Storified by Brian Empric· Wed, Mar 27 2013 19:14:47
“Since 1974, Capitol Hill's ‘baseline’ has automatically increased spending every year according to Congressional Budget Office projections, which means before anyone has submitted a budget or cast a single vote. Tax and spending changes are then measured off that inflated baseline, not in absolute terms.”
“The baseline scam also exists in many states, and no less a Democrat than New York Governor Andrew Cuomo denounced it in 2011 as a ‘sham’ and ‘deceptive.’ He wrote in the New York Post that state spending was ‘dictated by hundreds of rates and formulas that are marbleized throughout New York State laws that govern different programs—formulas that have been built into the law over decades, without regard to fiscal realities, performance or accountability.’ Then he proceeded to continue baseline budgeting.”
“In Washington, Democrats designed this system to make it easier to defend annual spending increases and to portray any reduction in the baseline as a spending ‘cut’… Republicans used to object to this game, but in recent years they seem to have given up…”
“If Republicans really want to slow the growth in spending, they need to stop playing by Beltway rules and start explaining to America why Mr. Obama keeps saying he's cutting spending even as spending and deficits keep going up and up and up.”
“Clearly, the budget process is broken. In four of the past five years, the president has missed his budget deadline. Senate Democrats haven't passed a budget in over 1,400 days. By refusing to tackle the drivers of the nation's debt—or simply to write a budget—Washington lurches from crisis to crisis.
“House Republicans have a plan to change course… We stop spending money the government doesn't have. Historically, Americans have paid a little less than one-fifth of their income in taxes to the federal government each year. But the government has spent more.”
“Under our proposal, the government spends no more than it collects in revenue—or 19.1% of gross domestic product each year… On the current path, we'll spend $46 trillion over the next 10 years. Under our proposal, we'll spend $41 trillion. On the current path, spending will increase by 5% each year. Under our proposal, it will increase by 3.4%...”
“Yet the most important question isn't how we balance the budget. It's why. A budget is a means to an end, and the end isn't a neat and tidy spreadsheet. It's the well-being of all Americans. By giving families stability and protecting them from tax hikes, our budget will promote a healthier economy and help create jobs. Most important, our budget will reignite the American Dream, the idea that anyone can make it in this country.”
“The other side will warn of a relapse into recession—just as they predicted economic disaster when the budget sequester hit. But a balanced budget will help the economy. Smaller deficits will keep interest rates low, which will help small businesses to expand and hire…”
“Anyone who attacks our Medicare proposal without offering a credible alternative is complicit in the program's demise.”
“All we need is leadership. Washington owes the American people a balanced budget. It isn't fair to take more from families so government can spend more… We House Republicans have done our part. We're offering a credible plan for all the country to see. We're outlining how to solve the greatest problems facing America today.”
“A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 35% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the Republican plan proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan. Half (49%) of all voters oppose the Republican plan, but another 16% are not sure…”
“However, only 19% favor the Democrats' option proposed by Senator Patty Murray. Sixty percent (60%) of voters oppose the Democratic plan. Twenty-one percent (21%) are not sure…”
“Sixty-three percent (63%) of Republicans agree with the plan that balances the budget in 10 years without raising taxes. Seventy percent (70%) of Democrats and a plurality (49%) of voters not affiliated with either party are opposed.
“However, only 26% of Democrats support their party’s plan while 40% are opposed. Eighty percent (80%) of Republicans and 64% of unaffiliated voters oppose the plan.”
“Seventy-two percent (72%) of Tea Party voters favor the GOP plan, and 89% oppose the Democratic plan.”
“What in the world is going through the minds of European officials with their crazy, destructive demands with Cyprus? Seizing a portion of peoples’ bank deposits is the kind of thing one would expect from Argentina or other kleptocratic third-world governments. It sets an awful precedent shredding the rule of law, which is the bedrock of a free and vibrant society…”
“What the Europeans are doing here guarantees that there will be disastrous runs on banks and money market funds when we have another financial crisis – which we will, since authorities today really don’t know what they are doing on the economic front…”
“The Cyprus move is portrayed as a way to recapitalize that island’s shaky banks. But stealing deposits guarantees banks’ failures as soon as their doors re-open – if they ever do. After all, the Cypriot government may reject their agreement with the European Commission, European Central Bank and the IMF out of fear of both apoplectic voters and angry Russian depositors. Make no mistake, this deal is about as voluntary as those famous gangster words, ‘We have an offer you can’t refuse.’”
“The poor judgment of the political and economical leadership of the West today rivals that of their predecessors of the 1930s and 1970s. Under their misguided policies the wealth-creating private sector is continually squeezed with growth-killing taxes and regulations and the power of Big Government expands. Most countries have made, at best, small reforms when big ones – especially on the tax cutting front – are needed.”
“[I]f Republicans plan to place entitlements in their cross hairs, they will be risking a high-profile and explosive fight with President Barack Obama, who has said there is no way he’ll consider changes to entitlement programs without corresponding tax increases. House Republicans have said they compromised on raising tax hikes in the fiscal cliff deal on Jan. 1.”
“House GOP leadership is also eyeing several bills to hike the debt cap with different budgetary reforms — those bills might hit the floor as soon as May. One option under discussion includes trying to tie tax reform to the debt ceiling. Republicans are also mulling another path, which would tether entitlement reforms Obama has previously supported to the debt ceiling. Those reforms include increasing the Medicare eligibility age, means testing Medicare and changing the formula for calculating government benefits.”
