News
Politico | House GOP rolls out stopgap spending plan
House Republicans moved ahead Monday behind a six-month stopgap spending bill that would keep the government funded through September but also lock in appropriations at a far lower level than even Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget envisioned last spring.
Bloomberg | EU Opens Way for Easier Budgets After Austerity Backlash
European finance ministers opened the way for looser budget policies after a backlash against austerity thrust Italy into political limbo and shattered months of relative stability in European markets.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Larger Spending Cuts Would Help the Economy
President Obama's most recent prescription for economic growth—more government stimulus spending, new social programs, higher taxes on upper-income earners, subsidies for some industries and increased regulation for all of them—is likely to have the same anemic results as in his first administration.
Washington Times | The sequestration farce
Politicians know the game is up once “Saturday Night Live” mocks them and their policies. President Obama found himself in that unenviable position this weekend. He had mustered all his effort to dispatch Cabinet secretaries to stand before every available camera in sight to recite tales of the mayhem and horror that would follow in the wake of a minuscule across-the-board reduction in federal spending.
Washington Post | With the sequester, Obama gets his ‘balanced’ approach
Congressional Republicans have had quite a comeback. In January, the GOP was forced to vote for a major tax hike with zero spending cuts. Now it is President Obama who has been forced to accept spending cuts with no tax hike. Who says divided government doesn’t work?
Blogs
FOX Business | The Next Housing Bubble: Student Loan
Uh-oh. It’s beginning to feel just a little bit like the 2006 housing bubble that burst. This time it's not housing that is growing uncontrollably, it’s student loan debt.
WSJ | No More Easy Ways to Cut U.S. Debt
U.S. policymakers already took the relatively easy steps to reduce the massive federal government debt burden, meaning more difficult choices lay ahead, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said Monday.
