Blog: The Fine Print / Revenue & Spending

Approps Update: Chambers Approve Defense, Labor-H

Nov 9, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Thursday evening, the Senate approved the Defense spending bill conference report, and the House gave thumbs-up to the Labor-H conference report. Meanwhile, a conference committee approved the $50.9 billion Transportation-HUD spending bill. November 9, 2007 House Senate Conf. Cmte. President Cmte. Floor $ Agriculture 18.8 18.7 $ Commerce-Justice- Science 53.6 54.6 54.6 Defense 459.6 459.6 459.6 459.3 $ Energy & Water 31.6 32.3 Financial Services 21.4 21.8 $ Homeland Security 36.3 37.6 37.6 $

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House Approves Labor/HHS- Next Stop, President

Nov 9, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Yesterday, the House approved Labor/HHS conference report on its own by 274-141 (roll call). If 3 nay votes switch, it'd enough to override a presidential veto. Now the bill will be sent to the President, though its not clear exactly when that will happen. The President then will most likely veto it, and the onus will be on the House to override it. Update: See this Coalition on Human Needs pamphlet for the budget cuts a veto-sustaining vote would be supporting.

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Checks

Nov 8, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Congress had its first veto override today. That wasn't so awful now, was it?

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Deficit/Spending

Nov 8, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Here's an interesting paper on the "starve the beast" school of government reduction by tax cut (via Inclusion). The abstract:

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Surreal Estate: House Hit with Hysterical Hyperbole

Nov 8, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The Real Estate Roundtable has sent a letter to members of the House which amply demonstrates why the lobbying campaign to defend the carried interest taxloophole for fund managers is faring so poorly. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the revenue raised by closing this loophole for all fund managers combined -- of which real estate fund managers are but a fraction -- is roughly $2.6 billion annually. That's about a fifth of one one-thousandth of our economy.

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John Edwards Has A Secret

Nov 8, 2007 by Matt Lewis

An interesting article in the Times on who's advising the presidential candidates on economic policy. So far, only John Edwards has broken Washington taboos and (quietly) declared that he'd increase the deficit to pay for more social spending.

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Veto Vertigo: Bad News, Good News

Nov 8, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Today, the White House issued a formal veto threat ($) against the AMT patch/tax extenders bill with carried interest and other payfors, which comes up for a House vote tomorrow. The veto-mad president, gunning down the FY 2008 bills that are, in the aggregate, two percent more than his spending requests -- on the grounds that the bills' spending levels are "excessive" -- points to the fact that the AMT patch is wholly offset with pay-for provisions and calls them "inappropriate." Dizzying, isn't it? He's hard to please, I guess.

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Senate Strips MilCon/VA from Labor/HHS

Nov 8, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Yesterday, the Senate separated the MilCon/VA funding from the Labor/HHS appropriations bill, and then it passed the Labor/HHS bill by a much lower margin than it had previously. The House will now have to vote on the Labor/HHS conference report on its own. It will almost certainly pass, and then the bill will be sent to the President. Here's the roll call on final passage, and the roll call on the procedural vote to separate the two bills.

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US Owes Creditors $9,000,000,000,000.00

Nov 8, 2007 by Dana Chasin

That's 65% of GDP (and a good argument for PAYGO) A dubious milestone was passed on Tuesday, November 6, as the U.S. national debt crossed the $9 trillion mark. Don't look now (no one likes a clock watcher), but it's billions more already. At 65 percent of GDP, it could be paid off if every good and service produced in the U.S. from January 1 until September 30, 2008 were given free of charge to the nation's creditors. You can spare that nine months' worth of salary, can't you?

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Fiscal Fortitude Award to ... Charlie Rangel

Nov 7, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Extremely honorable mention to ... Warren Buffett Per yesterday's blog about the fiscal fortitudinal challenge facing Congress, there is one person standing above the fray of the feckless: House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY). Asked if he intended to withdraw his carried interest provision as an AMT patch pay-for in the face of mixed signals from the Senate, he declared, ""Hell no, forget about it."

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