Category Archives: Fiscal Freedom

EPIC FAIL

Back in September this website reported on the initial failure of a new foster home licensing unit run under the auspices of the scandal-scarred South CarolinaDepartment of Social Services (SCDSS).

Theunit a centerpiece of then-governor Nikki Haleys administration intendedto license 1,500 new foster families in the Palmetto State by the end of the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

That deadline arrives tomorrow

How did SCDSS do? Not well although lets be honest, considering this agencys long history of abysmal outcomesdid anyone expect them to hit the mark?

Of course not

Sources within the agency tell us new foster home licensing fell well shy of the 1,500-mark. In fact, one source told us they would be surprised if the agency managed to license 250 new homes under the program announced by the ex-governor.

Lawmakers familiar with the program told us privately that SCDSS wound up far below the original goal set by Haley although in fairness one legislator acknowledged the former governors target was unrealistic.

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Translation? This was a political promise designed to generate positive media headlines not something Haley ever intended to actually do.

According to the SCDSS website, there are currently 1,544 foster homes in the Palmetto State and nearly 3,000 children in need of placement. More relevant to our reporting, documents obtained from sources at the agency showa shortage of 1,347 homes in regular care and another 200 in therapeutic care. Add those numbers together and you are looking at roughly the same number of new homes Haleys licensing program was supposed to approve.

Despite multiple invitations to offer comment or provide information on a host of recent stories, SCDSS has consistentlyrefused to acknowledge this websites existence which we suppose we canunderstand. Weve been very hard on the agency over the years, so its not surprising that its leaders are not especially eager to accommodate our requests.

If we do not hear back from the agency by the end of the week, though, we will submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking specificdata related to this program.

Of further interest? SCDSS seems to be scrambling in an effort to pick up the pieces related to this failed program. According to an internal agency communicationobtained by this website, the new licensing unit is being broken up into regions and every region is getting (its own) placement center.

What a mess not to mention an expensive internal restructuring job.

SCDSS received $713.5 million in the budget for the fiscal year that ends tomorrow (June 30). Thats an increase of a little over three percent from the previous fiscal years budget of $692.1 million. In the coming fiscal year beginning July 1, the agency is slated to receive $734.6 million a roughly identical percentage increase.

None of those totals include the estimated $1.3 billion the agency doles out annually in food stamps, either. That particular line item was surreptitiouslyremoved from the state budget by lawmakers back in 2014.

SCDSS was an unmitigated disaster under Haley most notably as it related to multiple instances in which vulnerable children wererepeatedly placed in abusive homes. But the agencys failure has been much bigger and broader than that even after the former governorwas forced to fire her first rock star agency director.

Stay tuned we plan on continuing to investigate this latest SCDSS debacle and providing our readers with as much information as we are able to uncover.

Got something youd like to say in response to one of our stories? In addition to our always lively comments section (below), please feel free to submit your own guest column or letter to the editor via-email HERE or via our tip-line HERE

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SC Foster Care Debacle - FITSNews

The Trump administration has officially requested that a second littoral combat ship be added to the fiscal 2018 budget request, after officials said they wanted to add the ship the day the White House sent a budget to Congress that requested only one.

Appearing before a House Armed Services subcommittee on May 24, the day after Trump's budget requested just one LCS, acting acquisition chief Allison Stiller said the administration "recognizes the criticality of our industrial base and supports funding a second LCS in FY18." A day earlier, she knew few details about her own department's surprise request for a second ship.

"That was brought to us today, so that's what I know," Stiller told USNI News.

On Thursday, the White House submitted its amendment to the request to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., specifically requesting to move $500 million into the Navy shipbuilding account to pay for the second ship. "This amendment is necessary to correctly reflect the policy assumed in the FY 2018 Budget," the amendment said.

The additional ship doesn't add to the overall topline request, and accompanying documents show the money coming from three areas:

The amendment officially brings to nine the number of ships the administration is requesting for fiscal 2018, in a week that has already seen debate over the program and whether it should receive more money.

On Wednesday, during the markup of the authorization bill, program supporters on the House Armed Services Committee fought off a proposal to reduce the number of ships from three to two in its version.

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., proposed an amendment to move $556 million from the shipbuilding account to pay for munitions instead, citing the ship program's spotty past performance.