“Of course, the House is not alone in deciding how the debt ceiling issue is resolved… Obama has said he’s not interested in negotiating over the debt ceiling, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) still has control over his chamber. Reid’s strategy often lines up with Obama’s.”
“The House-side maneuvering on the debt ceiling also plainly displays that the talk of a grand bargain, for now, is just that: talk. The ability to come to some sort of massive fiscal deal is still a pipe dream, of sorts, for those who deal with the reality of legislating on Capitol Hill.”
“This legislation would not only result in the termination of current tax delinquent federal employees, but would prohibit the future hiring of federal employees with tax liens.”
“The legislation also requires federal agencies to conduct reviews of public records to determine if tax liens have been filed against current employees or applicants.”
“Nearly 312,000 federal workers and retirees owed more than $3.5 billion in back taxes as of Sept. 30, 2011, the (Internal Revenue Service) agency reported earlier this month…”
“The IRS says most residents who owe back income taxes file returns but cannot pay the full amount at tax time. Others have their tax bills increased through audits and cannot pay the higher bill.”
“Most Americans want to end government subsidies for these ‘too big to fail’ institutions, and half want to see those megabanks broken up.”
“The government currently provides nearly $100 billion in subsidies to the largest banks because they are deemed ‘too big to fail’. Just seven percent (7%) of Americans support continuing these subsidies, while 76% are opposed. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided.”
“Fifty-three percent (53%) still prefer a financial system with more competition and less regulation. Twenty-six percent (26%) would rather have more regulation and less competition in the financial system. Another 21% are not sure…”
“Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Democrats and 51% of adults not affiliated with either major political party support breaking up the megabanks, a plan that just 40% of Republicans favor.”
Storified by Brian Empric· Mon, Mar 25 2013 19:23:37
“The turnabout (of the stock market) is testament to healthy corporate profits and the resilience of America's free enterprise system. And it's a huge relief to workers whose 401(k) plans are tied to equities. But the risky little secret of the rebound is that it is powered in significant part by the easy-money policies of the Federal Reserve, which must one day end.”
“[T]he time is approaching to scale back the bond-buying spree and get ready to unwind some of the Fed's massive portfolio, which now tops $3 trillion. The longer the policy lasts, the more likely it will end unhappily.”
“Savers, particularly older ones trying to live on income from their investments, are starved for safe options. They've been forced into stocks, which is one reason the market has been acting as if it's on steroids. Further, with borrowing costs low, Congress and the White House have less incentive to rein in the national debt.”
“The market is ‘hooked on the drug’ of easy money, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told Reuters… Fisher's comparison of Fed policies to a drug is apt. Markets might not like the idea of the drug being withdrawn now, when the Fed holds a portfolio of $3 trillion. But the withdrawal symptoms will be a lot worse once the portfolio grows to $4 trillion, or more.”
“The longer the Fed's easy-money policies go on, the greater the risk they will distort markets, create new bubbles and set the economy up for another fall.”
“With the White House closing its doors to public tour groups in order to save money for the sequester, it's worth remembering some of the other costs the White House incurs annually.
“Like the ‘Chief Calligrapher,’ Patricia A. Blair, who has an annual salary of $96,725, and her two deputies, Debra S. Brown, who gets paid $85,953 per year, and Richard T. Muffler, who gets paid $94,372 every year.”
Other #CutWaste opportunities here
“Let’s be honest about one thing: The budget introduced yesterday has about as much chance of becoming law as Nancy Pelosi does of being elected pope.”
“But at least it is a budget. It has now been more than four years since the Senate produced such a document. While Senate Democrats have pledged to do so this year, recent reports suggest that they are struggling to come up with a plan that can garner support from a majority of their members…”
“[T]he Ryan budget provides a view of Republican priorities and their vision for how to increase economic growth, reform entitlements, and balance the budget. While timid and imperfect, Ryan’s plan shows that Republicans are at least looking in the right direction.”
“On the spending side, Ryan would mostly retain the sequester, and would further reduce spending by $5.7 trillion from the current ten-year baseline, bringing the budget into balance by 2023.
“However, while we can undoubtedly look forward to news stories about how Ryan would slash spending, his budget doesn’t actually cut spending at all; it merely slows the rate of growth. Indeed, under Ryan’s proposal, federal spending would still grow by an average of 3.4 percent every year…”
“Ryan’s budget would leave us with roughly $20.85 trillion in debt in 2023, which is $5.29 trillion lower than under the current baseline but still a $4.15 trillion increase over what we currently owe…”
“The budget would also block-grant Medicaid and food stamps (the latter would be reformed more gradually, as the unemployment rate decreases), and reform civil-service pensions by requiring increased contributions from federal workers.”
“As Ryan says, ‘balancing the budget is a means to an end,’ that end being a growing economy and freer, more prosperous society.”
“Based on the premise that national economies grow by about 1 percent less when debt exceeds 90 percent of GDP, the president of the AAF (American Action Forum)—and former Congressional Budget Office director—Douglas Holtz-Eakin predicts that the Republican budget would allow for 5 percent more in economic growth than under current law, translating to that estimated 5 million new jobs in 10 years.”
“But despite the benefits of lowering the debt-to-GDP ratio, there is not widespread bipartisan agreement on whether balancing the budget should be a top priority. Ryan's plan would balance the budget through spending cuts alone. The Democratic plan calls for a combination of discretionary spending reductions, tax increases and boosting infrastructure spending, but it does not balance the budget in the foreseeable future.
