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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A Wisconsin legislative committee is set to vote on a resolution calling for a state convention to propose a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It takes a two-thirds vote in Congress to propose an amendment for states' ratification. Congress also must grant a request from two-thirds of the states to convene a state convention to propose an amendment. Ratification requires approval from three-quarters of state legislatures. The tea party has been making a national push to convene a convention to propose an amendment requiring the federal government to balance its budget. Wisconsin Republicans have...

Members of Congress have been alerted that a deal on the $1 trillion farm bill, stalled for the last three years, could come on Monday, allowing for a House floor vote next week. The alert went out from the House Agriculture Committee to members of the farm bill conference committee requesting that they return to town by Monday for action on the stalled legislation. "Conversations are ongoing and we remain optimistic that we can reach agreement in time to be on the floor next week," the alert stated. It said that Monday could feature a conference meeting to vote on...

Election Day is almost nine months off. But right now Republicans seem almost certain to hold the House of Representatives and are likely to take the Senate. Which raises the inevitable question: How might the GOP seize defeat from the jaws of victory? Two occasions stand out, two obvious obstacles ahead that could lead to disastrous Republican stumbles... ...conservative activists should give up their fond hopes of a debt ceiling bonanza and more or less let the hike go through unscathed (they can still vote against it, of course)....conservatives...should aggressively advance freestanding legislative proposals, to repeal and delay parts of...

Why trimming military pensions irks this deficit-hawk veteran. With a $1.1 trillion budget wending its way through Congress and likely headed for President Obama’s desk, officials in Washington are no doubt patting themselves on the back for a job well done. Here’s who won’t be cheering the news: American veterans and military retirees and their families. Tucked away in this massive spending package is a provision that chops away at the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) raises for military retirees and family survivors, in order to save an estimated $6 billion over the next ten years. You could argue that I,...

UK armed forces cuts will limit the country's ability to be a major player on the world stage, ex-US defence secretary Robert Gates has warned. The UK plans to cut 30,000 armed forces personnel by 2020, leaving 147,000. ...On the UK's military cuts, Mr Gates told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "With the fairly substantial reductions in defence spending in Great Britain, what we're finding is that it won't have full spectrum capabilities and the ability to be a full partner as they have been in the past." The spectrum refers to the ability of a country's military to fight...

<p>Saving money is a great first step to turning your finances around. This resource shows you 123 ways to accomplish that goal. For this resource, saving money is considered putting more money in the bank or investment accounts, spending less money on things you already pay for, increasing efficiency to spend less money later and other tricks to either spend less money and/or put more money in the bank over the long run.</p>

House Republicans are quietly discussing the option of not writing a budget in 2014, a maneuver that would free up time on the legislative calendar and protect GOP lawmakers from a potentially damaging vote in an election year. The idea of Republicans skipping this year’s budgetary process seems odd when considering the House GOP made history last year by attaching a policy rider called “No Budget, No Pay” to a debt-limit extension. That measure tied lawmakers’ salaries to budgets being written in both chambers and paved the way for a budget agreement between House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and...

<p>Congress gave final approval Thursday to a $1.1 trillion spending bill that eases the sharp budget cuts known at the sequester and guarantees that the nation will not endure another government shutdown until at least Oct. 1.</p> <p>After three years of politically bruising and economically damaging battles over the budget, the bipartisan agreement to fund federal agencies through the rest of the fiscal year passed with little fanfare.</p>

This week's spending-bill fight revealed deepening fractures within the GOP, spelling trouble for 2016. Imagine the ground is splitting open beneath your feet. The rocking plates of earth slowly spread apart, and you're left straddling both sides to keep from falling in. That is how some of the most publicly visible GOP lawmakers are feeling right now. They must choose whose side they're on: establishment Republicans or the far-right flank. Ultraconservative groups are furious over the omnibus appropriations package that coasted through the Republican-led House on Wednesday. The bill, which would fund the government for the rest of the...

