A modest budget proposal

December 11, 2013

As you may have heard, Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray recently reached an agreement on how to address the federal budget for the next two years. While the likelihood of avoiding government shutdown is good news, as I said on MSNBC earlier this evening, only when measured by the low, low standards of this “Do Nothing Congress” – does this “Do Little” budget deal represent any progress. Its modest increase may be a slight improvement, but it continues to invest too little in priorities like education, research, and transportation. And, this still leaves unresolved the issue of protecting the full faith and credit of the United States when the debt limit comes up in February.