House Cloakroom: February 25 – March 1 Analysis: Sequester week begins in Washington! The House returns from a recess week to take up the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. The Senate has passed a flawed reauthorization bill. The Senate version contains an unconstitutional expansion of tribal sovereignty, not to mention …
Federal spending will explode from $3.6 trillion to $6 trillion over the next 10 years, but the much-maligned sequester will cut only 2.4 percent of this spending. Sequestration represents a relatively small cut in projected spending. So why are so many in Washington wringing their hands over a two-and-a-half percent …
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, former co-chairs of the 2010 White House deficit-reduction panel whose plan failed, released an outline for a new proposal on their own today. A Bipartisan Path Forward to Securing America’s Future lacks any significant details but does include a $600 billion tax increase in addition …
Federal budget cuts called “sequestration” are scheduled to hit in just 10 days. The sequestration cuts are not perfect—they’re a blunt instrument to cut spending, rather than a deliberative plan that sets priorities, trims entitlements, and cuts other spending. But they are law. It would be better to replace them …
The Hill newspaper demonstrated a keen knack for understatement today with its account of Senate Democrats’ $110 billion sequester replacement proposal: “The bill would appear to have little chance of reaching President Obama’s desk, however, given opposition from House and Senate Republicans to increasing any taxes to replace the sequester.” …
If you aren’t nervous, you should be. The President is, once again, talking about a “balanced approach” to fixing sequestration—the across-the-board budget cuts scheduled to hit America. Translation: your pocketbook is threatened. The last time the President negotiated a “balanced” package was January’s fiscal cliff deal. He said that only …
President Obama has allowed his jobs council to expire - even though “strengthening [the] economy” and “improving [the] job situation” continue to be top priorities for the American people, according to the Pew Research Center. This action fits with the President’s pattern of ignoring job-creating recommendations that don’t align with his views. …
While President Obama keeps calling for more taxes, today’s figures from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show the tax hike he signed into law just last month will provide no lasting improvement in the federal government’s fiscal outlook. This is because spending continues to grow, driving deficits back toward the …
In another stunning failure of leadership, President Obama today asked Congress to delay the scheduled across-the-board spending cuts, including those that will decimate the national defense budget—but once again offered no specific policies that he would support. “Obama did not outline a specific proposal,” wrote The Washington Post, but he …
