Economy

Are Romney And Obama Competing For The Austerity Prize?

Brian Beutler | May 25, 2012, 6:41AM

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney

The American economy will sink back into recession if Congress fails to unwind a messy coil of austere fiscal policies that will trigger automatically at the beginning of the year.

Across the spectrum, experts are imploring political leaders not to be myopic and unyielding: delay the budget cuts until the economic recovery really takes hold, but be ready with a more considered course of deficit reduction when that moment arrives.

Yet Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, and their surrogates on Capitol Hill, are locked in a fight over which candidate and which party will more quickly and effectively reduce the deficit -- the opposite of what economists say we need.

The Obama administration and campaign trumpet data and articles showing that Obama's supposed spending binge is a right-wing fabrication. Paul Ryan -- the GOP's official spokesman on fiscal issues -- boasted that a Republican victory in November will give his party a mandate to turn his controversial spending-slashing budget into law.

"If we make the case effectively and win this November, then we will have the moral authority to enact the kind of fundamental reforms America has not seen since Ronald Reagan's first year," Ryan said.

At the same time, the parties are at pains to paint their rivals as the true merchants of austerity.

"Ryan also argued with a straight face on [Meet The Press] that the Ryan-Romney plan would avert the very European-style austerity on which it's modeled!" Obama strategist David Axelrod tweeted recently.

Resolving the tension between these two seemingly incompatible arguments -- more fiscally responsible, less austere -- turns out to be more difficult than adding up numbers on a ledger. But it provides an instructive look at what the candidates and parties stand for this election cycle.

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Barack Obama

An Obama Spending Spree? Hardly (CHART)

Sahil Kapur | May 23, 2012, 6:03AM

A dominant theme of the national political discourse has been the crushing spending spree the U.S. has ostensibly embarked on during the Obama presidency. That argument, ignited by Republicans and picked up by many elite opinion makers, has infused the national dialogue and shaped the public debate in nearly every major budget battle of the last thee years.

But the numbers tell a different story.

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Debt

Top Congress Scholar Says Country Could Easily Fall Off Fiscal Cliff In January

Brian Beutler | April 25, 2012, 5:57AM

Protestors demand "Cut Spending Now" near the Capitol building in Washington DC

A renowned congressional analyst thinks there's a good chance that the country could fall off a fiscal cliff on Jan. 1, no matter who wins this November.

At an American Enterprise Institute event on the future of Medicare Tuesday, AEI scholar Norm Ornstein outlined a scenario in which Congress falls on its face this winter, and fails to address the expiring Bush tax cuts and payroll tax holiday, automatic sequestration spending cuts, lapse of federal borrowing authority and other spending and tax provisions set to contract the budget automatically at the end of the year.

"Most of the cognoscenti in Washington say, Of course they'll reach an agreement because they can't not reach an agreement,'" Ornstein said. "Get inside the belly of the beast and you realize these days they can not reach an agreement."

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Government Shutdown

Obama To GOP: Abide By Debt Limit Deal Or Else Face A Govt Shutdown Right Before The Election

Brian Beutler | April 18, 2012, 4:36PM

President Barack Obama during his 2012 "State of the Union" address

In a major escalation of a slowly building fight over funding the government, the White House has warned House Republicans, in no uncertain terms, that the government will shut down in September if the GOP does not adhere to an agreement they cut with Democrats in August during the standoff over raising the nation's debt limit.

"Until the House of Representatives indicates that it will abide by last summer's agreement, the President will not be able to sign any appropriations bills," writes Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget, in a letter addressed to congressional appropriators Wednesday.

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Barack Obama

How Congress Helps Republicans, But Not Democrats, Weather Bad Economies (Charts)

Brian Beutler | March 14, 2012, 5:43AM

If President Obama's economic recovery continues apace, and his re-election prospects grow along with it, it won't be because Congress went out of its way to help. As we noted Tuesday, Obama's economy has benefitted from less of Washington's largesse than did crypto-Keynesian Ronald Reagan's. But this is actually part of a broader pattern. Recently, Republican presidents have benefited from accommodating Congress during times of economic weakness, while Democratic Presidents Clinton and Obama watched Congress suddenly grow stingy under their watch.

