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President Obama told author Bob Woodward that he didn't know Rep. Paul Ryan was going to attend at a major speech he delivered last year on spending and debt, and says in retrospect that it was "a mistake" to dress down Ryan and his budget plans to his face in that setting. -SNIP- "I'll go ahead and say it – I think that I was not aware when I gave that speech that Jack Ryan was going to be sitting right there," -SNIP- "I do think that they felt like we were trying to embarrass him," Obama continued. "We made...

Today Americans will witness an extraordinarily rare event. The president will sign a bill that originated in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, the Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act. Sadly, it is almost unheard of for Obama, who ran in 2008 on post-partisanship, to actually engage in such bipartisanship for the good of the economy. House Republicans have passed 27 other jobs bills (with some Democratic support) that Senate Democrats and the president have ignored. When it comes to creating jobs and helping the economy, Democrats talk a good game. But that’s about it. The JOBS Act is a start, but...

. In an interview last night on Fox News, Gov Palin stated that the Paul Ryan budget was a good start. She thanked him for having the political courage to bring the budget issues to the debate. However, she went further than any other potential POTUS candidate in calling for more and quicker cuts than even Paul Ryan's budget. In one interview, Gov Palin has positioned herself has the most fiscal conservative of the possible candidates. Her leaving her state with $12 billion surplus lends even more weight to her argument. The massive surplus in AK that Gov Palin left...

If only....

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) on Tuesday commended House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget, calling it "Serious & necessary." Palin, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, said that Ryan's proposal is a good start (and linked to an op-ed from December when she praised Ryan's previous budget plan, a "Roadmap for America's Future"). She tweeted: There is hope! Serious & necessary leadership rolls out serious & necessary reform proposal. Good start (from Dec. http://on.wsj.com/eP0Kwo)

I wanted to make a screenshot of this, to post as a JPEG, but with the new Firefox, I can't find a suitable add-on. This is must see stuff. Rarely does a PDF merit 'breaking news' but I believe this is incredibly important to see. What a REAL Conservative Budget Looks Like (.pdf)

The deficit is a spending problem. That's the simple truth. If federal government spending after President Clinton's last budget had simply grown fast enough to keep up with inflation and the growth in population, the 2012 budget would be running over a $70 billion surplus. Instead, federal expenditures more than doubled from $1.86 to $3.82 trillion in the ten years from 2001 to 2011, causing this year’s enormous $1.65 trillion deficit. During President Obama's first three years in office the government's deficits are adding up to over $4.3 trillion. And there is no let up in sight. The Congressional Budget...

(CNSNews.com) - The fiscal 2012 budget proposal unveiled today by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.) offers sweeping reforms in federal spending, including defunding and repealing the health-care law signed last year by President Barack Obama and converting the federal share of the Medicaid program into block grants to state governments. The Republican proposal says one of its aims is “making sure that not a penny goes toward implementing the new [health care] law” enacted last year. This includes repealing about $800 billion in new taxes that were built into the law.

WASHINGTON - In response to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's new budget proposal, Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle issued the following statement today: "Americans hoping to get real about our national debt just got sucker-punched by Republican Paul Ryan. "Republicans want to spend $40 trillion over ten years. That averages a staggering $4 trillion per year. As recently as 2000, federal spending was only about $1.8 trillion. "They also want to increase the federal debt from $15.0 trillion to $23.1 trillion. I hope our children and grandchildren enjoy paying interest on that extra $8.1 trillion. "People should not judge...

It was certain to attract this sort of response, but Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan released his budget plan going forward that includes some sweeping changes to federal expenditures, including entitlement spending. One of those criticisms came from Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman New York Rep. Steve Israel. On Tuesday, immediately following Ryan’s release, Israel called it a “privatization scheme” and blasted it for addressing subsidies to oil companies. However, in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, Ryan fired back, admitting he saw this coming and called such criticisms “distortions and demagogueries.” Ryan specifically called out Israel...

The Paul Ryan deficit-elimination plan assumes that unemployment will drop to 2.8% by the year 2028. As Paul Krugman points out, the only time we've been at this level was briefly, during the Korean War. Even during the crazy .com, unemployment barely broke below 4%. Seriously, if Obama announced a plan with something like that, he'd be mocked left and right. And again, via Krugman, the Heritage Foundation table pointing out the number. You can see the 2.8% estimate in the very bottom right hand.

Representative Paul Ryan (Wisc.-1) and the House GOP released their ten-year budget entitled "The Path to Prosperity" [pdf] to much fanfare on Capitol Hill yesterday, laying out an alternative to President Obama's proposal. Compared to baseline numbers, the Path to Prosperity spends $5.8 trillion less, and $6.2 trillion less than the President's budget over the next ten years. The largest spending cuts come from the discretionary budget, both defense ($830 billion) and non-defense ($1.6 trillion). Rep. Ryan's defense budget accepts the proposals laid out by defense Secretary Robert Gates and endorsed by President Obama, but cuts spending in every other...

Representative Paul Ryan released a preview of his game-changing budget/debt proposal Monday night in an op-ed with the Wall Street Journal.  The plan, proposal, path, or whatever you want to call it brings with it the weight of some pretty sizable figures.  We're talking $6 Trillion in cuts over ten years folks.  Ryan has been hinting at a shocking figure, but who knew he was eyeballing this... "The GOP Path to Prosperity"   Wall Street Journal: Our budget, which we call The Path to Prosperity, is very different. For starters, it cuts $6.2 trillion in spending from the president's budget over...