President Obama will send Congress a 2013 spending plan that would raise taxes on the rich and pump nearly $500 billion into new construction projects over the next decade, launching an election-year debate over the budget that promises starkly different visions for managing government debt and the sluggish economy. Read full article > >

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Budget to raise taxes on the rich, hike federal spending

TOKYO — The U.S. military will probably scale back plans to build key bases in Japan and Guam because of political obstacles and budget pressures, according to U.S. and Japanese officials, complicating the Obama administration’s efforts to strengthen its troop presence in Asia. Read full article > >

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U.S. likely to scale down plans for bases in Japan and Guam

MSPs have approved the Scottish government’s £30bn budget in a Holyrood vote which saw 70 members backing it and 52 members rejecting it.

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MSPs pass £30bn Scottish budget

H ere’s something for critics of the country’s defense budget to ponder: After I was confirmed as secretary of the Navy in May 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asked me and the other service secretaries to work with Congress to gain approval for a pending supplemental appropriation to the defense budget. This was not a war supplemental; it was still four months before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Pentagon was simply running out of money. Read full article > >

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Military preparedness does not come cheap

Scooters are becoming increasingly popular as people look to cut costs and stretch their budgets, but could the boom spark safety problems?

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The rush to the scooter

Aggressive measures helped reduce gang violence in a city that is notorious for it. Then the budget cuts came.

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In Salinas, Fighting Gang Violence on a Shoestring

The eurozone crisis is set to dominate an EU summit in Brussels, as leaders place the emphasis on growth and “smart” budget discipline.

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Euro summit set for growth focus

The Pentagon took the first major step toward shrinking after a decade of war, announcing a proposal for budget cuts that is fraught with political risk.

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Pentagon Cuts Would Affect Raises, Insurance and Base Closings

The Pentagon budget will actually shrink next year, for the first time since 1998, under a proposal released by the Obama administration that will cut the size of the Army and Marine Corps, trim the number of fighter aircraft and ships, and seek congressional approval for another round of military base closures. Read full article > >

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Pentagon budget set to shrink next year

Arlington National Cemetery is trying to account for $12 million — about a quarter of its current annual budget — that was allocated to the cemetery between 2004 and 2010 but apparently was never spent. Read full article > >

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Arlington Cemetery trying to account for missing $12 million

President Obama has tapped Jeffrey D. Zients to serve as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, the White House announced Tuesday. This will be Zients’s second turn as acting director of the agency responsible for crafting the White House federal budget proposal and handling various government management concerns. Though Zients has no federal budget-writing experience, he led last year’s review of plans to reorganize federal agencies and the drafting of contingency plans ahead of last year’s threatened government shutdown . Read full article > >

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Jeffrey Zients tapped to lead Office of Management and Budget

The governor proposed a $132.5 billion state budget, asking legislators to slightly reduce overall spending by cutting human services programs and consolidating state government operations.

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Cuomo Offers Budget With More Trims Than Deep Cuts

LONDON — For the opposition Labor Party, this should be a shining moment. Under Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, unemployment is up, budget cuts are biting British wallets and the government’s veto of a new European Union economic treaty has left the country Read full article > >

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In Britain, opposition party leader struggles to find voice

It’s tempting to see the news that Bill Daley is leaving as White House chief of staff — to be replaced by budget director Jack Lew — as a triumph of the new populist Obama over the old bipartisan and reconciliatory Obama. While there’s a grain of truth in that reading, it’s overstated. Bill Daley’s departure is not exactly heartbreaking news for Hill Democrats and liberals, because Daley is directly associated with many of the failings liberal Dems saw in the White House before Obama’s turn towards a more aggressive populism. Daley was brought in to repair relations with the business community, at a time (as liberals argued at the time) when literally nothing could have ever gotten corporate leaders and Republicans from from tarring Obama as anti-business. Daley’s olive branch went unrewarded, confirming liberal suspicions about the folly of hoping for improved relations. Read full article > >

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Greg Sargent:
Bill Daley exit represents White House shift into populist mode

Construction crews are poised to demolish the president’s house at the University of Maryland this week and to pour the foundation for a new 14,000-square-foot on-campus mansion that carries a $7.2 million price tag. But some question why the school would build such an elaborate house at a time when the flagship university is asking donors to support students who might drop out because they can’t afford tuition. And construction will begin just weeks after President Wallace D. Loh announced that he will cut eight varsity sports teams in June to save an estimated $29 million over the next eight years. Read full article > >

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University of Maryland plans $7.2 million president’s house amid budget cuts