Blog: The Fine Print / Revenue & Spending

Elusive Major Savings Document Finally Released

Feb 12, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

President Bush often speaks about not spending federal dollars on programs that do not get results. In fact, in his State of the Union speeches in 2005 and 2006, he referred to a list of programs he was proposing to be reduced or eliminated because they did not produce results. And each year, on Friday after the budget was released, the Office of Management and Budget released a huge document detailing each of those programs the president wanted reduced or eliminated - just in time not to make it into papers or the public's consciousness.

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Summary: Rangel-McCreary $1.3 Billion Tax Package

Feb 12, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

As of this writing, the House Ways and Means Committee is marking up a $1.3 billion tax package proposal co-sponsored by Committee chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) and ranking member Jim McCrery (R-LA). The package, H.R. 976 (the Small Business Tax Relief Act Of 2007), would accompany the House minimum wage bill when it is conferenced with the Senate bill, which combines a minimum wage hike and an $8.3 billion tax package. H.R. 976 is expected to clear the Committee today and the full House when it comes up for a vote, perhaps as early as this Wednesday.

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I Didn't ExpectMore.gov, But Should I Have?

Feb 12, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

We did not have a lot of good things to say about the president's FY 2008 budget last week (see here, here, here, and here), but there was one thing that was worthy of praise.

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NYT Editorial on Deficit Reduction Lacking

Feb 12, 2007 by Matt Lewis

An interesting editorial in the NYT today outlines a plan that, if implemented, would seem to have a good chance of eliminating the deficit. Three quick complaints:
  • The authors are silent on the Bush tax cuts, so I assume they want them extended.
  • They are pretty much silent on the estate tax, although the make an oblique reference to only taxing estates bigger than $7 million- a huge cut compared to recent levels.

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Human Cost of Contracting

Feb 12, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The LA Times has a good story today on the human toll of defense contracting. Many contractors come home with the same problems as soldiers, but they aren't given the same recognition or care. Unable to access local veterans' hospitals, some of the men took a class in post-traumatic stress in a small room beside the bar. Several had been diagnosed with the disorder but had been unable to get steady treatment.

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Dionne on President's Budget

Feb 9, 2007 by Matt Lewis

EJ Dionne's column on budget trade-offs and priorities is a good read. This president will defend tax cuts by any means necessary. It was one of those moments when a public official gives away a larger truth by offering what seems to be a throwaway line. Testifying this week on President Bush's budget, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. suggested he would not mind a bit if the Democratic Congress added money to prevent cutbacks in coverage under the federal government's children's health insurance program.

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Ensign of the Times: Suddenly Suspicious of Supplementals

Feb 8, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a cloture petition and filled the amendment tree, limiting debate on the must-pass FY 2007 CR. GOP Senators, dismayed by the $3 billion cut in BRAC in the House version of the CR, seem unmollified by assurances from Reid and Appropriations chair Robert Byrd (D-WV) that the funding would be restored in the upcoming $100 billion-plus supplemental war spending bill, which is not subject to spending caps.

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PART: Still Just Blowing Smoke

Feb 8, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

More evidence today that the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) is really not used to inform the president's budgeting decisions. Ryan Grim reports for The Politico newspaper that President Bush requested a 31 percent increase in funding for the Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, a program within the White House Office of Drug Control Policy that runs advertisements to encourage kids not to take drugs.

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Entitlement Enlightenment: Into the Bipartisian, Interbranch Breach

Feb 8, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad (D-ND) and OMB Direct Robert Portman outdid each other at yesterday's Committee hearing. They lavishly praised each other's sincerity and good-faith bipartisan commitment to restoring the nation's fiscal imbalances by guaranteeing long-term entitlement program solvency, taking pains and risks to be sure to leave everything on the table, sharing a good-natured chuckle at the off-message public comments of a naughty Vice President who tried take some minor taxware of the table in broad daylight. The lyrics to their Kumbaya cooing were as follows:

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Health Care Wrongness

Feb 8, 2007 by Matt Lewis

A note on a budget meme that needs to be done in. The Washington Post: Some of its approaches, particularly the effort to restrain the growth of Medicare through additional means-testing and cutting payments to providers, are commendable; they merit more serious consideration by Congress than they appear destined to receive. The New York Times:

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