House Budget Committee Chairman Diane Black (R-TN) today released the Chairman’s mark of the FY 2018 House budget resolution. The budget proposes $4.3 trillion of policy savings ($5.4 trillion in spending reductions and $1.1 trillion of tax cuts from Obamacare repeal), which along with $1.5 trillion in claimed savings from increased economic growth would lead to $5.8 trillion of total savings, enough to balance the budget on paper by 2027. It also calls for deficit-neutral tax reform and at least $203 billion of mandatory savings through reconciliation instructions.

If Orwell were alive today, the country which might best conform to “1984” might well be Turkey. The issue isn’t simply President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s corruption or authoritarianism. In that, he is really no different from Russian President Vladimir Putin or Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Rather, it is how Erdogan has seized control of the media in order to impose narratives that change as rapidly as Oceania’s wars against Eastasia and Eurasia.

Tuesday is July 4—TWE’s favorite holiday. To mark the occasion, here is the annual TWE July 4 trivia quiz. There are thirteen questions in honor of the thirteen colonies that threw off the yoke of British tyranny. If you want to further test your knowledge of Independence Day, check out the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 quizzes. Have a fun and safe Fourth of July!

U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 31 strikes consisting of 45 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Missile tests, bellicose rhetoric, a US detainee's mysterious death: Could diplomacy work with Pyongyang's rogue regime? Former US defense chief and North Korean envoy William Perry offers insights in a DW interview.

Senate Republicans released their draft version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017. This is the Senate version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), aimed at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA or "Obamacare"). Enclosed is quick summary of what major changes the Senate would make to the House-passed bill; a more comprehensive analysis will be available, including the fiscal effects, when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scores the bill next week.

In previewing this week’s inaugural U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton took a question from Anne Gearan of The Washington Post about the Trump Administration’s approach to the South China Sea. Thornton’s short response neatly embodied two major deficiencies in current U.S. policy that are paving the way for a Chinese sphere of influence in Southeast Asia.

Bipartisan groups of lawmakers are still pushing for reform in Washington. In addition, criminal justice reform efforts at the state level—especially in red states—continue to advance.

On June 12, the small Central American nation of Panama announced it was severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan so that it could establish relations with the People’s Republic of China. Now, only 19 countries and the Vatican recognize Taiwan. Why did this happen? How does it affect Taiwan’s relationship with the mainland? Should the United States get involved in preventing the further diplomatic isolation of Taiwan?

Achieving 3 percent sustained annual growth would be incredibly difficult, yet that assumption is embedded in President Trump’s proposed budget. In an episode of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, CRFB senior vice president and senior policy director Marc Goldwein discussed how unlikely it would be to accelerate growth up to 3 percent.

Two-thirds of the world’s 65.6 million displaced remain within the borders of their own countries. As internally displaced persons (IDPs), they are often more vulnerable and receive less assistance than those who cross international borders. As I have argued elsewhere, IDPs deserve much more attention, but they pose a different kind of challenge to the international community than refugees crossing borders in search of protection.

The fairness of our federal tax system is a hotly debated issue. Too often, however, these debates confuse or misrepresent important facts because they focus on only one part of our federal tax system. To assess whether the tax system is fair or not, it is important to look at the various taxes that people face in aggregate, not just one type of tax in isolation.

Over the last century, we have seen an exponential growth of the federal bureaucracy. As a practical matter, federal agencies—not Congress—have assumed the primary role in making the policies that affect our lives.

Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will be highly politicized, but are these representatives meeting the responsibilities of their office.

President Trump has been disappointingly reluctant to propose any changes to improve the solvency of Social Security's retirement program, but his Fiscal Year 2018 budget includes a package of reforms to the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program that would meaningfully improve its solvency as well as (potentially) the labor force attachment of people with disabilities. Included among the proposals are several put forward by our own McCrery-Pomeroy SSDI Solutions Initiative. The President's SSDI proposals deserve consideration.

Unlike the federal government’s Housing First strategy for addressing homelessness, which prioritizes getting people sheltered before going after the root causes of why they’re homeless, Solutions for Change requires parents to work and remain drug-free.

Is there a right to health care? Our arguments about health policy frequently highlight the question. One problem is that the word “rights” can be understood in many ways.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan was one of the leaders of fifty-five Muslim-majority nations attending an anti-extremism summit in Riyadh this week. So how is Pakistan addressing what President Donald Trump’s speech to the gathering called “the crisis of Islamic extremism and the Islamist and Islamic terror of all kinds”?

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer spars with reporters after CNN's Jim Acosta requests an example of a "fake news" story during a press briefing.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her stance that Europe must "take our fate into our own hands" following a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.