Trump's Budget Shortchanges the Prison Reform Bill He Signed
The FIRST STEP Act called for $75 million for reentry programs. It's not listed in the White House's summary.
The FIRST STEP Act called for $75 million for reentry programs. It's not listed in the White House's summary.
The administration's new $1 trillion infrastructure plan is light on both details and free market reforms.
And the real outcome is likely to be worse, since the budget relies on overly rosy assumptions about future economic growth.
Democratic mega-proposals, GOP budgetary fictions, prostitution decriminalization surprises, and Zardoz moments galore
The budget will take 15 years to balance and envisions trillion-dollar deficits through 2022, even with rosy economic assumptions.
Incredibly, the White House is trying to pitch this chicanery as an exercise in fiscal responsibility. Congress shouldn't buy it.
The FIRST STEP Act was supposed to get $75 million to fund reentry programs and job training. That's missing from the budget bill being voted on Thursday.
Unless we make some big changes, things won't get much better.
The legislative branch is failing its basic constitutional duties, out of cowardly fear of a blustery president.
In the long term, deficit-financed tax cuts would be a drag on the economy.
Just days after the latest CBO projections showed the deficit getting worse, Congress signs off on another bi-partisan spending increase.
The federal government has run up a deficit of $684 billion this year. The CBO predicts that number will exceed $1 trillion in 2019.
Democrats will oppose anything Trump wants, unless it's more money for the Pentagon.
The really scary thing is that even the CBO's more accurate assessment is also based on unlikely assumptions.
Even the suggestion that defense spending could be cut is enough to scare most Republicans away from a facing fiscal reality.
Do Republicans have the guts to impose strict spending caps?
As Paul Ryan exits, a new CBO report confirms the extent of the GOP's damage to the nation's budget.
The Congressional Budget Office is about to release a report. Spoiler alert: It won't be pretty.
Thanks to Congress and President Trump, budget deficits will only mushroom.
Congress kneecapped minor league ballplayers' lawsuit with last week's omnibus bill. Even if that was the right thing to do, the way it was done is wrong.
Spending. The Pentagon. TIGER grants. Border Wall. NSF. Planned Parenthood. CDC. Head Start. The whole process. I can't take it anymore.
The spending bill is a product of a broken, secretive, centralized legislative process.
Four out of five voters agree that Washington has a spending problem, but a new omnibus spending bill will add yet more to the national debt.
The era of big government is far from over.
The administration's spending blueprint continues the fiscal decline that began during the Bush era.
"The real problem is that we spend way more money than we take in. We have to address that."
"What you are seeing is recklessness being passed off as bipartisanship," said Paul on the Senate floor.
Both parties agree on more spending and bigger deficits.
Because nothing in Washington is more terrifying than the prospect of a minuscule spending reduction
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The feds can't pass a budget or do much very well, yet a record level of Americans want it more involved in our lives. That's not as crazy as it seems.
The governor often talks about fiscal frugality, responsibility and reform, but there isn't much follow-up action.
Everything you need to know about the Trump/GOP/Schumer/Pelosi/Democratic government shutdown of 2018 in a single tweet.
Budgeting isn't about budgeting anymore.
The president is who he is, and that's sad. But Congress has no excuse for not passing a budget and doing its job.
Republican leaders spent most of the Obama years attacking rising debt and massive spending. Now that they control the budget, they could not care less.
Read bills before voting, and other ways Congress can be less terrible in 2018.
President Trump and the GOP leadership has already reneged on promises to tackle entitlements.
*Not including the cost of ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Niger...or the $4.8 trillion debt already accumulated from the post-9/11 wars.
Republicans want to create the illusion of deficit control.
This week's show covers the John Kelly phone flap, former presidents against Trump, and why Republicans are only pretending to be worried about the budget.
The president and congressional Democrats just worked together on a bad debt ceiling and budget deal.