Daily Caller - The penultimate meeting of President Obama’s debt commission Wednesday was a data-heavy affair, with members and reporters poring over the 58-page final report brimming with facts and figures.

Reuters - President Barack Obama is being regularly updated about the crisis in the euro zone debt market, which could affect the recovery and wider global economy, the White House said on Wednesday.

The president's bipartisan debt commission met Wednesday. While they postponed the vote on the final proposal, panel members began staking out their positions.

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The Atlantic Wire - President Obama's debt panel released its recommendations Tuesday morning, but the fate of those proposals doesn't look great. While the commission's chairmen are comfortably retired from politics--and therefore free to defend their controversial debt-reduction plan--their 12 colleagues who happen to be members of Congress are a bit more skittish.

Sens. Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg are the first two elected officials to endorse the new cost-slashing proposal submitted by the co-chairmen of President Obama's debt commission. A final vote is expected Friday.

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The Senate GOP warned Sen. Reid they will filibuster all bills except those for tax cuts and debt.

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This was supposed to be the day that President Obama's deficit commission voted on a plan to make dramatic cuts in the deficit. But the vote has been postponed until Friday, so the 18 members of the panel can discuss a final proposal developed by the commission's co-chairmen.

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The Christian Science Monitor - The co-chairmen of President Obama's fiscal commission have agreed to a bold plan to slash federal deficits and put America's fiscal house in order. The problem is they're not sure if the rest of the bipartisan commission – let alone Congress – will sign on.

Reuters - The euro zone debt crisis is moving at such a pace, with pressure now mounting on several countries simultaneously, that European Union institutions may find it impossible to get ahead of the markets.

Here’s a roundup of this morning’s must-read budget and economic stories:

The federal government may be rapidly adding to its debt burden, but the American consumer is not. According to The Business Insider, the debt-to-GDP ratio for American consumers fell by more than six percentage points between the beginning of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 (the latest dates for which data is available) — the largest amount ever.

President Obama and top Congressional leaders will meet to discuss if — and how — to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax laws. Bloomberg has a rundown on the tax-related policy issues on the agenda today. According to The Washington Post, some Democrats are urging the President to agree to extend all of the tax cuts for any taxpayer earning less than $1 million a year. The House is expected to vote on tax-law extensions this week.

Last night the Senate voted down a provision to repeal part of the health care law that requires businesses to complete 1099 tax forms for purchases over $600. Today, The Hill reports Sens. Baucus (D-MT) and Johanns (R-NE) — who had sponsored competing plans to deal with the 1099 provision — are working on a compromise. (To see how the 1099 affects small businesses, click here.)

In an editorial, Investor’s Business Daily asks whether the Federal Reserve’s “quantitative easing” plan is about strengthening the economy, or if it’s really just about “printing new money to finance deficit spending.”

AP - President Barack Obama on Monday proposed a two-year freeze of the salaries of some 2 million federal workers, trying to seize the deficit-cutting initiative from Republicans with a sudden, dramatic stroke. Though signaling White House concern over record deficits, the freeze would make only a tiny dent in annual deficits or the nation's $14 trillion debt.

AP - President Barack Obama on Monday proposed a two-year freeze of the salaries of some 2 million federal workers, trying to seize the deficit-cutting initiative from Republicans with a sudden, dramatic stroke. Though signaling White House concern over record deficits, the freeze would make only a tiny dent in annual deficits or the nation's $14 trillion debt.

Daily Caller - President Obama on Monday proposed a two-year freeze of all pay for federal workers, excluding military personnel, in his first major post-election move to show seriousness about spending restraint and debt and deficit reduction.

Here’s a roundup of this morning’s must-read budget and economic stories:

Today, three liberal groups — Demos, The Economic Policy Institute, and the Century Foundation — will unveil their plan for cutting the deficit. The plan will not call for domestic spending cuts, and according to The New York Times, would “leave the debt at a higher level as a share of the economy than the centrist plans.”

