Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said he will unveil next week a "bold" budget plan that will have greater debt and deficit reduction than the Bowles-Simpson commission's plan.

"It will be even larger in terms of debt reduction than the fiscal commission," the North Dakota senator said immediately following Democrats' caucus meeting. Senators were mum on whether the Senate would be in session, though when asked if they would be in next week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said, "Maybe some of the week. We'll see."

Conrad's plan, which he said was finally agreed upon by Democrats, will incorporate "some elements" of the president's fiscal commission's recommendations.

Asked if that will include cuts to Medicare, he demurred and said it will be a "comprehensive package."

He said he hopes unveiling the plan "will help stimulate this discussion" on getting a deal done on the debt ceiling.

*** UPDATE *** Conrad's office says he will unveil the plan next week if the Senate is in session.

“President Barack Obama and Speaker John Boehner will tee up for a round of golf on June 18, the House Republican's office confirmed Friday,” Roll Call writes.

The Sunday New York Times: “Saddled with a faltering economic recovery, President Obama is rebuilding the campaign machinery that vaulted him into office, hoping it can overcome the challenges of persistently high unemployment and a fractured coalition of supporters.”

“The federal government has moved from economic ‘recovery mode’ to focusing on ‘standing up’ the private sector to fuel a turnaround, a top White House adviser said Sunday,” The Hill writes.

Today's top story from the New York Times: "President Obama’s national security team is contemplating troop reductions in Afghanistan that would be steeper than those discussed even a few weeks ago, with some officials arguing that such a change is justified by the rising cost of the war and the death of Osama bin Laden, which they called new 'strategic considerations.'"

That said, Politico writes: "A whirlwind tour of three crucial bases shows no signs of the war winding down, or of Americans getting ready to leave following last year’s successful surge."

In his latest National Journal column, NBC’s Charlie Cook breaks down the 2012 GOP field. On Huntsman: "[I]t’s awfully hard to see how this candidacy works." On Romney: "Although he enjoys national name recognition and an impressive network of supporters and donors remaining from his 2008 bid for the GOP nomination, Romney carries burdens that may limit his ability to expand his current levels of support." On Pawlenty: "At this stage, Pawlenty’s strength is more theoretical than real, but when you work through the challenges that each of the other candidates faces, he seems to have fewer problems than the rest."

BACHMANN: Politico’s Jonathan Martin points out that Bachmann announced she was likely to launch a presidential bid, “hours after Sarah Palin announced a bus tour.” And: “The Minnesotan called Palin ‘a friend,’ but quickly added that no two candidates ‘are interchangeable’ and then touted her resume as a tax attorney, education reformer and former state senator. Bachmann declined to say if she would announce in time to participate in a debate on June 13th in New Hampshire, but said she would decide soon.”

Proof the Bachmann people know they’re competing for the same oxygen as Palin… The New Hampshire Union Leader writes of Palin’s trip to New Hampshire and then adds, “Coincidentally, late this afternoon, the point person for Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a potential presidential candidate who, like Palin, is a champion of the Tea Party/liberty movement, released details of Bachmann's aggressive schedule in New Hampshire this weekend and early next week.”

“Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann told reporters tonight that she will travel to her hometown of Waterloo next month to announce whether she will run for president,” the Des Moines Register writes.

The Des Moines Register’s Obradovich: “People don’t come to Iowa to announce they’re not running. If she actually schedules a speech, that’ll be pretty big tip-off that she’s jumping in. She touted her fund-raising, including a 30-hour effort that her staff said raised over $260,000.”

“Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on Thursday night spent five minutes on the House floor in an attempt to justify her vote for the Patriot Act, after admitting to receiving significant feedback from her supporters urging her to reject it,” The Hill reports.

CHRISTIE: The Bergen Record: “Governor Christie said this morning that he will pull New Jersey out of a regional cap-and-trade energy program.” GOP 12’s Heinze writes that the move “will encourage speculation that he might run for president in 2012.”

