Dems to GOP: Draft Your Own Budget

Hill approving fewer bills, fewer laws being signed

(NEWSER) - Non-election years are typically productive times for Congress, but not this year. As of last week, the House had passed 326 bills, its fewest in the last 10 non-election years, while the Senate had green-lit 368, its lowest total since 1995, the Washington Post observes. (For comparison, the House passed 970 bills in 2009 and 1,127 in 2007, while the Senate passed 478 and 621.) All of that resulted in 62 signed laws—or 26 fewer than Bill Clinton managed to sign when he faced a new Republican Congress in 1995. More»

Portion of larger American Jobs Act won't move forward

(NEWSER) - President Obama’s first attempt to split his American Jobs Act into smaller bites did not go well: His $35 billion package, intended to protect the jobs of teachers and first responders, was blocked in the Senate last night. Democrats couldn’t get the 60 votes needed to move the bill forward; three members of the Senate Democratic Caucus joined all Republicans to vote against it, resulting in a 50-50 vote blocking a debate on the package. It was one fewer vote than Obama got in the Senate for his full $447 billion proposal, Politico notes. More»

Mitch McConnell, Tea Party at the forefront: Chris Cillizza

(NEWSER) - The debt-deal dust has yet to settle, but that's not stopping anyone from analyzing its political consequences. In the Washington Post , Chris Cillizza notes the winners:

• Mitch McConnell was “the Mariano Rivera of the debt deal. He waited until the game was in its final moments, came onto the field and helped close things down.”
• The Tea Party showed its sway, driving John Boehner to delay his bill and “add conservative sweeteners to get the 217 votes he needed.”

It's now scheduled for Sunday afternoon as talks intensify

(NEWSER) - It's either a sign that a last-minute deal is truly in sight or one last tease: Harry Reid has postponed a 1am procedural vote on his plan to raise the debt ceiling until tomorrow afternoon, reports the Hill . Reid says the delay is intended to give negotiations with Republicans under way at the White House more time to play out. The Senate majority leader, who didn't appear to have the 60 votes necessary to prevail anyway, says the postponement came at the request of the White House because the talks were making progress. More»

But Harry Reid isn't as optimistic about a deal

(NEWSER) - The debt deal may rest on the shoulders of Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid , but the two can't seem to agree on how optimistic to be. At a mid-afternoon press conference, McConnell sounded like a deal was in the offing. “Our country is not going to default for the first time in history; that is not going to happen,” the GOP Senate minority leader said, according to the Washington Post . McConnell added that he had personally spoken to both Obama and Joe Biden. “We now have a level of seriousness, with the right people at the table, that we needed.” John Boehner echoed the sentiment, notes Politico . More»