year plan to establish operational border control within 180 days. For their part, a number of Republican senators have flatly declared immigration reform dead until the border is secured.

  This singular focus on border security is shortsighted. Border security is a concern shared on both sides of the aisle and by all Americans. But the current statutory definition of operational control—prevention of “all unlawful entries into the United States”—is unattainable. And this myopic focus also obscures the tremendous strides toward enhanced control made by the DHS under both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.

James Gattuso: Making Congress vote on rules would end shell game

  Should Congress be held accountable for the regulatory policies of the federal government?

  U.S. Representative Geoff Davis and Senator Rand Paul, both Kentucky Republicans, think it should. They have proposed legislation to force all members of Congress to vote yes or no on major rules that affect business and the economy.

  Called the REINS Act, a tortured acronym for “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny,” the Davis-Paul proposal is no arcane procedural change. It would change the way regulations are made.

Eric Alterman: Conservative class warfare against free speech

  William Cronon, the Frederick Jackson Turner Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is unarguably a brilliant historian. His books on environmental history, including Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (1983) and Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1991), are recognized by his colleagues as state of the art. He’s president-elect of the American Historical Association and he’s got a MacArthur “genius grant.” But he can be a little naïve when it comes to contemporary American politics.

  Last week, using the admirably sweeping Wisconsin Open Records Law, the Republican Party of Wisconsin filed an open records request demanding access to any emails Cronon sent or received since January 1 containing the terms “Republican,” “collective bargaining,” “rally,” “union,” or the names of eight Wisconsin Republican legislators.

Gary Palmer: One year later, ObamaCare is still unpopular

  It has now been one year since Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and President Obama signed the new law. The American public still does not know what is in the new law, but what they do know is enough to make it just as unpopular now as when it passed.

  In the past 12 months, public opinion of "ObamaCare" has only changed slightly.  According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, only 37 percent of the American public support the takeover of the American health care system. This is down from 39 percent in March 2010. Survey results from Rasmussen found that 58 percent support repeal of the national health care law. As the American public becomes more informed about the costs and the limitations for patients, the call for repeal could be overwhelming.