That pattern has significant implications for how these presidents weathered economic downturns politically, and to a great extent explains the political troubles Obama's faced in his first term.

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House Republicans

Top Dem Warns House GOP Not To Renege On Budget Deal

Sahil Kapur | March 7, 2012, 11:34AM

Amid rumblings that House Republicans may break their end of a major budget agreement they struck with Democrats last fall, and possibly touch off another government shutdown battle later this year, a top Senate Democrat issued a stern warning to the GOP: Don't go there.

"We had a deal last August on the budget numbers, and we expect them to live with that deal," said Sen. Patty Murray (WA) -- a member of the Democratic leadership, high-ranking member of the Budget Committee and erstwhile co-chair of the Super Committee -- in an interview with TPM. "I have been astonished how many times they play with fire. Last August they almost shut the government down, a year ago they almost shut the government down, by trying to go to a place where most Americans don't believe we should be going."

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Budget

House GOP Caught In A New Budget Predicament

Sahil Kapur | March 5, 2012, 6:26AM

For most observers, the biggest question about the House Republicans' forthcoming budget is how they'll handle the issue of Medicare. Will they readopt the same phase-out and privatize policy that got them into political trouble last year? Or will they, at least to some extent, scale back their vision?

But the bigger question has nothing to do with Medicare. The bigger question is whether House Republicans can pass a budget at all.

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Barack Obama

Is It Morning -- Or Dawn -- In America? (CHARTS)

Brian Beutler | March 2, 2012, 4:52AM

President Barack Obama

This post was updated at 1:15 p.m.

On Wednesday, Treasury Department officials briefed reporters on the current state of the economy, including official revisions showing that GDP grew faster in the last quarter of 2011 than previously estimated, and that savings are indeed keeping pace with renewed consumer spending.

The officials stressed they don't interpret the positive news of the past few months as definitive signs of a blooming economic recovery.

But one senior official made a key comparison -- one that provides insight into the potential magnitude of recent developments.

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Taxes

What's Behind Obama's New Push For Corporate Tax Reform

Brian Beutler | February 22, 2012, 12:45PM

President Barack Obama during his 2012 "State of the Union" address

A new Obama administration framework for reforming the business income tax code is touching off a brand new election-year policy debate in Washington. But this time around there's a great deal of consensus between the parties over the ideal nature of reform. And that means there will be two main obstacles to success. The first issue will be political concerns -- should Republicans hand President Obama a substantive victory with control of the White House on the line? The second will be the parochial concerns of powerful interest who stand to lose tremendous subsidies as a result of the reforms.

In a briefing with reporters Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner laid out the five principles underlying the proposed reforms. Any corporate tax reform should eliminate scores of loopholes and subsidies and use the savings to lower rates -- specifically from a current top rate of 35 percent down to 25 percent.

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Budget

The Truth Behind The GOP's '1000 Days Without A Budget' Canard

Brian Beutler | February 14, 2012, 10:17AM

Harry Reid (D-NV) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Turn on any cable news channel this week and you'll very likely hear a top Republican froth in anger over the fact that Senate Democrats haven't passed a budget in more than 1000 days.

This particular talking point has been around for months -- long before the Senate crossed the 1000 days threshold. Now that it's budget season, Republicans hope it pops, filters up into mainstream news coverage, and sows doubt in the minds of voters who don't understand the Congressional budget process, and don't realize how unimportant, and in most crucial respects false, the line is. Alternatively, they hope Senate Dems get spooked and move ahead with a budget document that exposes their differences and leaves them open to political attack -- but has no impact on policy whatsoever.

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Defense Spending

Bait And Switch: GOP Leaders Renege On Debt Limit Deal Defense Cuts

Brian Beutler | February 3, 2012, 5:57AM

House Speaker John Boehner with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the foreground.

Republican leaders in Congress have all but reneged on a key agreement they reached with the White House last summer rather than reconsider their unwavering stance against new tax revenue.

Relations between the Obama administration and the congressional GOP were already just about as bad as can be. But even so, this sets a precedent future Congresses and White Houses will remember when partisan mismatches force them to strike deals and govern.

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Defense Spending

The GOP's Plan To Avoid Defense Cuts Without Raising Taxes

Brian Beutler | February 2, 2012, 12:00PM

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) walks from his office to a policy lunch with fellow GOP members on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on September 7, 2011.

