Cruz: A vote for cloture is a vote for Obamacare  —  Sen. Ted Cruz on Sunday reiterated his commitment to blocking a procedural Senate vote on a House-approved spending bill, saying that Senate Democrats would have too much leeway to add in funding for Obamacare.

Conflicting reports emerge about exact role Israelis are playing; Kenya attack death toll rises to 59, as standoff with Qaida-linked group continues.  —  Israeli advisers are helping Kenya formulate a strategy to end a siege at a Nairobi shopping mall where Islamist militants have killed …

Hillary in Midair  —  She's learned from her mistakes.  Three years before November 8, 2016, she's working hard to be relaxed, calm, easy.  But, all the while, the old Clinton gears are whirring.  —  For four years, Hillary Rodham Clinton flew around the world as President Barack Obama's secretary …

America's Billionaire  —  WASHINGTON — WHEN you're trapped in a city with House Republican gargoyles who don't understand math or history, much less reality, sometimes you crave a dose of grandfatherly wisdom.  —  Speaker John Boehner, trapped under the thumb of Tea Party anarchists …

Pelosi says ‘the cupboard is bare’  —  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says that while deficit reduction is a laudable goal, there are precious few spending cuts left to negotiate in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.  —  “The cupboard is bare,” the California Democrat …

NRA's LaPierre on Navy Yard Shooting: 'There Weren't Enough Good Guys With Guns'  —  National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre appeared on Meet the Press Sunday morning to discuss last week's Navy Yard shooting that left thirteen dead, including gunman Aaron Alexis.

Van Hollen: Same Republicans attacking ObamaCare used it to balance budget  —  Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Sunday questioned why the same Republicans now working to defund ObamaCare voted for a budget that used Medicare savings and revenue generated from the Affordable Care Act to balance, calling it a “hoax.”

Good Populism, Bad Populism  —  HERE'S the good news for Republicans: The party now has a faction committed to learning real lessons from the 2012 defeat, breaking with the right's stale policy consensus and embracing new ideas on a range of issues, from foreign policy to middle-class taxes, the drug war to banking reform.

American gun use is out of control.  Shouldn't the world intervene?  —  The death toll from firearms in the US suggests that the country is gripped by civil war  —  Last week, Starbucks asked its American customers to please not bring their guns into the coffee shop.

The food stamps program  —  In an ideal policy world, would food stamps exist as a program separate from cash transfers?  Probably not.  But as it stands today, they are still one of the more efficient programs of the welfare state and the means-testing seems to work relatively well.