How the Budget Deal Got Done

Apparently, there was some lightheartedness in all the muck.

In one of the White House meetings, a light moment occurred when the negotiators began focusing on the dozens of policy restrictions that Republicans wanted to include.

According to White House aides, Nabors had an assistant make photocopies of the long list of provisions, which ended up taking time. Boehner joked about the White House needing faster copying machines, and Obama said the copies were being mimeographed, an ancient copying technology.

A key point came Thursday night, according to the Senate Democratic staffer and White House aides.

The two sides were moving closer to agreement on the amount of spending cuts but Republicans were insisting on including curbs on federal funds for family planning programs - a demand that Democrats were just as adamantly opposing.

It was in those conversations, the Democratic aide said, that Obama and Reid said Democrats would not agree to the family planning restrictions, with the president himself saying it would not be included in any final deal. At one point, according to White House aides, Vice President Joe Biden flashed anger over the GOP's insistence on family planning restrictions. Read it all -- it's very interesting -- at AP

Obama Announces Peter Orszag for OMB

Budget reform is not an option. It's a necessity, Obama says. Look out millionaire farmers receiving crop subsidies. You're on the cutting block. 

Q&A with reporters:

More Qs

Who is Rob Nabors?

CHICAGO, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Rob Nabors, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, has worked in the OMB before.
Nabors, born in 1971 at Fort Dix, N.J., is the son of an Army major-general has a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master's from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
...
Nabors currently is staff director and clerk of the House Appropriations Committee and has been praised by Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., as someone who "doesn't take any crap from people."

Bios of Orszag and Nabors from Politico:

Peter Orszag, Office of Management and Budget Director -- currently serves as the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), overseeing the agency's work in providing objective, nonpartisan, and timely analyses of economic and budgetary issues--supervising the numerous analytical papers and cost estimates that the agency produces and, to present the results, frequently testifying before the Congress. Under his leadership, the agency has significantly expanded its focus on areas such as health care and climate change. In previous government service, Orszag served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and as a staff economist and then Senior Advisor and Senior Economist at the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Orszag was the Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution where he authored or edited numerous books and papers. Orszag graduated summa cum laude in economics from Princeton University and obtained a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, which he attended as a Marshall scholar.

Rob Nabors, Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director -- currently serves as the 13th Clerk and Staff Director of the House Appropriations Committee. He is responsible for the hiring, and direction of the majority staff of the committee and for recommending overall legislative strategies with respect to discretionary spending to committee Democrats and the House Democratic Leadership. Nabors joined the Appropriations Committee in 2001. Prior to coming to the Appropriations Committee, Nabors served in the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President as the Senior Advisor to the Director and as the Assistant Director for Administration and Executive Secretary. Nabors is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he received degrees in Government and Computer Applications. He received a Masters Degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina.