Morning Must Reads: Front and Center

  • Share
  • Read Later

Reps. Cantor, Boehner and McKarthy at the U.S. Capitol on April 5. (Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

–As the shutdown deadline fast approaches, no 2011 budget deal yet. Speaker Boehner is telling Dems he wants $40 billion in cuts and warning his caucus that Democrats will come out ahead politically in a shutdown. Obama has put himself front and center.

–The CBO gives Ryan’s “Path” a preliminary read. Tyler Cowen reads the plan and makes some worthwhile points. Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles applaud it, but chastise Ryan for leaving out defense cuts and revenue-raising tax reform. The left’s core philosophical objection, summed up by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is that it gets much of its cuts from government programs for low-income Americans. However, the political fire will be focused on cuts falling on seniors.

–The European Central Bank is set to raise interest rates and Americans are catching inflation fever. As the Fed takes an increasingly rosy view of the recovery, some members are beginning to call for tightening.

–Wisconsin’s heated Supreme Court race is too close to call.

–Romesh Ratnesar argues overthrowing Gaddafi is overrated.

–Obama, still likely to rely on all that Silicon Valley cash, will visit Facebook offices and attend a slew of fundraisers in the Bay area.

–Jon Huntsman is headed to New Hampshire.

–And tumbling down the rabbit-hole of meta-absurdity, Tim Pawlenty cuts a web video about cable news coverage of his web videos.

E-mail Adam