Paul Ryan’s budget was released this morning. He kicked it off with another pretentious video preview and a somewhat less pretentious and more standard op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Ryan’s budget resolution is similar to last year’s version, which passed the House and went nowhere in the Senate. The charges are similar, too. He [...]

The Washington Post has a first draft of history piece about the debt negotiations last year that tells us mostly what we already knew: that the White House was ready to sign onto a document that increased the Medicare eligibility age and instituted chained CPI, which would cut Social Security cost-of-living increases.  In exchange would [...]

Paul Ryan, chair of the House Budget Committee, will release his budget next week. And he’s prepared for it with a “trailer” that amps up the drama of a document describing ten-year outlays of discretionary and mandatory budget programs to preposterous heights. Bearing a resemblance to the long tracking shots in The Shining (maybe he [...]

The New York Times writes of a divided House on the question of whether to submit a budget below the targets defined in the spending cap of the debt limit deal, between hardline conservatives and members of the Appropriations Committee. Trying to demonstrate anew their push to reduce the size of the government, conservative House [...]

Mitt Romney turned 65 today, and he celebrated by having his campaign staff belch out a misleading memo about Medicare (Mitt actually did not enroll in Medicare, so he now must turn to the private market with a mere $250 million in personal wealth to protect him). Romney tried to claim that President Obama’s policies, [...]

Steny Hoyer, talking to reporters, categorically denied that he ever suggested an increase in age eligibility for federal benefits. But there is documented evidence to the contrary. Hoyer said in this roundtable with reporters: In a roundtable with reporters in his Capitol office, Hoyer said the group’s still a long way from achieving broad consensus, [...]

A very big meeting will take place today between House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and conservative members of the House Budget Committee, over the budget for the next fiscal year. Republicans remained at odds Wednesday over whether to keep the discretionary spending levels set in the August debt-ceiling deal with the White House or to [...]

It’s looking more and more like House Republicans will seek to renege on the Budget Control Act, the deal on the debt limit from last August, and deliver a budget below the spending cap set out in that legislation. The spending cap was a ceiling and not necessarily a floor, so House GOP leaders can [...]

Despite the deep divisions in Washington and the looming election, Congress still has at least one job to do before November 6. They have to pass a budget or at least fund government operations when the next fiscal year begins on October 1. House Republicans have not shifted their view, regardless of the popularity, that [...]

So Mitt Romney released his new tax cut plan in advance of tonight’s Republican debate. As expected, it makes severe cuts to overall tax rates, particularly for those in the top bracket. Mitt Romney released a new tax plan Wednesday that calls for a 20 percent across-the-board cut to individual tax rates. Romney would also [...]

House Republicans have decided against using savings from war funding to offset a permanent “doc fix,” which means that Medicare doctors could see their reimbursement rates fall as much as 27% by the end of the month. In addition, this only extends the cost of a permanent doc fix over time, because the cost of [...]