Unfunded liabilities such as pensions for public retirees can become a strain on any city or state. In California, we are seeing a situation which should serve as a warning. Taxpayers are on the hook for massive amounts.
McConnell: “Single biggest disappointment” of time in Congress is “failure to address the entitlement issue”

In an interview with Bloomberg News Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader McConnell called the skyrocketing federal deficit “disturbing.”
McConnell went so far as to say, “The single biggest disappointment of my time in Congress has been our failure to address the entitlement issue.”
Why was Rand Paul the only Senator fighting a budget deal that includes $1T in spending?

On Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul succeeded in blocking a vote on the so-called Budget Deal (which we discussed thusly Wednesday). In so doing, the federal government shut down at 12:01 AM.
An hour and a half later, the Senate invoked cloture, voted on the huge spending deal reached by both parties Wednesday...
Senate Reaches Trillion Dollar Budget Deal

Wednesday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Schumer announced the Senate had come to a budget agreement. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the deal “a significant bipartisan step forward.”
The agreement keeps the government open for six weeks and provides two years of massive spending hikes.
National Debt Climbs to Over $18 Trillion Dollars
As politics and media have continued to obsess about Ferguson, a very serious thing has occurred.
Our national debt topped $18 trillion dollars. That’s more than our GDP.
John Hinderaker of Powerline reports:
Federal Debt Soars to Over $18 Trillion
A year or so ago, the Democrats started telling us that the national debt was...
Still trying to digest the Big Belly Budget

Any other “Bs” you can come up with regarding this?
Lawmakers unveil massive $1.1 trillion spending bill in bipartisan compromise:
Congressional negotiators unveiled a $1.1 trillion funding bill late Monday that would ease sharp spending cuts known as the sequester while providing fresh cash for new priorities, including President Obama’s push to expand...
You can have your Ryan-Murray Budget even if you don’t like it

Whether you should like it is a different question, but it will be law soon.
Via USA Today, Senate vote clears budget deal for passage this week:
The Senate on Tuesday cleared a key procedural hurdle for final passage...
The nation is burning down with debt, and Republicans are hanging Christmas budget decorations on the front porch

I should have been more all over the budget deal reached between Paul Ryan and What’s-Her-Name-From-Way-Over-There.
I’ve been trying to understand both the details and the big picture. One thing I have noticed is that the mainstream media is loving it, REPUBLICAN SCHOOLYARD FIGHT! (Today’s ALL CAPS courtesy of Jim Geraghty.)
From Rick...
Deal: You can keep your budget reform if you like it

I just watched the press statements from Paul Ryan and Patty Murray.
The details are being described all around as “modest” and a time out. The key is that nothing much was accomplished as to the overall budget trajectory. There also was “sequester relief,” meaning that one of the only...
Don’t let a government scale-back go to waste

Rahm Emanuel, speaking soon after Obama took office in 2009, famously suggested that the Obama administration would not let a serious crisis — the Fall 2008 credit crisis — go to waste:
Republicans would do well to heed that advice, advice which Obama used to his advantage to push through the failed...
Sequester — already the biggest lie of 2013
On the very short drive to work this morning, I heard an interview on local AM 870 radio with the Tompkins County town administrator.
The radio host kept trying to scare everyone about the Sequester cuts, repeatedly asking how it would affect people in Tompkins County. The administrator couldn’t go t...
Dear @SpeakerBoehner, it’s time for Plan C — The Christmas Strategy
It is very frustrating to watch John Boehner and House Republicans twist themselves into contortions in a futile attempt to appease Obama.
Plan B failed before it was swallowed because Obama believes that he can shift the blame to Republicans based on the arbitrary deadline for taxes to rise. There is no...
Emerging fiscal cliff deal in two words
Locked in trillion dollar tax revenue increase.
Promises, promises on spending cuts.
According to the frequently wrong but always wonkish-proclaiming Ezra Klein, this is where the Boehner-Obama negotiations are heading:
Boehner offered to let tax rates rise for income over $1 million....
Dear @SpeakerBoehner, have you heard of The Christmas Strategy?
I am going to keep repeating The Christmas Strategy until someone in Republican circles listens:
I say call his bluff. If a deal which tackles deficits from both revenue and spending can be reached this month, great.
If not, pass a 90 day extension of current tax rates and whatever else is needed...
The Christmas Strategy should satisfy the LIBs and LIBINOs
From DrewM at Ace of Spades HQ, What Does Let It Burn Mean? (h/t Hot Air), :
As one of the first, if not the first, people to say Let...
What don’t Republicans in Congress understand about the Christmas Strategy?
Sometimes I think we would be better off leaderless. Senator: GOP could accept tax hikes on very rich:
There is a growing group of folks looking at this and realizing that we don’t have a lot of cards as it relates to the tax issue before year end,” [Tennessee Senator Bob] Corker...
Democrats’ “Stop or I’ll shoot myself” negotiating strategy working like a charm
When I read this line in Kurt Schlichter’s excellent post, A Lawyer’s Tips on Negotiating for Dummies and Congressional Republicans, I had to laugh:
Sound a bit, well, crazy? Unreasonable? Even scary? Good, because a skilled lawyer understands...