Budget

Burwell faced little resistance from Senate Republicans during the first of two confirmation hearings on Tuesday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that President Obama’s 2014 budget sounds like a “warmed-over version of last year.”

“It sounds like the White House just tossed last year’s budget into the microwave,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “I sincerely hope it’s not just a warmed-over version of last year's [budget]. Because if it is — what a colossal waste of time.”

Obama's "chained CPI" proposal will protect elderly, low-income.

The American Farm Bureau Federation, a leading force in U.S. agriculture policy, on Monday sent Congress a revamped proposal for a five-year farm bill. 

Congress failed to complete a farm bill last year, and the agriculture sector is operating under an extension of the 2008 farm bill through Sept. 30.  

The Senate Agriculture Committee is expected to mark up a new bill this month and once again attempt to reduce the budget deficit in part by eliminating direct farm payments, which are distributed based on historical production levels.

The Farm Bureau has substantially changed its vision for the farm subsidies this year, although it once again backs ending direct payments.

A majority of older voters oppose cost-of-living cuts for Social Security and would object to their member of Congress supporting the policy, according to a new poll.

The national survey from AARP found that 66 percent of voters over 50 would be "considerably less favorable" to lawmakers that back slower cost-of-living increases in Social Security.

President Obama's new budget is expected to include a so-called chained consumer price index (CPI) proposal as an olive branch to Republicans, and the left has signaled strong opposition to the policy ahead of the budget's rollout Wednesday. 

President Obama will offer a budget this week that is expected to include $600 billion in new tax hikes and calls for entitlement cuts.

The long-delayed White House budget will arrive on Capitol Hill months late — and after the House and Senate approved their own budget blueprints.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will testify at hearings on Thursday with the House Ways and Means and the Senate Finance committees. He may also get some questions about his two-day swing through Europe, where he is set to discuss the EU financial crisis.

Jeff Zients, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), will testify Thursday before the Senate Budget panel on the president’s proposal. The House Budget Committee will also explore the president’s proposal with Zients on Thursday.

"There are nuggets of his budget that I think are optimistic," said Graham.

The senior White House adviser Sunday pushed back at GOP criticisms of Obama's forthcoming budget.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel faces an uphill battle in tackling the military’s budget problems.

White House press secretary Jay Carney promised Friday that President Obama's budget "will blow your mind."