Blog: The Fine Print / Open, Accountable Government

Responsibility in Lending

May 4, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Responding to the subprime lending market meltdown, Charles Schumer (D-NY) is proposing legislation that would give $300 million to community groups that can help troubled borrowers restructure their mortgage debt. And not only would Shcumer's bill change some mortgage lending regulations, it asks for mortgage lenders to kick in $600 million of their funds. Of course mortgage lenders, as spoken for by Mortgage Bankers Association Chairman John M. Robbins, are having none of this.

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BudgetBlog - Now in RSS!

May 4, 2007 by Craig Jennings

If you use a newsreader, you can subscribe the BudgetBlog. You can find the feed here. RSS? What's that?

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Tax, Spend and PAYGO

May 4, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Chris Hayes of The Nation writes that state politicians are "taxing and spending," and being rewarded for it. Will their success encourage Washington to do likewise?

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Michigan to Cut Medicaid

May 4, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Medicaid cuts in Michigan... Paulette Howell's son receives treatment for cerebral palsy through Medicaid. Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposed 6 percent cut across the board in state Medicaid funding has created a wave of fear among the disabled and family members like Howell that it'll be harder to get treatment. "It's a dangerous situation for people who are disabled," said Howell, 58, of Waterford Township. Medicaid pays for the treatments for her 35-year-old son, Joe.

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A Health Care Cost-Containment Plan

May 1, 2007 by Matt Lewis

I've been wondering for some time who had a plan to reduce the costs but not the quality of health care. Of course somebody does- it's such a big issue that everyone can't be ignoring it- but who? Well, it turns out that MedPAC, a government advisory board on Medicare, and probably the first place I should have looked, already has a plan. Check out this article for a quick summary of MedPAC's latest report.

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1Q07 GDP Growth Estimate 1.3%; Revenue Implications?

Apr 27, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Returning to our long-standing concern about the 5-7 percent, five-year projections of federal revenue growth, we hereby put down a marker, in light of BEA's GDP growth estimate of 1.3 percent for the first quarter of 2007, released today. We will return to the question of the plausibility of the 5-7 percent revenue growth figures offered by the president, Congress, and even the CBO in about three weeks' time, when the CBO issues its next Monthly Budget Review.

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CAP's Strategy for Cutting Poverty in Half over 10 Years

Apr 27, 2007 by Dana Chasin

A report released on April 25 by the Center for American Progress (CAP) Task Force on Poverty examines the problem and consequences of poverty in America. According to the report:

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Attention, Deficit

Apr 25, 2007 by Matt Lewis

An interesting debate on deficits has sprung up...
  • Jared Bernstein argues against a narrow focus on balanced budgets.
  • Greg Anrig's response
  • For more on this critical debate, see the materials from this recent EPI event, our summary of it in The Watcher, and Dana's reaction.
UPDATE: Brad Plumer has a good take on the EPI event, and Ezra Klein responds. OK, that's enough.

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Treasury Secretary Tired of Social Security 'Solitaire'

Apr 24, 2007 by Dana Chasin

We've sung the sad song of Secretary Paulson before. At a Washington press briefing yesterday, he confessed, referring to Social Security reform:

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Deficits: Who Are the Real Maniacs?

Apr 24, 2007 by Dana Chasin

At the Agenda for Shared Prosperity's "Beyond Balanced Budget Mania" forum earlier this month, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz gave a much-discussed 30,000-mile aerial perspective on how to look at and evaluate deficits and what we are buying with them:

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