Senate Republicans unveiled a proposal Thursday to avoid or delay looming, automatic cuts to defense and security programs by reducing the federal work force by five percent and freezing federal pay for two and a half years.

In a bid to recruit Democratic support for their legislation, the authors of the plan say it saves enough money to forestall automatic cuts to domestic programs, also set to kick in on January 2013. But they continue to oppose using any new tax revenues to offset any of these costs -- and in so doing they exposed a contradiction at the heart of their fiscal policy. They oppose tax increases, they say, because of their impact on economic growth -- yet their plan to avoid tax increases involves deliberately shrinking demand for jobs.

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Super Committee

Obama Issues Veto Threat On Bush Tax Cuts

Brian Beutler | November 22, 2011, 9:40AM

President Barack Obama

President Obama has threatened to veto any legislation that attempts to eliminate the automatic penalties for Super Committee failure. But on January 1, 2013 -- the same day the automatic, across the board spending cuts are scheduled to take effect -- all of the Bush tax cuts are set to expire. And the White House plans to use the threat of full expiration the exact same way they're using the threat of sequestration -- to force Republicans to accept a higher tax burden on wealthy Americans.

"He won't sign a full extension," said one Senior Administration Official at a White House background briefing for reporters on the Super Committee.

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Super Committee

Dems Mock Latest GOP Super Committee Offer

Brian Beutler | November 18, 2011, 4:36PM

After multiple meetings Friday, Democrats publicly excoriated a fall-back offer by Super Committee Republicans to cut 10-year deficits by over $600 billion. And for the first time, Democratic members are publicly casting doubt on the panel's chances to meet its Wednesday deadline.

Partisan tempers flared over how Democrats and Republicans describe the offer, which includes a trivial amount of new tax revenue, but doesn't touch entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

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Government Shutdown

Democrats Demand Boehner Avert Government Shutdown Threat

Brian Beutler | November 1, 2011, 10:57AM

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and the vast majority of House Democrats have signed a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) pushing him to strip partisan policy riders out of must-pass legislation to fund the government after the money runs out later this month.

Yes, here we go again. House Republicans are advancing appropriations bills loaded with controversial measures that would defund the new health care law, scrap key environmental protections and more.

"As you know, there is longstanding precedent not to use appropriations bills to enact major changes in national policy, and the bills being reported from Appropriations subcommittees this year violate that precedent," wrote Hoyer in a letter signed by 182 other Democrats. "While not all policy riders are objectionable, many of those included this year are not only controversial but blatantly partisan. Included riders would block the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, roll back important clean air and clean water protections, and place new restrictions on women's access to a full range of medical and health services, among others."

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Recession

CHART OF THE DAY: How The Recession Turned Us Into A Nation Of Teetotaling Canned-Veggie Fiends

Brian Beutler | October 27, 2011, 11:20AM

Over two years after the official end of the Lesser Depression, people still aren't hiring. And here's why.

Forget everything you hear on TV from partisans about regulatory uncertainty or taxes on "job creators". The problem is that consumers aren't consuming as much as they need to be to keep the economy growing.

Break it down a bit, though, and it turns out that the last four years have been OK for some industries -- and killer for others.

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Mitt Romney

Romney Tweaks The Ryan Budget: Cut Social Security Benefits, Privatize Medicare (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | October 19, 2011, 11:41AM

Former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

Mitt Romney caught a lot of heat Tuesday for his comments about foreclosures. But in the same interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal, he outlined a plan for the country's future that would please Paul Ryan, and conservatives hell bent on rolling back the social safety net.

Without noting that Social Security has been in good shape for about 20 years, Romney proposed making it solvent in the long term through a mix of benefit cuts, taking the option of imposing payroll taxes on higher-income earners off the table completely.

"Arithmetically, there are probably three ways of making Social Security permanently solvent," Romney said. "One would be simply raising taxes. I don't favor that one. Number two would be to increase the retirement age. Number three would be to have a little slower growth in benefits for higher income beneficiaries.... Some combination of those last two is the place we can go in my opinion to solve Social Security for future retirees."

