President Obama sprints up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to visit with tourists on April 9, a day after Congress came to agreement on funding the federal government. (REUTERS/Mike Theiler)
–A 2011 budget deal may be done, or at least a compromise number reached and some riders ruled out, but lawmakers are still working out what gets slashed in the final document. We should know more today.
–Nate Silver thinks Dems didn’t get such a raw deal. Philip Klein writes there’s some conservative displeasure, but he doesn’t see how Speaker Boehner could have done better.
–Boehner takes a victory lap on cuts, touts Ryan’s “Path” and queues up the debt ceiling fight in a USA Today op-ed Monday. After using most of the piece to pledge that his party will slay the Ogre of Economic Uncertainty, he writes:
President Obama also wants a debt limit increase, but says spending cuts and budget reforms shouldn’t be attached to it. Americans will not stand for that. We must follow their will.
U.S. default on its debt is a much more immediate threat to markets than taxes or regulatory policy. Boehner, although he doesn’t happen to mention it in this column, also thinks upping the debt ceiling is necessary. But he’s saying here it might not happen (uncertainty!) if he doesn’t win concessions in other areas.
–As Alex noted, President Obama’s next step will be to lay out a plan for long-term deficit reduction in a major speech Wednesday. A few points: It’s likely too late to tie a long-term package to the debt ceiling, which might have helped Democrats extract themselves from the battle over short-term cuts that has them backsliding. One of the reasons Ryan got accolades, deserved or not, for his proposal was that he went first. But Obama will have the advantage of framing his plan as a response. Liberals are hoping for a counter-offer that puts the middle point between Obama’s and Ryan’s plans squarely in the political center. (In other words, a robust, liberal ante.) Two things that make that unlikely: The existing framework of Simpson-Bowles, which Obama might use as a roadmap (though Social Security would likely be dropped) doesn’t make for such an offer; and since the stimulus debate at the beginning of his presidency, Obama has never really followed the formula of making opening offers without concessions. However, as called for in his ’12 budget, he will advocate a tax increase on those making more than $250k a year.
–Tim Pawlenty may have his challenges igniting interest among donors and the public, but he’s attracting serious political talent to his not-quite-yet presidential campaign. Fox News scoops that Nick Ayers, recently of the RGA and TIME’s 40 under 40 list, is on board to serve as campaign manager.
–Jon Chait thinks the fledgling GOP presidential field has a style problem. Andrew Gelman strongly disagrees.
—New York considers Peter Orszag and the revolving door. One noteworthy tidbit:
Looking back, Orszag now says he didn’t even want the job. “I didn’t want to do it,” he told me. “Having worked in a White House before, I knew how the infighting can become all-consuming, and I didn’t want to fall into that trap again. Many of my mentors warned me that despite the ‘no drama’ Obama campaign, once in office this White House would inevitably be like others—and possibly worse. And unfortunately that’s exactly what happened.”
–James Huffman makes the counterintuitive case for campaign donor opacity.
–The Washington Post admirably digs into Washington Post Co.’s for-profit college business. It’s worth reading regardless, but here’s the government/public policy angle:
For Kaplan and other for-profit educators, the federal money soon came in torrents. By 2009, students at for-profit education companies received $26.5 billion through these loans, more than five times the amount they collected in 2000. At Kaplan, Title IV revenue soared from $101 million in 2001 to $1.46 billion in 2010, when the money accounted for 82 percent of the company’s higher-education revenue. Government education grants and loans to veterans who were enrolled provided still more.
–The State Department calls out China over the arrest of Ai Weiwei.
–Obama invites Stanley McChrystal back into the fold.
–And Adam Nagourney catches up with those cowboy poets.