Kent Conrad

Fierce Battle Ahead For Senate Control

AP | DAVID ESPO | Posted 05.17.2012

Read More: Deb Fischer, Scott Brown, Heidi Heitkamp, Elizabeth Warren, Ben Nelson, Patty Murray, Kent Conrad, Olympia Snowe, Olympia Snowe Retiring, Elections 2012, Politics News, Joe Tester, Video, Angus King, 2012 Election, Bob Kerrey, Politics News

WASHINGTON — Divisive Republican primaries, an out-of-nowhere GOP retirement in Maine and an unexpectedly competitive race in North Dakota add u...

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Simpson-Bowles Zombie Returns

Dave Johnson | Posted 04.18.2012

Read More: Taxes, Deficit, Social Security, Jobs, Simpson-Bowles, Kent Conrad, Business News

President Obama and many Democrats spent much of 2011 talking about deficits instead of doing something about jobs. Now, a too-close election is on the horizon and we're being forced back to talking about deficits instead of jobs.

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Kent Conrad Advised Barack Obama Not To Back Bowles-Simpson

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 04.08.2012

Read More: Obama Debt, Bowles Simpson Obama, Kent Conrad, Obama Debt Reduction Proposal, Kent Conrad Obama, House Republicans Debt, Obama Debt Reduction, Bowles, Barack Obama Debt, Conrad Obama, Video, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said on Sunday that he urged President Obama not to publicly support a much...

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Coal-State Lawmakers Want To Ignore This Danger

HuffingtonPost.com | Matt Sledge | Posted 12.14.2011

Read More: Coal Plants, Environmental Protection Agency, Ben Nelson, Rob Portman, Mike Enzi, Kent Conrad, Environmental Integrity Project, John Boozman, Coal Ash, Kingston Fossil Plant, Coal Ash Spill, Joe Manchin, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Coal Mining, Tennessee Valley Authority, Green News

Just days before the three-year anniversary of the devastating dike failure at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant, the Environment...

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Democratic Senator Says Payroll Tax Break Will Get Another Chance

HuffingtonPost.com | Elise Foley | Posted 12.04.2011

Read More: Payroll Tax Cut Extension, Video, Tom Coburn, Kent Conrad, Payroll Tax Cut, Unemployment Benefits, Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Payroll Tax Breaks, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Sunday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will offer a new plan to extend the payroll tax br...

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Behind The Bipartisan 'Austerity Class' That Rules Washington

The Nation | Ari Berman | Posted 12.20.2011

In September the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a bipartisan deficit-hawk group based at the New America Foundation, held a high-p...

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Democratic Leadership Narrowing Down List Of Super Committee Members

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 10.08.2011

Read More: Super Congress, Debt Reduction, Kent Conrad, Reid Baucus, Senate Leadership, Harry Reid, Max Baucus, Deficit Reduction, Super Congress Reid, Democratic Leadership, Senate Democrats, Super Congress Debt, Conrad Super Congress, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- The much-discussed "super committee," created as part of a bill to raise the nation's debt ceiling and tasked with finding $1.5 trillion...

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Reid Vote Delayed To Sunday As Hints Of Deal Emerge

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 09.29.2011

WASHINGTON -- A final Senate vote on raising the nation's debt ceiling was put off 12 more hours as the two sides inched toward a long-sought agreemen...

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Unions Go After Gang Of Six Plan: 'It Would Kill Jobs'

HuffingtonPost.com | Michael McAuliff | Posted 09.20.2011

Read More: Deficit, Debt, Gang of Six Debt Plan, Tom Coburn, Social Security, Debt Ceiling, Spending Cuts, Kent Conrad, Debt Limit, Dick Durbin, Mark Warner, Mike Crapo, Gang of Six, Medicare, Saxby Chambliss, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Unions are coming down hard on the so-called "Gang of Six" deficit-cutting plan, blasting the bipartisan proposal with a harsh ad set to...

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The Drive to Cut Social Security: Why Are the Gang of Six Scared of Information?

