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Congressional leaders in the House and Senate have reached a deal on a spate of appropriations bills, clearing the way for a short-term spending patch that would extend funding deadlines further into March. Appropriators finalized the agreement on Wednesday, two sources told the Washington Examiner, just three days before the government is set to enter a partial shutdown. The proposal would maintain the two-pronged deadlines Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has advocated but would extend the dates slightly to give lawmakers time to finalize the legislative text and bring them to the floor for votes. “We are in agreement that Congress...

Senator Joe Manchin was right. In September, he suggested that Democrats “hit the pause button” on their massive spending plans. At that time, the Build Back Better bill was $3.5 trillion — an inflationary bomb just waiting to go off.Even after the Democrats cut the bill in half to $1.75 trillion, Manchin kept sounding the inflation alarm. He kept insisting that inflation wasn’t “transitory,” as Joe Biden still insists to this day. Manchin also asserted that it was fiscal madness to take on so much debt at this time.Manchin’s September op-ed in the Wall Street Journal summed up the danger.Those...

The prop gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a New Mexico movie set had been used by crew members offsite for fun, a new report claims. The gun, which was fired by Alec Baldwin on the set of the movie “Rust,” may have even been loaded with live rounds when it was used for what was essentially target practice, TMZ reported. Multiple sources connected to the production of the film told TMZ that the gun was fired at off-the-clock gatherings – which could explain how a live round found its way into the gun’s chamber. Another source who was...

The White House sought to pressure House Republicans into a budget conference with the Senate on Monday, warning President Obama would veto any 2014 spending bills based on the House GOP budget. In Statements of Administration Policy, the White House said Obama would veto all spending bills unless they pass Congress "in the context of an overall budget framework that supports our recovery and enables sufficient investments in education, infrastructure, innovation and national security for our economy to compete in the future." That language suggests the administration, like congressional Democrats, wants to use the conference to turn off the automatic...

<p>WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to pass a package of modest cuts and tax changes as a way to delay drastic, across-the-board federal spending reductions that could harm the economy.</p> <p>But Obama's proposal would only postpone the $85 billion in automatic cuts, scheduled to take effect March 1, by a few months until a larger deal could be reached.</p>

[snip] But Obama’s proposal would only postpone the $85 billion in automatic cuts, scheduled to take effect March 1, by a few months until a larger deal could be reached. [snip] The CBO projects, absent changes in spending and/or taxes, that federal debt held by the public will reach levels akin to 76 percent of the total economy, the largest percentage since 1950. It would tick up to 77 percent by the end of the decade and rise even further in years beyond that. Obama did not offer a specific proposal or release any new plans Tuesday. But he said...

We can all rest a little easier this week: the country is in good hands. John Kerry has slipped into the Secretary of State slot without the U.S. missing a beat. Joey’s in Europe, further cementing relationships, and Big Guy’s got all the pressing domestic issues covered.  On the Deficit/Debt Ceiling/Budget: (“I’ve done my part, I've made proposals, it's their turn, we agree on a lot - and the American public agrees with me - more to be done, won't be easy.”) To help things along even more, yesterday BO signed legislation suspending the nation's borrowing limit until May 18,...

President Barack Obama on Tuesday will propose that Congress pass a small package of spending cuts and tax reforms to put off the "harmful consequences'' of huge automatic spending cuts known as the "sequester'' for a few months, a White House official said.

As was revealed in a breathtaking New York Times opinion piece today, many of Barack Obama's top advisers feel alienated from him. There is a sense within the White House that President Obama's theory of government is that "he is the government". Apparently, President Obama has personalized the presidency to such an extent that it is now seen as more about the man than about the position. Certainly that is not how the American Founding Fathers viewed the presidency. The author of this article, David Rothkopf, characterizes the president as a poor manager who is also aloof and a poor...

