The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein thinks Mitch McConnell will be the Senate majority leader in 2015. The bleak outlook for O’Care-hugging Democrats unfolds in depth here.

The electoral map, the demographics of midterm elections, and the political problems bedeviling Democrats make it very likely that Mitch McConnell will be majority leader come 2015 and then he will be able to take advantage of a weakened filibuster. And, finally, if and when Republicans recapture the White House and decide to do away with the filibuster altogether, Democrats won’t have much of an argument when they try to stop them.

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The Red State tax cut revolution is just getting going. The WSJ’s Stephen Moore writes:

After five years of wrenching fiscal deficits, states are once again experiencing stable budgets and healthy revenue growth. A new report by the American Legislative Exchange Council—a national network of more than 2,000 state legislators—finds that about one-third of the nation’s governors have cut taxes. “Some of these tax cuts,” says Jonathan Williams, the fiscal policy expert at ALEC, “also move in the direction of tax reform. Income tax rates are falling.”

This is especially true in states with Republican governors. Indiana Gov, Mike Pence signed a 10 percent income tax rate reduction. Tax rates also fell in North Carolina, a state that turned red after the 2012 elections. But even Arkansas passed a small income tax cut, which might have been larger had Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe allowed it. If Republicans win the governorship there in 2014, as expected, bigger income tax cuts are possible.

GOP Govs. Rick Scott of Florida, John Kasich of Ohio, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin all face tough re-election bids next year, and all three will tout their tax-cutting on the campaign trail. In Kansas, Sam Brownback continued to trim the state income tax with the eventual goal of eliminating it. “We want to be the most tax competitive state in the midwest,” Mr. Brownback tells me. “We’re not done bringing rates down.”

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Cautious optimism is warranted, says Israel’s Nobel Laureate Peres. In agreement with Peres is another Nobel laureate, Egypt’s Mohammed ElBaradei, a pro-democracy leader and a former IAEA director. Leaders in Bahrain and the UAE also praise the agreement. Here Al Jazeera America outlines the mixed global reactions over the Geneva accord.

Israel feels especially threatened by Iran, given Tehran’s previous threats against Israel, its support for militant groups on Israel’s borders and its development of long-range missiles. Nonetheless, Israeli President Shimon Peres, a Nobel Peace laureate, expressed cautious optimism that Sunday’s deal could change the region. “I would like to say to the Iranian people: You are not our enemies and we are not yours. There is a possibility to solve this issue diplomatically. It is in your hands. Reject terrorism. Stop the nuclear program. Stop the development of long-range missiles,” he said. Another Nobel peace laureate, Mohammed ElBaradei, Egypt’s pro-democracy leader and a former IAEA director, welcomed the deal. In a tweet on his official account, he wrote: “After decade of failed policies, world better off w/ Iran deal. Equity, trust building, respect & dialogue R key to any conflict resolution.” The muted response in the Gulf came after the rulers of Qatar and Kuwait met Saudi King Abdullah over the weekend to discuss regional issues, foremost among them Iran. Bucking the trend, the tiny Gulf countries of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates praised the agreement. “We welcome this agreement if it will (bring) the end of the fear of any weapons of mass destruction in the region,” Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa told reporters in Manama.

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A counterbalanced portfolio is your key to investment success. For an example of how counterbalancing works I’ll point you to the Vanguard Wellesley fund. For my taste, a “one size fits all” fund simply does not exist today. But this one comes pretty close. Take a look at the years where stocks were destroyed. When you’re in retirement or close to it, you can’t afford to take the big hits. Counterbalancing—the 60% bonds and 40% stocks in Wellesley—helps to ease the pain.

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Cato Institute’s Chris Preble calls it right. Today’s American military keys on a hyperactive foreign policy. We are largely focused on defending others. We continue to discourage our allies from defending themselves.

The most important piece of the military spending puzzle remains the United States’ hyperactive foreign policy. Even if we were to implement the sensible reforms made politically realistic by spending caps, we would still spend more than we need to keep Americans safe. That is because today’s military is mainly geared toward defending others. By discouraging our allies from doing more to defend themselves and their interests, U.S. policymakers have ensured that U.S. troops bear disproportionate burdens, and U.S. taxpayers pay disproportionate costs. If we are going to spend less on the military in the next ten years than we have over the last ten, we must ask our smaller, cheaper military to do less. And we must expect others to do more.

The Budget Control Act, for all its flaws, has managed to deliver something once thought impossible: actual spending cuts. Our military remains second to none, despite those cuts, and might be stronger in the future because of them. A deal to cancel or reverse those cuts threatens to derail sensible reform proposals that could deliver far larger savings to taxpayers in the future.

Sen. McConnell is right: Congress should stand firm.

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