Annie Lowrey: “Consider how different our politics might be today if the economy had not collapsed in 2008 and not been mired in sluggish growth ever since. A ballpark estimate suggests that if the economy were to grow one percentage point more than expected in each year over the next 10, the deficit would shrink by more than $3 trillion. That would be more than enough to set the ratio of our debt to our annual economic output on a comforting downward trajectory. Moreover, it would happen without making cuts to a single program, like Medicare or food stamps, or without raising a single dollar of additional tax revenue. Even a much smaller boost to growth — say one-tenth of a percentage point per year, or even half that — would make Congress and the White House’s burden hundreds of billions of dollars lighter.”
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Is Critique of Obama’s “White Guy” Cabinet Justified?
Josh Feldman: “I have to ask why this has become the big controversy that it has been. Most people who voted for Obama, I would expect, care more about the qualifications of his political appointees than their race or gender.”
“With the exception of Hillary Clinton, all of Obama’s ‘guy’ nominees thus far will be replacing other white guys. And, if you’ll recall, Obama’s first choice for his second-term Secretary of State was a black woman … But if you’ve been paying attention to the news at all since September, you’ll remember exactly why Rice’s appointment didn’t exactly work out … We have two Asian Cabinet members: Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. Attorney General Eric Holder, an African-American, is staying on for Obama’s second term. Also staying on are Kathleen Sebelius at Health and Human Services and Janet Napolitano at Homeland Security. Do these people not count? … There is, of course, one more reason why this whole thing is completely ridiculous. Obama still has Commerce and Labor secretaries to appoint.”
John Dickerson: “It’s unfair to charge Obama with a gender bias in his Cabinet picks. But if anyone is to blame, it’s the president himself … If people are now drawing grand conclusions based on a few staff picks, it’s because the Obama team helped train them to do so.”
Treasury Rules Out $1 Trillion Coin
The Treasury Department “will not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to get around the debt ceiling. If they did, the Federal Reserve would not accept it,” the Washington Post reports.
Said a spokesman: “Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Assault weapons is a misused term used by suburban
soccer moms who do not understand what is being discussed here.”
— Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder (R), quoted by the Missouri News Horizon, on efforts to ban assault weapons.
Quote of the Day
“There’s no way to defend what Todd Akin said. You just can’t do it, and you shouldn’t try to put it into a scientific context. It was a bad statement. And to try to defend it or explain someone else’s poor choice of words, it would be a fool’s errand.”
— Former Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), quoted by Politico, in response to Rep. Phil Gingrey’s (R-GA) defense of former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO).
RFK Jr Says JFK Wasn’t Killed by Lone Gunman
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “is convinced that a lone gunman wasn’t solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and said his father believed the Warren Commission report was a ‘shoddy piece of craftsmanship,'” the AP reports.
Said Kennedy: “The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone gunman.”
Sources Say Lautenberg Will Retire
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has decided not to run for re-election, NBC New York reports.
However, a Lautenberg spokesman tells the Philadelphia Inquirer the report is not true.
The news comes the same week that Newark Mayor Cory Booker has filed papers allowing him to raise money for a U.S. Senate run in New Jersey.
Inaugural Fundraising Lags
President Obama’s inaugural committee “is at least $10 million short of its $50 million fund-raising goal, officials have told top donors, with just over a week before Mr. Obama is sworn in for his second term,” the New York Times reports.
“The committee is particularly struggling to bring in corporate money after Mr. Obama’s announcement last month that he would accept contributions from businesses, a change from his position in 2009… Even more striking, those involved in the planning said, was the absence of the vast majority of top fund-raisers for Mr. Obama’s campaign, which raised over a billion dollars.”
Another Bush Ready to Run
“George Prescott Bush is gearing up to run for a little-known but powerful office in a state where his family already is a political dynasty and where his Hispanic roots could help extend a stranglehold on power Republicans have enjoyed for two decades” the AP reports.
Said Bush: “We for sure are running, the question is the office.”
Congressional Approval at 14%
A new Gallup poll finds Congress began 2013 with a 14% approval rating.
“The lowest individual congressional job approval rating in Gallup’s history is 10%, measured in August of last year. The highest is 84%, measured in October 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”
Hagel’s Fate Rests on Schumer
“Chuck Hagel’s uncertain path to the position of defense secretary is turning in large measure on the stance of one senator, New York’s Chuck Schumer, whose opinion is likely to influence a group of fellow Democrats who, like him, have remained uncommitted,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“It would be hard for Mr. Schumer, who is generally loyal to his party, to oppose Mr. Hagel. But the senator has won strong support among constituents and donors for being an advocate for Israel, and he has so far declined to endorse Mr. Hagel’s nomination, saying only that he needs to study his former colleague’s record and question him about it.”
Top Democrats Back Unilateral Debt Ceiling Move
Greg Sargent: “In a move that will significantly ratchet up the brinksmanship around the debt ceiling, the four members of the Senate Democratic leadership are privately telling the White House that they will give Obama full support if he opts for a unilateral solution to the debt ceiling crisis, a senior Senate Democratic leadership aide tells me.”
“The four Democratic leaders — Senators Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin and Patty Murray — have privately reached agreement that continued GOP intransigence on the debt ceiling means the White House needs the space to pursue options for raising it that don’t involve Congress, and that the White House needs to know that Dems will support whatever it decides to do.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“He’s partly right on that.”
— Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), an OB-GYN, quoted by the Marietta Daily Journal, on former Rep. Todd Akn’s (R-MO) “legitimate rape” comments.
Frank Hurting His Chances for Appointment?
Massachusetts Democrats and people close to Gov. Deval Patrick (D) tell National Journal that Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) “has undercut his own explicit hopes for the seat likely to be vacated if Sen. John Kerry is confirmed as secretary of State. Frank’s very public lobbying for the job–he disclosed his aspirations on Morning Joe–make Patrick, the man who would have power of appointment, less likely to go along.”
Rockefeller Will Retire from Senate
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) will not run for a sixth term in 2014, putting his U.S. Senate seat in play, Politico reports.
Quote of the Day
“I’m sure that I couldn’t get all 49 other governors to admit that they would want to be Texans. I’m thinking that Gov. Cuomo would not admit that he’d want to be a Texan.”
— Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), quoted by the AP.
Bachmann Refuses to Pay Five Staffers
More than a year after she dropped out, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) “has refused to pay five staffers from her failed presidential bid,” Salon reports.
The dispute “started when former Iowa straw poll staffers refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement that would bar them from discussing any ‘unethical, immoral, or criminal activity’ they witnessed on the campaign with police or reporters.”
Tax Reform Prospects Dim
Politico: “In a perfectly divided Washington, a mix of politics, policy and personality has made a comprehensive rewrite of the nation’s tax system — a top Republican priority — increasingly elusive in 2013, aides and lawmakers say.”
“The fiscal cliff has deepened distrust between the two parties. The politics have become riskier and more complicated. Time is short. And Washington has to first endure battles over the debt ceiling and scheduled spending cuts before tax reform can come under serious consideration.”