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Super Committee

Super Committee Dems Avoid Trap That Skewed Debt Limit Fight

Brian Beutler | September 28, 2011, 2:41PM

'Super Committee' members Sen. Patt Murray (D-WA) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), September 7, 2011.

Democrats on the new deficit Super Committee are determined to be better negotiators than their predecessors in earlier deficit discussions leading up to the debt limit fight.

According to aides with knowledge of the discussions, they're trying to keep the panel's early focus on revenues, to avoid falling into a familiar trap of agreeing to a bunch of spending cuts only to have Republicans freeze up when they try to change the conversation to taxes.

A bit of background is appropriate here.

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Barack Obama

Obama's Plan Is The Opposite Of Paul Ryan's Plan -- For Good Reason

Brian Beutler | September 20, 2011, 6:05AM

President Obama's first term has been marked by a tendency to take the liberal policy consensus on any issue, move five clicks to the right, and begin negotiations having already conceded quite a bit to conservatives.

His new push to pass a $447 billion jobs plan, and reduce out year deficits in large measure by raising taxes on the rich marks a significant departure from the status quo ante. And it sets Obama up for a risky, but important and necessary fight with Republicans over the country's future.

Put it all together and his plan would juice the economy in the near-term, and pursue a vision for the country that's just about the opposite of the GOP's. In effect, it serves as a rebuke to House Republicans -- and particularly House Speaker John Boehner -- who walked away from an equally far-reaching plan that would have been much friendlier to conservative interests.

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John Boehner

Shutdown Chances Increase Over Disaster Relief, Program Cut Disputes

Brian Beutler | September 15, 2011, 5:43PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Two separate but related Republican efforts are increasing the odds that the government will shut down at the end of September, despite repeated assurances from both GOP and Democratic leaders that neither party has an appetite for another round of brinksmanship.

In a Thursday letter, over 50 House Republicans, led by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), pushed Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to make steep cuts to discretionary spending in the next fiscal year, reneging on the agreement the parties struck to resolve the debt limit standoff. That legislation set a cap on discretionary spending at $1.043 trillion and both Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) are committed to funding the government at that level for the coming year.

But many House conservatives want to go lower, and if they defect then House Democrats will have to pitch in to make sure it passes and avert a shut down.

There's just one problem.

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Super Committee

Super Committee GOP Unconvinced By CBO Chief On Jobs, Austerity

Brian Beutler | September 15, 2011, 6:10AM

Rep Dave Camp (R-MI) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

So did CBO Director Doug Elmendorf make any headway convincing Super Committee Republicans that a). the economy needs a short term boost of near term spending and tax cuts, and b). that the country shouldn't dive headlong, and unnecessarily, into austerity?

If Dave Camp is any indication, the answer is no.

The Michigan Republican, and chair of the House Ways and Means Committee said he disagreed with Elmendorf's cautionary testimony.

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Super Committee

Super Committee Riven By Major Divide Over Basic Facts

Brian Beutler | September 14, 2011, 5:59AM

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)

Political debates over deficits and debt are always marked by obfuscation and technicality. The numbers are huge and frightening, the terms obscure and technical, and the simple, fundamental point of the argument gets buried underneath this avalanche of panic and esoterica.

But for a brief moment Tuesday, under questioning from Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), Congress' top economic analyst made it perfectly clear to everybody who was listening.

"I think really the fundamental question for you is not how we got here, but where you want the country to go, what role do you and your colleagues want the government to play in the economy and the society?" said Doug Elmendorf, who heads the Congressional Budget Office. He was addressing the six Democrats and six Republicans on the new joint deficit committee, and for three hours he did his best not to get buried under the same avalanche.

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CBO

CHART OF THE DAY: Austerity Is A Bad Idea That Republicans Love

Brian Beutler | September 13, 2011, 3:36PM

An unemployed man.

During Tuesday's joint Super Committee hearing on the origin and drivers of U.S. debt, Republicans were eager, as they are in many settings, to portray the country as on the brink of a genuine debt crisis -- and to argue that the most effective remedies to a debt crisis are spending cuts, not tax increases.

This sounds like bland political pabulum, and in some ways it is. But it's also a huge reveal. If we're not in a fiscal crisis, and we thus have years of running room ahead of us to make appropriate, and non-drastic policy changes, then there's no immediate imperative to make the dramatic changes to Medicare and other popular government safety net programs Republicans want to see.

