The third-place party in the Greek elections, PASOK, has been given the opportunity to form a new government, after the first two parties failed in their efforts. Nobody expects PASOK to be successful, meaning that new elections will ensue, probably on June 17. By that time, decisions will need to be made on bailouts and [...]

Mitch McConnell has often differed from the House GOP’s hardline stance on the federal budget. He was the one who came up with the Rube Goldberg-like “resolution of disapproval” process on the debt limit deal which broke the united Republican front. Now, McConnell has added a largely symbolic but crucial action today on the escalating [...]

Let’s just say that Kent Conrad’s mark-up of the Bowles-Simpson plan yesterday in the Senate Budget Committee didn’t go according to the script. The “markup” didn’t include any votes, first of all. This was by design, but it turned the proceedings into something of a farce. Some Republicans argued that Conrad should have allowed votes [...]

Barney Frank and Brad Miller tried to shake up a House Financial Services Committee hearing yesterday. As per usual, Republicans wanted to go after the CFPB’s funding and subject it to the appropriations process. As it stands, CFPB derives its funding from a portion of the funding of the Federal Reserve, which comes from sources [...]

This really ups the ante on a fight that has been simmering ever since the House GOP made the decision to renege on the debt limit deal: In a major escalation of a slowly building fight over funding the government, the White House has warned House Republicans, in no uncertain terms, that the government will [...]

My experience with politicians is that they actually do tell you their plans, if you scrutinize their statements enough. Such is the case with Kent Conrad. He introduces the Bowles-Simpson plan as a baseline today in the Senate Budget Committee. But as he plainly tells Ezra Klein, the goal is not to get a budget [...]

Kent Conrad, the retiring Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, just announced that the markup for the FY 2013 budget will commence tomorrow. And instead of creating model legislation, he will simply take the recommendations proposed by the Chairmen of the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission, popularly known as the “catfood commission,” as the baseline. Tomorrow I [...]

The President used a Rose Garden speech today to announce a new effort to crack down on rising oil market speculation. Here’s an excerpt from the remarks: We can’t afford a situation where speculators artificially manipulate markets by buying up oil, creating the perception of a shortage, and driving prices higher — only to flip [...]

The House will “deem” their FY2013 budget passed today, a tactic that didn’t work when they tried it last year. The “deeming resolution” won’t even come up in the context of a budget bill, but a separate measure on gun rights. The House leadership claims that this is necessary because of the failure of the [...]

Reading about this, I’m reminded of that old liberal bumper sticker about how “it will be a great day when schools have all the money they need and the Pentagon has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.” In Miami County, Kansas, they had to hold the equivalent of a bake sale to [...]

The one moderately effective charge that Republicans have been making at Democrats with respect to the budget process is that the Senate hasn’t passed a budget in over 1,000 days. That’s a fairly simplistic rendering. This really only refers to a budget resolution – if there wasn’t a budget there wouldn’t be a working federal [...]