Economy & Budget

Republicans need to focus their fire on spending, spending and spending. President Obama is vulnerable and exposed and can be taken down over this issue. His recent drop in polling can be directly attributed to his spirited opposition to the sequester cuts.
 
Ever since Obama succeeded in raising taxes, he has been left naked and unprotected on his opposition to spending cuts. No longer can he deflect proposals to curb the massive federal spending and debt by saying that we should first try to raise taxes on the rich. Now that he has had his way, he’s lost his cover.

News flash. Senate Democrats pass a budget out of committee that includes massive tax increases, dramatically increases spending, never is projected to come close to balancing the budget, and in a tip of the hat to George Orwell, they call it “balanced” in its approach.

Is there any doubt why House Republicans found it nearly impossible to find budget solutions with a group so far out of touch?

Paul Ryan is the subject of much criticism because he is tainted as one who has no concern for the poor and the elderly. This is because he has advocated fiscal responsibility and the curtailment of out-of-control entitlement spending.

And now in the next act of the Washington performance, the Senate Democrats offer their budget, the House Republicans offer their budget, the president (between resets about what his presidency is about) will sooner or later offer his budget.

But one thing is clear: Nobody will offer a budget that promises to create significantly more jobs at a time when joblessness is the great national scandal.

The Hill's A.B. Stoddard sits down with Pundits Blog writers John Feehery and Peter Fenn to discuss Congress's challenge in passing a budget.

Despite his declaration that the Senate “needs to get off their ass,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) may have opened up the possibility of negotiations on real tax reform.

Of course, tax committee chairmen Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) are deep into negotiations to come up with workable ideas to reform our tax system. So Boehner’s comments today weren’t totally out of the blue.

But Boehner may realize the key to a grand bargain is as much in revamping our tax system as it is in the Tea Party’s slash and burn politics. As much as the Republicans love to repeat “we have a spending problem,” the smart ones know deep down that we have a revenue problem too.

The Hill's A.B. Stoddard sits down with Pundits blog contributors John Feehery and Peter Fenn to discuss the looming sequester and its impact on jobs and defense.

The GOP in Congress has already lost three rounds of the fight for a balanced budget.

In December they agreed to raise taxes with no "quid pro quo". This year, they agreed to suspend the debt ceiling and finally delayed the sequestration until March. Unfortunately, as is usually the case with President Obama, the Republicans got nothing in exchange for compromising their fiscal principles.

The Hill's A.B. Stoddard takes your questions on the sequester and immigration reform. 

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) admitted earlier this week, in a press briefing before the State of the Union, that Republicans are no longer committed to pushing tax reform this year because the effort might be a waste of time.

"There's a debate going on about whether we can get to the kind tax reform we want given the outcome of the election," Boehner said, adding that the GOP would "love" to simplify the code and lower rates for all. Yet, in doubting the end result, Boehner is questioning the merits of the effort, and asked "why go through all of that effort if it isn't going anywhere, or why go through that effort if the outcome would be unacceptable?"