“In an interview with ABC News this week, President Barack Obama said he was not interested in balancing the budget ‘just for the sake of balance. My goal is how do we grow the economy, put people back to work, and if we do that we are going to be bringing in more revenue.’”
“Over the next decade, spending under Murray's budget would increase by 62 percent... As the chart shows, the budget would increase a bit each year, under the Democratic plan.”
“Murray’s budget spends $2.2 trillion more in 2023 (the last year of the budget window) than the 2013 levels – a 62% increase (significantly outpacing inflation),” says a staff member on the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee.
“Ryan’s plan is revenue neutral… meaning that it is not an overall tax hike. Senate Democrats say in the Chairman’s Mark that their budget includes ‘only’ $923 billion in higher taxes over the next 10 years, but it turns out to be much higher. Buried elsewhere in their budget is $580 billion in additional tax hikes, bringing the total to $1.5 trillion.”
“Both budgets call for comprehensive tax reform, but they disagree on what that should look like. Chairman Ryan proposes simplifying and streamlining the tax code, highlighting the ‘maze’ of deductions, credits, limitations, and phase-outs that clutter the tax code. He also calls for rate reduction, on both the personal and corporate side… Representing a different vision, Senate Democrats want to ‘restore fairness to the tax code’ by making it even more progressive…”
“Although both plans call for eliminating loopholes, both are woefully short on specifics. Neither dives into the details of which deductions should be cut…”
“Chairman Ryan proposes to simplify our broken tax code by turning our seven individual income tax brackets into two, and then bringing down the marginal tax rates to 10% and 25%... Murray’s budget doesn’t lower personal income tax rates…”
“Chairman Ryan would cut the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent, but Murray’s budget would leave it untouched. AFP supports cutting the corporate tax rate—which is currently the highest in the industrialized world, at 35 percent—since low rates is a principle of optimal taxation and it would produce myriad positive results for the economy. According to a brand-new study from Tax Foundation, cutting the federal corporate tax rate to 25 percent would incite economic growth, more wages and job creation, and higher tax revenue.”
“So it looks like we've all been sentenced to spending at least two more years in budget hell with Barack Obama. Under the rules of budget hell set the past four years by the prince of Pennsylvania Avenue, you're not allowed to do anything real about federal spending. You can only fight over federal spending. Forever.”
“Amid the sequester smackdown with the White House, Republicans did something off-script: They called the Obama bluff. They let the sequester's spending cuts occur, and the apocalypse didn't descend. The only thing that cracked was the president's approval rating.”
“Ever since Ronald Reagan legitimized the efficacy of tax cuts, Democrats have sought to discredit his idea and restore the New Deal theory of a Keynesian multiplier, which dates to 1931. It holds that more public spending will revive a struggling economy… No president has believed more in the miracle of the multiplier than Barack Obama…”
“(Economist Alberto Alesina, a professor at Harvard University) has identified the alternative. His, and others', work the past decade with how struggling economies revive suggests that the Obama spend-more solution is the opposite of what the U.S. should be doing.”
“The path back to stronger growth, argues Mr. Alesina, is a combination of significant, permanent cuts in public spending and relatively small tax increases, if any.”
“Adjustments based upon spending cuts,” the economists concluded, “are much less costly in terms of output losses than tax-based ones. Spending-based adjustments”—that is, cuts—“have been associated with mild and short-lived recessions, in many cases with no recession at all. Tax-based adjustments”—tax increases—“have been associated with prolonged and deep recessions.”
“Fiscal plans based on large, permanent spending cuts are associated with renewed growth more than any alternative policy mix that has been tried. Indeed, spending cuts without big tax increases look to be the only thing that really works…”
“No worries, America. Debt is a preoccupation of the fringe, a mere distraction for anyone interested in progress. And anyway, as President Barack Obama explained this week, ‘we don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. In fact, for the next 10 years, it’s going to be in a sustainable place.’
“That’s a pretty convenient position, wouldn’t you say, for a man who’s helped pile on trillions of dollars of new debt and created an entitlement that promises to escalate this non-crisis crisis of ours?”
“Right now, we’re spending more money to pay interest on debt than we’ll spend on education, homeland security, transportation and veterans’ benefits combined this year. Surely, there’s something better to spend that money on. And those interest payments are a significant tax on Americans — a debt tax that Washington doesn’t want to talk about. And just wait until interest rates rise, because at some point they will.
“Hey, I didn’t even come up with the previous paragraph. I cribbed it from a speech given on the Senate floor in 2006 by an up-and-comer named Barack Obama. He’s so articulate I couldn’t resist. But those were the stormy days when debt mattered because Republicans were … well, Republicans.”
“Of course, debt isn’t always a bad idea. We build things for the next generation, and they should chip in, no doubt. But right now, public debt is more than 75 percent of gross domestic product. So when do we get to worry? At 100 percent?”
“Last month, the Congressional Budget Office released its revised baseline for spending, taxation, and deficits for the next decade. It is not pretty. The gross federal debt is expected to increase by nearly $10 trillion over 10 years, from $16 trillion today to roughly $26 trillion in 2023.