Here's how CBO director Doug Elmendorf responded when Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) nudged him about the relative merits of cutting spending (i.e. rolling back government services) as part of a national austerity program.

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Government Shutdown

How Congress Could End Up In A Government Shutdown Fight After All

Brian Beutler | September 13, 2011, 9:17AM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Could there be a government shutdown fight in the coming weeks despite the fact that Republicans have agreed with Democrats on a funding figure for the coming fiscal year, and GOP leaders say they've lost the appetite for another round of brinksmanship?

Yes.

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Super Committee

Over GOP Objections, Budget Hawks Say Super Committee Should 'Go Big'

Brian Beutler | September 13, 2011, 5:57AM

President Barack Obama President, with Erskine Bowles (left) and Sen. Alan Simpson (right.)

Democratic and Republican members of the joint deficit Super Committee will meet Tuesday for their first substantive meeting, which will examine the history and driver of the country's debt, and the risk it poses in the future.

It will be the committee's second meeting overall and its first since President Obama pushed the panel in his joint address to Congress to find significantly more than the $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction they're required to find, to finance a near-term jobs bill.

That pressure has some Republicans saying that Obama's needlessly complicated the committee's task -- finding $1.2 trillion in cuts, revenues and savings is hard enough! -- and members should keep their eyes on the more modest goal spelled out in the debt limit law.

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Jobs

Cantor To Obama: Let's Nix More Than Half Your Jobs Bill

Brian Beutler | September 12, 2011, 1:59PM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)

This post was updated at 4:26 p.m.

How much of President Obama's jobs bill is DOA in the House? According to Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), probably about half of it.

"Anything that is akin to the stimulus bill I think is not going to be acceptable to the American people," Cantor told reporters at his weekly Capitol briefing Monday. "I don't believe that our members are going to be interested in pursuing that. I certainly am not."

Cantor's talking about federal spending here. He has come out in favor of an alternative plan to expedite high-impact infrastructure building, by ending requirements the federal government places on surface transportation funds, and allowing states to reprioritize the money. But this plan would involve no new federal spending, and there remain significant differences between GOP leadership and the White House over how to fund new projects.

Separately, the stimulus bill wasn't nearly all spending. About a third of its cost came from the very sort of tax cuts and credits that Obama's new jobs bill contains, and Republicans are more likely to support. Another big chunk of the $787 billion price tag came from an un-stimulative patch that Congress passes every year to prevent the Alternative Minimum Tax from ensnaring middle class taxpayers.

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Eric Cantor

Cantor Admits Shutdown Fights Harm Economy

Brian Beutler | September 12, 2011, 1:56PM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) with GOP leaders

Here's a rare admission from a top Republican, given how things have unfolded on Capitol Hill all year. It comes from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), in response to a question about whether Republicans will push for deeper spending cuts later this month when Congress has to extend funding for federal programs.

"I think the risk of bringing back brinkmanship or another potential shutdown is not something right now that we need, is not something that would be helpful to create jobs and regain confidence, which is why I've taken the position that I have," Cantor said.

Here's a brief primer on his position. It's worth noting that the country's economic situation was similarly poor in April and July when Republicans forced long fights over, respectively, a six month government funding bill and raising the debt limit.

Barack Obama

Boehner To Obama: Thanks For The Jobs Plan -- Let's See How Much It Really Costs

Brian Beutler | September 12, 2011, 11:34AM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Reflecting the GOP leadership's new kinder, gentler, less partisan rhetorical tone, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says he appreciates President Obama's new jobs legislation, despite continuing policy differences between the parties. Obama's not being quite so gentle, barnstorming the country and seizing the airwaves demanding Congress "pass this bill." The GOP can't just sweep the bill into the dustbin under such circumstances, so the question is how exactly will they operate the sausage maker.

Boehner's statement offers some clues. "[W]e appreciate the President's pledge to transmit legislation to Congress and will immediately request that it be scored by the Congressional Budget Office," Boehner said. "Once we receive CBO's analysis, we can begin the important work of reviewing the various elements of his proposal."

This is a far cry from the "hell no you can't!" days of health care reform. But there are booby traps.

