Category Archives: Sequestration

Unemployment Benefits and Harry Reid’s Pain

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Harry Reid has embraced the pain of sequestration in his proposal to extend jobless benefits. But does it address the problem? [Credit: Roll Call]

Har­ry Reid has embraced the pain of seques­tra­tion in his pro­pos­al to extend job­less ben­e­fits. But does it address the prob­lem? [Cred­it: Roll Call]

“I think it’s real­ly unfair that it would be so easy to turn the sequester around and allow us to do some­thing for the long term to take care of this issue. But no, the Repub­li­cans like the pain. They like the pain.”  — Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Har­ry Reid, April 24, 2013

Har­ry Reid (D‑NV) has late­ly embraced the pain of sequester. On Thurs­day, Reid advanced a pro­pos­al to off­set the cost of extend­ing “emer­gency” unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits with auto­mat­ic cuts in med­ical spend­ing for the elder­ly and dis­abled. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How The Budget Deal Could Threaten Obamacare

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An angry John Boehner (R-OH) lashed out at conservative groups who opposed the budget deal. The deal strengthens his hand with his caucus and in negotiations over changes to Obamacare. [Credit: Washington Post]

An angry John Boehn­er (R‑OH) lashed out at con­ser­v­a­tive groups who opposed the bud­get deal. The deal strength­ens his hand with his cau­cus and in nego­ti­a­tions over changes to Oba­macare. [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Post]

“Frankly, I think they’re mis­lead­ing their fol­low­ers. I think they’re push­ing our mem­bers in places where they don’t want to be. And frankly, I just think that they’ve lost all cred­i­bil­i­ty.” – House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH), com­ment­ing on oppo­si­tion by con­ser­v­a­tive groups to the bud­get deal.

Last week’s over­whelm­ing House vote to rat­i­fy a mod­est bud­get agree­ment has been var­i­ous­ly depict­ed as a defeat for the Tea Par­ty, a rare instance of bipar­ti­san­ship, and a moment of ratio­nal­i­ty in an oth­er­wise chaot­ic and dys­func­tion­al bud­get process. It is all of those things and some­thing more: a new threat to the already trou­bled imple­men­ta­tion of Oba­macare. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Could A Wealth Tax Solve the Problem of Government Debt?

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A recent IMF report suggests that this man's enormous wealth might help resolve the government's debt problem. [Credit: NY Post]

A recent IMF report sug­gests that this man’s enor­mous wealth might help resolve the gov­ern­men­t’s debt prob­lem. [Cred­it: NY Post]

The Inter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund (IMF) recent­ly report­ed that Euro­pean gov­ern­ments could reduce their debt back to pre-Great Reces­sion lev­els by con­fis­cat­ing 10 per­cent of the wealth held by their rich­est cit­i­zens. IMF isn’t rec­om­mend­ing that, of course.

They’re just sayin’. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

More Than A Website: Will Insurers Prosper Under Obamacare?

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The Bee Gees' "More Than A Woman" was a 70s sensation. In promoting his health care law, the President now has a similar mantra: "More Than A Website." (Credit: AP)

The Bee Gees’ “More Than A Woman” was a 70s sen­sa­tion. In pro­mot­ing his health care law, the Pres­i­dent has adopt­ed a sim­i­lar phrase, remind­ing us that Oba­macare is more than a web­site. (Cred­it: AP)

The Pres­i­den­t’s health care law has had a trou­bled first month, but it is far too soon to know whether its prob­lems will prove last­ing and severe.  Even some of its most fer­vent sup­port­ers, like the Wash­ing­ton Post’s Ezra Klein, acknowl­edge that its defi­cien­cies run deep­er than a clunky web­site.  Oba­macare, the Pres­i­dent reminds us, is more than a web­site, but its prob­lems extend far beyond its 5 mil­lion lines of errant code. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

In Washington, All Is Well

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The faces of Congressional leaders are hardly etched with joy, but they did manage to avert a fiscal crisis, even if only for a few months. [Credit: Bloomberg]

The faces of Con­gres­sion­al lead­ers are hard­ly etched with joy, but they did man­age to avert a fis­cal cri­sis, even if only for a few months. [Cred­it: Bloomberg]

Octo­ber 16, 2013, 6:00 am

All is well in Wash­ing­ton. The gov­ern­ment is spend­ing and bor­row­ing again. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Republicans Getting Deficit Reduction, But President Getting His Way

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The President and Speaker are headed for another budget confrontation. [Credit: Fox News]

The Pres­i­dent and Speak­er are head­ed for anoth­er bud­get con­fronta­tion. [Cred­it: Fox News]

Con­gress is on hol­i­day, rest­ing up for the next round of bud­get wars that will resume after Labor Day. The issues they will face when they return are famil­iar: the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is about to lose author­i­ty to do what it does best (or, at least, most nat­u­ral­ly) – bor­row and spend. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Spoiler Alert: The Senate Sequestration Bill Won’t Become Law

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Boehner Sequestration Clock

Speak­er of the House John Boehn­er, with Reps. Martha Roby, R‑Ala., and Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers, R‑Wash., talk about the sequester on Feb. 13.
Pho­to by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The polit­i­cal war of words over $85 bil­lion in auto­mat­ic spend­ing cuts set to take effect March 1 will next evolve into a leg­isla­tive bat­tle in the Sen­ate. The result of that bat­tle is uncer­tain. The final out­come is not: whether or not the Sen­ate man­ages to pass the mea­sure, it will not become law. It will not because it cannot.

Although the bill won’t actu­al­ly be intro­duced until next Mon­day or Tues­day, it is expect­ed to replace the across-the-board spend­ing cuts with a mix­ture of spec­i­fied cuts and tax increas­es. And there­in lies its undo­ing. Con­tin­ue read­ing →