"Having these ships, which according to tests literally cannot survive combat, has a lot more to do with parochial congressional district politics than the needs of our sailors and our troops," Moulton said.

Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., said the ship is on budget, but the two shipyards will not be able to continue unless the Navy orders three hulls per year.

"The three ships not only maintain a healthy industrial base, because without three ships, the skilled workforce will suffer a 10 to 40 percent layoff resulting in an extended production timeline and yielding cost increase of 10 to 15 percent," Byrne said.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said the Navy is also eager for more of the ships, despite claims by Democrats that it is unwanted.

Both lawmakers represent states where the two variants are produced. The Freedom class by Lockheed Martin is built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin, while the Independence class is built by Austal USA in Alabama.

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Trump officially requests second LCS for the Navy - Washington Examiner

Theres often a disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country, and Medicaid reform is no exception. The House of Representatives last month passed a bill including major Medicaid reformseither a per capita spending cap or a block grant for states. The new presidential administration has pledged its support for added state flexibility for running Medicaid programs.

All that sounds nice, you might be thinking, but what does it meanboth for states, and for Medicaid recipients themselves? A recent paper I compiled for the Wyoming Liberty Group provides some sense of what a reformed Medicaid program might look like. The overhaul being contemplated in Washingtonthe largest in more than half a centurywould, if done correctly, give states flexibility to modernize Medicaid and provide better care to patients, which could end up saving taxpayers money.

Medicaid reform means better care for patients. It means states can choose the best care options for beneficiaries without worrying about checking bureaucratic boxes. That freedom will allow more elderly and disabled beneficiaries to stay in their homes, rather than moving to nursing institutionsthe preferred option for most seniors, and a more economical one.

A series of reforms in Rhode Island begun nearly a decade ago provide some sense of what Medicaid transformation can accomplish. Nonpartisan analysts found that Rhode Islands reforms saved tens of millions of dollars, while improving members access to more appropriate services. Providing better care not only represents good policyit can also save taxpayers money.

Medicaid reform could mean new efforts to coordinate care. Recent innovations from the private sectorsuch as payment bundles for all the costs of a procedurewould give providers more incentives to provide effective care the first time, while publicly releasing de-identified patient data would give providers the analytic tools they need to become more efficient.

Medicaid reform also means more consumer-oriented options for patients. It involves giving patients the tools to save money for taxpayers, then sharing some of those savings with them. Whether providing incentives for healthy behaviorssimilar to the Safeway model popular with many large employersor encouraging patients to shop around for non-emergency procedures like MRIs, these incentives can present a win-win proposition to both patients and taxpayers.

A reformed Medicaid program means providing links to employment, and employment-based health insurance, for eligible beneficiaries. Work requirements and job training programs will encourage individuals to develop translatable skills that will improve their employment prospects, and ultimately benefit the economy. Encouraging patients to accept employment-based insurance wherever offered, and transforming Medicaid so it more closely resembles employer plans, will create smoother transitions for beneficiaries.

Finally, a reformed Medicaid program would serve as a wise steward of taxpayer dollars. Enhanced eligibility checks and increased asset recovery efforts would preserve scarce taxpayer resources for the vulnerable patients who need them most. With improper payments in the program having risen by nearly 25 percent to more than $36 billion last fiscal year, state Medicaid programs need the resources and incentives to ferret out this waste and fraud and return it to taxpayers.

While Medicaid serves an important purpose for the needy populations for which it was designed, the program needs updating to respond to twenty-first-century medicine. Moreover, with the size of Medicaid nearly tripling as a percentage of state budgets over the past three decades, an unreformed Medicaid program will continue to crowd out other important state spending priorities like law enforcement, education, and transportation.

Medicaid reform may well take different forms in different states. Wyomings large rural population impacts its health system in numerous ways. Managed care has yet to come to Medicaid, and social isolation in rural communities helps explain why Wyoming has an above-average percentage of aged beneficiaries in nursing homes. These unique characteristics mean that the solutions that work for Medicaid recipients in Cheyenne may not work for those in Charlotte, and vice versa.

But given freedom from Washingtonfreedom that should be forthcoming under the new administrationevery state can transform its Medicaid program. All it takes is federal flexibility, and for policy-makers to embrace a vision for a modern Medicaid system. With a comprehensive waiver, Wyomingand every other statecan transform and revitalize Medicaid. Its time to embrace the opportunity and do just that.

Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, a policy consulting firm based in Washington. He's on Twitter @chrisjacobshc.

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States Need Freedom From Washington To Transform Their Medicaid Programs - The Federalist

WASHINGTON As their counterparts in the Senate struggled Tuesday to advance a high-profile health-care bill, House Republicans confronted their own critical failure to agree on a fiscal 2018 budget resolution.

Passing a budget is about much more than next years spending for Republican lawmakers. It also sets the stage for special budget procedures known as reconciliation instructions that will allow Republicans to pass major legislation without a filibuster from Senate Democrats.

But even the promise of tax reform and long-term spending cuts has not yet been enough to bring a fractious group of House Republicans together. A scheduled Thursday meeting of the House Budget Committee to prepare a budget resolution for a floor vote was canceled Tuesday amid continued infighting.

Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., a Budget Committee member, lamented Tuesday that the budget should have been put to bed a long time ago.

Its almost like were serving in the minority right now, he said. We just simply dont know how to govern.

House leaders struck an optimistic note last week after Republican defense hawks and deficit hawks appeared to agree on a compromise figure of $621 billion for defense spending in fiscal 2018. But another thorny issue has derailed the talks: how much entitlement spending to trim from the federal budget over the coming decade.

Most Budget Committee Republicans are prepared to trim $200 billion from the federal budget over 10 years, but hard-line conservatives are pushing for even more cuts to federal spending that now totals roughly $4 trillion a year.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said he has personally identified $300 billion of potential cuts to mandatory spending programs such as Medicare and Medicaid that are not appropriated on a regular basis by Congress. In particular, he said, conservatives want cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food stamps as well as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the main welfare program.

To suggest that theres no waste or inefficiencies in those areas would defy history, he said.

But the chairmen of the House committees that would be charged with wringing out those inefficiencies are balking at being essentially ordered around by the Budget Committee, and that has talks in a fresh stalemate as a week-long July 4 holiday recess approaches. Under the typical yearly budget cycle, the House and Senate pass a budget resolution by April 15.

Budget Committee spokesman Will Allison said the panels chairman, Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., is 100 percent committed to getting a budget done and plans to keep this process moving after the July 4th recess.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Tuesday attacked what she described as the Republicans fiscal irresponsibility.

Almost five months into the Trump Administration, House Republicans still havent met their most basic responsibility to pass a budget, she said in a statement. Time is quickly running out to avert a catastrophic default on the debt.

See the article here:

House Republicans struggle to pass budget - Press Herald

New Hampshire continues to hold true to its motto, first coined by Revolutionary War General John Stark, Live free or die. As we gather together next week to celebrate our nations enduring freedom on the Fourth of July, we are reminded that this motto can take on many different meanings.

During the legislative session that recently came to a close, we looked to our Live free or die New Hampshire sensibilities of freedom teamed with practicality in all that we did, supporting a healthy balance of fiscal conservatism, need to grow our economy, yet we also provided our communities with the resources they need for a strong future.

Providing steadfast leadership in conjunction with our ability to work together with members of the House, Senate and with our governor, we have produced a number of major accomplishments on behalf of our state.

Growing our economy and creating jobs continues to be one of our top priorities this session through maintaining a business-friendly environment. As part of an ongoing effort to grow our economy and create jobs, we noted the success previous tax cuts have had, as our unemployment is among the lowest in the country, New Hampshire has the fourth fastest growing economy in the country and business tax revenues were well over projections. With the support of the House and governor, we worked together to take further steps to provide additional tax relief for businesses again this year. We also increased the deduction for capital investments to $500,000 to encourage businesses to grow and create jobs. These policies are part of a comprehensive push to drive our economy while sending a clear message that New Hampshire is open for business.

We also took an important step toward reducing our states high energy costs by eliminating the electric consumption tax. This is a move in the right direction to reduce energy costs that are 40 percent higher in New Hampshire than the rest of the nation and the top reason major employers have moved out of state. It is clear that we need to do more to cut energy costs.

It is essential that we also focus on building a well-educated and skilled workforce to fill the high-tech industry jobs in our state. I honestly believe that should begin with our students, which is why we provided funding in this budget for FIRST robotics programs in schools in addition to establishing full-day kindergarten programs in every community in our state.

We also included a new scholarship program introduced by Gov. Sununu, which would assist New Hampshire students who attend colleges and universities, public or private, in state. The goal is to keep these individuals in state after college working in the jobs available here. We know that providing opportunities for early education and emphasizing engagement in STEM programs early on, and introducing scholarship programs for New Hampshire students will better prepare them for their future and for the great opportunities available to them in our state.

Improving our states infrastructure, including roads and bridges, as well as protecting our water resources, are also key components to our future. We sent $36 million back to taxpayers in our communities to make critical road and bridge infrastructure repairs that support small businesses and our citizens. In addition, weve revamped the drinking water and ground water commission so they are entrusted with providing communities access to funding for essential drinking water remediation. Modeled after LCHIP, we made changes to allow for public-private partnerships and ensure that communities are also invested in the solution. Maintaining modern and safe road infrastructure and water resources are essential to attracting businesses and families to our state, ensuring that New Hampshire remains one of the best places to live and work in the country.

Weve also taken steps to launch the Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission in Laconia to bring in new ideas for the Laconia State School property. Weve used the same framework as the Pease Development Authority to provide a platform for realizing development opportunities to benefit the Laconia region and the state. I believe the sky is the limit for the type of economic growth the city of Laconia could see in the future. This is just one example of how we are able to make progress growing our local economy through smart, tested programs that will benefit our communities.

Our state motto takes on so many different meanings, but ultimately emphasizes the importance of our freedom from oppression and perhaps overstates the need for consistent, measured practicality.

If only Gen. Stark could see New Hampshire today not only can we celebrate our independence with now-legal firecrackers, but Id like to think he would be proud of our ability to balance the need to maintain our freedoms while serving our communities on this 241st Fourth of July.

(Chuck Morse, a Salem Republican, is the New Hampshire Senate president.)

Link:

Sen. Chuck Morse: A real 'Live free or die' session - Concord Monitor

WAVERLY -- As part of Superintendent Randy Richards' amended contract with the Waverly Central School District, the district will pay the retiring school official's health insurance in full until 2020.

A copy of Richards' amended contract was provided to the Morning Times following the filing of a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request.

The new language calls for the district to "provide to the superintendent family health insurance for the 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 fiscal years."

The amendment notes that the benefits will match those offered to the district's other administrators in active service.

The health insurance plan offered by the district is the "MVP Option A" offered by the NY44 Health Benefits Plan Trust.

According to the original contract between Richards and the district, the superintendent would be responsible for 15 percent of the health insurance premium, while the district picked up the remaining 85 percent.

However, the amended contract calls for the district to cover 100 percent of insurance's premium for the next three years, according to school board President Parvin Mensch.

According to district Business Manager Kathy Rote, that translates to a cost of $22,584 for the next school year.

"That's the only solid number we have right now," she said Tuesday.

If the cost of health insurance were to rise 7 percent in each of the following two fiscal years -- which Rote stressed was only a guess -- it would translate to a cost of approximately $24,000 and nearly $26,000 for those respective school years.

Richards will not receive any other benefits, such as salary, as part of his retirement, Mensch added.

The superintendent's retirement, which is set to go into effect on June 30, was announced June 15 after a lengthy executive session by the school board.

Richards still had a year remaining on his original contract after being awarded a one-year extension in November 2016.

Mensch stated that Richards' decision to retire came after it was unexpectedly discovered that the superintendent was eligible for an early retirement due to his past military service.

GST BOCES is currently searching for the district's new superintendent.

;

See the rest here:

District to pay Richards' health insurance for next three fiscal years -- Cost to district next school year is over $22K - Morning Times

Threading the needle of getting defense hawks, fiscal conservatives and those steering tax reform within his own party has been a difficult task, but House Speaker Paul Ryan has reminded House GOP members that this year's budget is critical for getting top priorities like tax reform through both chambers.

It's unlikely any Democrats will back the fiscal blueprint, so Republican leaders are locking down support from the various factions of their conference. They plan to hold up the proposal as evidence they are following through on the promise of GOP control of the White House and the Capitol intent on reshaping the federal government.

The fiscal blueprint is expected to propose more than $1.1 trillion for the next fiscal year and would provide more money for the military and domestic spending than President Donald Trump requested in his budget, which he sent to the Hill in May, according to several congressional aides familiar with the proposal.

