President Obama is introduced by Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Chicago on April 14. (REUTERS/Jason Reed)
- The White House is pushing the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Six to expedite the rollout of its deficit reduction plan, but it still strikes me as implausible that any kind of fiscal package could be tied to the fast-approaching debt ceiling vote.
- Obama’s vague talk on the tax code, as with Paul Ryan’s plan, is a stretch without specifics.
- What Obama says he told Boehner on the budget: “I said, ‘You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We’ll have that debate. You’re not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we’re stupid?'”
- Mitt Romney isn’t just good at fundraising, he’s good at (legally) stretching fundraising laws.
- David Bernstein has some interesting thoughts on Romney’s path to the nomination:
In particular, whoever wins Iowa — likely Tim Pawlenty or Haley Barbour — will become the surging non-Romney candidate, knocking out most of the others. That leaves a two-person race in which Romney fights to (maybe) hold onto Northeastern states like New Hampshire, while his opponent chalks up easy wins throughout the South and the heartland.
That’s a tough road for Romney.
What he needs instead is an Iowa winner whom the Republican Party will rally to destroy. Romney needs a wingnut.
- Nate Silver argues the Senate battlefield in 2012 isn’t as bad for Democrats as it looks.
- For something everybody wanted to do, repealing the ACA’s 1099 tax reporting measure took a long time. It’s done.
- Free trade deals and budget cuts have labor unhappy with Democrats in Washington.
- Coalition allies essentially lay out regime change by attrition in Libya.
- A National Security Council senior director for Asia, who called reports of his looming departure “foolish, wrong and stupid,” heads for the door.
- And If you ever wanted to see a U.S. Senator take a megabank executive to the woodshed, Dick Durbin’s letter to Jamie Dimon on swipe fees is probably the closest you’re going to get.