Though President Obama and House Speaker Boehner have yet to outline a single idea or, so far as we know, commit to anything, both Democrats and Republicans have begun attacking a so-called “grand bargain” for deficit reduction in conjunction with the vote to raise the debt ceiling. There are the “Hell No” GOP freshmen, who probably weren’t going to vote for it anyway). There are the progressives, who are balking at the prospect of $4.5 billion in cuts traded for whatever Republicans are willing to give up on taxes. Even Democratic leaders have to be wondering what their incentive is to see this through – and carry Obama’s water again – when it likely only dims their prospect of re-taking the House. So, the question is: Can the center hold?
For all the melodrama in weeks of Washington’s deficit reduction talks – Republicans walking away from the table, President Obama calling them on the carpet, Wednesday’s purely symbolic vote on “shared sacrifice” from the wealthy – things have actually turned a corner in recent days. We are approaching the end of what I like to call the Five Stages [...]
Rep. Anthony Weiner called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Steve Israel Wednesday night to inform them that he will be resigning from Congress. The last month has seen Weiner tweet a lewd picture to a 21-year-old college student, lie to the press about it, admit to years of inappropriate online relationships in a [...]
As Jay and I have pointed out, by the time Election Day rolls around, most voters probably won’t care much what procedures or sweetheart deals Democrats employed in their efforts to pass health care reform. Democrats are more likely be judged by the generic measure of whether they were for or against health care. (This [...]
Is anyone else feeling a bit of déjà vu? This stage in the health care legislative battle feels, to me at least, a lot like the period just before Christmas. Remember the constant threats from Republicans that they would use all the parliamentary tools available to indefinitely stall a final vote on the Senate health [...]
Here’s the latest on the health care front: * Speaking at a fundraiser last night, President Obama made another strong pitch for health care reform, this time with some more details on his preferred pathway and timeline. * But at least one observer thinks the big news is that Obama acknowledged the possibility that health [...]
The topic of the day on all the cable nets seems to be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s emotional plea for calm during her regular weekly briefing yesterday.
