Budget

The Blue Dog Coalition completed its new leadership roster on Wednesday, appointing Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) as the group's whip. 

Boren takes over for Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) who moved up to co-chair for Administration's spot. 

Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.), is the new co-chair for Policy and Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) becomes the new co-chair for Communications, rounding out the group's new leadership team, most of which was announced Tuesday night. 

Shuler, Barrow and Ross succeed, respectively, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) and Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.), who lost their races and Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), who won reelection but was shifted out of the group's leadership by the by-laws that require a change every session of Congress. 

The Blue Dog's ranks took a heavy hit in midterm elections, as nearly half of the fiscally conservative members lost their bids for reelection. Out of the 54 Blue Dogs about 23 lost, three retired and two ran for higher office, leaving 26 remaining.

A new report is urging a payroll holiday of Social Security taxes, combined with tax code reform, a national sales tax and a freeze most of defense and discretionary spending to reduce the deficit and balance the budget. 

The plan, released Wednesday by Alice Rivlin, former head of the Office of Management and Budget, and former Senate Budget Chairman Pete Domenici, would save almost $5.9 trillion from 2012 to 2020.  

The final report of the Rivlin-Domenici Debt Reduction Task Force through the Bipartisan Policy Commission calls for a 6.5 percent national sales tax, simplification of income tax brackets, freezing discretionary and defense spending, and making changes to Medicare and Social Security to reduce costs and assure the programs' longevity. 

"It's a total plan; it does the job," Domenici said Wednesday.

"This is a package you can't cherry-pick. You must do the whole package," he said.

The Blue Dog Coalition, decimated in the midterm elections, announced its new leadership team Tuesday night. 

Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) becomes co-chair for Administration, Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.), is the new co-chair for Policy and Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) becomes the new co-chair for Communications.

Nearly half of the fiscally conservative Blue Dogs lost their bids for reelection, two retired and two ran for higher office. Out of the 54 Blue Dogs about 23 lost, three retired and two ran for higher office leaving 26. 

They succeed Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) and Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.), who lost their races and Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), who won reelection but was shifted out of the leadership by the by-laws that require a change every session of Congress. 

“At a time when both parties are being pulled far from the mainstream, the Blue Dog Coalition will continue to be a moderating force in the 112th Congress,” Ross said in a statement. “Voters have resoundingly demanded a more moderate Congress and we must begin to work together to pass bipartisan, commonsense legislation that creates jobs, restores fiscal responsibility to our government and gets our economy back on track."

Rep. Jan Schakowsky is putting out starkly different recommendations than the chairmen of the debt commission.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates took a swipe on Tuesday at the proposal from the co-chairmen of President Obama's deficit commission to slash the Pentagon budget by $100 billion. 

Gates said that such drastic cuts could devastate the military’s force structure without any big impact on the nation's red ink.  

“The truth of the matter is when it comes to the deficit, the Department of Defense is not the problem,” Gates said at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council on Tuesday. “I think in terms of the specifics they came up with, that is math not strategy.” 

The Wall Street Journal reported on Gates's comments from the forum. 

In a draft proposal presented to the 18-member debt commission, the panel’s leaders suggested slashing $100 billion from defense spending by 2015 to get the nation’s finances in order. Some of the cuts would come from a portion of the savings that Gates wants to pour back into modern weapons systems and toward U.S. troops at war.

A majority of voters support Congress extending unemployment insurance for workers who have exhausted their state benefits, even though the nation's federal budget deficits are at near-record levels. 

In a poll released Monday, 73 percent of voters say it's too early to cut back benefits for those who are struggling to find work as unemployment rate hovers at 9.6 percent, according to a report released Monday from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and Half In Ten, a campaign aimed at cutting poverty in half in 10 years. 

Only 24 percent said the more-than-$1 trillion deficit is a reason to cut back on the benefits. 

If lawmakers don't act by Nov. 30, upward of 2 million people could be without federal emergency benefits, which have been in place since July 2008, by the end of the year, according to figures from NELP. 

GOP conference to vote on the ban Tuesday; DeMint says those who aren't supportive could face trouble in 2012.

The top two House Republican leaders said Friday that they will hold a vote to ban all earmarks for the 112th Congress.

Presumptive Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and presumptive House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced that their GOP conference would vote next week to ban all earmarks.

"Next week the House Republican Conference, including all of our newly elected Members, will vote on a measure that would impose an immediate ban on earmarks at the start of the 112th Congress," the leaders said in a joint statement.

Boehner and Cantor called earmarks "a symbol of a dysfunctional Congress and serve as a fuel line for the culture of spending that has dominated Washington for too long."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the proposals “simply unacceptable” while the two men battling to be her deputy released muted responses.

With support solidified on the House Budget Committee, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is poised to become the panel's ranking member in the next Congress. 

Van Hollen has endorsements from all 17 returning Democrats on the committee, including Rep. Allyson Schwartz (Pa.), who's next in line to take the top Democratic post. 

House Budget Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.), who lost his bid for a 15th term in last week's elections, also backed Van Hollen for the job. 

Van Hollen officially announced his bid Wednesday to become the Democrats' ranking member and has spent the past couple of days canvassing his party for support.