Even if a “Grand Bargain” on the debt limit is reached before August 2nd, the next government shutdown fight is only a matter of weeks away. While the House has passed a fiscal year 2012 budget, and has even begun marking up and passing some appropriations bills, the Senate has not passed a budget for more than 800 days. But come September 30th, Congress must pass a new budget for the next year or the government will shutdown, as it almost did this spring.
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The Republican National Committee released their latest Change Direction ad today, the third in an ongoing series. Politico's Ben Smith reports that the actual tv buy is a miniscule $7,750.
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At the outset of the current fight between the NFL Players Association and NFL owners, ThinkProgress hoped the negotiations would be a lesson on “shared prosperity.” “These negotiations are important not just to NFL fans but to all Americans because they show that collective bargaining — the process where unionized workers and management negotiate wages, benefits, and working conditions — can create significant benefits for both workers and owners,” the Center for American Progress wrote.
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Democrats seem to suffer under the delusion that there is some difference between cuts to Medicare beneficiaries and cuts to Medicare reimbursement payments to health care providers.
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House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan, R-Wis., delivered a blistering indictment of President Obama's handling of the debt last night on the House floor. Some of his better lines include:
"Leading on reporters at press conferences is not leadership. Giving speeches, according to the CBO, is not budgeting."
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If the Gang of Six’s goal was to produce a detailed and credible plan to reduce our nation’s deficits and solve the debt limit crisis, then they failed spectacularly yesterday. The plan they released contains no specific spending cuts, kicks all the major decisions down the road to Senate committees and congressional commissions, and depending on what baseline you use, raises taxes by as much as $3 trillion.
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The Gang of Six “Bipartisan Plan to Reduce Our Nation’s Deficits” claims their tax reforms would be scored by the Congressional Budget Office as a $1.5 trillion net cut. But no details are provided on how they arrive at this number other than saying they will abolish the Alternative Minimum tax. So how can this plan claim to be a “balanced approach” (which means higher revenues), yet also claim to be a $1.5 trillion tax cut?
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A five-page document titled “Bipartisan Plan to Reduce Our Nation’s Deficits” was distributed to 49 senators by representatives of the Gang of Six today. President Obama quickly endorsed the document as being “broadly consistent with the approach that I’ve urged.”
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Sirius XM Radio customers will get no money from a suit recently settled by trial lawyers against the company. But the lawyers are scheduled to extract $13 million. The Center for Class Action Fairness filed an objection today on behalf of Sirius XM Radio customers challenging the settlement in the Southern District Court of New York.
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As the government data cited by Mercatus Senior Research Fellow Veronique de Rugy shows, as recently as 2007 only 5 cents of every dollar spent by the federal government was borrowed. In just four short years, that number has skyrocketed to 43 cents, about four times the rate we were borrowing in 1980.
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"60s Retro Budget Plan by Republicans Unfit for Today: Gutting Federal Spending to 1966 Levels Is Untenable," reads the Center for American Progress "Infographic" attacking the House Cut, Cap, and Balance Act. CAP notes that the last time federal government spending accounted for just 18% of gross domestic product (gdp) was 1966. Their Infographic then shows all the wonderful ways America has changed since that time. But there is just one problem. CAP has their facts wrong.
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The liberal media has already reported a slew of false facts about today’s debt limit vote in the House. Yesterday, NBC News reported that the House would be voting on a Balanced Budget Amendment today. That is false. The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act that will be voted on does call for a Balanced Budget Amendment to be passed, but it does not include the actual amendment in the legislation. In fact, no vote for am actual Balanced Budget Amendment is even on the House Schedule.
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According to the U.S. Census, 14.3 percent of the population was poor in 2009, almost the exact same percentage as in 1966 when the War on Poverty started. But today's poverty is far different than what poor Americans experienced in 1966. The Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield have just released a report documenting just some of the amenities and superior health outcomes today's poor enjoy.
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Gallup has just posted more than 700 open-ended responses from the Americans that they polled who oppose raising the debt limit. These are not canned or prompted responses. They are the real views of average Americans in their own words. The question Gallup asked was: “What are some of the reasons why you would want your member of Congress to vote against raising the debt ceiling?” Here are some answer highlights:
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Mere minutes after reporting that the White House Office of Management and Budget had issued a formal veto threat to the House Cut, Cap, and Balance Act, ABC News Jake Tapper felt the need to tweet: “It bears mention that it’s unlikely POTUS would veto Cut Cap & Balance because it’s unlikely it would pass the Senate.” One wond
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