Update 240: New Year, Old Budget, New Riders Plus Ça Change All Over Again in FY 18 Yesterday, Senate Democrats welcomed two new members to their ranks, Doug Jones of Alabama and Tina Smith of Minnesota. The swearings-in officially narrow the Republican Senate majority to one, 51-49. The thin majority was assuredly on the minds …
Update 239 — 2017 Spending Wraps Up; 2018 Opens with Shutdown Looming Yesterday, the House passed a stopgap measure that would fund the government through Jan. 19 The Senate approved the bill immediately afterward. Just weeks ago, Congress found itself in the familiar position of scrambling to avoid a government shutdown. It will be again in less …
Update 233 — Government Shutdown Avoided Til the Week Before Xmas, and all thru House This morning, the President signed H.J. 123, a stopgap measure to fund the government through December 22. The House and Senate passed the measure yesterday to prevent a government shutdown that would otherwise have occurred today. With another budgetary band-aid, …
Update 216: GOP Fiscal Future Out of Focus, Tax Plan Raises More Questions than Revenue When the Senate passed an FY 18 Budget Resolution, 51-49, it cleared the way for $1.5 trillion in deficit-financed tax cuts. Attention now turns back to the House, which will consider the Senate Resolution on Thursday. President Trump urged House …
Update 211: FY18 Budget Resolution Advances; Tax Policy via Reconciliation on the Horizon. Today saw two major steps toward Congressional approval of a FY 18 budget resolution. The House passed its 2018 budget resolution providing reconciliation instructions, paving the way for tax reform, on a 219-206 vote, 18 GOP members voting against. …
Update 202 — Defusing a Fiscal Bomb The Debt Limit: Truce & Accountability Last Wednesday, at the same oval office meeting with Congressional leaders where the famous fiscal deal extending the debt ceiling deadline was struck, President Trump spontaneously floated the idea of eliminating the debt ceiling altogether. The idea hit a chord with Sen. Schumer and a …
Defusing a Fiscal Bomb The Debt Limit: Truce & Accountability (Sep. 11) Read More »
Update 201 • Fiscal Deal with Democrats? Now For Something Completely Different Donald Trump’s Flying Circus of an administration did something nooobody expected yesterday, all but pulling a legislative solution to some impending must-pass fiscal policy deadlines out of a hat. This was a new trick and it fooled almost everyone in Congress, most of all the …
Update 193 — Fiscal Follies for FY18 GOP Tax Hopes Hang in Budget Balance Budget resolutions don’t get passed as a rule, but the lead-up to the FY 2018 budget is taking an interesting turn with a lot at stake. The Republicans are considering enacting tax reform via reconciliation. Recess looms — if a budget isn’t passed …
Update 179 — Trump’s FY18 Plan: The Skinny on a Skinny Budget The scale of the media coverage of the Trump administration’s FY18 budget proposal released today belies the future on the Hill for the plan, which is more message than legislative matter. The scale of domestic spending cuts in the proposal is staggering and unprecedented — $3.6 trillion over …
Update 172 Recess Recap Trump’s Economic Policy Scorecard As Congress prepares to go on a two-week recess, the Trump administration enters April with has no legislative productivity on big ticket items to its credit, its dreams of passing anything significant before August, a stated tax reform goal, looking remote. Trump made many campaign promises …
Recess Recap Trump's Economic Policy Scorecard (Apr. 6) Read More »
