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Budget Battles

Budget Battles : Opinion Brief
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republican senators sharply criticized President Obama's fiscal 2013 federal budget plan when it was released in February because it contained a number of tax-break repeals.

Will 'Taxmageddon' trigger a new recession?

A new report warns that if Congress doesn't prevent automatic tax hikes and spending cuts from hitting simultaneously in 2013, the economy will go off a cliff

 
Budget Battles : The Bullpen
Paul Brandus

Paul Brandus: The messy tax fight that will ruin Christmas

Obama wants tax rates and the debt ceiling to go up. Republicans want spending levels to go down. Get ready for gridlock

 
Budget Battles : The List
House Speaker John Boehner in August 2011 after Congress reached a bipartisan deal on the debt-limit: Boehner seems to want to rehash that ordeal come December to satisfy his Tea Party constituents.

Why John Boehner wants another debt ceiling showdown: 5 theories

The House Speaker seems to be relishing the possibility of reliving the awful debt-ceiling drama of 2011 come December

 
Budget Battles : The Bullpen
Bill Frist

Bill Frist: 5 reasons deficit hawks should lay off global health initiatives

America's national debt is ballooning at a worryingly rapid pace. But some programs ought to be spared the chopping block

 
Budget Battles : Burning Question
Stewart Kern waits to apply for food stamps in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in February 2011. Recent statistics show that 1 in 7 Americans receives benefits through the federal program.

Is it immoral for Congress to cut food stamps?

Religious leaders are taking Republicans to task for a House budget that would slash benefits to the poor

 
Budget Battles : Fact Sheet
Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget would reduce the top individual and corporate tax rates to 25 percent.

8 reasons to love — or hate — Paul Ryan's budget

The GOP budget guru unveils the fiscal document Republicans will carry into this year's election. A look at the good, the bad, and the partisan

 
Budget Battles : Instant Guide
Paul Ryan's new budget takes an ax to all of the government's entitlement plans, including Medicare, welfare, food stamps, and transportation.

Paul Ryan's 'austerity' budget: What would it cut?

The Republican House Budget Committee chairman proposes broad reductions in social spending... but he's not looking for savings everywhere

 
Budget Battles : Analysis
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) unveiled a budget Tuesday that calls for repealing President Obama's health-care reforms, slashing Medicare, and overhauling the tax code.

Paul Ryan's new 'Medicare-killing' budget: Will it help the GOP?

Just as he did last year, the Wisconsin Republican again ignites a feud with a spending plan that calls for overhauling a popular, decades-old entitlement program

 
Budget Battles : Opinion Brief
President Obama shakes hands with Americans who benefit from the payroll tax holiday that congressional leaders have agreed to extend through 2012.

Did the GOP really cave on Obama's payroll tax holiday?

Republicans puzzle much of D.C. by suddenly backing off a demand to slash spending in exchange for extending a tax holiday. Is there more here than meets the eye?

 
Budget Battles : The List
In Virginia on Monday, President Obama speaks about his 2013 budget, which proposes tax hikes on the rich and increased spending on infrastructure projects.

Obama's 'nervous breakdown' budget: 5 talking points

The president's polarizing spending plan is dead on arrival in Congress, critics say. But it's still triggering plenty of debate

 
Budget Battles : The Bullpen
Paul Brandus

Paul Brandus: Obama's cynical, unpassable budget

The president knows the tax hikes in his spending plan have no chance of passing the GOP House. But that could still give him a great campaign argument

 
Budget Battles : Opinion Brief
If President Obama lets the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year, Grover Norquist and anti-tax Republicans will reportedly push for impeachment.

Could the GOP impeach Obama for ending the Bush tax cuts?

Though liberals are scoffing, that's the threat from Grover Norquist, the anti-tax activist who has essentially been setting the GOP's tax policy

 
Budget Battles : The Bullpen
Paul Brandus

Paul Brandus: The payroll tax shell game

The ballyhooed bill delays a de facto tax hike for millions of Americans — but also undermines Social Security and the economic recovery

 
Budget Battles : Analysis
Just as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell foreshadowed Thursday, the House passed the two-month payroll tax cut extension.

The payroll tax cut deal: 3 reasons the GOP caved

Congress finally agreed on a temporary extension of the tax holiday, just days before it was set to expire

 
Budget Battles : The List
The Senate's two-month extension of the payroll tax break is unworkable, says House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), whose caucus refuses to go along with the bipartisan plan.

3 reasons why Congress should reject the payroll tax break

A partisan showdown is endangering an effort to extend a tax holiday for the middle class. But not everyone thinks that's a bad thing

 
Budget Battles : Opinion Brief
Speaker John Boehner won't back a two-month extension of the payroll tax break, and 160 million American workers may see their taxes go up a full two percentage points as a result.

Will the House GOP kill the payroll tax break?

John Boehner and Co. vow not to back the Senate's two-month extension of the popular tax cut — and it may be too late to negotiate a new deal

 

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Lauren Odes

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