David Weigel's Slant

Ron Paul at the 2011 Republican Leadership ConferenceHe's finally taken over the one congressional job he's always craved: chairman of the Monetary Policy Subcommittee in the House. He's watched a number of like-minded libertarians, including his own son, get elected to Congress. In short, his ideas ..

A trainIn the movie version of Atlas Shrugged, there is a scene in which Ayn Rand's libertarian heroes defy all odds, deploy some untold amount of private funding, and launch the fastest high-speed train in history over rails of experimental metal. "The run of the John Galt Line is thrilling," wrote ..

A protestor in the Wisconsin state capitolWhen I was in Wisconsin covering the protests of a budget bill that would slash union rights and powers, I stopped by a free "Non-Violence Training Session" that had been advertised on posters at the Capitol. The sessions had been going on for days, and were ..

If you want to get a rise out of a congressional Republican, ask him whether he thinks the budget debate will end in a government shutdown. Go ahead. Ask."The only people talking about shutdown are media and Democrats," said an exasperated Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., in a scrum with reporters this week. ..

Time flies when you're taking biweekly recesses. In the time between their last votes and their votes today, congressional Republicans have nudged Congress closer to a budget showdown, and closer—temporarily—to a compromise they get the better half of. On Friday, Republicans proposed a two-week ..

Protesters sleeping in the Wisconsin state CapitolMADISON, Wis.—They call themselves the Cuddle Puddle. They did not come up with the name. There are 10 of them, and they were among the first people to start camping out in the Capitol building. "We were all lying down in the sleeping bags," says C ..

The man in charge of taking back the House for Democrats is talking about rape. When the Republicans took Congress, says Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat, they didn't focus on creating jobs. "They focused on redefining rape."He's referring to the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, the first ..

Paul RyanThe charts were brought into Paul Ryan's press conference in a handsome, chart-sized briefcase. They emerged, and they contained far more red (the color of debt) than blue (the color of George W. Bush's budgets). They represented the spending projections over the next 10 years as presented ..

Ron Paul at CPACRand Paul has finished his speech to CPAC and is avoiding the crowds for a couple of minutes. Outside of a small media suite, where he's taking questions, there are foreign TV cameras, college kids wearing stickers from Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty, and men holding folders of glos ..

We were not supposed to be talking about the USA Patriot Act today. The 10-month extension of some of the act's provisions was supposed to be uncontroversial. Hours before Tuesday's vote, at his weekly briefing, Majority Leader Eric Cantor was asked, "What changes will you try to make to the Patriot ..

John Boehner and Eric CantorThere are small, loud signs on the desks outside of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's offices. The "Cantor rule" is written on all of them. It reads: "Are my efforts addressing job creation and the economy? Are they reducing spending? Are they shrinking the size of the ..