#Congress

WASHINGTON -- The Concord Coalition today commended House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) for including proposals to rein in federal health care spending and greatly simplify the tax code as part of his Fiscal Year 2013 budget. Concord cautioned,…

An important cost-containment feature in the 2010 health care legislation has come under attack in the House, where two committees voted last week to do away with the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) without approving an alternative. (more…)

Although bipartisan cooperation and compromise are essential for badly needed fiscal reforms, congressional voting statistics point towards a deepening partisan divide in Washington.Last week National Journal said its voting ratings for 2011 in the Senate showed that for the second…

Administration officials defended the President’s budget at committee hearings last week that followed an all-too-familiar script: Democrats supported the budget, Republicans condemned it, and there appeared to be little room for bipartisan compromise in the near future. At House and…

This week the appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2012 is expected to be completed when President Obama signs a $915 billion omnibus appropriations bill into law. Since the fiscal year began Oct. 1, several federal agencies had been funded through…

The House today registered its disapproval of a bill that won strong bipartisan support in the Senate to extend long-term unemployment benefits and a Social Security payroll tax cut. The Senate legislation would continue the tax cut and unemployment benefits…

The current debate over extending the payroll tax cut well demonstrates that policymakers often mean different things when referring to policies that “help” or “expand” the economy. I often hear the words “stimulus” and “growth” used interchangeably, but when economists…

In the wake of the super committee’s failure last week, Congress faces some key decisions on expiring policies over the next few weeks that could have a significant impact on the federal deficit in the years ahead. On Monday, for…