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Jobs

Cantor Nixes President Obama's Infrastructure Bank Idea

Brian Beutler | September 8, 2011, 2:16PM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is striking a gentler tone ahead of President Obama's Thursday jobs speech, and highlighting the areas he says Republicans can work with the administration to grow the economy -- unemployment insurance, payroll taxes, and infrastructure. But the devil is in the details, and there are still significant differences between the parties' approaches.

"I'm wary of the suggestion of an infrastructure bank," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) told reporters at a roundtable lunch hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "I am one who agrees with the notion that an infrastructure bank is almost like creating a Fanny and Freddie for roads and bridges."

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Jobs

Cantor Demurs On Whether Super Committee Should Focus On Jobs

Brian Beutler | September 7, 2011, 3:32PM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)

President Obama wants Congress to pass his jobs plan, and Democrats think the new deficit Super Committee is the appropriate venue for those initiatives. If creating jobs costs money in the near term, the Committee could simply offset those cuts with additional long-term deficit savings, beyond the $1.2 trillion floor required by the debt ceiling law.

But Republicans aren't sold. I asked House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) whether this would be an appropriate course of action for the Joint Committee -- new jobs spending now, more deficit cuts later. He demurred.

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Economy

Is The GOP Backing Off The Claim That Cutting Spending Creates Economic Growth?

Brian Beutler | September 7, 2011, 1:55PM

GOP Leaders

House Republicans have been successful at forcing significant cuts to the federal budget over the last nine months, but it hasn't translated into the economic expansion they promised. "Cut and grow" they called it, but so far there's been a lot of "cut" and not much "grow."

Here's House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), echoing the vast majority of Republicans, in February: "[W]e must cut government spending to bring down the deficit and the debt because if you look at the current levels of debt, added what's required to fund future deficits, you're going to have a crowding out of private capital. If you do, businesses will not grow, and you will overall retard that economic growth. You will bring on inflation, erode the value of the dollar and create an economic environment where you are going to reduce consumer spending power and ultimately the standard of living in America."

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Debt

McConnell: Obama Jobs Plan Will Be 'Same Failed Approach'

Brian Beutler | September 7, 2011, 6:05AM

Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Congress returned to Washington on Tuesday, which gave Republicans their first national whack at President Obama since public anger over the debt limit fight boiled over, and details of his jobs plan started to leak, and he nixed a forthcoming pollution regulation at the behest of Republicans and conservative business interests.

Who better to wield the truncheon than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who perhaps unwittingly affirmed a recent, widely cited critique of the GOP, written by a 30 year Republican Capitol Hill vet.

"[E]very one of us, I'm sure, is aware of the fact that many Americans are not only frustrated with the state of our economy, but also with the state of their government," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "I don't think any one of us is under any illusion that the American people were particularly eager to see us come back."

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Jobs

Angry House Dems Request Pre-Speech Meeting With Obama

Brian Beutler | September 6, 2011, 6:40PM

Rep. Raul Grijalva

The chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and of the three caucuses of black, Hispanic and Asian members of the House would like a word with President Obama before his Thursday jobs address.

In a Tuesday letter provided by a source, the leaders, who speak for a majority of House Dems, sought to make sure that Obama keeps his eye on the jobs crisis, which has disproportionately hit minority groups.

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Super Committee

Super Committee Democrats Want More Deficit Reduction

Brian Beutler | September 6, 2011, 4:06PM

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

The key dilemma facing President Obama and Congressional Democrats is that Republicans are wholly unwilling to support any new job-creating spending projects -- even projects with bipartisan support -- unless they're offset with spending cuts or savings elsewhere in the budget.

Thus, Democrats on the new joint deficit Super Committee will seek more than the $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction they've been tasked with finding, in order to help offset some of those costs.

"All of us would like to set as a target for ourselves even more than $1.5 trillion," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who's also the top House Democrat on the Budget Committee, told reporters at a Tuesday Capitol press conference.

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Eric Cantor

Cantor: Hurricane Disaster Relief Will Have To Be Offset With Program Cuts (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | August 29, 2011, 12:19PM

As expected, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) will try to see to it that federal disaster aid to regions damaged by Hurricane Irene be offset by concomitant cuts to other federal programs.