“Beyond the 10-year horizon, the fiscal picture only gets worse. Without major reforms, the government’s vast array of health entitlements—starting with Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and Obamacare—are set to grow from about 5 percent of gross domestic product today to 9 percent in 2033, 12 percent in 2053, and 15 percent in 2073. There is no way the nation can afford that bill, absent a shocking increase in taxation. What’s more, taxes would have to be raised again and again and again, as health entitlements are expected to grow faster than the economy.”
“Much has been written about the nation’s awful budgetary outlook, but one aspect that is often overlooked is the effect the country’s debt and deficit will have on the American political landscape.”
“Right off the bat, the looming debt crisis explains why House Republicans persist with a policy solution that has not been politically popular in the past. Today’s House GOP believes it has no choice; the duties of responsible governing require a solution to this problem, even if such a solution is unpopular… The fiscal situation also explains why Senate Democrats have failed to produce a budget in four years. Senate majority leader Harry Reid has a hyper-transactional approach to politics, always preferring to shield his members from tough votes, or sweeten the pot for them when he has no choice.”
“Together, the different approaches that House Republicans and Senate Democrats have taken in dealing with the nation’s fiscal mess illustrate the profound changes occurring in American politics. Reid has chosen the fiscally irresponsible but politically easy path; Ryan the opposite. It is either one or the other, because the two goals are now mutually exclusive. A responsible policy requires a departure from the status quo—meaning higher taxes, entitlement reforms, or both—that will be politically dangerous.”
“Politicians of generations past could pass a budget or agree to raise the debt ceiling without much trouble because they never really had to worry that the debt was out of control. Today, they have no such luxury. Hence the persistent fighting over what were once perfunctory tasks.
“Until the public makes up its mind about what to do next, all bets about American politics are off. The near-term political outlook is messy, fraught with finger-pointing, demagoguery, and vitriolic rhetoric as both sides try to position themselves…”
“One thing, though, is clear: The political center as we know it today will no longer exist. For generations, Americans have demanded more, more, more from their government, which has been able to supply it without burdening the citizenry with onerous taxes. No longer. The time for painful choices is at hand.”
Storified by Brian Empric· Thu, Mar 21 2013 18:42:22
“Democrats are plotting an aggressive effort to defend their most imperiled House members in 2014. On Tuesday (3/5/13), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will unveil its incumbent-retention program, known as Frontline, which will include 26 incumbents from districts across the country.”
“President Barack Obama has promised to raise money for the House Democratic campaign arm, and party officials say some of that cash will be directed to the vulnerable members.”
“Democrats are starting the cycle facing stiff headwinds: Only four Republican incumbents are in seats that favor Democrats, while 15 Democrats are in seats that lean toward the GOP. And midterm elections typically favor the party that does not control the White House.”
“Republicans say the Frontline program rollout shows that Democrats are on defense at a relatively early point in the election cycle. The National Republican Congressional Committee is expected to unveil its incumbent-retention effort, known as the Patriot Program, later this year.”
“Democrats started the year talking about how they were going to win the majority, yet now, they are releasing a list of 26 vulnerable incumbents they are not even confident will win,” said Andrea Bozek (@AndreaBozek), an NRCC spokeswoman. “Doesn’t sound like Obama’s dream of Nancy Pelosi being speaker again is based in reality.”
“Of the 26 incumbents in Frontline, 13 are in districts that favor Republicans, and 17 won in 2012 by less than 5 percentage points. Twenty-five are among the 34 Democrats The Cook Political Report has projected as the most at risk of losing in 2014… The vast majority of those in Frontline — 19 — are freshmen, a group of less established members that is traditionally among the most vulnerable in any election year.”
“They decided that the conservative movement simply did not have what liberals did: An infrastructure to train and nurture the next generation of campaign operatives and develop cutting-edge techniques. So they decided to take a shot at filling the void, by developing a proposal for a suite of new outside groups that would mimic, and eventually outpace, Democratic efforts. ‘We are not going to start a single group that is going to solve all the problems,’ said Ruffini, a former eCampaign director for the Republican National Committee who is now president of the consulting firm Engage. ‘What it is going to involve is an ecosystem.’”
“But the Empower Action Group is just the first of four new organizations they hope to create. Another proposed effort, provisionally called The R&D Lab, would be a conservative response to the liberal Analyst Institute, which develops and tests new techniques for progressive voter contact and persuasion, all of which informed the Obama campaign in 2012…”
“The group also hopes to create a new organization provisionally called The Venture Fund, which is meant to repeat the success of the liberal New Media Ventures, a start-up incubator founded by the Democracy Alliance, a coalition of wealthy progressive benefactors…”
“The final effort envisioned by Ruffini and his colleagues would be a Club for Growth-style campaign fundraising organization, which would promise donations to Republican campaigns that adopt data-driven techniques…”
“It is still too soon to know if these efforts will grab hold among the Republican fundraising community. Other efforts are underway, both by the Republican National Committee and Charles and David Koch’s network of organizations, to assess the reasons for the 2012 defeat and proposed fixes. But the Ruffini effort does benefit from involving many of the young strategists who will likely be a part of any solution.”
“What, if anything, could a sports analytics conference teach a political junkie?
“Since President Obama's reelection, we've heard countless stories about the startup nature of his campaign, with its focus on digital, technology, and analytics to drive decisions about messaging and marketing.”
“Obama's embrace of analytics has caused a reckoning, particular for conservatives. It's not that other campaigns ignored data, but Chicago clearly made it a priority in a different way.”