This week Congress will continue to debate whether to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. According to The Wall Street Journal, a vote could come as early as midweek. One thing yet to be determined: whether to extend the elimination of the estate tax.

USA Today takes a look at the nation’s debt and examines why things are different than in years past. Reporter Richard Wolf writes, “The nation has tackled fiscal challenges before: In 1983, it extended the solvency of Social Security. In 1986, it transformed the tax code. In 1990, 1993 and 1997, it reduced deficits, helping to usher in four years of budget surpluses. What’s different this time: The problem is much worse, and the nation is much more divided.”

In The Washington Post Harvard economist Martin Feldstein lays out a plan for reducing the deficit without raising taxes. Feldstein’s focus is on eliminating “tax expenditures” — tax rebate and credit programs that are not counted as government spending, but do, in fact, act as subsidies to certain groups.

According to The New York Times, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who will take over the House Oversight Committee in January, said he would use his post to find ways for the federal government to save money.

Paul Krugman, New York Times
The best thing about the Irish right now is that there are so few of them. By itself, Ireland can't do all that much damage to Europe's prospects. The same can be said of Greece and of Portugal, which is widely regarded as the next potential domino.But then there’s Spain. The others are tapas; Spain is the main course.What’s striking about Spain, from an American perspective, is how much its economic story resembles our own. Like America, Spain experienced a huge property bubble, accompanied by a huge rise in private-sector debt.

Reuters - The European Union approved an 85 billion euro ($115 billion) rescue for Ireland on Sunday, an EU source said, and was set to announce outlines of a permanent system to try to resolve Europe's spreading debt crisis.

AP - Europe struggled mightily Friday to keep the debt crisis from engulfing country after country. Portugal passed austerity measures to fend off the speculative trades pushing it toward a bailout and Ireland rushed to negotiate its own imminent rescue.

Reuters - Expectations rose on Friday that top bondholders in Irish banks will be offered the chance to swap billions of euros of debt for new bonds, realizing a loss and taking a share of Ireland's pain but avoiding a potentially worse fate.

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“The Capitol Hill Christmas tree is on its way, and once it gets to Washington it’ll die in committee.” – David Letterman

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“A group of economists unveiled a new plan to reduce the deficit by $6 trillion in the next 10 years. The first step of the plan is to look at all our spending over the past five years, determine what’s unnecessary . . . and then ask China for $6 trillion.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Cartoon: The deficit’s picky parties

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“In a ranking of 35 cities, by ‘Travel and Leisure’ magazine, Los Angeles finished second to last in intelligence. All I can say, thank god for Washington, D.C.” – Jay Leno

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Cartoon: Who’s going to carve the deficit

Shelia Bair, Washington Post
Two years ago the United States experienced its worst financial crisis since the 1930s. The crisis began on Wall Street, where misguided bets on risky mortgage loans resulted in enormous losses that few anticipated. More than 4 million jobs were lost in just six months after the peak of the crisis. There is hardly one Main Street in America not still feeling its effects.Even as work continues to repair our financial infrastructure and get the economy moving again, we need urgent action to forestall the next financial crisis. I fear that one will start in Washington. Total federal debt has...

AP - The 16-nation euro currency will survive the debt crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Thursday, and a senior central banker said the European Union would be willing to increase its ?750 billion ($1 trillion) bailout fund if necessary.

Reuters - Ireland revealed an austerity plan to secure an international bailout, and officials gave mixed messages on whether its debt crisis could spread to other euro zone members or even endanger the common currency.

Reuters - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday European politicians needed the courage to make private investors share in the risk of future debt crises in the euro zone and show financial markets who is in charge.

The holiday season is upon us once again. Time for those lovely family gatherings where your crazy uncle has one too many and becomes convinced that deficit spending will get us out of the recession. You know he’s wrong, but do you have the facts? Keep our handy Thanksgiving Fiscal Cheat Sheet in your back pocket, convince him spending cuts are the way to recovery, and your Thanksgiving is saved. It’s just that easy. Click the image below to view.