Over on the home page, I’ve written a complete overview of the budget talks currently escalating in the House.

Republican leadership hopes to pass a budget that adheres to the $1.07 trillion spending framework established by President Obama and John Boehner in October. But the conference is divided on the wisdom of that plan:

One camp comprises conservatives who believe that, deal or no deal, as Republican Study Committee chairman Bill Flores puts it, the conference must finally show “bold, aspirational leadership” and “write a conservative budget.” The other is led by senior members of the Budget Committee such as Tom Cole, who warns that “we can whine or complain about it, but we have to stick to a deal,” or else “risk losing the presidential campaign” by causing another government shutdown.

If Speaker Paul Ryan hopes to pass all twelve appropriations bills through what’s called “regular order” — which hasn’t been accomplished in decades, and which Ryan has pledged to do since taking the gavel — he’ll have to pass a budget, and soon. Conservatives thus far are a hard “no” on the terms agreed to by Boehner and Obama in October, which the CBO recently estimated would add $130 billion to the ballooning deficit in 2016. So Ryan has his work cut out for him.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks: I’ll be chronicling the negotiations for National Review as they unfold.