December 17th, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Rick Manning:

Last night’s announcement by Harry Reid that he is abandoning his $1.27 trillion Omnibus bill in favor of a shorter term continuing resolution will give Republicans the opportunity to prove that they are serious about cutting the budget next year.

Today, the new House Appropriations Subcommittee chairs will be announced with a charge from Republican leadership to immediately cut the budget rather than the traditional divvying up of an ever increasing pie. The true test of the 112th Congress will be if the culture of appropriations can truly be changed. Failure to do so, will not only destroy any trust that tea party supporters have in the Republican party, but more importantly, the status of the United States as the world’s leading economic power. Read the rest of this entry »

December 14th, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Rick Manning:

House Democrats posturing on the tax compromise will continue, but as conservative/tea party pressure continues on Republicans to reject the deal, if Pelosi and crew are smart, they will pass the Senate bill without changes. Moody’s announcement that passage of the legislation will increase the likelihood that the U.S. government’s bond rating will be lowered in the next two years adds pressure to the 112^th Congress to enact real budget cuts in order to stave off, the massive increase in interest costs to fund our national debt that a rating increase would create.

The first step in enforcing budget restraint is for Senate Republicans to only allow passage of a short term continuing resolution to allow them the flexibility to cut real spending in 2011, rather than waiting until Fiscal Year 2012 to take steps to get spending under control.

Ironically, Democrats who were unwilling to pass a budget for FY11 before the election now want to enforce their spending priorities on the new Republican House through a CR. Included in these priorities is funding ObamaCare’s implementation even though the law’s Constitutionality is now in serious question due to the decision by federal Judge Henry Hudson in Virginia’s ruling yesterday.

Those who pushed through passage of the law specifically chose not to include a severability clause, meaning if one part of the law was found to be unconstitutional, the whole law was thrown out, because they knew that without the funding mechanisms within the individual mandate section, the law was a budget nightmare. Hudson’s decision did not throw out the entire law, but eliminated the individual mandate, meaning that if Hudson is upheld, and ObamaCare goes into effect, the nation faces an even more disastrous fiscal situation. This is why stopping a CR that extends through the end of FY11 is essential to allowing the new Congress to deal with the likely budgetary tsunami that is likely to occur. Read the rest of this entry »

December 8th, 2010, Washington, DC–From ALG News’ Capitol Hill Correspondent Rick Manning:

The tax cut compromise has gotten a chilly response for House Democrats, and appears to have some significant problems in the Senate as well. Senator Jim DeMint’s concerns that the additional unemployment insurance extension is not paid for as well as the resurrection of the death tax are sure to be talking points among conservatives and fiscal hawks, and outgoing Senator George Voinovich supports allowing taxes to skyrocket when the ball drops in Times Square.

Obama’s emergency press conference revealed a President who clings to the campaign, “back of the bus drinking a slurpee” rhetoric, equating Republicans who don’t roll over to suit his political whims as “hostage takers”. Not exactly language that will create a positive working relationship in the upcoming two years with the House Republican majority.

Ultimately, for all the squawking in the House by the outgoing Speaker and her minions, they will do a deal because they have no power in January. It is likely that Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell cobble together 60 votes, with both knowing that this will be a preview of the next two years as Republicans try to impose some fiscal sanity on Washington. Read the rest of this entry »