Surely, everyone is giddy for the onslaught of basketball games coming later this morning.
Unfortunately, however, we should all really be mad this March due to the results of a recently-conducted Gallup poll, which claims that, “Americans remain pessimistic about finding quality jobs.” We are continuously told that we are amidst a giant economic recovery, but three in four respondents said that it is a bad time to find a good job.
This Gallup poll coincides with the results YG Network poll released earlier this week, which found that Americans are genuinely concerned about pocketbook issues. The conservative movement must keep Americans’ economic frustration at the forefront when considering policy options.
Matchup Breakdown: This here is a pivitol matchup between the two budget plans. As you can see, the plan offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan spends roughly $5 trillion less over the next 10 years than the plan offered by Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray. The Ryan plan has the potential to go all the way in this tournament.
On Tap For Today10:30 AM: House of Representatives votes on FY2014 budget.1:15 PM: President Obama holds a joint news conference with President Abbas. Muqata Presidential Compound, Ramallah.
5:00 PM: President Obama delivers remarks to the Israeli people. Jerusalem Convention Center, Jerusalem.
8:10 PM: President Obama delivers remarks at a dinner hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres. President’s Residence, Jerusalem.
ALL DAY: Day 1 of the NCAA tournament, baby!
Tweet Tweet
@hblodget “Looks like Cyprus resolution is going to be that Russia basically buys it http://www.businessinsider.com/totally-chaotic-eurozone...”
@politico “PHOTOS: New images from Obama in #Israel: http://politi.co/15uZWbw”
@JayBilas “I’m on fire, the kid’s outta control. Competition want me to stop, drop and roll. I gotta go to work.”
@arthurbrooks“An early #ff: Help @AEI fellow @JonahNRO achieve his birthday wish of 80,000 followers. He’s almost there!”
On The Radar
Economic Growth
Sequester, To Some Economists, Is No Sweatfrom The Washington Post by Jim Tankersley. “Most economic forecasters predict the spending cuts the federal government has enacted this year will slow economic growth. A few insist the opposite, that sequestration won’t hurt the economy much on balance and may already be sowing the seeds of faster growth next year. Those economists don’t deny that the sequester will throw some workers out of a job and reduce others’ take-home pay, hurting the economy. They simply argue that the pain will be overwhelmed eventually by an accelerated flow of investment from business executives as they grow more confident that their taxes will not rise to pay down federal debt.”
Lawmakers Launch New Effort To Pass China Currency Bill from Reuters by Doug Palmer. “A bipartisan group of lawmakers began a new attempt on Wednesday to pass legislation that puts pressure on China to change its currency practices, reviving an effort that previously failed to make it to the finish line.”
Durbin To Propose Social Security Commission from The Washington Post by Aaron Blake. “Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin announced Wednesday morning that he will introduce a bipartisan bill to create a Social Security commission tasked with making the program solvent for the next 75 years.”
Immigration
Visas For High-Skilled Workers Could Double Under Bipartisan Senate Plan from The Washington Post by Rosalind S. Helderman. “A Senate immigration plan would dramatically increase the number of high-skilled foreign workers allowed into the country and give permanent legal status to an unlimited number of students who earn graduate degrees from U.S. universities in science, technology, engineering or math, according to people familiar with the negotiations. The agreement would be a major victory for the tech industry, which has backed an intense lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill in recent months arguing that Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other companies are having trouble finding qualified workers because of visa limits.”
Haley Barbour Backs ‘Path To Citizenship’ from Politico by Kevin Robilllard. “Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour unequivocally endorsed a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants Wednesday, avoiding a trap that has snared other prominent Republicans in recent weeks. ‘I am very comfortable with a path to citizenship,’ Barbour told reporters at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. ‘It should be more strenuous than the path for people who come here under the regular rules. … I’m very comfortable with that. Some people aren’t. And that’s part of what getting from here to there is all about.’”
Religious Conservatives Make Moral Case For Immigration Reform from The Washington Post by Rosalind S. Helderman. “Advocates of a far-reaching overhaul of the nation’s immigration system are hoping to use their allies on the religious right to prod the Republican Party to embrace reform. They aim to use a broad consensus among religious leaders and institutions to promote a rewrite of immigration laws as a moral imperative, mobilizing conservatives to pressure the Republican politicians they have long supported on the basis of other issues.”
Health Care
Health-Care Law Uncertainty Grips Old Town Alexandria Cafe — And Other Small Businessesfrom The Washington Post by J.D. Harrison. “Jody Manor has run a small cafe and catering company for nearly three decades in Old Town Alexandria, only a few blocks from where he was born. Six years ago he purchased an adjoining building, and more recently he started searching for a second location. Whether he moves forward with expansion depends on the price tag of the requirements mandated by the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health-care initiative.”
Analysis: Private Equity Funds Rapid Growth Of Walk-In Clinics from Reuters by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian. “Walk-in clinics are popping up in shopping malls and main streets across the United States and private equity is helping fund the expansion.”
Carson Makes Conservatives Look To 2016from The New York Times by Trip Gabriel. “Dr. Benjamin Carson, who rose from poverty to become a renowned neurosurgeon, has been embraced by Republicans as a dream candidate after he publicly criticized the president over the health care law.”
Orrin Hatch Warns On Medicare Payment Experiments Under ACA from Politico by Paige Winfield Cunningham. “Medicare payment experiments are still in the test tube, but Republicans are already predicting their failure. The experiments are part of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, which was created under the Affordable Care Act to test new ways of delivering and paying for health care.”
Questions Abound In Learning To Adjust To Health Care Overhaulfrom The New York Times by Julie Weed. “The company is one of thousands of small businesses that employ more than 50 full-time employees and thus will be required to offer health insurance to their workers — or pay into a government fund — beginning Jan. 1. Rachel Shein and Steve Pilarski, the married owners of the bakery, which employs 95 people, estimate this could cost their business up to $108,000, and they are weighing their options as the date approaches.”
X-Factor
Syria Is Already More Violent Than Iraqfrom Foreign Policy by David Kenner. “While the challenge of providing for Iraqi refugees was daunting, the Syrian case is, if anything, more so. Syrians are scattered between a number of neighboring countries — Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan — and the United Nations estimates that it only has 30 percent of the necessary funds to provide for refugees for the first half of 2013. The plight of Syrians displaced within their country is even worse: The vast majority of aid money does not reach rebel-held areas, held up by red tape at the U.N. relief agencies in charge of aid distribution.”
Israelis Lukewarm On Obama from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg. “Cyprus on Thursday received a stark
This & That
Finding Ways To Lose: A Story About Baseballfrom National Review Online by C. Stewart Verdery Jr.
Dulles Security Finds Sword Hidden in Woman’s Cane from DCist by Benjamin R. Freed.
