Fiscal battle lines drawn

From The Hill:

As partisan wrangling over spending priorities dominates the Senate’s lame-duck session, the battle lines are forming for next year’s Democratic effort to reinstate pay-as-you-go budget rules that Republicans decry as a back-door tax increase.

Democratic leaders vowed even before their decisive Election Day victories to demonstrate their commitment to fiscal responsibility by restoring the pay-as-you-go statute, also known as pay-go, should they win back the majority. Pay-go under law, which expired in 2002, required any new mandatory spending or tax breaks to be offset or risk automatic across-the-board spending cuts.