“Data is an incredibly valuable resource for organizations, but you must be able to communicate its value to stakeholders making decisions -- whether that's in the pursuit of athletes or voters.”
“Each night in the final stretch of the race, Obama's analytics team ran 66,000 simulations through its computers to have a fresh perspective on the battleground states. That real-time data then drove decisions on how to spend money and make it count.”
“No political candidate in recent memory did a better job than Obama of using emotion to persuade voters -- and he did so while relying on team of self-described nerds in his Chicago headquarters. Whether optimizing emails, building polling models, developing a communications strategy, or creating a social-media army, analytics made the campaign better.
“There's nothing stopping any campaign or organization from embracing analytics. Sports teams that fail to do so risk losing; the same lesson applies in politics. As conservatives seek a comparative advantage, this is one approach worthy of closer examination.”
“One of the conclusions some of us have come to is that our problem is not just message or messenger, but our own detachment from the needs of struggling, working families and our lack of vision and policies that address them.”
“What do we need to do to reposition the party, connect with Americans, and to address what Peggy Noonan so astutely observed – that it’s not that ‘they’ don’t like us, but that ‘they’ don’t think we like them?”
“I tried to provide a vision for hard-working families I came across during my campaign. Middle America is hurting. But I didn’t always keep this in mind in a personal way. I remember being chastised by my staff when, during the second South Carolina debate, none of us expressed empathy toward the unemployed woman who asked us how we would address her health insurance needs. We talked policy, but we did we really care about her?
“I believe the conservative approach that focuses on family, community, the private sector and a limited role of government provides the better framework to develop policies that will address the realities of millions of struggling families. But we have to be much more intentional in applying them.”
“The way forward is getting back to our basic principles but applied to the challenges we face today. We must not be the party of plutocrats, country clubbers and corporate interests…”
“We must represent and create opportunity for all Americans… We must be the champions for working taxpayers and families…”
“We must continue to be proponents of fundamental human rights and human dignity by affirming the right to life for the unborn, disabled and aging as well as protecting freedom of conscience and religion and freedom of speech and association.
“We must be advocates for vulnerable, at-risk children by programs that strengthen marriage, fatherhood, vibrant supportive communities, quality health care and educational options.”
“We haven’t shown America that we have the tools to put the rungs back on the opportunity ladder – the ladder up – to achieve the American dream. That must change.
“I’m not convinced we can rely on the establishment of the Republican Party or today’s elected leaders in Congress to get us back. And it’s not about moving to the left; it’s about appealing to working Americans with a vision that represents opportunity and a better life and offering real solutions to their problems.”
“Today, just 35 percent of voters believe the economy is fair to middle-class Americans. Only 41 percent believe it is fair to those who are willing to work hard.”
“If a CEO gets a huge paycheck after his company received a government bailout, that's a problem. People who get rich through corporate welfare schemes are seen as suspect. On the other hand, 86 percent believe it's fair for people who create very successful companies to get very rich.
“In other words, it's not just the income; it's whether the reward matched the effort… The United States is supposed to be a land of opportunity, where everyone can pursue their dreams. Throughout our history, many have started with nothing and risen to the top. But those on top today are busy rewriting the rules to limit entry into their club.”
“Given a choice between a worker who gets more done and someone who has a higher level of education, only 9 percent think the person with the higher level of education should be paid more. Seventy-one percent place a higher value on the person who gets more done.”
“As the national GOP seeks to improve its dismal standing with Hispanic voters, the 65-year-old former oil man has some advice.
“’You just have to show up, all the time, everywhere,’ he said, during a recent barnstorm tour of his district, which sprawls across the southern half of this border state. ‘Most Republicans don't bother. I do. I bother.’”
“[H]e contends that changes in policy platforms aren't enough to reverse the party's decline among voters like those in his district. Republicans must spend time in Latino neighborhoods with the respectful attentiveness of a small-town mayor.”
“Mr. Pearce's success among voters here, even those who disagree with him, underscores the hope and the difficulty of the task. Mr. Pearce said he logged more than 90,000 road miles in his district last year, a travel regimen that often separates him from his wife for weeks.”
“Bald and bespectacled, he has won the southern half of New Mexico five times since 2002. In November, he nabbed around 42% of the Hispanic vote, or nearly twice what Mitt Romney received nationally, and better than Republican Susana Martinez's share when she won the New Mexico governor's race in 2010, according to various polls.”
“Mr. Pearce favors drug tests for welfare recipients. He opposed the Dream Act, which would have helped the children of illegal immigrants gain legal status. He voted against the fiscal-cliff budget deal and was one of just nine House Republicans to oppose the re-election of John Boehner as House speaker.
“The Boehner vote is one of several maverick positions that have made Mr. Pearce persona non grata among the GOP House leadership. As a result, Mr. Pearce complained, he has been kept out of GOP discussions about overhauling the immigration system, despite being the sole House Republican serving a district on the U.S.-Mexico border…”
“During last year's presidential campaign, Mr. Pearce lured Mr. Romney to Hobbs, where the GOP presidential nominee rolled out his energy plan last fall. But Mr. Pearce said he failed to persuade Mr. Romney ‘to get out and really mix it up in the Hispanic community.’
“Mr. Pearce said he kept telling Mr. Romney and his staff, ‘C'mon, man, get out there. Talk about it. Do it. But they never did.’”
“Rove, the former top political adviser to President George W. Bush, generated strong pushback from tea party groups earlier this year when he announced the formation of another offshoot, ‘Conservative Victory Project,’ dedicated to helping electable candidates sail through Republican primaries.”
