This afternoon, House Democrats announced they would permit consideration of three substitute budget proposals during debate of the FY 2008 budget resolution. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said today he expected substitute budgets from the Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and the House Republicans. While this is far more options than Representatives have had in the past under Republican rule, Some feel a notable omission from that list is the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition. While the Blue Dogs are unlikely to support the Black Caucus budget or the Progressive budget because the spending levels are a bit too hot for their taste, they will not support the Republican budget either, because the tax policies and low spending levels make cold. By opting not to offer their own version, it seems members of the Blue Dogs Coalition felt the main democratic proposal combined the right blend of fiscal responsibility and funding for pressing needs. While reestablishing a commitment to paying for changes to mandatory spending and taxes in the budget, the Democratic Leadership plan still boosts discretionary spending levels for under funded and neglected national priorities and investments, such as Head Start, child care, and housing. The Democrats' budget would allow about $25 billion more in discretionary spending in 2008 than President Bush has requested, and about $7 billion more than the Senate-adopted plan. In addition, like the Senate plan, the House budget would add additional funds (and deficit-neutral offsets) for mandatory nutrition and health care programs. While this is only a first step in repairing some of the damage done to important priorities in the federal budget over the past six years and before, it seems the Democrats have used a recipe that is neither too hot nor too cold, but just about right.

Jesse Jackson has a good editorial on the African American children being left behind by federal policy. One passage I thought needed playing up: We need longer school years and far better teachers, and teacher education. We need less discrimination in spending, in discipline, in advanced placement. Some of this costs money. But, Williams says, we're not spending the money we currently have well. For example, our broken health-care system is killing school budgets. Health-care costs are going up 10 to 15 percent a year, far outstripping normal increases in public funding.

The new Senate pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rule adopted last week as part of the budget resolution makes some key changes to the previous version, created in the FY04 Budget Resolution. It:

• creates a point of order against legislation that would worsen the deficit for any of the following time periods: FY07, FY08, the five-year period from FY08-12, or the five-year period from FY13-17
• remains in effect through 2017

General Services Administrator Lurita Doan is on the front page of the Washington Post once again. This article plays up the allegation that GSA held events to help Republican candidates in the 2006 election. Not much new is revealed in the article, though if you're not familiar with the whole ordeal it's a good place to start.