Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that the Senate will vote on the nomination of Jim Nussle to be the new Director of the Office of Management and Budget on Monday, September 4 - the first day back from the August recess. Reid announced there will be three hours of debate on the nomination beginning at 2:30 pm. One hour each for the chairman and ranking member of the budget committee, and one hour controlled by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Sanders has announced a hold on Nussle's nomination because he has serious concerns about the nominee and his philosophical differences with the administration's fiscal policies. Sanders said: President Bush is completely out of touch with the economic realities facing working families in America. Bush needs to hear the truth, not an echo. He needs a budget director who will make him face the facts, not fan his fantasies.

I thought I'd point up an interesting article I read over the weekend in Reason, a libertarian magazine.

Paul Krugman has a must-read, or maybe a I-highly-recommend-you-read-it column today. You can get it for free over at Economist's View. It begins: It's been a good Democrats, bad Democrats kind of week. The bill expanding children's health insurance that just passed in the House makes you want to stand up and cheer. Reports that Senator Charles Schumer opposes plans to close the hedge fund tax loophole make you want to sit down and cry.

Matt did a good job this morning of giving the business to Robert Samuelson. Economist/blogger Mark Thoma weighs in as well for good measure. Thoma makes the critical point: