House approves spending measure opposed by Senate; shutdown possible
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on September 23rd, 2011 4:35 am by HL
House approves spending measure opposed by Senate; shutdown possible
Washington lurched toward another potential government shutdown crisis Friday, as the House approved a Republican-authored short-term funding measure designed to keep government running through Nov. 18 that Democrats in the Senate immediately vowed to reject.
In an after-midnight roll call, House Republican leaders persuaded conservatives early Friday morning to support a stop-gap bill nearly identical to one they had rejected just 30 hours earlier.
Dead federal retirees are paid $120 million annually, report says
The federal government pays out millions of dollars to dead people each year — including deceased retired federal workers, according to a new report.
In the past five years, the Office of Personnel Management has made more than $601 million in benefits payments to deceased federal annuitants, according to the agency’s inspector general. Total annual payouts range between $100 million and $150 million.
It’s all fun and games until someone serves $16 muffins.
The Obama administration is ordering a government-wide review of conference expenses after colleague Jerry Markon wrote his way on to the front page of The Washington Post with news of the Justice Department’s extravagant spending habits at 10 law enforcement conferences.
Debt supercommittee weighs ‘dynamic scoring’ concept as part of approach on taxes
Warring Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have little hope of drafting an ambitious plan to tame the national debt by Thanksgiving unless they can agree on an approach to rewriting the tax code, key lawmakers and leadership aides say.
But any attempt at a tax overhaul would require policymakers to clear some daunting hurdles, including an old battle over a fundamental question: Do tax cuts pay for themselves by spurring economic growth?
An addendum, if you will, to the Cheney book
Dick Cheney’s best-selling memoir, “In My Time,” has rekindled verbal jousting over the Iraq war, Guantanamo Bay and waterboarding — and with it the intense rancor seen whenever people debate those matters.
The former vice president’s book — with its steadfast, no-apologies defense of invading Iraq to destroy all those weapons of mass destruction, his sharp criticisms of other top George W. Bush administration officials, and his reminders of the many Democrats who supported the war at the time — has doubtless ratcheted up the acrimony.
