I have a TIME.com story out today on what’s happening with the potential government shutdown and how 2011 is different from the last time this happened in 1995.
Budgets
A Grand Bargain? You Show Me Yours…
Showing a little leg on deficit reduction is a highly risky proposition these days: display the scantest hint of skin and you risk losing a limb. The ink was still drying on the final edition of the Wall Street Journal‘s Thursday story detailing a grand bipartisan plan for deficit reduction when the angry missives began. Grover Norquist …
Boehner Raises the Stakes on a Government Shutdown
House Speaker John Boehner today ruled out a short term extension of current levels of government funding, raising the prospect of a government shutdown.
The House tonight or tomorrow is expected to pass funding for the government through the rest of the year. But both chambers of Congress are out next week for President’s Day recess. …
The GOP’s Big Budget Tent?
Slashing $100 billion from the 2011 budget may have appeased the Tea Party caucus and the freshman class, but it’s turning out to be not so comfortable for some Republican moderates.
On Monday New York Republicans Pete King and Michael Grimm sent Speaker Boehner a letter protesting cuts to transit security grants, the COPS program …
Mr. Christie Comes to Washington
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took both Republicans and Democrats to task for political cowardice on entitlement reform in his first big Washington speech today at the American Enterprise Institute.
“The President’s not talking about it because he’s waiting for the Republicans in Congress to start talking about it,” said …
On Deficit, President Obama Talks Big, But Goes Slow and Small
On Monday in Maryland, President Obama announced his new budget in an empty classroom, with a globe, a microscope and a stack of books strategically placed on the teacher’s desk behind him. “We’re going to have to get serious about cutting back on those things that would be nice to have but we can do with out,” he said, in the language …
House Will Not Move to Defund Health Care Reform in 2011 Budget
The House GOP leadership has allowed a rare open amendment process to the FY2011 budget on the floor this week. Thus far 403 amendments totaling 459 pages have been filed with more to come. Most of the Democratic amendments will try and reinstate many of the $100 billion in cuts. Many of the Republican Study Committee amendments will …
Morning Must Reads: Opportunities
President Obama visits Parkville Middle School in Maryland on February 14. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
–Secretary of State Clinton on protests in Tehran: “We wish the opposition and the brave people in the streets across cities in Iran the same opportunities that they saw their Egyptian counterparts seize.”
The Trouble With Budget Debates: The Numbers Don’t Hold Up
Since Barack Obama arrived in office, he has predicted a return to stable deficits in the out years, the sort of message that lawmakers, creditors and the American people like to here. But there is problem: Obama’s projections have consistently been too rosy. So each year, his bean counters must readjust the projections. They keep the …
Morning Must Reads: Budget Day
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqVBYIktrrc&w=460]
–The Obama administration released its FY 2012 budget proposal today. As Jay explains, it’s really the opening bid in a back-and-forth between the White House and House Republicans that will last for months., You can read it here at 10:30 a.m. ET. Of the $1.1 trillion in …
The Four Pieces of the Great Spending Debate
Starting this week deficits and spending will take center stage in Washington. And barring a total meltdown in the Middle East, they will hog the stage for the next three months. The stakes are high. Odds of a government shutdown are getting better as are the chances the U.S. could default on its debt. Odds that President Obama will …
100 Billion Dollars!
Last year, in the Pledge to America Republicans said if they gained control of the House they would lop $100 billion off the 2011 federal budget. Lo and behold they won. But the week they took office, they said that given that fiscal 2011 was already partly over so they would cut more like $60 billion. I never quite got this move as it …
Rogers’ First Cuts
The House Appropriations Committee today released a preliminary list of 70 programs they intend to trim – or in some places slash. The committee tomorrow is expected to release it’s omnibus appropriations package to fund the government for the rest of 2011. Congress last year failed to pass any of the 2011 appropriations bills and …