Blogs

The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a supplemental appropriations bill which, according to its preliminary estimates, will provide $58.8 billion in additional funding for this fiscal year.The bill includes $33.5 billion for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, counter-terrorism, and…

A key test of the new pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) law is taking shape as Congress considers how, or whether, to pay for the extension of major tax and spending policies. In recent years, the list of expiring policies has grown as…

Over the next few weeks, we will be hearing a lot about supplemental appropriations and emergency spending as Congress turns to a major supplemental spending bill that will likely include funding for the war effort and other priorities. As discussed…

A recent story on CNN-Money by Steve Hargreaves asks “What will BP really pay?” I think a more fundamental question to ask at this point is “What should BP pay? And should no one else?” As the story explains (emphasis added): (more…)

The President’s bipartisan fiscal commission faces a high hurdle. It must find consensus among 14 of its 18 members to send a package of recommendations to Congress for an up-or-down vote in December.The difficulty of achieving such consensus in Washington’s…

Over the next few weeks, we will hear a lot about "emergency spending" as Congress turns to a major supplemental spending bill that will likely include funding for the war effort and other priorities. Supplemental appropriations bills provide funding in addition…

New health care legislation will increase national health spending by an estimated $311 billion over the next decade, according to a report by Richard Foster, chief actuary of the federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid. He cautioned, however, that…

President Obama handed his bipartisan fiscal commission two very ambitious assignments: Find ways to balance the budget excluding interest payments by 2015 and to “meaningfully improve” the long-term fiscal outlook. (more…)