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Minutes after Budget Committee passes Democrats' budget, MSM editorials pop up denouncing it.
Senate Budget panel approves first spending blueprint in four yearshttp://www.democraticunderground.com/10022509421
Democratic budget namby-pamby opening bid: Our view
While the GOP plan would balance the budget in unbalanced way. Now let's make a deal.
The selection of a new pope overshadowed Wednesday's release of a Democratic budget resolution, and that might be just as well for the Democrats.
The plan produced by Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., is a disappointing document. It's less of a partisan manifesto than the plan her House Republican counterpart, Paul Ryan, put out a day earlier. But it is a namby-pamby plan that underwhelms at every turn.
The Murray and Ryan budgets are best seen as extreme opening bids for the sort of bipartisan negotiations President Obama is trying to jump-start with this week's outreach visits to Capitol Hill.
Perhaps the most significant thing about the Murray budget is that it exists at all. Senate Democrats hadn't bothered to pass a budget resolution since 2009, and the Obama White House still hasn't deigned to propose a plan for the coming fiscal year, something administrations typically do in February.
- more -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/14/senate-democrats-budget-house-republicans/1989091/
While the GOP plan would balance the budget in unbalanced way. Now let's make a deal.
The selection of a new pope overshadowed Wednesday's release of a Democratic budget resolution, and that might be just as well for the Democrats.
The plan produced by Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., is a disappointing document. It's less of a partisan manifesto than the plan her House Republican counterpart, Paul Ryan, put out a day earlier. But it is a namby-pamby plan that underwhelms at every turn.
The Murray and Ryan budgets are best seen as extreme opening bids for the sort of bipartisan negotiations President Obama is trying to jump-start with this week's outreach visits to Capitol Hill.
Perhaps the most significant thing about the Murray budget is that it exists at all. Senate Democrats hadn't bothered to pass a budget resolution since 2009, and the Obama White House still hasn't deigned to propose a plan for the coming fiscal year, something administrations typically do in February.
- more -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/14/senate-democrats-budget-house-republicans/1989091/
The Democrats’ complacent budget plan
By Editorial Board,
SENATE BUDGET Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has now weighed in with a budget plan to counter the House Republican tax-and-spending blueprint. We’ll get to that Democratic document in a moment. First, here’s a quick fiscal reality check, based on an analysis published Feb. 28 by economists William G. Gale and Alan J. Auerbach of the Brookings Institution.
There has been halting but real deficit reduction progress in recent months. The United States faces no imminent budget “crisis.” Nevertheless, the economists write, “the 10-year budget outlook remains tenuous.” Even assuming steady economic growth, the national debt in 2023 will be twice as high as its historical average, as a percentage of the economy — and poised to resume rising. That long-term fiscal problem, driven by the growth of entitlement programs for an aging population, remains unaddressed. Dealing with it, Messrs. Gale and Auerbach write, will take tax and spending changes “several times the size of those adopted under the recent legislation.”
Except for the part about no imminent crisis, the Senate Democratic budget recognizes none of this. Partisan in tone and complacent in substance, it scores points against the Republicans and reassures the party’s liberal base — but deepens these senators’ commitment to an unsustainable policy agenda.
Of the plan’s modest $1.85 trillion in 10-year savings, half would come from eliminating tax loopholes and deductions. The document admirably backs this goal with a sophisticated explanation of distortion and unfairness wrought by federal tax expenditures. But it is woefully imprecise about which breaks — including popular items such as the mortgage-interest deduction — it would eliminate. It alludes to economist Martin Feldstein’s intriguing plan to cap deductions and credits but doesn’t dare endorse it.
- more -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-democrats-complacent-budget-plan/2013/03/14/605a2c0c-8cbf-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html
By Editorial Board,
SENATE BUDGET Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has now weighed in with a budget plan to counter the House Republican tax-and-spending blueprint. We’ll get to that Democratic document in a moment. First, here’s a quick fiscal reality check, based on an analysis published Feb. 28 by economists William G. Gale and Alan J. Auerbach of the Brookings Institution.
There has been halting but real deficit reduction progress in recent months. The United States faces no imminent budget “crisis.” Nevertheless, the economists write, “the 10-year budget outlook remains tenuous.” Even assuming steady economic growth, the national debt in 2023 will be twice as high as its historical average, as a percentage of the economy — and poised to resume rising. That long-term fiscal problem, driven by the growth of entitlement programs for an aging population, remains unaddressed. Dealing with it, Messrs. Gale and Auerbach write, will take tax and spending changes “several times the size of those adopted under the recent legislation.”
Except for the part about no imminent crisis, the Senate Democratic budget recognizes none of this. Partisan in tone and complacent in substance, it scores points against the Republicans and reassures the party’s liberal base — but deepens these senators’ commitment to an unsustainable policy agenda.
Of the plan’s modest $1.85 trillion in 10-year savings, half would come from eliminating tax loopholes and deductions. The document admirably backs this goal with a sophisticated explanation of distortion and unfairness wrought by federal tax expenditures. But it is woefully imprecise about which breaks — including popular items such as the mortgage-interest deduction — it would eliminate. It alludes to economist Martin Feldstein’s intriguing plan to cap deductions and credits but doesn’t dare endorse it.
- more -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-democrats-complacent-budget-plan/2013/03/14/605a2c0c-8cbf-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html
No doubt they're upset it doesn't cut Social Security or Medicare benefits. I can only imagine what these clowns would say about the Progressive Caucus' budget.
Progressive Caucus releases the Back to Work Budget
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022506420
