Raul Labrador

GOP Conservatives Gripe About New Ryan Budget

Sahil Kapur | March 20, 2012, 5:58PM

House Republicans aren't all sold on Rep. Paul Ryan's new budget.

Seven conservative House Republicans hosted a panel late Tuesday afternoon at the Heritage Foundation, none of whom committed to voting for the blueprint unveiled earlier in the day. One of them -- a member of the House Budget Committee -- said he's unequivocally opposed.

"I will be voting no," said Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS). "It's not good enough."

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Warren Buffett

On Capitol Hill, Rise Of The Warren Buffett Birthers (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 22, 2011, 1:38PM

Warren Buffett and President Barack Obama

Republicans on Capitol Hill have found a new hidden document conspiracy to push to now that President Obama's long-form birth certificate is a matter of public record. Warren Buffett, they demand, show us the tax return!

The Hill reports big names in Congress are starting to say Buffett "needs to reveal his finances if his views on tax rates are going to serve as the basis for Obama administration policy."

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Stimulus

Cut And Grow Fail: CBO Schools Tea Party Freshman In Basic Economics

Brian Beutler | August 11, 2011, 3:15PM

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS)

This story was updated at 4:40 p.m. to include text from Huelskamp's letter

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), a Tea Party-backed freshman who voted against the final debt limit bill, recently asked to hear from the Congressional Budget Office about the impact of government spending on economic growth. It's an article of faith on the right that vastly shrinking government will unleash the forces of private enterprise, and faced with CBO's opposing view, Huelskamp wanted to know the answer to two questions:

1). What current federal departments, agencies, programs, or portions thereof do not contribute to economic growth?

2). In the programs that CBO believes do contribute to economic growth, what level of spending cuts would amount to a level you believe would be significant enough to "probably slow the economic recovery"?

But if the newly elected member of the Budget Committee was hoping the non-partisan CBO would buy into his premise, he'll be sorely disappointed.

In a response letter Thursday, CBO-chief Doug Elmendorf gives Huelskamp a layman's lesson in Keynesian economics: Under current economic circumstances, new federal spending would help economic growth, and current and future cuts could stymie it, particularly if they hit key government investment.

"When demand for goods and services falls short of the economy's ability to produce them, as is the case currently, increasing government spending can increase aggregate demand and thereby narrow the gap between the economy's actual and potential levels of output," Elmendorf writes.

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