The revelation that Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and White House chief of staff Dennis McDonough had a successful secret beer date might be cause to fundamentally rethink skepticism that dinner diplomacy could end Washington gridlock caused by Republicans and Democrats holding diametrically opposed positions.
One of the more interesting aspects of the release of the annual budget are updates to the historical tables, massive spreadsheets of data that show government spending stretching back decades. Here are five of the more interesting graphs that result.
Buried on page 51 of President Obama's budget proposal is a short section titled "Reform TVA" — where "reform" is likely to mean "privatize." It's the quiet beginning of a late chapter in the story of the New Deal, made necessary in part by Obama himself.
Many Republicans were unaware that Obama's been offering chained CPI for a while. It seems they were also unaware that Grover Norquist, conservatives' No. 1 anti-tax activist and an important GOP ally for decades, opposes chained CPI as a bad deal and a tax increase.
As budget negotiations heat up, you're probably going to hear a lot of talk about "correcting the measure of inflation" or "chaining the CPI." Don't let your eyes glaze over, though, because this might be one of the most important proposals in the whole budget.
By offering to raise taxes and cut entitlement spending at the same time, the new formal budget proposal from the Obama administration should sufficiently upset just about everyone who will have to vote on it.
The budget for 2014 that President Obama will propose next Wednesday bears all the hallmarks of a man who no longer has to worry about winning an election. There's something in there to piss off everyone — except people who love science! Space science.
The proposals will include cuts to Medicare and Social Security and tax increases... which doesn't change what the president was offering Republicans last fall — but it does mean pundits will declare Obama is offering a serious budget for serious times, DOA or not.
During the long and arduous financial fights on Capitol Hill, one of the Republicans favorite attacks was how the Democratic Senate had not passed a budget in four years. Well, that changed last night. The Senate finally got around to approving a budget that will die on arrival in the House.
Pundits are skeptical about whether President Obama will be able to charm Republicans into agreeing to a "grand bargain," but Republicans have plenty of tips for the president for getting a deal done.
Now that the sequester has settled in, we've learned that Republicans do not feel much urgency to protect defense spending. After President Obama's dinner diplomacy failed to produce a grand bargain, it doesn't look like they were after party invitations. And, now, we're learning that Republicans aren't all that enthusiastic about entitlement reform, either.
Paul Ryan is Washington's top chart man, and, as expected, was flanked by a chart when he presented the House Republican budget Tuesday. But terrifying charts of impending fiscal fears — and in bright blocks of color — are not a new thing.
And now, the Senate Democrats' budget proposal, in charts. It is ... less detailed than the 91-page Republican House budget announced by Paul Ryan earlier on Tuesday, mostly because it's only intended to steal Ryan's thunder.
Ryan's 91-page budget is not a budget document; it is a political baseline. From that standpoint, it's already a success. But here's what it actually looks like.
Ryan defends his plan to cut $5 trillion in government spending over 10 years by saying it will create jobs, and dismisses critics of his budget by suggesting they're blowing things out of proportion. But the world already has hard evidence that he's wrong on both counts.
It can get better for you, too. Walmart Foundation head Sylvia Mathews Burwell will be announced as President Obama's new White House Office of Management and Budget nominee on Monday, according to a new Reuters report.
Ezra Klein on Simpson-Bowles redux, Jonathan Cohn on the inevitably growing budget, Richard Weitz on Obama's second turn toward Asia, George Will on solitary confinement as torture, and Meghan Daum on Vassar's Westboro deflection.
Having tried and failed three times to get Congress to agree on a comprehensive deficit reduction package, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles are trying one more time live the impossible dream of bipartisan budget agreement.
Senate Democrats claim they struck an "agreement" that would head off the looming sequestration cuts, but since the deadline is 14 days away and Congress is in recess for the next ten, you probably shouldn't hold your breath.
Rebecca Dana on Current TV, Paul Krugman on budget bickering, Jeremy Warner on robotic economic growth, Tim Padgett on Venezuela's ailing leader, and William Pesek on India's rape case.
Leaked details of Obama's third attempt to compromise with Republicans on solutions for the fiscal cliff made headlines on Monday night, mainly the bit about increasing the earnings threshold to $400,000 for higher tax rates.
The latest poll numbers show that a record number of Americans favor raising taxes on the rich as a solution to our budget problems. With the fiscal cliff just weeks away, one question remains: Who cares?
There's more to France's new austerity budget than its proposed record-high tax rate, but the 75 percent tax on those making a million euros ($1.29 million) or more is certainly the thing that has people talking.
Budget forecasting may be an imperfect art prone to lots of error, but when researchers looked at how forecasts and reality measured up, the errors ran mostly in one direction.
Ryan has often said that he regretted the big spending during the Bush era. But that doesn’t belie the fact that Ryan, despite his reputation as a fiscal hawk, has voted for some pricey items over the years.
So far, President Obama has been known to address his Republican rivals mostly by implication. Not so at Tuesday's Associated Press luncheon, where he spoke directly about Rep. Paul Ryan and his likely rival Mitt Romney.
The House of Representatives passed Rep. Paul Ryan's controversial budget proposal Thursday, voting along party lines (minus ten Republicans who defected), and though this thing won't see the light of day as a law, expect a lot about it in the coming months.
Paul Ryan may be the intellectual leader of GOP fiscal conservatism but his proposals are starting to freak elected Republicans out.
The Congressional Budget Offices released a mixed batch of budget figures on Tuesday afternoon (PDF) that are bound to impact the election, though it's not clear who looks worse.
They're not happy about it but Republicans are set to join Democrats in adding $100 billion to the deficit for a 10-month payroll tax holiday.
Everyone agrees that much of President Obama's 2013 budget is dead-on-arrival in Congress but some aspects of the White House fiscal plan actually stand a chance in the Republican-controlled House.
Cartoonist Tony Auth's bleak outlook for the nation's Super Committee
For the first time since World War II, the United States will surpass the 100 percent debt-to-GDP line.
Topeka can't to pay to prosecute those crimes; Newark has stopped buying toilet paper
This time Congressional Republicans are trying to stop spending money on disaster relief
Obama has endorsed eliminating Saturday delivery to save the U.S Postal Service
Cartoonist Tom Toles on the 'Super' Committee
Cartoonist Tom Toles predicts the downfall of the 'Super Committee'
The House Speaker called the story "false" even before it could be posted on the web
Cartoonist Lisa Benson on the White House's greeting for House budget plans
On America in Libya, a loss for Wal-Mart's workers, and a new "credibility"
A new study concludes the death penalty has cost the state a total of $4 billion
Pundits across the political spectrum find themselves in new territory on the issue
Cartoonist Ben Sargent on legislators' favorite tools
Democrats hope to gain a House seat on the issue, while Scott Brown backs away
Republicans in Congress aren't eager to either criticize or vote for the proposal
Republican walks out of budget talks over demands for entitlement reforms
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