Dean Baker | Posted 09.20.2011

Read More: Gang of Six, Social Security, Kent Conrad, Deficits, Politics News

Since one third of retirees are almost completely dependent on Social Security, any cuts will seriously be felt. But the Gang of Six obviously have made the decision to cut Social Security and they are not going to let any relevant evidence stand in the way.

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Kent Conrad on the 'Gang of Six' Talks

Tavis Smiley | Posted 09.20.2011

Read More: Kent Conrad, Gang of Six, Budget Talks, Politics News

Today, I asked Senator Kent Conrad whether a deal could be reached by the August 2 debt ceiling deadline. Here's what he had to say.

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Gang Of Six Unveils Debt-Reduction Plan

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 09.18.2011

WASHINGTON -- More than half the Senate was convened early Tuesday morning by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) for a briefing on a deficit-reduction plan bein...

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Debt Ceiling Just as Predicted! Now, Critical Next Steps

Paul Abrams | Posted 09.13.2011

Read More: Robert Reich, President Obama, Mitch McConnell, Wall Street, Big Government, Senate Democrats, Debt Ceiling, Bernie Sanders, Kent Conrad, House Republicans, Politics News

Now that the Republicans have heeded their Wall Street paymasters, there is even more reason for the Senate to pass its original Senate Budget Committee plan.

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How Obama and the Democrats Are Reclaiming the Debt Issue

Asher Smith | Posted 09.11.2011

Read More: Debt Ceiling, John Boehner, Debt Limit, Jon Cornyn, Sen. Jim DeMint, Kent Conrad, Barack Obama, Eric Cantor, National Deficit, Pew Research Center, David Brooks, Obama Press Conference, Politics News

Even if they can't reach that magic $4 trillion number, President Obama and the Democrats may have already claimed the moral high ground and defused the deficit as a major 2012 campaign issue.

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Harry Reid: Extended Unemployment On The Table As Part Of 'Grand Bargain' On Debt Ceiling

HuffingtonPost.com | Arthur Delaney | Posted 09.11.2011

Read More: Senator Harry Reid, Debt Ceiling, Kent Conrad, Federal Unemployment Extension, President Barack Obama, President Obama, Obama Administration, Extended Unemployment Benefits, Unemployment Aid, Extended Benefits, Congress Unemployment, Obama Debt Ceiling, Barack Obama, Grand Bargain, Tom Coburn, Unemployment, Unemployment Benefits, Harry Reid, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- A deal to raise the statutory U.S. borrowing limit and cut the federal budget may preserve federal unemployment benefits set to expire a...

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Don't Sacrifice Our Future

Deborah Weinstein | Posted 09.11.2011

Read More: Deficit, Debt, Federal Budget Deficit, Debt Ceiling, Budget Cuts, Kent Conrad, Budget, Big Oil Subsidies, Deficit Reduction, David Stockman, WIC Cuts, Medicaid Cuts, Politics News

It comes down to this: Is it more important for millionaires to have all of their tax breaks preserved or for Gail to have her life saved by Medicaid?

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Senate Dem Pitches Tax Haven Abuse Bill As Deficit Reduction

HuffingtonPost.com | Dan Froomkin | Posted 09.11.2011

Read More: Taxes, Offshore Tax Havens, Tax Shelters, Carl Levin, Kent Conrad, Politics News

To the ongoing Capitol Hill choruses of "tax the rich" and "tax the poor," Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) offered a third option on Tuesday: "Tax the cheat...

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How North Dakota Lost Its Clout in Congress

Al Eisele | Posted 08.31.2011

Read More: North Dakota Earmarks, North Dakota, Earl Pomeroy, Rick Berg, Earmarks, Kent Conrad, Gang of Six, John Hoeven, Federal Spending, Byron Dorgan, Politics News

For the last two decades, no state wielded more political influence per capita in the nation's capital than North Dakota, thanks to the three veteran Democrats who made up its entire congressional delegation.

