Tag: Federal Budget

This week the finance industry reacted with alarm to sections of the Obama budget that would push the banking industry out from the center of the student-loan business and turn billions of dollars in private profits into scholarship money, aiming to cut corruption and lower skyrocketing student debt. The Obama plan is a version of reform plans that have been floated for years as abuses in the student-loan industry have come to light. The difference is that this one is likely to pass into law.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, who beat three-term Republican Marilyn Musgrave last fall, was one of only 20 members of her party to vote against the $3.6 trillion federal budget resolution last week. The Fort Collins Democrat has established a pattern of bucking her party on key issues while at the same time siding with House leadership more often than most of her colleagues, the Fort Collins Coloradoan's Bob Moore writes in a detailed assessment of Markey's first three months in office.

As congressional lawmakers continue the thorny task of crafting the sweeping health care reforms they hope to pass this year, there’s a battle brewing over the growing push to rein in medical spending by weeding out ineffective treatments.

Colorado freshman Sen. and Deputy Whip Mark Udall is a pivotal figure in the intended Obama revolution, according to a profile fronting today's Congressional Quarterly. Udall's tall-order task is to help Obama succeed where Ronald Reagan failed by getting the record-breaking number of majority party newcomers in the senate to support the president's agenda without alienating the moderate voters who elected them.

Taxpayers for Common Sense has put out its "Version Three" spreadsheet of earmarks contained in the omnibus spending bill for Fiscal Year 2009. It's an Excel document that can be searched by bill, earmark, representative, senator, state and more! The Colorado delegation pulled down its share of cash, but none of the state's officials ranked among the top earmark getters.

While Congressional Republicans caterwaul about budget deficits and cutting taxes, Zach Carter at The Media Consortium Economic News Ladder connects the dots on the Obama Adminstration's rope-a-dope strategy.