What was once outspoken opposition (to increased spending) led by the tea party core in the House seems to have cooled to a lukewarm loyal opposition. A few are opposing the latest $1.1 Trillion omnibus spending bill, but we are not hearing too much strident expression of principle anymore. Where did they go? Republicans in general seem to have been spooked by the mediaÂ’s claims that the previous 16-day shutdown reflected poorly on Republicans. With reelection campaigns looming this year, jittery politicians need to reassure constituencies and donors by bringing home pork. And boy are they! The House bill is...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September. It now goes to the Senate, which is expected to

Sequester, we hardly knew ye. The omnibus budget deal slithering its way toward President Barack Obama’s desk for signing abandons the automatic spending cuts that resulted from an earlier fiscal compromise. Why was the sequester abandoned? Like the Gramm-Rudman Act a generation earlier, the sequester had to be stopped for one fundamental, undeniable, bipartisan reason. It worked. It did not work perfectly, and it did not balance the budget or put us on course for a balanced budget. But it did play a critical role in nudging the deficit away from “catastrophic existential threat” territory and toward “terrifying money-suck.” It...

Advocates for military retirees have been pressuring lawmakers to stop the planned cuts to veterans’ pensions from going into effect this year. But a new spending deal announced in Congress this week would leave 90 percent of those cuts in place, according to one Republican lawmaker. “I was pleased that the House-Senate package includes a provision restoring the pensions for disabled veterans, after we called attention the fact that wounded warriors would be impacted by the budget deal,” Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee said Tuesday.

Congress has unveiled a $1.1 trillion spending bill that aims to prevent another government shutdown which boosts funding slightly for military and domestic programs - but not for 'Obamacare' health reforms. With a deadline looming at midnight tomorrow for new spending authority, lawmakers will still need a three-day stop-gap funding extension to ensure enough time for passage of the spending bill this week. The measure eases across-the-board spending cuts by providing an extra $45 billion for military and domestic discretionary programs for fiscal 2014, to a total of $1.012 trillion. It also provides an additional $85.2 billion for Afghanistan war...

The sales job is on for a bipartisan $1.1 trillion spending bill that would pay for the operations of government through October and finally put to rest the bitter budget battles of last year. [Snip] The GOP-led House is slated to pass the 1,582-page bill Wednesday, though many tea party conservatives are sure to oppose it.

The Pentagon has determined that the budget deal passed last month cutting $6 billion in military pensions would also reduce survivor benefits, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said Monday. But the cuts to survivor benefits and two other programs related to combat and disability pay will be repealed in the omnibus spending bill, said a senior Senate aide familiar with the government funding measure expected to be released later Monday. "At the end of the day, this will all be addressed," the aide said. Ayotte has been one of the most vocal senators opposing the cut to military retirement benefits...

Here's a new twist on an old New Year's Resolution: If you want to give yourself the security of financial independence, try budgeting the way many wealth accumulators do. The secret? They don't budget. Your first reaction might be, "Of course these people don't budget! They have so much money that they don't need to." That may be true for some of those who have money today, but I'm referring to people who want to remain wealthy or those who are "wealth accumulators." These are people who don't start out with money, but who build up significant wealth over time....

Senate Democrats have thumbed their noses at veterans of America's military. They have sided with illegal aliens. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) proposed yesterday (9 Jan 14) a bill which would have replaced recent cuts to veteran's pensions. The bill would also have closed a tax loophole that allows illegal aliens to access the Refundable Child Tax Credit. The bill was offered as an amendment to the unemployment benefits extension bill (S1845). The vote failed 54-42, with all Republicans - but Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) - voting for the amendment and against Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). Sen. Joe...

A bipartisan proposal to cut food stamps by $9 billion would likely pass the lower chamber with support from Democrats, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said this week. "If that is the figure, and if other matters that are still at issue can be resolved, I think the bill will probably pass, and it will pass with Democratic — some Democratic — support," Hoyer said Thursday during the taping of C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program, which will air Sunday. "Not, certainly, universal Democratic support. … But I think it will pass." Bipartisan negotiators from both chambers are said to be nearing a deal...

<p>Last month’s congressional budget deal hit military retirees with 20 years of service or more in a very real and controversial way: It trimmed their cost-of-living adjustments [COLAs] by 1% each year until they reach 62.</p> <p>Veterans’ groups say this reduction could add up to an average of more than $80,000 in losses for retirees who are affected -- and a loss of confidence in the U.S. government’s word.</p>