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Senate Budget Would Boost Advance Approps By $4 Billion (CongressDaily PM, subscription only)

. . . "There's no reason to do it other than to increase spending," said Jason Delisle, an education analyst at the New America Foundation. Backers "want the money by any means necessary, but the trade-off is the debate gets confused and the budget lacks transparency." Advance funding for education grew out of a timing quirk whereby the academic year… more

If the New America Foundation had hoped to umpire a snarled dispute between Democrats and Republicans on fixing the alternative minimum tax, its hopes were not advanced at a seminar today featuring advocates for both sides. The two parties are at swords' points over whether to hike other taxes in order to offset an estimated $50 billion revenue loss if Congress decides to prevent the AMT from biting some 23 million additional income taxpayers this calendar year.

A panel of… more

Senate Budget Chairman Conrad and ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H., recently proposed to "create a task force to recommend comprehensive legislation addressing expected shortfalls in the major entitlement programs," such as Medicare and Social Security.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget endorses the Conrad-Gregg proposal and is listed as a supporter in Congressional Quarterly Today (September 18, 2007) and in National Journal's CongressDaily (September 19, 2007). The Concord Coalition and GAO Comptroller General David Walker have also given praise… more

Congressional Democrats are using the budget process to express their longstanding legislative priorities. But they are not guaranteeing all of them will make it into law.Roughly $150 billion to $160 billion over five years in new spending initiatives are outlined in the House and Senate budget resolutions that conferees will seek to iron out this month.That is on top of expensive tax breaks assumed in the budget such as a fix for the alternative minimum tax,… more

Banks and other private student loan providers are gearing up for battles on several fronts, including a fight against a possible congressional overhaul of a major loan program that would force companies to compete for business, and likely shrink their profit margins.Already reeling from the Bush administration's FY08 budget proposal last month, which cuts lender subsidies by $11.2 billion to pay for a Pell Grant increase, private companies are also facing a threat from Senate Health, Education, Labor… more

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a pretty low-key group. But with a board of directors as diverse as former OMB Director David Stockman and former House Budget Chairman Bill Gray, D-Pa., when the group talks, it's probably worthwhile listening to them a bit. Maybe more than a bit.

So budget writers might want to pay some attention to the committee's evaluation of Senate Budget Chairman Gregg's "Stop Over Spending Act of 2006," released last week. The title of… more