Minutes before 5am, early Saturday morning, members of the Senate did something they haven't done in four years - they passed a budget. The $3.7 trillion dollar outline for 2014 passed with a 50 to 49 vote, and it includes $100 billion in stimulus spending and raises $975 billion in new revenues over the next decade. Now the challenge will be to reconcile the Democratic Senate budget with Paul Ryan's austerity plan in the House.

The negotiations may be hostile, and it's possible the plans are simply too far apart to present the opportunity for common ground. According to Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Patty Murray, “the first priority of the Senate Budget is creating jobs and economic growth for the middle out, not the top down.” But Republicans are set on balancing the budget, even if it requires imposing their extreme austerity measures on our nation which kill jobs and shrink the economy.

Senator Mitch McConnell denounced the Democratic plan, saying, “The only good news is that the fiscal path the Democrats laid out in their budget won't become law.” With Democrats unlikely to concede to Paul Ryan's plan, which would voucherize Medicare and repeal Obamacare, and Republicans unlikely to budge on tax increases, we shouldn't expect much movement in the budget negotiations. Hopefully, the Democrats won't cave in to GOP demands for more spending cuts, and our economy won't be devastated with even more Republican austerity.

-Thom

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Friday's Daily Stack

Hour One: If it's Friday, it's "Brunch With Bernie"... the honorable Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joins Thom with all the news from our nation's capitol and as always he'll be spending the hour taking your calls and answering your questions too...
Follow Bernie: campaign site.

Article: "Paul Ryan's Baffling Budget" by James Poulos.

Article: "Back to Work Budget" by Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Article: "Here’s the insanely long list of amendments filed to the Senate budget" by Suzy Khimm.

Vote: "To establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund to protect Medicare's guaranteed benefits and to prohibit replacing guaranteed benefits with the House passed budget plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program." by Debbie Stabenow.

Article: "CEOs want to raise the retirement age to 70" by Suzy Khimm.

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "The one financial stat I'd love everyone to memorize: The net worth of Americans is $64 TRILLION" by reformist2.

Site: "The No Billionaires Campaign".

Article: "Republican Party Platform of 1956", August 20, 1956.

Article: "How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich" by Tim Dickinson, November 9, 2011.

Speech: "1888 Grover Cleveland State Of The Union Address" (iron heel).

Site: "Progressive Democrats of America".

Site: Move to Amend

Site: "Public Citizen".

Site: "Bill McKibben, 350.org".

Site: callcongress.org.

Article: "27th Amendment. "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened."

Article: "Al Gore's 'Future' Tackles Technology, Global Economy, American Democracy" by Jeffrey Brown, Jan. 31, 2013.

Article: "Conservatives: The New Taliban" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "A Very British Coup" by Wikipedia.

Site: "Mondragon Corporation".

Site: "Bank of North Dakota".

Book: "Greenspan's Fraud: How Two Decades of His Policies Have Undermined the Global Economy" by Ravi Batra.

Video: "Economic Crisis: Causes & Cures (1 of 7)" - L. William Seidman.

Clip: Phone conversation between President Lyndon Johnson and Sen. Everett Dirksen (R) Illinois, November 2, 1968.

Article: "‘Argo’ helps Iran’s dictatorship, harms democracy " by Abolhassan Bani-Sadr.

Video: "Former Iran Prez says, "Argo is wrong"" - Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Study of Disputed Florida Ballots Finds Justices Did Not Cast the Deciding Vote" by Ford Fessenden and John M. Broder, November 12, 2001.

Clip: "The Man from Abilene" - Eisenhower (you need to select it).

Article: "Does The Bible's Satan look like Barack Obama?".

Article: "Dominican official alleges The Daily Caller was behind false Menendez prostitution claims" by AP.

Article: "In Praise of Inefficiency" in "Chapter 3: Stop Them From Eating My Town" of "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartman.

Documentary: "Hubris: Selling The Iraq War".

Book: "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War" by Michael Isikoff and David Corn.

Article: "My Testimony for the Downing Street Memo Hearings" by Cindy Sheehan, June 16 2005.

Article: "John Boehner Sets Up Debt Ceiling Battle With Demand For Major Cuts" by Sabrina Siddiqui, Michael McAuliff.

Article: "Congressman Steve Pearce (R-NM) Wants to Drug Test the Unemployed" by Steven Hsieh.

Article: "Colorado Approves Same-Sex Unions" by Jack Healy.

Article: "Interior nominee approved by committee" by UPI.

Article: "Mexico's lower house gives general approval for telecoms bill" by Dave Graham and Miguel Gutierrez.

Article: "The Secret Gingrich-Santorum 'Unity Ticket' That Nearly Toppled Romney" by Joshua Green.

Hour Two: Does Congress have a constitutional duty to save the USPS?
- Carrie Lukas, Independent Women's Forum

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House Speaker John Boehner is once again threatening cuts to our social safety net in exchange for raising the debt ceiling...when do we end management by crisis in Washington and really, isn't it time we impeach John Boehner? We'll see what the right wingers have to say about that!

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