“During the last cycle, American Crossroads and its non-profit arm, Crossroads GPS, spent more than $104 million on federal elections with a success rate of 1.3%, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Regardless of its success rate in 2012, Crossroads played a major role in the election and in the 2010 mid-terms, when Republicans took back the House of Representatives.
“The letter, however, points to the multiple 2012 Senate races in which Crossroads spent money against the Democratic candidate, yet the Republican candidate failed to win…”
“Now, in an attempt to explain the astonishingly low return on the hundreds of millions of dollars investment in Crossroads, Karl Rove and others are attempting to blame conservatives and the tea party,” the letter read.
Storified by Brian Empric· Mon, Mar 18 2013 18:27:23
“There's an increasing sense in America now that the facades are intact but the machinery inside is broken.”
“The jobless rate, officially 7.7%, is almost twice that if you include those who have stopped looking, work part time, or are only ‘marginally attached’ to the workforce… Meanwhile, the president is stuck in his games and his history. He should have seen unemployment entering a crisis stage four years ago, and he did not. At that time I was certain he'd go for public-works projects, which could give training to the young and jobs to the experienced underemployed, would create jobs in the private sector and, in the end, yield up something needed—a bridge, a strengthened power grid. He instead gave his first term to health care. And now ObamaCare is being cited as a reason employers are laying people off and not hiring, according to a report from the Federal Reserve.”
“Right now his attention has turned to dinner with Republican senators and meetings with members of both parties on Capitol Hill. He is trying to show, after a hit in the polls, that he can reach out. He's trying to convince America he's capable of making a deal.
“The new engagement may work if in the past few days the president has changed his political style, approach and assumptions. But people don't usually change overnight…”
“It is interesting that almost at the same time as the dinner the president's people had once again begun warning of doom. A blast email from Organizing for Action, signed by Stephanie Cutter, used these words: ‘Devastating,’ ‘obstructionism,’ ‘destructive,’ ‘this is real’… Their whole approach is still stoke and scare—stoke resentment and scare the vulnerable into pressuring Republicans.”
“Barack Obama really is a study in contrasts, such as aloof and omnipresent. He's never fully present and he won't leave. He speaks constantly, endlessly, but always seems to be withholding his true thoughts and plans. He was the candidate of hope and change, of ‘Yes, we can,’ but the mood of his governance has been dire, full of warnings, threats, cliffs and ceilings, full of words like suffering and punishment and sacrifice.”
“Mr. Obama is making the same mistake he made four years ago. We are in a jobs crisis and he does not see it. He thinks he's in a wrestling match about taxing and spending, he thinks he's in a game with those dread Republicans. But the real question is whether the American people will be able to have jobs… He's missing the boat on the central crisis of his second term.”
“Thus, he invited a gang of Republican senators to din-dins at the swank (and legendary) Jefferson Hotel, one of the city’s more discreet (and expensive) gathering places… Indeed, the president picked up the tab, a gesture of generosity or, one might speculate, a tiny deposit on a big investment, the returns of which are already rolling in: the media extrapolation that the president is extending an olive branch to his adversaries in search of a solution.”
“Not to be cynical, but does anyone really suppose that a Republican representative or senator is going to go against the party because Obama gave him a call?”
“It was nothing but a PR move,” says one seasoned insider. “Obama wants to run against obstructionist Republicans. The fact of the matter is, unless something really bad happens, there’s no reason for [Republicans] at this point to cave on taxes. Why would [House Speaker] John Boehner ever cave on taxes at this point?”
“Bottom line — for once a term aptly applied rather than a cliché — the only long-term deficit reduction involves serious entitlement reform, which everyone knows and Democrats don’t want to do... Republicans simply are not going to budge on taxes without real entitlement reform.”
“Democrats will run against those terrible Republicans who refused to raise taxes. Republicans will run on the Democrats’ record of no-growth and out-of-control spending, assuming, that is, they can figure out how to effectively communicate the message that no-growth is connected to Obama policies.”
“Why do presidents get in trouble in their second terms? They think they have a mandate when they don’t. They believe they’re stronger politically than they really are. They’re convinced they can get away with things other presidents couldn’t. They think too highly of themselves personally and act accordingly.”
“Sign number one is the sequester. It’s given Obama numerous opportunities to overreach, and he seems determined to seize all of them… Obama himself led the fear-mongering… But after the House and Senate rejected his vague plan for more tax increases than spending cuts, the president faces the temptation to further overreach and make his worst-case scenario come alive—to vindicate his dire predictions.”
“OFA (Organizing for Action) is unprecedented. No previous president had such an organization or even considered having one. It’s a kind of private political pressure group. Had President George W. Bush set one up, the media would have pounced and demanded he jettison it. But Obama has gotten minimal pushback from the press.”
“OFA is an invitation to crony capitalism and scandal… In reality, it’s a subsidiary of the White House, answers to Obama, is run by his campaign aides, and is empowered by the campaign’s vast database of supporters and Obama followers on Twitter, almost 28 million strong.”
“Obama, from all appearances, isn’t worried about serious second-term difficulties. He’s more full of himself than usual. He’s made it clear he prefers hobnobbing with Hollywood celebrities to spending time with Washington’s political class. And he may be right in thinking his situation, postreelection, makes him immune to the woes of earlier presidents. But maybe not.
