Must Reads

• Obama is said to have offered an increase in Medicare retirement age. But because the President knows that a grand bargain is incredibly unlikely to fly, what he “offers” should be interpreted through the lens of negotiating tactics.
• More on Boehner–Cantor.
• Goldman isn’t worried about default. They’re worried about economic

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• Debt ceiling talks continue Monday with an Obama press conference and more meetings at the White House.
• Fourteen million Americans are “waiting on Roosevelt.”
• Elizabeth Warren is taking meetings with Senate recruiters.
• Sheila Bair sits for an exit interview. Believe it or not, she’s not going to work for a bank.

• The recovery’s stall in May was not a fluke: The economy added just 18,000 jobs in June, below expectations and a sign the job market is firmly stuck in the mud. All the news in Friday’s report was horrible: the unemployment rate increased to 9.2% despite a shrinking labor force and prior months’ jobs numbers were revised

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• News of the morning: Obama has put a very large deficit reduction deal in play. He’s looking to swap Medicare and Social Security cuts for some $1 trillion in new revenues, in part by tying future tax reform to immediate spending cuts.
• He may be risking liberal flight, but the fine print matters a lot.
• It’s very important for the

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• Mitt Romney is still dominating New Hampshire in the latest Granite State Poll, but Michele Bachmann has shot to the front of the also-ran pack. Pawlenty and Huntsman remain stalled.
• The conservative Union Leader dings Romney’s economic message.
• The Salt Lake Tribune continues its great series on the Huntsmans.
• Rep. Jason

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• The White House is looking to trade Medicare and Medicaid cuts, hitting providers not beneficiaries, for some revenue increases.
• Romney flips back to saying Obama made the economy worse.
• Frank Rich lists the left’s economic and financial grievances with Obama at length.
• Obama nominates a more regulation-friendly candidate to

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• Geithner’s exit floated. He says he’s sticking around “for the foreseeable future,” which means little.
• The White House now says it wants a debt ceiling deal done by July 22.
• Raising the specter of the 14th Amendment, and implicitly the constitutionality of the debt ceiling, has its place in the debate.

• Team Romney leaks word of a big second-quarter haul: $15-20 million, and another $10 million or so to his Super PAC.
• The Fed cuts swipe fees in half, but just about doubles what they initially announced they’d cut the limit to with little explanation. The banks may have failed to get their way with Congress on this one, but lobbying

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• The White House says it’s struck a deal that will get trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama through Congress along with its expansion to the Trade Adjustment Assistance benefit.
• The Dems’ unlimited donation independent expenditure group Priorities USA answers Crossroads with $750,000 swing state ad buy of its …
  

• Obama wades into debt limit talks with goal of raising some new revenues, mostly from the very wealthy.
• Bowles and Simpson push for a $4 trillion package.
• Obama’s legislative failures have been punts, not failures despite his public efforts.
• In a Tuesday speech, Tim Pawlenty will make the case against the inklings of

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• As debt ceiling talks move to the White House, revenue remains the sticking point.
• A heavy lift may require Nancy Pelosi.
• Crossroads GPS plans $20 million early ad campaign hitting Obama on the economy:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvnAE8olUxU]

• The Senate slays ethanol subsidies.
• “Generic Republican” is doing fine against Obama in the early polling.
• Give Tim Pawlenty three days and he can come up with a middling comeback.

• Romney is at 30% in the latest WSJ/NBC News poll. The next candidate who’s currently running is Herman Cain at 12% and then Ron Paul at 7%. (I’m excluding Palin and Rick Perry.) There are plenty of caveats that go with one early national poll, but it’s stunning nonetheless.
• If a campaign is admitting their candidate had a bad

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