Republicans reached an agreement on the discretionary funding levels for the Pentagon and domestic agencies, and the last sticking point Republican leaders had to overcome was over how much deficit-reduction should be taken out of mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The budget plan would provide $621.5 billion in base defense spending, as well as $75 billion in war funding, known as Overseas Contingency Operations, sources told CNN. That's $28.5 billion more than the President requested $18.5 in the base budget and $10 billion extra in war dollars.

The House budget blueprint would set domestic discretionary spending at $511 billion, an increase compared to the Trump administration's $462 billion budget request, which proposed deep cuts to agencies like the State Department and EPA.

When President Barack Obama was in the White House, final spending deals in recent years included equal increases for defense and domestic spending, but Republicans are trying to move away from that construct now that they control the legislative and executive branches.

While the budget agreement will likely will have enough votes to get those spending bills through the House, Senate Democrats are likely to filibuster them, making a final deal uncertain ahead of a September deadline to keep the government from shutting down.

This emerging budget deal lays out the GOP wish list, but an agreement that funds federal agencies will be tougher to hammer out. Republicans have had to rely on Democrats to pass those in recent years, so they may need to give in on the split between defense and other domestic programs.

Another problem the House faces with the emerging budget agreement is that the defense funding violates spending caps established by the 2011 Budget Control Act. The defense cap for 2018 is $549 billion, and if the cap is not changed, the Pentagon would be subject to across-the-board cuts known as sequestration.

Republican defense hawks want to repeal the budget caps for defense, as Trump has requested, but Democrats won't go along unless the cap is also removed for domestic spending.

For defense hawks, the $621.5 billion topline for defense is a compromise, as House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry and Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain have been pressing for at least $640 billion for the military.

The difficulties in creating a budget deal in the House have also made for a topsy-turvy process crafting individual authorization and appropriation bills. Both Thornberry and Rep. Kay Granger, the chairwoman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, were preparing their defense bills at different levels Thornberry's at $37 billion more than the Trump request and Granger's at the same level as Trump's.

But with a budget deal near, the House's defense authorization and appropriations bills were finalized at the same level as the emerging budget agreement.

Thornberry told reporters last week that he was willing to come down from $640 billion, but he would need assurances there would be future growth for military spending in future years.

The final sticking point to getting House Republicans on the same page was negotiating how much money the plan would cut from the mandatory side of the ledger. Programs like Social Security and Medicare that are funded through mandatory spending account for about two-thirds of the total budget, but they are difficult to reduce because any change requires Congress to pass a new law.

With divided government in recent years, Republicans in Congress have been unable to make a dent in this area. But House GOP members are looking to get some significant savings from changes to some programs that fall under the Agriculture Department, like food stamps, or other welfare programs.

The House GOP budget is expected to direct several committees to come up with roughly $200 billion in deficit savings. Some in the House Freedom Caucus were hoping they could get a significantly higher number, and House Budget Chair Diane Black also appealed to top GOP leaders to make those savings a major component of the final deal, according to several House Republican sources.

Rep. Mark Meadows, the leader of the Freedom Caucus, said there was not a budget deal he could agree to yet.

Meadows said he wasn't concerned with the numbers in the agreement, but rather the details when it came to how the deficit reduction was achieved.

The budget proposal does not provide details on how each committee could achieve these savings targets, but including the provision in the budget resolution gives Republicans in Congress the ability to say they are following through on their pledge to reduce the size of the federal government.

Ryan, a former budget chair, has been sympathetic to those pressing for major deficit reduction, but he is also balancing the challenge of shepherding a major overhaul of the tax code through the House. Leaders wanted to reach agreement on a savings number they felt was manageable for the House Ways and Means Committee to meet as it evaluates what various changes to the tax rates and exemptions will mean for the overall budget.

Republicans don't need to pass a budget the various spending bills that detail how much each agency will get for federal programs are the measures that keep the government operating. But as they did with health care, GOP leaders are using this vehicle so they can use a tool known as "budget reconciliation" to pass a tax reform package through the Senate with a simple majority, avoiding a Democratic filibuster.

Democrats are expected to be united against the package.

Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, hasn't seen the details, but is already arguing that it's the same as the Trump administration's version sent to the Hill in May.

