Five Things You Should Know

EXAMINER: House Progressive Caucus offers counter-proposal to Ryan deficit plan

“The pundits are fond of saying that Republicans are deeply divided over cutting federal spending. House Speaker John Boehner, the story goes, is barely able to ride herd on rowdy Tea Party freshmen, who want deeper cuts than House GOP leaders.”

NEW YORK TIMES: Congress should pass new natural gas bill

“On Wednesday, amid all the hullabaloo over the budget battles, a simple, discrete and largely overlooked bill was dropped into the Congressional hopper. Sponsored by two Democrats and two Republicans — that’s right: an actual bipartisan piece of legislation — its official title is the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act, or the Nat Gas Act, for short. People in the know, however, call it the Boone Pickens bill.”

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Details of 2011 spending plan released

“The final Continuing Resolution (CR) legislation for fiscal year 2011 unveiled today by House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers contains historic spending cuts of nearly $40 billion, and will provide funding to keep the federal government operating for the remainder of the fiscal year. The passage of the bill in the House and Senate will mark the end of an arduous and long-overdue budget process initiated by the failure of the previous Democrat-controlled Congress to pass a budget or enact a single one of the 12 annual Appropriations bills last year.”

TALKING POINTS MEMO: Stephen Colbert ridicules Jon Kyl over “factual” comment

“Stephen Colbert had some fun with Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) Monday night over Kyl’s argument that his hyperbolic claim about Planned Parenthood was never intended to be taken as fact.”

TALK RADIO NEWS SERVICE: More bad news regarding Japan’s nuclear crisis

“Japan has raised its assessment of the nuclear crisis on its Fukushima Daiichi plant from 5 to 7, the most severe rating on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).”