Good morning folks,
Here’s wishing you a happy Friday morning from snowy northern New Jersey.
This week, President Obama decided to start acknowledging the oncoming sequester. “Deep, indiscriminate cuts to things like education and training, energy and national security will cost us jobs, and it will slow down our recovery,” he said. “It’s not the right thing to do for the economy; it’s not the right thing for folks who are out there still looking for work.” Who are the numbskulls who came up with this terrible plan!?!?!
WE REMEMBER! And luckily Bob Woodward does too, chronicled in his book The Price of Politics (page 326). “We have an idea for a trigger,” [Jack] Lew said. “What’s the idea,” Reid asked skeptically. “Sequestration.” Reid bent down and put his head between his knees, almost as if he was going to throw up or was having a heart attack…. They would design it so that half the threatened cuts would be from the Defense Department….The idea was to make all of the threatened cuts so unthinkable and onerous… … “This is ridiculous,” Reid said. ..That’s the beauty of a sequester, they [Lew and Rob Nabors] said, it’s so ridiculous that no one ever wants it to happen. It was the bomb that no one wanted to drop. It actually would be an action-forcing event….
President Obama and his team rolled the dice, banking on the hope that devastating cuts to the Pentagon would force Republicans in Congress to make other concessions. They lost that bet. AsCharles Krauthammer writes this morning, “Obama capitalized on the automaticity of the expiring Bush tax cuts to get what he wanted at the fiscal cliff — higher tax rates. Republicans now have automaticity on their side. If they do nothing, the $1.2 trillion in cuts go into effect. This is the one time Republicans can get cuts under an administration that has no intent of cutting anything. Get them while you can.”
Of course the unbalanced cuts of the sequester are not the preferred policy of congressional conservatives either. That’s why the House has twice passed more balanced sequester alternatives, As Krauthammer notes, “The sequester is for cutting. The only question is whether it will be done automatically and indiscriminately — or whether the president will offer an alternative set of cuts.” Of course during his State of the Union, the President will try to confound the issue by talking about loopholes and tax reform and using other non-germane issues to muddy the water. It’s time for conservativs to call President Obama’s bluff. Either the President will offer (or the Democratic controlled Senate to pass) their preferred alternative and more balanced spending cuts - or the very plan his Administration produced will go into effect.
Seize the day,
Brad Dayspring
@BDayspring
Mark Bednar
@MBednar
Tweet Tweet
@TodayShow “Is this the worst wedding proposal ever? Video: http://on.today.com/XsEE9K”
@ESPNStatsInfo “5th straight week AP No. 1 loses, but Indiana is the only one of those five to lose to an unranked opponent”
@PounderFile “The Record: “Analysis: Menendez goes to bat for big donors”http://is.gd/H5fAYe”
@Brendan_Buck What is the minimum number of Senators required to constitute a gang?
@KellyO “OK I will say it. I really like when Morning Joe plays Barry Manilow”
@ScoutComms “Lawmakers consider regulating drone strikes after Brennan testimonyhttp://apne.ws/UIIZeo”
On The Radar
Economic Growth
Economic Growth Is Likely to Be Slow: “Although CBO anticipates faster economic growth after this year, output is likely to remain below its potential (or maximum sustainable) level until 2017—almost a decade after the recession started in December 2007.”
Keystone Pipeline On Agenda As Kerry, Canadian Minister To Meet. “Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Friday with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, a chat that will be Kerry’s first bilateral meeting and one slated to include discussion of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.”
NY Times Notices Obama Tax Hikes Are Crushing Americans, Fails to Mention Obama
Lawmakers Divided On Postal Service Plan. “Donahoe moved to circumvent Congress’s long-standing resistance to the proposal for five-day delivery, a move the Postal Service thinks will save about $2 billion annually and help ease its financial losses. The agency lost $15.9 billion in the last fiscal year.”
Immigration
NPR- Raul Labrador Could Shape House Immigration Plan “… the question that I have for the president and for some Democrats is whether they want a political victory or a policy victory? If they want a political victory they’re going to draw a fine red line and they’re going to say, either pathway to citizenship or nothing else. They know that the Republicans in the House are not going to be able to vote for that, and then they’re going to be able to beat us over the head in 2014 and say look, the Republicans don’t like immigrants, which is not true. We want to face this problem in the House of Representatives. We have a large majority of the House of Representatives that wants to do something right now.”
Cuban Perks Under Scrutiny In U.S. Immigration Reform. “Even traditional defenders of the CAA [Cuban Adjustment Act] in the nation’s large Cuban American community, concentrated mostly in South Florida, say the law is out-dated and may need adjusting. ‘I’m not sure we’re going to be able to avoid, as part of any comprehensive approach to immigration, a conversation about the Cuban Adjustment Act,’ Florida’s Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a son of Cuban immigrants, told reporters last month.”
Health Care
Fewer People Will Have Employer Health Insurance, CBO Projects. “Some 7 million people are expected to lose or drop their employment-based coverage by 2022, according to CBO. That’s up from the 4 million the agency estimated in August.”
Tax Hikes You May Have Forgotten About. “One of the next ACA taxes scheduled to take effect is a health insurance tax that will hit small businesses and their employees particularly hard. The tax is officially imposed on health insurance companies, but the greatest effect will be felt by their customers because the insurance companies will pass most of the burden on through higher premiums. An analysis by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that the tax will raise insurance premiums on average by $350-$400 per affected family in 2016.”
Supermarkets cry foul as FDA proposes new food labeling rule under ObamaCare: If the Food and Drug Administration gets its way, your trip to the grocery store could get a tad pricier.
Supermarket owners argue a pending federal food-labeling rule that stems from the new health care law would overburden thousands of grocers and convenience store owners — to the tune of $1 billion in the first year alone.
Bishops Reject Birth Control Compromise. “The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday rejected the latest White House proposal on health insurance coverage of contraceptives, saying it did not offer enough safeguards for religious hospitals, colleges and charities that objected to providing such coverage for their employees.”
X-Factor
Iranians Feel Bite of Sanctions, Blame U.S., Not Own Leaders. “A majority of Iranians (56%) say sanctions the United Nations, the U.S., and Western Europe imposed have hurt Iranians’ livelihoods a great deal, and an additional 29% say sanctions have hurt somewhat, according to a Gallup survey conducted in Iran in December 2012. Separately, 48% say sanctions have affected their own personal livelihoods a great deal and another 35% say somewhat.”
This & That
Peanut Butter Loving Flier Sues TSA for $5 Million
Bradley Cooper to Make SEAL Movie
Suspected Killer Sends Anderson Cooper a Package
Are Sriracha, Chicken & Waffles & Cheesy Garlic Bread Lay’s Flavors Now a Thing?
‘You’re not invited’ alerts: New wedding trend draws criticism