House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan proposed a budget plan for 2012. It's scheduled for a vote next week. Among its features: Ending Medicare and gutting Medicaid.

[T]he nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has outlined what adoption of this proposal to supplant Medicare with vouchers and private insurance exchanges would mean. The overall cost of healthcare would go up, and retirees' out-of-pocket medical expenses would double — an increase that would push tens of millions of people living on fixed incomes over the financial brink.

Ryan calls his plan "The Path to Prosperity." For who? No surprise here: it calls for further tax reductions for corporations and wealthy individuals. He claims to be saving Medicare, notwithstanding his plan would push tens of millions of people over the financial edge. Ryan writes: [More...]

President Obama briefly spoke from the White House tonight. His statement aired on the White House website and Facebook. Via CNN:

The president said the agreement "invests in our (America's) future while making the greatest annual spending cut in our history." Thanked House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for their "leadership and dedication" during the negotiation process.

I wouldn't describe this deal as historic. It's more like the all too obvious final scene of a badly scripted movie. And the spin begins. A Democratic source tells CNN:

[T]he budget deal would cut between $38 and $39 billion dollars over the 2011 fiscal year.

Reid and Boehner released this statement: [More...]

Update: They've got a "handshake deal" and will go for a one week continuing resolution. Great, so now we can listen to both sides spin victory all weekend?

10:38 p.m. ET - CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash reported there has been a handshake agreement on a framework to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year and a short term continuing resolution funding the government until Thursday.

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Get ready for the last minute budget deal. How did Boehner do? Via CNN on Twitter:

9:20 p.m. ET - @teapartynation: Boehner is selling us out tonight. We will primary Boehner next year. #tcot #teaparty #GOP #TPN #TPP #SGP

[More...]

Matt Yglesias writes:

Why are Democratic leaders so spineless? Ezra Klein points to persuasive polling evidence that the Democratic [constituency] likes it that way [. . .] A more general point I would make about this is that left-wing intellectuals and writers often write as if left-wing intellectuals and writers are “the base” of the Democratic Party, then observe that the leaders of the Democratic Party aren’t very left-wing, and then write about the phenomenon of the Democratic Party leaders’ ignoring their base. [. . .]

(Emphasis supplied.) That's true. But Yglesias ignores the pundits who rationalize, defend, and even urge, spinelessness by Democratic leaders. I happen to not think much of the poll result that Ezra and Yglesias are trumpeting (what does that poll really mean?), but it is telling to me that that it is used to buttress the general Ezra Klein line that Dems should be spineless in their political bargaining with Republicans. Obviously I disagree with that strategy. But my point is Yglesias implies that it is only "base claiming" pundits that make unfounded claims of "support." But the Beltway Bloggers and Pundits do it too.

Speaking for me only

Closing arguments were held yesterday in the Barry Bonds perjury trial. If you thought you could get a sense of how they went from media reports, think again. It's like they were in different courtrooms watching different trials.

The San Francisco Chronicle reporter leans heavily towards the Government, praising prosecutors and characterizing the defense as "flailing around."

...the prosecutors finished strong, while the defense seemed to flail around, devoting a lot of its time to attacking governmental power.

Mark Purdy at the San Jose Mercury News said the opposite: Defense attorney Allen Ruby "stole the show" and owned the courtroom while the prosecutors never connected:

Allen Ruby, the lead Bonds attorney, easily won the best of show award for the trial. Friday, he was a Pavarotti during his closing argument, his deep voice commanding the courtroom as he uttered memorable quotes...By contrast, the leadoff prosecutor, Jeff Nedrow, looked like Alex Smith trying to win a big game for the 49ers. Very smart, very earnest, but never quite able to make the big statement when it counted.

[More...]

Justified was great last night -- one of the best episodes so far this season, and FX has just renewed it for season 3.

If you missed the premiere of AMC's "The Killing" on Sunday, catch it on On Demand or Xfinity or whatever you use as a Tivo these days. It's a winner.

AMC is also re-running all three seasons of Breaking Bad, beginning last night with the pilot for season 1. A new season will start after that. If you haven't watched it so far, give it a try and see what we're all praising and why Bryan Cranston has won so many Emmys for his role as the chemistry teacher with cancer turned meth lab cook with cancer in remission. [More...]

Both sides are stringing the budget talks along. The latest meeting between President Obama and Republicans ended tonight with the parties closer, but not yet pulling out the cigar.

The House passed a one week stopgap bill that would continue funding for the troops (could their gamesmanship be any more transparent?) and Obama promises to veto it.

Apparently, the holdup is abortion funding and clean air. Does anyone not see this as mere Republican blustering?

There's news besides the Budget. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Federal judiciary can run for about two weeks if there's a shutdown. After that, things will get dicey.

The federal court budget request for 2012 contains only a modest increase. By contrast, the Department of Justice and Homeland Security budgets contain big increases, which will mean more federal criminal cases. The courts don't have the luxury of declining cases. If the feds bring them, they have to hear them.

A big part of the cost is the slew of immigration cases: From Judge Julia Gibbons testimony to a House Appropriations subcommittee released today:

Criminal case filings nationally grew 25 percent between 2000 and 2010 with immigration prosecutions in the five judicial districts along the Southwest Border fueling that growth. Immigration caseload now accounts for 36 percent of all criminal prosecutions nationwide and has surpassed drug and fraud prosecutions combined. These immigration prosecutions are separate from the immigration actions handled administratively by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice.

[More...]

Jeralyn writes about it. I just want to remind everyone that President Obama cut a deal with the Republicans in December to extend the Bush tax cuts.

Yes, today's budget fight is related to that. And yes, I expect Obama to cave again.

Hope I'm wrong. Another busy day for me. If the courts get shut down in 2 weeks, I'll have more free time.

Speaking for me only

Tonight's meeting at the White House didn't produce a budget accord. It's becoming more and more apparent that this is a game, being milked by House Speaker John Boehner and Republicans who have insufficient power or smarts to do anything but bluster.

I hope Obama doesn't make any concessions. It's pretty apparent Boehner will have to give in tomorrow, or face the wrath of the public when the reality of what a shutdown entails finally sinks in.

We're being set up for a last minute deal. Does anyone doubt an agreement will be announced tomorrow? This is all like a poker hand, and the question is, who's bluffing?

Avoiding a shutdown is good. But the games, and rewarding the losing players with concessions, are not. Obama should hang tough, refuse further budget cuts, and call Boehner's bluff. [More...]

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the convictions of Enron's Jeff Skilling. The opinion is here.

In a 13-page ruling, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld all 19 convictions of conspiracy, fraud and other crimes. It also reaffirmed its 2009 decision that vacated Skilling's sentences of more than 24 years in federal prison and ordered a resentencing. In the 2009 ruling, the appeals court ruled that the sentencing judge misapplied federal sentencing guidelines.

Some of Skilling's convictions were for honest services fraud, which the Supreme Court has since held invalid. The Supreme Court remanded the case back to the 5th Circuit to decide "whether the honest services instruction amounted to harmless error." Today, the 5th Circuit found just that: harmless error, meaning the convictions stand:

Based on our own thorough examination of the considerable record in this case, we find that the jury was presented with overwhelming evidence that Skilling conspired to commit securities fraud, and thus we conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the verdict would have been the same absent the alternative-theory error.

[More...]