GINGRICH: The Comeback Kid? In New Hampshire, “[T]he crowds heard Gingrich declare at nearly every stop that his campaign is alive and well, casting himself as a ‘comeback kid’ — a moniker once widely applied to his old nemesis Bill Clinton,” the Washington Post writes. He said, “Look what happened to me over the last 10 days: We had every Washington analyst, except one, explain that my campaign was dead. I just relaxed. They were in a feeding frenzy, they had to get it out of their system, and I knew they would eventually calm down. The trick is, we need to stay focused on talking about what matters for America.”

“Republican presidential hopeful and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is heading to Columbia,” the AP writes. “Gingrich will speak at a Five Points Rotary Club luncheon Friday at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. It will be Gingrich's first visit to the state since he criticized GOP plans for a sweeping overhaul of Medicare, and his first visit since officially launching his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president earlier this month.”

HUNTSMAN: Demon RINO: A Christian conservative blog, Verum Serum, makes this video taking aim at Huntsman’s moderate positions.

While on his California swing, the Orange County Register’s editorial page writes, “It's too early to make any meaningful judgments about Mr. Huntsman as a presidential contender but his credentials, particularly the economic stability of Utah and his unique foreign policy experience, make him an intriguing addition to a Republican field of candidates that needs some pizzazz.”

PALIN: On the news of Sarah Palin’s reemergence, The Chicago Sun-Times’ Steinberg writes, “As if the death of Osama bin Laden weren’t enough good news for one month to offer the once-sagging political fortunes of the Obama administration — the terrorist mastermind was killed May 1, though it already seems like a year ago — when you include the failure of the Republican Medicare overhaul to pass in the Senate, plus indications that Tea Party darling Sarah Palin might actually run for president, the mood at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue must border on unbridled jubilation.”

PAWLENTY: “In his first foray into New Hampshire since becoming an official candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty yesterday denounced the federal stimulus program, even though under his leadership his state benefited from billions of dollars of the aid,” the Boston Globe reports. “Pawlenty met with reporters and the public and toured Cirtronics, an electronics manufacturing company that indirectly received $935,000 in federal stimulus money.”

“Promising honest debates about the nation’s most serious problems, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty paid a visit to Cirtronics Corporation on Thursday afternoon,” the New Hampshire Union Leader writes. (But check out the photo accompanying the story…)

ROMNEY: The Des Moines Register tees up Romney’s trip to Iowa today, his first trip this cycle, and it’s not glowing: “Many of Mitt Romney’s key Iowa backers from four years ago have scattered or have so far declined to commit to support the potential presidential candidate, partly because he has campaigned so lightly here so far… Several Iowans who were gung-ho for Romney last election argue that given the current circumstances, he has few excuses for avoiding Iowa.”

“Republican Mitt Romney is returning to Iowa to begin what his aides promise will be a leaner campaign for the state's leadoff nominating caucuses than the expensive juggernaut he assembled here in his 2008 race,” the AP’s Beaumont reports. The former Massachusetts governor plans to officially announce his second bid for the presidency next week in New Hampshire, the state around which he's built his 2012 strategy.”

The Boston Globe’s headline on Romney’s trip: “For GOP moderates, new hope in Iowa.” From the story: “[S]plit loyalties within its ranks could improve the chances of a more moderate GOP candidate like Mitt Romney, who stumbled here in 2008 and has spent little time in Iowa since. The former Massachusetts governor, who makes his first 2011 visit to Iowa today and will formally announce his candidacy Thursday, is up against the fact that, over the past quarter-century, highly motivated Christian conservatives have played an outsize role in a presidential selection process here.”

RYAN: Dick Cheney, according to the Houston Chronicle (via GOP 12) says he hopes Ryan doesn’t run, because “that would ruin a good man who has a lot of work to do.” He also said (really, he said this): "I worship the ground the Paul Ryan walks on.”

“President Obama struck back at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in a speech to a pro-Israel lobbying group on Sunday, defending his stance that talks over a Palestinian state should be focused on Israel’s pre-1967 borders, along with negotiated land swaps, and challenging Israel to ‘make the hard choices’ necessary to bring about a stable peace,” the New York Times writes.

