Debt

Boehner's Debt Plan Rewrite Faces Test In Thursday Vote

Susan Crabtree | July 27, 2011, 7:02PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

House Republican leaders released a revised debt-reduction bill Wednesday evening after being forced to rewrite the bill so it complies with a promise from Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to produce more spending cuts than new borrowing authority.

The new Boehner bill will cut the deficit $917 billion over ten years and raises the debt limit $900 billion, a net cost savings of $17 billion, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis. In the next year along, fiscal year 2012, the bill would cut $22 billion in spending.

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Supreme Court vacancy

Bipartisan SCOTUS Experts: Confirmation Hearings A 'Joke'

Christina Bellantoni | June 8, 2010, 5:11PM

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Legal experts and former administration officials from both parties said today the Supreme Court confirmation hearings have become far too circus-like and substance-free, resembling a law school exam cram session more than an important test of a nominee's judicial philosophy.

Panelists at an American Constitution Society for Law and Policy luncheon this afternoon differed on the right sort of justice, but agreed the televised Senate Judiciary Committee hearings have dramatically shifted the types of nominees presidents put forward. They predicted that Solicitor General Elena Kagan will give similar bland answers to those put forth last summer by Sonia Sotomayor and by John Roberts during the Bush presidency.

You know the scene: Senators who don't often get to speak freely on television give long-winded opening statements that don't leave the impression they haven't already made up their mind on how'll they vote on the nominee in question. Meanwhile, the nominees offer little to no insight into their own personal preferences, dazzling the group instead with their vast understanding of judicial precedent and saying all the right things, thanks in part to weeks of coaching from a White House war room.

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