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Last week the Senate rejected motions to proceed to four budget proposals. Like this week’s scheduled House vote on the debt limit, the votes were largely symbolic and expected to fail. The Senate considered budgets proposed by President Obama and…

Later today House Republicans plan to vote down an initial request from the administration to approve an increase in the federal debt limit without spending reductions. The vote will be largely symbolic, coming after several weeks of negotiations between the…

The leaders of two prominent deficit-reduction panels worry that elected officials this year will lack “the courage to forge a comprehensive, multi-year debt reduction plan.” In a guest column last week in Politico, the panel leaders warned against delay and…

Prospects for fiscal reform efforts by the “Gang of Six” senators were left uncertain after one of the Republicans, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, walked away from the talks last week, saying he was on “sabbatical.”On Sunday Sen. Majority Whip…

Negotiations to raise the federal debt limit are resuming today between the administration and lawmakers as partisan bickering over the budget continues and newly released projections have underscored worries about Medicare's finances.The government hit its debt ceiling a week ago…

With the 2011 appropriations bills finally complete, the House turned its attention to the 2012 bills last week. Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) set the goal of completing the committee's work by the August recess to permit the full…

Anyone wondering why Social Security and Medicare should be “on the table” in budget negotiations need look no further than the 2011 Trustees’ Report issued on May 13.As is usually the case, media accounts of the trustees’ report tended to…

WASHINGTON -- The Concord Coalition said that today’s release of the annual Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report is a timely reminder of how important cost-saving reform of these two vital programs is to the nation’s fiscal outlook. Concord urged…