“It makes an enormous difference whether he stumbles badly over the next year. If the president is forced on the defensive, Democratic prospects for winning the House in 2014 will evaporate and Republican hopes of gaining the Senate will soar again. And Obama may realize he isn’t exempt from the normal workings of politics, as he once thought.”
“The big story of the moment is that President Obama has suddenly decided to talk with lesser political beings. The famously aloof President who began his second term as if the 2012 election campaign wasn't over is inviting Members of Congress, and even some of its evil Republicans, to lunch and dinner. The question is whether this is merely a tactical feint or if Mr. Obama really wants to accomplish something in the next two years and realizes he needs Republicans to do it.”
“Mr. Obama and his White House aides have made clear that their highest priority is to return Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker in 2015. He and 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina are already mobilizing donors toward that goal, and his inaugural address, State of the Union speech and budget proposals have framed the issues in a way that suggests his priority is a grand liberal finale in his last two years.
“The appearance of a new bipartisanship is perfectly consistent with such a partisan 2014 strategy. The more reasonable he appears today, the better positioned he might be to blame Republicans for failure next year. Independent voters love to see politicians working together, however haplessly, so Mr. Obama may figure he has nothing to lose by dropping his Democrats-only strategy for now. He can always sandbag the GOP again later. In particular, he'd love to carve out deals in the Senate that isolate House Republicans.”
“In my view, there’s little reason to believe that the president wants such a grand bargain—or at least that he wants it enough to jeopardize his second-term political strategy. That plan? To win back the House of Representatives for Democrats, with heavy Obama involvement, by portraying Republicans once again as extremists… Then, having secured control of Congress, the president can consolidate and build on his implementation of the progressive agenda he began in his first term and laid out in his second inaugural and most recent State of the Union Address.”
“By ‘reaching out’ to Republicans, he is attempting to position himself as the ‘reasonable’ party in Washington even if his big ask—additional revenues—is something Republicans already gave him as part of the fiscal cliff deal.”
“The president has shown little appetite for real entitlement reform over his first four years in office, aside from a tweak to the calculation of inflation on Social Security and whispers to John Boehner during the original debt ceiling talks…”
“If the White House is bragging about its unwillingness to concede on entitlement reform, the one thing that could conceivably allow Republicans to be part of a ‘grand bargain,’ how likely is it that the president is serious about getting a deal?”
“Thanks to the FOIA, the transparency issue will be widely discussed this week as journalists, non-profit advocates, academics and others celebrate Sunshine Week with speeches, news reports and features, forums, surveys and panel discussions across the country. The week is timed to coincide with the March 16 birthdate of First Amendment author James Madison, who was also the country's fourth president.”
“A recent study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University found a 28 percent increase in the number of FOIA suits filed during the last two years of Obama’s first term, compared to the last two years of President George W. Bush’s second term, from 562 to 720 cases.”
“[J]ournalists and activists will keep on fighting for more official transparency because, as the Project on Government Oversight’s Danielle Brian (@daniellebrian) told The Washington Examiner, ‘it is our job to push back and crack open those closed doors that hide corruption, mismanagement and other wrongdoing.’”
“She called transparency ‘the most powerful tool citizens have to ensure government is operating ethically and effectively. Although there are some things that should remain secret, the government tends to err on the side of over-classifying and hiding behind secrecy to keep nosy citizen activists and journalists out of its business …’”
“Those who make the rules should play by them. Especially a White House that lectures the rest of America about the importance of paying your ‘fair share’ of taxes.
“So we were struck by IRS reports that no fewer than 40 aides to President Obama still owe the federal government a combined $333,485 in back taxes… This year, some 312,000 of Uncle Sam’s own employees owe the IRS a whopping $3.52 billion.”
“For all its sermons on fairness, this administration has never seemed too bothered when its own people somehow forget to send the IRS the check they owe.”
Storified by Brian Empric· Sun, Mar 10 2013 12:16:24
“Implicit in the wide range of efforts on the left to get government to take over more of our decisions for us is the assumption that there is some superior class of people who are either wiser or nobler than the rest of us.
“Yes, we all make mistakes. But do governments not make bigger and more catastrophic mistakes?”
“One of the key differences between mistakes that we make in our own lives and mistakes made by governments is that bad consequences force us to correct our own mistakes.”
“Too many among today's intellectual elite see themselves as our shepherds and us as their sheep… Tragically, too many of us are apparently willing to be sheep, in exchange for being taken care of, being relieved of the burdens of adult responsibility and being supplied with ‘free’ stuff paid for by others.”
“It's no secret that President Obama and his glamorous wife Michelle have worked hand in glove with Hollywood's power structure for years — from the White House's unauthorized access of classified information for the makers of ‘Zero Dark Thirty,’ which was nominated for Best Picture, to the vast fundraisers President Obama holds in Beverly Hills.”
“… Hollywood these days is all about obtaining crony capitalist benefits from Obama's state. (Filmmaker Harvey) Weinstein even hired an Obama operative to drum up support for one of his movies to win the Best Picture award.”
“[A]longside the politicization of Hollywood, the Hollywoodization of politics is happening too… The Obama administration, unable to sell its socialist, statist ideas to the public, instead uses Hollywood's willing leftist filmmakers and actors to give its failures a patina of glamour and success.”
“It’s not beyond repair, advisers to both men maintain, but hardball politics have bred a share of hard feelings — leaving the two farther apart than any recent speaker or president in recent memory.”
