OVERNIGHT MONEY: Thousands of ways

The measure, which will be announced while the House and Senate continue to debate a seven-month spending bill, is expected to contain $4 billion in cuts for that two-week period. (As one aide put it, there are thousands of ways to slice that total from the budget.) Appropriators also have to decide whether the short-term bill includes “poison pills” such as defunding Obama’s healthcare reform, Planned Parenthood and any enforcement of net neutrality.

For their part, Senate Democrats have started searching for cuts of their own to put into a long-term CR — “in the spirit of trying to narrow the gap” with their House GOP counterparts, as one staffer said. 

With Senate Democrats looking at President Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget for inspiration, their plan would be more than halfway to the House’s $61 billion in cuts if it includes all of the president’s proposed trims and got rid of earmarks embedded in the current CR.

What Else to Watch For:

Label to be avoided: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will host a panel discussion on what it means for a company to be designated by the government as posing a systemic risk to the nation’s financial system. The event will detail the business community’s concerns with such a designation, being pushed by the government’s Financial Stability Oversight Council. Being deemed a systemic risk would carry with it higher regulatory and capital requirements, as the government is trying to avoid the same circumstances that led to the broad financial crisis of 2008.

The long and winding road: The Brookings Institution will host a panel discussion on what states can do to head down the road of economic recovery. Joining the discussion on ways states can invest and prep for future economic conditions will be several academics and think tankers, as well as former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), who is now a senior fellow at Brookings.

Speaking of governors, President Obama is expected to meet with Democratic state executives on Friday. 

Talking taxes: The American Enterprise Institute is holding a discussion on tax reform from a global perspective, while Michael Mundaca, the assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, is scheduled to address a Federal Bar Association tax law conference. 

Economic indicators:

• The Commerce Department will release its latest numbers on the nation’s gross domestic product. Last month, the department reported that GDP grew 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, the highest number since the beginning of last year. 

• The National Association of Realtors will release its monthly data on home sales. The group’s figures will come one day after the Commerce Department issued its own disappointing report on new home sales, which found those deals dropped by 12.6 percent in December.

• Also: The Labor Department is expected to drop 2010 data on regional and state unemployment.

Breaking Thursday:

It’s Boeing: In somewhat unexpected news, Boeing secured a $35 billion contract to build a fleet of aerial tankers over the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., who many expected to be the Air Force’s choice. 

As The Hill’s John T. Bennett reported, the news prompted something of a back-and-forth between lawmakers siding with either Boeing or EADS. 

In the hours and days to come, watch out for Europe’s reaction to the news, given the heavy support EADS receives from France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain. President Obama promised French President Nicolas Sarkozy a fair competition, and any hint that Boeing won for political reasons could have trade impacts and hurt U.S. defense contractors seeking European contracts in the future.

It’s not Obama: Earlier today at The Hill, we noted that the president and his administration seem more than content to allow Democratic and Republican lawmakers to be the main combatants in the message war over the continuing resolution. 

This, of course, is in sharp contrast to the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who was the face of his party in shutdown negotiations with then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. 

Check those receipts: The Agriculture Department announced Thursday that it expects food prices to rise between 3 percent and 4 percent this year, The Wall Street Journal reports, after only jumping slightly in 2010. (One of the culprits: grain prices.) 

Dept. of Creative Budget Solutions: What’s a state to do when its vehicles need painting and its cemeteries need upkeep? Call the prison, The New York Times reports, finding states are doing just that more and more in an era of budget cutting and decreasing tax revenue.

What Else You Might Have Missed:

On the Money’s Thursday:

• That Republican spending measure? Atrocious and un-American, according to the country’s mayors.

• House Republicans want to “pull the plug” on administration housing programs; Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), meanwhile, says step away.

• Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s congressional delegate, looks to protect her home turf in case of a shutdown. 

• Eric Cantor takes some jabs at Europe.

• The Heritage Foundation raps some House Republicans for their CR votes.

• House Republicans want some answers on an Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer’s ties to Madoff. 

• Max Baucus talks up the free-trade agreement from the Colombian perspective. 

• Moody’s believes the debt ceiling issue will be handled.

• The IRS calls the dogs off a bit when it comes to tax liens. 

• Freddie Mac was $14 billion in the hole in 2010.