"The reports on the Republican budget proposal indicate that they are embracing much of the Trump budget," Yarmuth said in a written statement to CNN. "Instead of investing in American families and the future of our nation, it appears they are prepared to undermine our country's economic progress, health security, and safety just so they can give massive tax breaks for millionaires and corporations. We will fight this irresponsible proposal every step of the way."

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House Republicans put final touches on budget deal - CNN International

IMF Executive Board Approves US$16.1Million Disbursement Under the Rapid Credit Facility for The Gambia

June 26, 2017

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved emergency financial assistance under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF)[1]in the amount equivalent to SDR11,662,500 (about US$16.1 million) for The Gambia to enable the authorities to meet their urgent balance of payment needs.

In addition, the Board was informed about the IMF Managing Directors approval of a one-year staff-monitored program (SMP)[2]to guide policy implementation.

With the recent political transition, the new government has inherited a dire economic situation and the country is faced with an urgent balance of payments need and a precariously low level of usable international reserves. The Gambia has been hit by a bad agricultural season, the political turmoil following the elections in December 2016 has greatly reduced tourism receipts in early 2017, and higher fuel and commodity prices put further strain on the balance of payments. These shocks have exacerbated an already fragile macroeconomic situation, reflecting past economic mismanagement.

The IMF financial assistance is intended to address urgent balance of payments needs that have arisen on account of the shocks. It will help fill budgetary gaps while the authorities implement economic and structural policies aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and reducing poverty. The Executive Boards approval of the RCF disbursement will also enable the authorities to engage in further discussions with the donor community regarding assistance to meet their remaining financing needs. The Boards approval enables the immediate disbursement of the full amount of the RCF loan, which is equivalent to 18.75 percent of The Gambias quota in the IMF.

Following the Executive Board discussion, Mr. Mitsuhiro Furusawa, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, issued the following statement:

The Gambia faces an urgent balance of payments need triggered by a weak agricultural season, lower tourism receipts due to the political turmoil early this year, and higher commodity prices. These shocks along with past economic mismanagement have exacerbated an already weak economic situation.

The Gambian authorities are strongly committed to a break with past policies and to restoring macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability. To that end, they intend to implement strong fiscal measures in 2017 and beyond. They have committed to drastically reducing domestic borrowing, including by ending central bank deficit financing, and are taking substantive measures to increase non-tax revenue and reduce expenditures in 2017. The authorities also plan to undertake comprehensive reforms of key state-owned enterprises to secure the planned fiscal adjustment. These efforts are complemented by substantial external support from development partners. However, sustained further efforts beyond 2017 will be needed to secure fiscal sustainability.

The Gambias high public debt exposes it to significant vulnerabilities. To reduce these vulnerabilities, multilateral development banks have committed to provide additional support and assurances of highly concessional support have been received from some of The Gambias major official bilateral creditors. The authorities are also committed to developing a strategy to reduce vulnerabilities stemming from domestic debt. These actions will help make debt sustainable over the medium term, although risks are expected to remain elevated. Over the coming months, it will be important for the authorities to continue to pursue a coordinated approach to secure assurances of support from other official creditors to reduce debt vulnerabilities.

The IMF is supporting the efforts of The Gambia with resources from the Rapid Credit Facility. In addition, determined and strong policy implementation under the staff monitored program will be critical to restoring macroeconomic stability, help catalyze further donor financing and establish a track record as the basis for future program engagement with the IMF.

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Gambia: IMF Executive Board Approves US$16.1Million Disbursement Under the Rapid Credit Facility for The Gambia - Freedom Newspaper

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(CNN) - House Republicans are putting the final touches on a budget proposal they will roll out later this week that would boost military spending beyond what President Donald Trump wants and slash billions from welfare and other entitlement programs.

Threading the needle of getting defense hawks, fiscal conservatives and those steering tax reform within his own party has been a difficult task, but House Speaker Paul Ryan has reminded House GOP members that this year's budget is critical for getting top priorities like tax reform through both chambers.

It's unlikely any Democrats will back the fiscal blueprint, so Republican leaders are locking down support from the various factions of their conference. They plan to hold up the proposal as evidence they are following through on the promise of GOP control of the White House and the Capitol intent on reshaping the federal government.

