Cuts

9:08 AM, May 18, 2011 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

Much has been made of the Paul Ryan-authored House budget’s proposal to make Medicare more solvent through increased competition and choice — and rightly so. But that proposal is hardly the sole difference between the respective budgets authored by Ryan and President Obama.

3:28 PM, May 12, 2011 • By DANIEL HALPER

General Ray Odierno is warning against Defense cuts, Defense News reports:

The strong horse in the Senate.

12:00 AM, May 11, 2011 • By FRED BARNES

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will vote against increasing the debt limit unless President Obama agrees to spending cuts and long term reforms that satisfy the bond market, as well as foreign investors, and “astonish the American people.”

Nancy Pelosi, left, and Barack Obama, right.

8:01 AM, May 9, 2011 • By DANIEL HALPER

Fred Barnes writes in the Wall Street Journal:

Do President Obama and Democrats want to cut spending? There's not much evidence they do. They have acquiesced to some cuts—but only under political duress.

8:55 AM, May 5, 2011 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

Ever since President Obama gave his speech on deficit reduction last month, in response to the Paul Ryan-authored 2012 House Republican budget, press accounts have suggested that he has released an actual budget that would reduce deficit spending by $4 trillion. This claim is wrong on both counts: Obama has not released a second budget, and the proposals he outlined in his speech and its corresponding "framework" would not reduce deficit spending by anywhere near $4 trillion.

10:42 AM, Apr 15, 2011 • By DANIEL HALPER

Charles Krauthammer puts the Ryan vs. Obama budget debate into perspective in his Washington Post column:

6:00 AM, Apr 15, 2011 • By JAY COST

Lately, I’ve been staying up late at night because I’m just too stressed over the state of the union. Unable to sleep, I often find myself toggling between scores of Excel spreadsheets, crunching all sorts of numbers to get my mind around the gaping budget deficit that is threatening the country. It isn’t pretty, as we all know, and unfortunately my computations have only made me feel worse.

The Pentagon US Department of Defense building

12:16 PM, Apr 14, 2011 • By DANIEL HALPER

Mackenzie Eaglen, of the Heritage Foundation, writes:

10:11 AM, Apr 14, 2011 • By DANIEL HALPER

Barack Obama responded to Paul Ryan's budget proposal yesterday, and the GOP congressman and chairman of the House Budget Committee will give his rebuttal today. The event is hosted by the think tank e21, and Fred Barnes will be the moderator. Here are the details:

No hope, no change.

4:02 PM, Apr 13, 2011 • By FRED BARNES

President Obama always lets you down. Just when you think he’s ready to deliver a lofty speech chocked with specifics on handling the spending and debt emergency, he offers up a hyper-partisan attack on the leading Republican proposal, gives practically no details of his own plan, and then sanctimoniously puts himself on the side of preserving “the American dream for future generations.”

11:01 AM, Apr 12, 2011 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

Chris Wallace’s interview with David Plouffe on Fox News Sunday suggests an administration that’s afraid to argue for what it really wants, isn’t sure what to say it really wants, and isn’t saying anything very well.

Wording matters.

9:05 AM, Aug 6, 2010 • By GARY ANDRES

Polling on inside-the-beltway legislative issues is fraught with challenges because it requires translating Washington-speak into a language voters can understand.