“The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, also known as the ‘Motor Voter’ law, requires government agencies to offer individuals the opportunity to vote–and that includes the newly opened Obamacare exchanges,” National Journal reports.
“That gives some Republicans one more reason to oppose the law. If low-income applicants lean Democratic, the argument goes, the exchanges could boost the party’s voter rolls.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in New Jersey finds Cory Booker (D) leads Steve Lonegan (R) in tomorrow’s U.S. Senate race by 14 points, 54% to 40%.
Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) called for President Obama to be impeached, the Texas Tribune reports.
“Dewhurst said the president should be impeached for his overreach on issues like immigration and health care, as well as his behavior in the aftermath of a 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.”
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A new Wason Center for Public Policy poll in Virginia findsTerry McAuliffe leading Ken Cuccinelli for governor among likely voters, 46% to 39%, with Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis at 11%.
Said pollster Quentin Kidd: “Most voters say neither candidate bears any responsibility for the shutdown, but among the 13% who cast blame, far more blame Cuccinelli (47%) than McAuliffe (7%). Likely voters who are affected by the shutdown or who know someone affected prefer McAuliffe to Cuccinelli, 49% to 34%.”
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta rebuked President Obama’s hands-off approach to the budget crisis, the Washington Post reports.
Said Panetta: “We govern either by leadership or crisis… If leadership is not there, then we govern by crisis. Clearly, this town has been governing by crisis after crisis after crisis.”
He added: “You have to engage in the process. This is a town where it’s not enough to feel you have the right answers. You’ve got to roll up your sleeves and you’ve got to really engage in the process . . . that’s what governing is all about.”
“We’ve got a name for it in the House: it’s called the Senate surrender
caucus. Anybody who would vote for that in the House as Republican would
virtually guarantee a primary challenger.”
— Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), quoted by the New York Times, on the Senate Republicans cutting a deal to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling.
Washington Post: “The emerging agreement would extend the Treasury Department’s borrowing authority until Feb. 7, reopen the government and fund federal agencies through mid-January… In the meantime, policymakers would launch a new round of talks over broader budget issues in hopes of developing a plan to replace deep automatic spending cuts known as the sequester before Jan. 15.”
“The framework under consideration includes only minor changes to President Obama’s signature health-care law, falling well short of defunding it or delaying major provisions as conservative Republicans initially sought. Instead, Republicans would get only new safeguards to ensure that people who receive federal subsidies to purchase health insurance under the law are eligible to receive them.”
Politico: “It’s not a perfect deal for the White House — but it’s a worse deal for Republicans. Democrats won’t say it too loudly just yet, but the emerging budget agreement leaves Republicans with remarkably little to show for forcing the first government shutdown in 17 years: They barely nicked Obamacare and their poll numbers are in tank.”
Wall Street Journal: “Even before the deal was unveiled, it provoked grumbling Monday night among restive House Republicans.”
David Frum: “Like the atomic bomb in a James Bond movie, the debt ceiling crisis seems to have been averted with only minutes remaining on the countdown clock. A lot could still go wrong. But sighs of relief are being heard from Congress and from Wall Street. The S&P 500 has gained more than 2 percent over the past week.”
“We can all welcome the last-minute decision by Republicans in Congress to halt a confrontation that threatened to blow up the world financial system. It’s important to understand, however, that even if all goes as agreed–even if the debt ceiling is raised and the government shutdown ended–this crisis has nowhere near ended.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “met with roughly 15 to 20 House Republicans for around two hours late Monday night at the Capitol Hill watering hole Tortilla Coast,” Roll Call reports.
“The group appeared to be talking strategy about how they should respond to a tentative Senate deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling without addressing Obamacare in a substantive way, according to sources who witnessed the gathering… The group is a collection of members who have often given leadership headaches in recent years by opposing both compromise measures as well as packages crafted by fellow Republicans. And, it seems, leadership unwittingly became aware of the meetup.”
The Week: Will the House sink a bipartisan Senate deal on the debt ceiling?
“At this point, it’s both an understatement and a statement of the obvious to say the government-shutdown showdown hasn’t been good for the Republican Party,” Gerald Seib writes.
“But there’s an exception to every rule–and in this case, three. That is, three nationally prominent Republicans have improved their standing while their party’s has slid backward: Sen. Rand Paul, Gov. Chris Christie and Rep. Paul Ryan.”
A new Esquire-NBC News survey “shows us that everything we are told about politics in America today–that there is no middle ground between left and right, blue and red, us and them–is wrong… there is a large group of American voters–even a majority–who make up a New American Center that is passionate, persuadable, and very real. They are merely waiting for Washington to find them.”
Take the quiz to find out where you are on the political spectrum.
A new Rutgers poll in New Jersey finds Cory Booker (D) leading Steve Lonegan (R) in the U.S. Senate race by 22 points, 58% to 36%.
The special election is on Wednesday.
Roll Call has the details.
New York Times: “President Obama praised the Senate’s progress, but issued a blunt warning to lawmakers about the possibility that the deal could yet founder in the House.”
A Senate Democratic aide tells Greg Sargent that they want the debt ceiling lifted for about 9 months — until early summer — with the idea being that the closer to the 2014 elections we get, the harder it will be for Republicans to stage another debt ceiling hostage crisis.”
Said the aide: “The effect of this fight has been to destroy the Republican brand and put their 2014 candidates behind the eight ball. We are not trying to bait them into another fight. We’d rather put it past the election. But it’s really up to them. If they want to recommit political suicide a few months before an election, that’s going to be their choice. We’re going to make sure that if this happens it has real consequences for them.”
A new ABC News-Washington Post poll finds a new high of 74% of Americans disapprove of the way the Republicans in Congress are handling Washington’s budget crisis, up significantly in the past two weeks and far exceeding disapproval of both President Obama and congressional Democrats on the issue.
Associated Press: “Once, the young nation had a dramatic excuse: The Treasury was empty, the White House and Capitol were charred ruins, even the troops fighting the War of 1812 weren’t getting paid.”
“A second time, in 1979, was a back-office glitch that ended up costing taxpayers billions of dollars. The Treasury Department blamed it on a crush of paperwork partly caused by lawmakers who — this will sound familiar — bickered too long before raising the nation’s debt limit.”
“These lapses, little noted outside financial circles in their day, are nearly forgotten now.”
“Top Senate leaders said they were within striking distance of a deal to sidestep a looming debt crisis and reopen the government two weeks after a partisan deadlock forced it to shutter,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Senators signaled a bipartisan resolution could come as soon as Monday afternoon, when top congressional leaders are scheduled to meet with President Obama.”
Politico reports the deal would “reopen the government until Jan. 15 and raise the national debt limit until Feb. 15. Several people familiar with the matter expected that a deal could be announced Monday, though its prospects in the GOP-led House are far from certain.”
“The Republicans’ decision to alter an obscure procedural rule has enraged Democrats and given them evidence that Republicans have purposefully throw the government into chaos with a shutdown,” BuzzFeed reports.
“Normally, any member of the House can force a vote on legislation which the Senate and House are unable to agree on. Although it is a rarely used mechanism, House Republicans were taking no chances in the days leading up to the shutdown. Republican leaders were nervous about the possibility that the Senate’s clean spending extension bill would pass the chamber on the strength of Democratic votes — or worse, that it would fail, taking it off the table permanently as a solution.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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