The fiscal blueprint is expected to propose more than $1.1 trillion for the next fiscal year and would provide more money for the military and domestic spending than President Donald Trump requested in his budget, which he sent to the Hill in May, according to several congressional aides familiar with the proposal.

Republicans reached an agreement on the discretionary funding levels for the Pentagon and domestic agencies, and the last sticking point Republican leaders had to overcome was over how much deficit-reduction should be taken out of mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The budget plan would provide $621.5 billion in base defense spending, as well as $75 billion in war funding, known as Overseas Contingency Operations, sources told CNN. That's $28.5 billion more than the President requested --- $18.5 in the base budget and $10 billion extra in war dollars.

The House budget blueprint would set domestic discretionary spending at $511 billion, an increase compared to the Trump administration's $462 billion budget request, which proposed deep cuts to agencies like the State Department and EPA.

When President Barack Obama was in the White House, final spending deals in recent years included equal increases for defense and domestic spending, but Republicans are trying to move away from that construct now that they control the legislative and executive branches.

While the budget agreement will likely will have enough votes to get those spending bills through the House, Senate Democrats are likely to filibuster them, making a final deal uncertain ahead of a September deadline to keep the government from shutting down.

This emerging budget deal lays out the GOP wish list, but an agreement that funds federal agencies will be tougher to hammer out. Republicans have had to rely on Democrats to pass those in recent years, so they may need to give in on the split between defense and other domestic programs.

Another problem the House faces with the emerging budget agreement is that the defense funding violates spending caps established by the 2011 Budget Control Act. The defense cap for 2018 is $549 billion, and if the cap is not changed, the Pentagon would be subject to across-the-board cuts known as sequestration.

Republican defense hawks want to repeal the budget caps for defense, as Trump has requested, but Democrats won't go along unless the cap is also removed for domestic spending.

For defense hawks, the $621.5 billion topline for defense is a compromise, as House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry and Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain have been pressing for at least $640 billion for the military.

The difficulties in creating a budget deal in the House have also made for a topsy-turvy process crafting individual authorization and appropriation bills. Both Thornberry and Rep. Kay Granger, the chairwoman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, were preparing their defense bills at different levels --- Thornberry's at $37 billion more than the Trump request and Granger's at the same level as Trump's.

But with a budget deal near, the House's defense authorization and appropriations bills were finalized at the same level as the emerging budget agreement.

Thornberry told reporters last week that he was willing to come down from $640 billion, but he would need assurances there would be future growth for military spending in future years.

The final sticking point to getting House Republicans on the same page was negotiating how much money the plan would cut from the mandatory side of the ledger. Programs like Social Security and Medicare that are funded through mandatory spending account for about two-thirds of the total budget, but they are difficult to reduce because any change requires Congress to pass a new law.

With divided government in recent years, Republicans in Congress have been unable to make a dent in this area. But House GOP members are looking to get some significant savings from changes to some programs that fall under the Agriculture Department, like food stamps, or other welfare programs.

The House GOP budget is expected to direct several committees to come up with roughly $200 billion in deficit savings. Some in the House Freedom Caucus were hoping they could get a significantly higher number, and House Budget Chair Diane Black also appealed to top GOP leaders to make those savings a major component of the final deal, according to several House Republican sources.

Rep. Mark Meadows, the leader of the Freedom Caucus, said there was not a budget deal he could agree to yet.

Meadows said he wasn't concerned with the numbers in the agreement, but rather the details when it came to how the deficit reduction was achieved.

The budget proposal does not provide details on how each committee could achieve these savings targets, but including the provision in the budget resolution gives Republicans in Congress the ability to say they are following through on their pledge to reduce the size of the federal government.

Ryan, a former budget chair, has been sympathetic to those pressing for major deficit reduction, but he is also balancing the challenge of shepherding a major overhaul of the tax code through the House. Leaders wanted to reach agreement on a savings number they felt was manageable for the House Ways and Means Committee to meet as it evaluates what various changes to the tax rates and exemptions will mean for the overall budget.

Republicans don't need to pass a budget --- the various spending bills that detail how much each agency will get for federal programs are the measures that keep the government operating. But as they did with health care, GOP leaders are using this vehicle so they can use a tool known as "budget reconciliation" to pass a tax reform package through the Senate with a simple majority, avoiding a Democratic filibuster.

Democrats are expected to be united against the package.

Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, hasn't seen the details, but is already arguing that it's the same as the Trump administration's version sent to the Hill in May.

"The reports on the Republican budget proposal indicate that they are embracing much of the Trump budget," Yarmuth said in a written statement to CNN. "Instead of investing in American families and the future of our nation, it appears they are prepared to undermine our country's economic progress, health security, and safety just so they can give massive tax breaks for millionaires and corporations. We will fight this irresponsible proposal every step of the way."

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House GOP puts final touches on budget deal - NBC Montana

Donald Trump and Mike Pence are the most effective pitchers in the Republican bullpen. The president has the starpower and gets the headlines, but the vice presidents emerging role could be just as valuable.

Trump is the flame-throwing closer with one pitch: his signature sharp rhetoric that metaphorically is his political fastball. But Pences recent public appearances showcase his role as the in-the-trenches long reliever who huddles with GOP members and reassures key constituent groups, and could be even more valuable.

The pairs recent schedules show a stark contrast that brings their roles into focus.

Trump on Friday entered the ornate East Room of the White House to sign a bill tailored to help military veterans get better care. In doing so, the commander in chief claimed a major personal achievement. It was carried live by cable news networks.

[Trump Boasts Tapes Bluff Forced Comeys Truthful Testimony]

On Wednesday night, Trump was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he, for over an hour, attacked his foes, made bold promises and listed the achievements of what he views as the most productive presidency at this point in U.S. history. The campaign-style rally lit Twitter on fire, made the front pages of all the major newspapers, and is still being replayed in soundbyte form on every network.

The same cannot be said of Pences recent public speeches.

The vice presidentquietly goes about the methodical business of delivering Trumps often searing populist message and governing vision in a friendlier, more conservative package.

That certainly was the case Friday, when Air Force Two landed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Penceaddressed a conference put on by Focus on the Family, the self-describedglobal Christian ministry that provides help and resources for couples to build healthy marriages that reflect Gods design.

Its just the kind of conservative group with which Trump, a thrice-married Manhattanite who appeared often on Howard Sterns then-raunchy radio show and has made caught-on-tape remarks that made many religious peoplecringe, has an unlikely and shaky alliance.

The same cannot be said of Pence, who is very much at home with Christian conservatives.

The previous day, there was Pence, addressing a conference of contractors and builders in Washington. And he hailed them in terms that neatly aligned with core Republican principles.

You champion fiscal responsibility and individual freedom, Pence said. And I promise you, the American people are grateful that you are a champion for American values.

As he typically does when addressing an issue-specific group, the vice president a career politician and Washington veteran makes clear its importance to the Trump-Pence agenda.

This president has promised, simply put, in his words, to rebuild America, Pence said in his radio-trained voice. And its businesses like yours that are going to play such a leading role in doing that. Ahead of schedule and under budget, right?

The same was true on Tuesday, when the former Indiana governor and congressman spoke to a National Association of Manufacturers summit, just the kind of voters that went for the Trump-Pence ticket in November in key Rust Belt states that helped put the GOP ticket over the top.

[Trump Says Senate GOP Health Care Holdouts Are Four Good Guys]

Since your founding more than 120 years ago, the National Association of Manufacturers has fought tirelessly for the time-honored American principles of free enterprise, competitiveness, individual liberty, and equal opportunity, Pence said.

And not only do you advocate for the businesses in this room, you really advocate for America itself. American manufacturers are the beating heart of our national life and always will be, the vice presidentsaid to applause before delivering the line designed to tie the group directly to his and the presidents agenda ahead of their expected 2020 re-election bid.

To borrow a phrase, Pence said, manufacturers make America and they make America great.

Michael Steel, a former aide to 2016 GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush, said Penceis a natural choice for such targeted outreach because he possesses a deep background dealing with a range of individual interest groups across a spectrum of issues.

Jerri Ann Henry, a GOP political strategist, said the vice president provides a calming presence to groups who are inundated with speculation about Trumps plans and loyalties. Pence calms those concerns.

He has a lot of credibility with some of the hard-right groups like Focus on the Family, credibility Trump doesnt have even if those groups supported him, Henry said. Through all of the chaos of this administration, I think it is safe to say Pence is without question the most valuable player.

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Analysis: Mike Pence Works the Trenches - Roll Call