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Budget Dem: $2.4 Trillion Cut Is Not Good Enough

HuffingtonPost.com | Michael McAuliff | Posted 08.21.2011

Read More: Vice President Biden, Debt, Biden Budget, Federal Budget Deficit, Debt Ceiling, Budget Cuts, Kent Conrad, Budget, Debt Limit, Biden Debt Talks, Joe Biden, Kent Conrad Budget, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- The Senate's Democratic Budget Chairman drew his own line in the sand of raising the nation's debt limit Tuesday, saying he'll oppose an...

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Friday Talking Points [167] -- Happy Friday the Thirteenth, Ron!

Chris Weigant | Posted 07.13.2011

Read More: Resigned, President Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Ron Paul, Ryan Budget, Bernie Sanders, Obama, Democratic, Arizona, Campaign, Race, Friday Talking Points, Securing the Border, 2012, Republican, Playing Politics, Mike Huckabee, Midotw, Ethics, Ryan, New State, Friday the 13th, Most Disappointing Democrat of the Week, Most Impressive Democrat of the Week, Kent Conrad, Reid, Friday the Thirteenth, House, Budget, Mexico, Baja Arizona, Democrat, Pima County, Congress, Subsidies, Bin Laden, Tax Breaks, Newt Gingrich, Democrats, Paul, Oil Companies, Barack Obama, Election, Corporate Welfare, Sanders, John Ensign, Vote, Mddotw, RJ Eskow, Ensign, Chris Weigant, Border, Harry Reid, Paul Ryan, Senate, Politics News

Ron Paul, apparently, is not a superstitious kind of guy. Tempting fate, as it were, he announced today that he's running for president once again -- on Friday the thirteenth.

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To Learn the Game, the Left Could Use a "Weekend at Bernie's"

Richard (RJ) Eskow | Posted 07.12.2011

Read More: Bernie Sanders, Kent Conrad, Budget Deficits, American Majority, Federal Budget, Kent Conrad Budget, Bernie Sanders Budget Proposal, Politics News

Sen. Sanders is reviving a bill he introduced earlier this year which imposes a 5.4% surtax on all earnings over $1 million per year. Budget negotiations haven't even started yet, but Bernie just changed the terms for the better.

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Senate Dems Fired Up At Kent Conrad

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 07.03.2011

Read More: Debt, Tom Coburn, Social Security, National Debt, Erskine Bowles, Barbara Boxer, Slash Mob, Ben Cardin, Kent Conrad, President Barack Obama, President Obama, Budget Fight, Gang of Six, Medicare, Debt Commission, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats are furious at their lead budget negotiator for crafting a blueprint that they think moves the party too far to the rig...

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All Eyes On 'Gang Of Six' As Deficit Deal Negotiations Continue

Posted 06.26.2011

Read More: Tom Coburn, Debt Ceiling, Saxby Chambliss, Deficit, Gang of 6, Dick Durbin, Deficit Deal, Debt Limit, Kent Conrad, Mike Crapo, Gang of Six, Mark Warner, Debt Ceilling Vote, Debt Limit Deal, Debt Ceiling Deal, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- They have met in almost total secrecy for months, holed up in an office on Capitol Hill: three Republican and three Democratic senat...

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Republicans Downplay Urgency Of Raising Debt Ceiling

HuffingtonPost.com | Elise Foley | Posted 06.24.2011

Read More: Geithner, Debt, Deficit, Tom Coburn, National Debt, Mark Kirk, Debt Ceiling, Kent Conrad, Tim Geithner, Treasury, Loans, Debt Limit, Gang of Six, Joe Walsh, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- Failing to raise the nation's debt ceiling would be less damaging than allowing the deficit to continue to swell, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okl...

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Senate Republicans Threatening To Make Harry Reid And Dems Go It Alone On Raising Debt Ceiling

HuffingtonPost.com | Jon Ward | Posted 06.11.2011

Read More: John Cornyn, Tom Coburn, U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell, Debt Ceiling, John Boehner, National Debt, Mark Warner, Dick Durbin, Mike Crapo, Harry Reid, Saxby Chambliss, Kent Conrad, Gang of Six, Politics News

With many Republicans agreeing with Democrats that raising the debt ceiling is a simple necessity, some think the GOP is left with little negotiating ...

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