“People close to the speaker say Boehner also thinks Obama is a nice guy — but the kind of nice guy addicted to the sound of his own voice, prone to long delivering pedantic ‘lectures,’ boasting about his superior political skills and fond of telling Boehner how to run his own political affairs.”
“The high point in the Obama-Boehner saga is easy to identify. After a shaky start — shortly after taking office, Obama rankled Boehner’s team by joking that the perma-tanned congressman was ‘a person of color’ — the pair agreed to negotiate a ‘grand bargain’ on deficits and entitlements following 18 holes of golf in June 2011… The low point is even easier to mark: It’s right now.
“Both men have all but ditched the idea of direct talks, after a revolt by conservatives against Boehner during December’s fiscal cliff talks. The speaker has declared that negotiations with the White House are pointless and Obama agrees, opting for a strategy of marshaling public opinion against the GOP in a series of campaign-style events.”
“Another Boehner pal is even blunter in bashing Obama, and it is clear that whatever goodwill once existed between the two men, it is rapidly disappearing… According to this GOP lawmaker, Boehner sees Obama as ‘absolutely unable to make a decision. ... He’s indecisive and doesn’t know how to lead.’”
“The goal is to flip the Republican-held House back to Democratic control, allowing Obama to push forward with a progressive agenda on gun control, immigration, climate change and the economy during his final two years in office, according to congressional Democrats, strategists and others familiar with Obama’s thinking.”
“Democrats would have to gain 17 House seats to win back the majority they lost in 2010, and their challenge involves developing a persuasive argument for why the party deserves another chance controlling both Congress and the presidency. In the last election, American voters reaffirmed the political status quo in Washington, choosing to retain a divided government.”
“Obama has committed to eight fundraisers for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this year, compared with just two events in 2009. The Democrats lost the House the following year, and Obama’s legislative agenda has largely stalled since then.”
“In early January, (Rep. Steve) Israel (chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) said, he met in Washington with Jim Messina, Obama’s reelection campaign manager and now head of Organizing for Action, also known as OFA. The subject was the 2014 midterms.”
“Two former Obama White House officials used the same word — ‘hubris’ — to describe what they viewed as the administration’s highly public and sometimes misleading turn against congressional Republicans in the days heading into the sequester.”
“Most (second-term presidents) have about two years to secure a domestic agenda before lame-duck status sets in. But Obama is laying out an argument for a new Congress that, if successful, could give him his last two years in office to cement his legacy.”
WSJ Review & Outlook notes that the White House was quick to push back against this report, “but that looks like an attempt at damage control after the Post blew the White House's cover… It's important to understand how extraordinary this is. Presidents typically try to secure major bipartisan deals in their fifth or sixth years, before their political capital ebbs… Bipartisan failure is their strategy.”
“[H]is campaign rhetoric undercuts his credibility with politicians of the opposite party and perhaps of his own.
“It's not that these people resent being criticized. They understand that that is part of the game… But the substance of the criticism suggests the president is not serious about public policy.”
“Demagoguery about preschool and corporate jets is not going to convince Republicans that Obama can be a reliable negotiating partner… Instead, it reinforces the evidence that he never will be.”
“No one can continue to assert that President Obama is simply incompetent. Yes, he is indeed that. Into his fifth year as president, America is worse under his command: Millions are still out of work — unemployment stands exactly where it was the day he took office; millions more are on food stamps; and despite his claim otherwise, the U.S. is less respected in the world than ever before.”
“There is little merit in arguments against spending cuts, and not a speck of support for the theory that America can tax itself out of its growing sinkhole. The federal government has simply grown too large, spends too much. We’re now borrowing 35 cents of every dollar we spend. Like any family faced with a shortfall of cash, the first — and, really, only — solution is to reduce spending. It’s not rocket science. And Americans are doing just that every day.”
“Rush Limbaugh has been saying for months that the president is not the least bit interested in the welfare of the country — instead, he wants to kill the Republican Party for good. And he’s right…”
“The last thing he cares about is the plight of American families. No, the president wants to gut the Republican Party so he can win back a majority in Congress in 2014 — and secure his legacy. And he’s fully prepared to spur chaos to get what he wants.”
“It is a clear change for a president who, during his first term, faced criticism from his left flank for being too conciliatory toward the GOP on healthcare reform and, later, during deficit battles. Liberal voices argued that Obama was mistaken in thinking the Republicans had any real interest in finding common ground.”
“Conservatives accuse Obama of being happier making airy claims and promises at campaign-style events than engaging in the nitty-gritty of governance. In particular, they suggest that his purported willingness to compromise to avert the sequester was vague at best and bogus at worst.”
“Of late, perhaps liberated by his relatively comfortable reelection win, Obama’s attitude is more akin to that of a general leading his forces into battle, confident that he can decimate the enemy.”
“Voices on the left have now, for the most part, fallen into contended silence. In their stead, Republicans are protesting about Obama’s supposed triumphalism.
“On the day after Obama’s second inaugural address, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told a meeting of the centrist Ripon Society that he believed the administration’s goal is to ‘annihilate the Republican Party.’”
“Tony Fratto (@TonyFratto), a former deputy press secretary for President George W. Bush, said that any evaluation of Obama’s second-term approach needs to acknowledge these nuances (with Obama’s strategy).
“I don’t think it’s some kind of second-term infusion of courage,” he said. “It’s very tactical in the way they deal with issues.”
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