"Yes there's a federal role, yes we're going to find the money -- we're just going to need to make sure that there are savings elsewhere to continue to do so," Cantor told Fox News on Monday.

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Ben Bernanke

Bernanke Slams Congress For Harming Economy With Debt Limit Brinkmanship

Brian Beutler | August 26, 2011, 10:48AM

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

In a speech that sent stock prices tumbling, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced the central bank will not take bold new steps to stimulate the economy -- at least not yet. But he also ripped Congress for failing to do its part to combat unemployment with fiscal policy, and blamed brinkmanship over the debt limit for exacerbating the situation.

"Bouts of sharp volatility and risk aversion in markets have recently re-emerged in reaction to concerns about both European sovereign debts and developments related to the U.S. fiscal situation, including the recent downgrade of the U.S. long-term credit rating by one of the major rating agencies and the controversy concerning the raising of the U.S. federal debt ceiling," Bernanke said at an annual Fed symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. "The negotiations that took place over the summer disrupted financial markets and probably the economy as well, and similar events in the future could, over time, seriously jeopardize the willingness of investors around the world to hold U.S. financial assets or to make direct investments in job-creating U.S. businesses."

Don't do that again, he's warning. Except that top Republicans now say taking the debt ceiling hostage will be the new normal.

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Eric Cantor

With Hurricane Bearing Down Cantor Spox Says Disaster Relief Should Be Paid For With Spending Cuts

Brian Beutler | August 25, 2011, 12:40PM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Looks like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) will extend his requirement that federal disaster relief be paid for by cutting spending elsewhere in the budget to Hurricane Irene.

"We aren't going to speculate on damage before it happens, period," his spokesperson Laena Fallon emails. "But, as you know, Eric has consistently said that additional funds for federal disaster relief ought to be offset with spending cuts."

This isn't just to lay a honeytrap for Cantor. Human toll aside, hurricane damage can be very expensive, and if against all hope Irene hits hard, this sort of parameter could put a severe dent in federal programs that are already stretched quite thin.

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AFL-CIO

Trumka To Dems: Walk Away From Bad Super Committee Deal

Brian Beutler | August 25, 2011, 11:30AM

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Democrats should be prepared to walk away from a bad deficit deal even if the consequence is a far-reaching penalty that would likely cost a huge number of jobs.

"They shouldn't agree to anything that's a bad deal," Trumka told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast roundtable. He warned Democrats against voting for any Super Committee plan that cuts Social Security and lets wealthy Americans off the hook by not raising their taxes. But voting no comes with consequences. If the committee gridlocks or passes a plan that fails in Congress, it will trigger $1.2 trillion in spending cuts split evenly between defense and domestic programs.

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CBO

Worse Than It Looks: CBO Says Economic Outlook More Dire Than Reported

Brian Beutler | August 24, 2011, 10:52AM

CBO Director Doug Elmendorf

Partisans will surely find things to love and hate about CBO's updated economic outlook. It projects that the 2011 deficit will be lower than the last two years' deficits, but still near record highs. It forecasts a slow but steady economic recovery over the next six years. And it makes clear that the country's medium-term fiscal imbalances are manageable unless lawmakers decide to screw things up.

But there's also a major, major caveat.

"CBO initially completed its economic forecast in early July, but it updated the forecast in early August to reflect the policy changes enacted in the Budget Control Act [the debt limit deal]," the report reads. "However, the forecast described here does not reflect any other developments since early July, including the recent swings in financial markets, weakness in certain economic indicators, and the annual revision to the national income and product accounts. Incorporating that news would have led CBO to temper its near-term forecast for economic growth."

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Government Shutdown

Cantor Calls On House GOP To Avoid Government Shutdown Brinksmanship

Brian Beutler | August 17, 2011, 12:44PM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

In a significant de-escalation of partisan brinksmanship on Capitol Hill, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is asking his members not to push for further cuts to discretionary spending in the wake of the debt limit agreement.

"While all of us would like to have seen a lower discretionary appropriations ceiling for the upcoming fiscal year, the debt limit agreement did set a level of spending that is a real cut from the current year level," Cantor wrote in a Wednesday memo to House Republicans. "I believe it is in our interest to enact into law full-year appropriations bills at this new lower level."

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