A lot can happen in a week, especially in a state that's trying to balance its budget by asking for concessions from public employees. In the wake of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's budget proposal, and the ensuing outrage from public sector unions still embroiling the capitol, here's a day-by-day breakdown of what's happening the state.

Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy released his budget proposal for fiscal years 2012-2013 Wednesday morning, and while it shares a lot in common with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's, it departs on one significant, contentious aspect: taxes. Malloy said he wants to raise them; Cuomo promises he won't.

House Republicans hate President Obama's $3.7 trillion budget. Rep. Paul Ryan has been loud and clear about an alternative he'd like to see implemented. His "Roadmap for America's Future Act" is a proposal that's been around since last year; it's even been in circulation long enough for the Congressional Budget Office to evaluate it and conclude that Ryan's plan would produce surpluses by 2080, whereas the current trajectory suggests deficits at 42 percent of GDP by that time.

So why aren't you hearing widespread GOP support for a proposal that would curb spending and cancel deficits? Simple: Because it privatizes Social Security.

Hours after the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, President Barack Obama remarked on the situation from the Grand Foyer of the White House.

"The people of Egypt have spoken," Obama said. "Their voices have been heard. And Egypt will never be the same."

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference is always a big shindig, but this year there will be some new faces at the planning table: GOProud, a gay group that implicitly supports gay marriage in addition to the usual laundry list of conservative ideals. GOProud's attendance was enough to set off a boycott of CPAC by prominent conservative politicans and groups, including individuals who had previously attended the conference and even delivered keynote speeches there.

American democracy, in a nutshell: Every four years, a bunch of Iowans gather in public schools, libraries, and homes across their great state to decide who will get to be the most powerful person on Earth.

Okay, not quite, but it’s something like that. Since 1972, Iowa has had first dibs on picking the names that will appear on presidential ballots across the nation come November.

As a nascent revolution rages in Cairo, demonstrations in support of Egyptian protestors continue to take place throughout New York City. Beginning last Saturday with a rally in front of the United Nations headquarters, a week of public organizing was capped off by a large, loud gathering on Friday in Times Square.

In media coverage of recent events in Egypt, one word is used more cautiously than any other: revolution. That's with good reason—after all, we're not sure if what's happening in Egypt is really a revolution. At least, not yet.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City Saturday, calling for the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. They were optimistic about Egypt's future, though many complained that it was time for the United States government to start supporting the Egyptian people and not their dictator.

By all measures, President Obama began his 2012 campaign on Tuesday night. He used big numbers—not just ones with dollar signs attached, but ones that exist only in imaginations: 2035. 2020. 2015. The thinking was grand, the planning long-term, the rhetoric Sputnik-ed.

And yet, one of the president’s proposals in his State of the Union address was all about the fine print: closing tax loopholes. Absent from the speech was a broad-stroke promise to raise or lower taxes. The closest Obama came to doing so was a thinly-veiled threat to eventually let the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans, this after agreeing to extend them only last month.

Regardless of what happens to the top tax bracket, focusing on tax loopholes is a shrewd move politically, particularly with the president’s 2012 reelection campaign now in view. It realigns the tax debate on the minutiae of the federal code, getting away from the same old tax-versus-spend back and forth.