“Mr. Obama, speaking before a conference of the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee, offered familiar assurances that the United States’ commitment to Israel’s long-term security was ‘ironclad.’ But citing the rising political upheaval near Israel’s borders, he presented his peace plan as the best chance Israel has to avoid growing isolation. ‘We cannot afford to wait another decade, or another two decades, or another three decades, to achieve peace,’ Mr. Obama said. The world, he said, ‘is moving too fast.’”

“President Obama sought to prove his pro-Israel creds Sunday by assuring the nation's largest pro-Israel lobby that America's commitment to the security of the Jewish state is unwavering,” the New York Daily News adds.

There have been plenty of critics on the right of Obama’s speech about Israel. The Boston Globe, though, says, “Netanyahu was hearing what he chose to hear when he objected to the principles for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement that President Obama outlined in his recent speech on the Mideast.” And: “Obama was right to say what he said. And the overall import of his speech was protective of Israel’s long-term interests… More than ever, Israel needs the security that can only come from a two-state peace agreement. Netanyahu would be acting in Israel’s interest if he welcomed Obama’s offer to help forge that peace.”

“George Mitchell, who stepped down as the Obama administration’s special envoy to the Middle East last week, said Sunday that President Obama’s call to base Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on pre-1967 borders is not a threat to Israel,” The Hill writes. Mitchell said on ABC, “I don't believe it is threatening Israel. A major objective of this initiative, among others, is to prevent a disaster for Israel from occurring at the United Nations General Assembly in September, when the Palestinians have said they will see a unilateral declaration of statehood. The president spoke out strongly against that. We oppose it. And the way to prevent that from occurring is to provide an alternative in direct negotiation that would foreclose or make not necessary that option.”

The Boston Globe on the backlash Cornell West is facing: “A leading black scholar is unapologetic for his scathing and racially loaded comments about President Obama last week, which have ignited fierce blowback from African-American leaders and intellectuals in arguments that continue to rage in black media and on the Web.” More: “Critics have suggested that West’s comments, published on the political blog Truthdig, were motivated by personal slights. West has acknowledged he felt Obama disrespected him and did not return his calls after West stumped for him in the 2008 election. Critics have also described West as a phony, an ivory tower advocate for the poor, or just unhinged. ‘My question to Dr. West: Is this personal or it is political?’ the Rev. Al Sharpton, civil rights activist and Obama ally, said in an interview. ‘Where has the president’s politics changed since when [West] endorsed and supported him for president?”

“Stephen J. Kerrigan, who also helped coordinate the Democratic convention when it was in Boston in 2004, has been named as chief executive officer overseeing the 2012 convention in Charlotte, N.C.,” the Boston Globe reports.

A bill that would have “cut billions in tax breaks for the largest oil companies” failed 52-48 in the Senate, The Hill notes. It needed 60 votes to advance.

Here’s this from Roll Call: “‘Gang of Six’ Collapses on Itself.” “Hopes for a grand bipartisan debt limit deal took a big hit Tuesday after Sen. Tom Coburn pulled out of the ‘gang of six’ talks. … One source close to the talks said the break occurred after Coburn demanded an additional $130 billion in Medicare cuts over the next decade from current beneficiaries. That proposal goes beyond what was included in the president’s fiscal commission plan, on which the group was basing its talks. ‘He is asking for deep Medicare cuts beyond what the fiscal commission proposed and beyond even Paul Ryan’s [R-Wis.] proposal,’ the source said. ‘That is just not going to happen.’”

“House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, who as the House GOP’s lead watchdog has questioned the legitimacy of some Obama administration travel, jetted to Puerto Rico during the recess on a taxpayer-funded trip that included work and down time with a pal, POLITICO has learned.

Issa’s friend and former colleague from the House, Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno, invited him to stay at the historic governor’s mansion in San Juan, a committee spokesman said Tuesday.”

The Washington Post’s fact checker gave Darrell Issa “two Pinocchios” for saying that the Mexican government said the Obama administration had committed an “act of war.” Issa’s office denied that he said “act of war” but “active war.” “We find it interesting that Issa’s office denied he said “act of war” but then defended his right to do so when shown a second quote,” the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler writes.

“Former Sen. Blanche Lincoln is planning to set up shop on K Street. Alston & Bird will announce this week that the Arkansas Democrat will join its operation, according to a source close to the firm,” Roll Call reports.