Blogs

Members of the new Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction will have a threshold decision to make: Do they want to take their mandate seriously?If the answer is yes, they will likely have to make decisions in the public interest…

In this debt-limit game of musical chairs, the music has stopped and it’s time to grab a seat. The only one available is the deal worked out by congressional leaders and the Obama administration over the weekend. It is not…

Underscoring the high stakes involved for younger Americans, student body presidents from more than 120 colleges around the country have called on President Obama and congressional leaders to set partisan politics aside, raise the federal debt ceiling and agree on…

With time running short to raise the federal debt limit, Republicans and Democrats are planning votes this week on competing plans that President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner championed in speeches to the country Monday night.Obama called for “shared…

As congressional hearings last week made clear, some lawmakers in both parties continue to chafe at a key cost-control element in last year’s health care legislation: an advisory panel that several years from now could help curb excessive Medicare spending.Critics…

While the final outcome of the appropriations process this year will likely be affected by negotiations over the debt limit, in the meantime Congress has continued to make progress on the FY 2012 bills.Last week, the House passed the Energy/…

This week Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ok.) proposed a comprehensive plan to reduce projected federal borrowing by $9 trillion over ten years and the bipartisan “Gang of Six” senators outlined a $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan to their colleagues. President Obama this…

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell continue to work on a plan that would let President Obama raise the federal debt limit in increments while allowing congressional Republicans to repeatedly vote against the increases.Recent reports…