Progressive Democrats issued a challenge this morning to their colleagues in the House on the eve of a scheduled vote on the war supplemental: the only fiscally responsible stance is to end the emergency funding. It is disingenuous to say this is an “emergency” supplemental. The only “emergency” is this: In funding the longest war [...]

The House will take up the war supplemental this week, and the House leadership faces a choice: they could pass a bill that includes some needed spending to keep teachers on the job, or they could kill that and pass a bill with substantial Republican support. Looks like they’re headed toward the latter: House Democratic [...]

The Pentagon said yesterday they supported a July 2011 date to begin a transition out of Afghanistan, but offered almost no details as to how that would operate, and seemingly allowed themselves plenty of wiggle room. Gates said Petraeus and the military as a whole supported the timeline for the gradual withdrawal. But Mullen noted [...]

I’d like to believe the Obama Administration when they show concern over rising austerity programs in Europe. But I agree with Chris Bowers that it’s just wrong to assert that they haven’t caught the bug themselves. The White House has talked a good game on fiscal stimulus and continuing support for the economy, but they [...]

We haven’t had much discussion of one of the more normal pieces of Congressional business this year – the budget. President Obama sent one up to the Hill back in January. But like everything else, Blue Dogs have choked on the cost. Specifically, they don’t want to ratify a budget that shows a deficit over [...]

In addition to consequential weeks on FinReg, jobs, climate change and energy, this is becoming a consequential week on Afghanistan, where lawmakers are nervous about continuing a mission that looks adrift. House and Senate Democrats pressured Pentagon leaders in hearings yesterday, questioning whether any progress was being made after nine years of war. Carl Levin, [...]

There’s a cloture vote scheduled today on the tax extenders bill in the Senate. It doesn’t look like it’ll pass. Bernie Sanders couldn’t get a repeal of fossil fuel subsidies into it last night to help pay for it, so the usual suspects are choking on the cost. And Senators on the Democratic side are [...]

In case you were wondering why the President waited until a Saturday night to send the letter asking for $50 billion in new stimulus measures, David Rogers unravels that mystery for you today. For context, there’s been a growing frustration on the part of Democratic appropriators in the House on the lack of clear language [...]

Ideally, you would pay to keep 300,000 teachers employed as an additional stimulus, a well-targeted use of federal dollars that goes directly into saving jobs. But the self-defeating position of the Blue Dogs, to argue against additional job creation when their Congressional careers quite literally depend on it, has forced appropriators to look into a [...]

The Senate passed the war supplemental last night, which also includes funding for disaster relief in the Gulf and in flood-damaged states. It was one of the quicker and easier bills to move through the Senate this year. They expected to take up a jobs bill this week as well. But it never came over [...]

So what’s happening on this jobs bill? You got me. The House hasn’t done a thing on the nearly $200 billion dollar measure, which includes extensions of expiring tax break, safety-net extensions, a doc fix, infrastructure and summer youth job funding and a host of other provisions, offset by $56 billion in new fees on [...]