"[Y]ou can have a president you love, but if you don’t have a Congress that’s willing to work, you know, you wind up stalled in so many ways,” First Lady Michelle Obama said Wednesday on Tom Joyner’s radio program. “And I think that Barack has done a phenomenal job working around a Congress that has never been willing to help move the country forward on so many different issues,” she said. “But I think he’s done everything humanly possible to get things passed around the margins. But, you know, just imagine where this country will be when we have Barack...

Vice President Joe Biden invoked Paul Ryan's deceased father to question the Republican vice presidential candidate's values: "My dad used to have another saying, for real," Biden said. "And, by the way, I've been saying this for 30 years. And I'm glad to see that Congressman Ryan likes his dad, too, and quotes his dad. I mean that sincerely. But my dad [had] a lot of wisdom. Every time someone tell you, say, 'Look, let me tell you what's important to me, what I value.' My dad would go, 'No, no. Don't tell me what you value. Show me your...

In its first reaction to this morning's worse-than-expected jobs report, the White House stressed that the nation is still fighting back from the recession and that the "problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight." "There is much more work that remains to be done to repair the damage caused by the financial crisis and deep recession that began at the end of 2007," Alan Krueger, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, writes in a White House blog. "Just like last year at this time, our economy is facing serious headwinds,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has signed a $1 trillion-plus 2012 spending bill that sets the day-to-day budgets of 10 Cabinet agencies. The Senate approved the bill last Saturday in a flurry of year-end activity that was overshadowed by an ensuing confrontation over extending a payroll tax cut.

Congressional lawmakers reached an agreement late Thursday to avoid a government shutdown this weekend, Democratic and Republican leaders will push for a final vote on the $1 trillion spending bill on Friday morning — hours before much of the federal government would have been forced to turn out the lights. The final bill removes several provisions of concern to President Barack Obama — including a measure to reinstate travel restrictions on Cuba, POLITICO reported. It also would ensure the Commodities Futures Trading Commission is fully funded next year. But Democrats had to drop their opposition to a ban prohibiting the...

The date will be on or about September 30th. The issue will be the need to pass a Continuing Resolution by the House. For more than 850 days the US has gone without a budget. The House passed one not long ago; the Senate tabled it. The Administration has not offered up one either. The absence of an approved budget means that the only way the country can continue to operate is through a series of temporary extensions. The last time we went through a vote on a continuing resolution was just four months ago. That fight went down to...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned Tuesday that the House Republicans' deficit-reduction bill is "dead on arrival" in his chamber, as the Obama administration issued a formal veto threat and pushed lawmakers to reach a "compromise." At the same time, House conservatives began to peel off from the bill being pushed by House Speaker John Boehner. White House officials appeared to hold back earlier Tuesday when asked whether President Obama would veto the GOP bill, which could be voted on in the House as early as Wednesday. Later, the administration issued what's known as a "statement of administration policy" saying...

A Republican aide e-mails me: “The Speaker, Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell all agreed on the general framework of a two-part plan. A short-term increase (with cuts greater than the increase), combined with a committee to find long-term savings before the rest of the increase would be considered. Sen. Reid took the bipartisan plan to the White House and the President said no.”

Democrats have controlled the Senate and the White House since the election of 2008, and the House of Representatives up until this year.  Certainly they could have passed any budget they desired, including one with tax increases and spending increases.  But they chose to ignore the 800-day gorilla in the room because they don't want to be on record supporting a budget that actually does what they want.  Then the public could hold them accountable for their cowardly and irresponsible behavior in the face of national fiscal calamity.  

With Friday's vote over, senators quickly moved to vacate the floor. Cars were waiting outside to whisk members to airports to take flights home. Though the Senate was originally scheduled to be in session, Reid, D-Nev., noted that would not be the case and no votes would be taken before Monday afternoon. Reid said that the session wasn't necessary because Obama and Boehner were working on a compromise measure. He said he understands the plan addresses both taxes and revenue, and therefore must originate in the House, giving the Senate no reason to work. Another person hot about the talks...

President Obama laments the debt talks: "All these conversations I've had over the last three weeks -- I could have been spending time with Malia and Sasha instead."