Must-Reads
Dec 05 2012
Treasury Is Lightning Rod for China, Banks and Debt
Steven T. Dennis
Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking member of the Budget Committee, has clashed with Lew previously in hearings over the president’s budgets and has taken issue with statements made by the administration that the president’s budget would begin to pay down the debt — even though it never has a single year without a large deficit. "That really worried me," Sessions said. "How can we negotiate with someo...
Dec 04 2012
Are food stamps a perk for ‘paid government volunteers’?
By: Joel Gehrke
Two Senate Republicans identified a welfare loophole that allows ‘paid government volunteers’ in AmeriCorps to receive food stamps from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — for which they should not qualify, as a rule — in addition to a stipend from the government.
Feb 14 2012
Republicans Accuse Obama of Using Gimmicks in Budget
By: Jonathan Weisman
At the heart of Republican objections is accounting. Mr. Obama boasted of $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next 10 years in his proposal. Republican budget writers on Capitol Hill saw a fraction of that, as little as $300 billion... if Congress and the president did nothing but continue current policies, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, sai...
Oct 05 2011
Not the Right Way to Run a Railroad
By: Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Gordon Gray
Enter the new(ish) ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, Jeff Sessions, and the Honest Budget Act. The Act is a serious attempt to wade into the budget process to address the fundamental flaws that have allowed Congress to avoid the difficult trade-offs that are the essence of governing in a fiscally constrained environment.