(The Hill) – The first budget from Senate Democrats in four years includes nearly $1 trillion in new taxes but would not balance the budget. The blueprint unveiled by Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Tuesday to her Democratic colleagues would also turn off the next nine years of the sequester and replace [...]

(Politico) – Donald Trump said Monday that he’d be willing to foot the bill for the White House tours that President Barack Obama’s administration nixed because of sequestration budget cuts. Last week, Newt Gingrich recommended that Trump fund the tours, tweeting: “Donald trump should offer to pay for the white house tours. He can afford [...]

(Politico) – President Obama and his family are likely headed to Martha’s Vineyard for a summer sojourn again this year. A source tells POLITICO that the Secret Service has started booking accommodations on the toney island off the Massachusetts coast. (See update below) So far, the White House isn’t saying anything, but the Vineyard is [...]

Tax revenue could hit $2.7 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Conservatives say this means spending cuts are the solution, but the budget numbers tell a more complicated story. (Christian Science Monitor) – An impasse over the shape of the federal budget keeps boiling down to this basic plotline: Democrats say the solution to [...]

(Breitbart) – Though there has been one and two-day statistical noise, for most of the year Gallup has shown Obama’s job approval rating safely and consistently at fifty or above. Since Friday, though, the three-day average dipped to a startling 46%. 02/27-03/1 : 47 approve — 45 disapprove 02/28-03/2: 46 approve — 46 disapprove 03/1-3/3: [...]

(Politico) – There is no “set price” to meet with President Obama, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday amid continued outcry over the role of Organizing for Action, the outside group supporting the president’s agenda. “Any notion that there is a set price for a meeting with the president of the United States [...]

Victim: ‘He won’t be able to ruin any more people’s lives’ (Miami Herald) -  Claudio Osorio, the former globe-trotting executive who had headed a Fortune 500 company, faces up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing millions of dollars from investors in his ill-fated venture to build low-cost housing in Haiti and [...]

(Politicker) – At midnight tonight, a bevy of steep spending cuts will hit the federal government unless Congress and the White House agree to an alternative deficit-cutting proposal. Although the national media has been relentlessly focused on this deadline, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it will only affect New York City if the so-called “sequestration” continues [...]

(Washington Times) – The Democratic National Committee has no plans to repay Duke Energy for an unprecedented $10 million line of credit it guaranteed to help the Democratic convention’s local host committee put on President Obama’s three-day nominating convention in Charlotte, N.C., last September. A Duke company official said the company was claiming the money [...]

(Fox News) – As the federal budget goes off the rails, Joe Biden’s getting back on — with Amtrak. The looming sequester is forcing the veep to once again take the train — as opposed to military aircraft — to his weekend trips home to Delaware. Biden said Wednesday he initiated the change, calling it [...]