Articles by Brandon Fallon

Gerrymandering is nearly as old as America itself, named after James Madison’s vice president and governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry. The advantageous practice of drawing legislative districts along partisan lines may seem unfair, but thanks to the support from the two major parties it has remained part of the status quo for over 200 years. That has diminished the number of competitive races and creates more partisan legislatures, both on a state and national level. Like with any governm...

Much effort has been put into making the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal into the largest trade agreement in the history of the United States. It is that expansiveness and the president’s imprint of the rule-making process that has some Republicans calling it “Obamatrade.” Ironically, it did not begin with Obama nor did it even originate in the U.S; rather it began with three much smaller Pacific nations -- Brunei, New Zealand, and Singapore -- and rapidly expanded to nine more countries. ...

Rand Paul, once considered the GOP’s savior after two grueling presidential election losses, has fallen on some hard times. Paul was labelled by the media as a front-runner or top-tier candidate months before he officially entered the presidential race on April 7. Now nearly at the 6-month mark, the early stages of the Republican presidential primary changed the game and showed some chinks in Paul’s armor. Paul had two remarkable filibusters to blast drone use and NSA spying, stances that buck...

Perhaps the Export-Import Bank is a relic from the New Deal era, but that doesn't mean that Republicans are opposed to it. The Ex-Im Bank has served a purpose for around three quarters of a century and has benefited small as well as big businesses and it is about to expire at the end of June if the Democrats and Republicans can't agree on how to pass a reauthorization. For the political layperson who may not be familiar with what the Ex-Im Bank does, it does what a typical bank does: lend money...

The headliners for the 2016 presidential campaign are likely to be Bush v. Clinton again. Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton have been rumored to be the nominees for months, nay years, prior to their official announcements. With obvious parallels to the 1992 election, these two political dynasties have come a long way since the early 90s. For those who remember 1992's presidential match-up between Bill and Bush Sr., the most apparent sign is that it is not 1992 anymore. Unfortunately, as their camp...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Audit the Fed, a cause championed by former U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), was picked up by Paul's son, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), early on in his political career. For some voters, including more libertarian-minded voters, auditing the central bank is as important of an issue as raising the minimum wage is for progressives. Now that Sen. Paul has entered the 2016 presidential election, the issue may get a little more attention. The goal behind auditing the Fe...

The budget wars have begun again. The president unveiled his FY2016 budget that begins on October 1 and the price tag is $3.99 trillion. Obama likes to use the phrase “middle class economics,” but the GOP typically does not see the president’s goals as the best path forward for any income bracket. That is not entirely uncommon, but there are bright spots of possible compromise. The obvious sticking point is that before Congress acts on this budget, they still have to work with the White House ...

Issues and priorities change in Washington with the wind. Each president faces criticism and has to paint an optimistic veneer on his speeches to point out that work is still getting done. Remember the Solyndra, Fast and Furious, IRS, NSA, and VA scandals? The point is that there is a lot to work through before something gets accomplished and that requires the president and Congress to work together. However, the national debt is something the wind has yet to blow away. During his State of the...

A government shutdown has been more common in recent years so there was a possibility, but there has always been a relatively quick fix to them -- pass a budget or continuing resolution. In this case, Congress passed a combination in the form of the $1.1 trillion cromnibus. The bipartisan opposition in the House was not enough to dissuade the Senate from passing the cromnibus 56-40 on Saturday. If there was more time, things might have been different, but the limited time constraints were an o...