Washington Post: “Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will remain in the
same post as President Obama begins a second term… While not unexpected, her remaining in place means that most of
Obama’s first-term Cabinet will begin the second term unchanged.”
America Divided by More Than Just Partisanship
National Journal: “The same demographic trends that helped the GOP keep the House will hurt their shot at the presidency. And the trends that propelled Obama to reelection will impede Democrats from retaking the House.”
Obama Says Debt Ceiling is Not Negotiable
President Obama repeated his call for deficit reduction at a press conference “but warned against the potentially catastrophic effect on the economy by tying cuts to raising the debt ceiling,” Politico reports.
Said Obama: “While I’m willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficit, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress over how to pay the bills they’ve already racked up. To even entertain the idea of this happening, of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible. It’s absurd.”
He added: “They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy. The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip.”
South Grows More Isolated
George Packer:
“Every President elected between 1976 and 2004 was, by birth or by
choice, a Southerner, except Ronald Reagan, who enjoyed a sort of
honorary status. (When he began the 1980 campaign in Philadelphia,
Mississippi, scene of the murder, in 1964, of three civil-rights
workers, many Southerners heard it as a dog whistle.) A Southern accent,
once thought quaint or even backward, became an emblem of American
authenticity, a political trump card. It was a truism that no Democrat
could win the White House unless he spoke with a drawl. Now the South is
becoming isolated again.”
“Every demographic and political trend that
helped to reelect Barack Obama runs counter to the region’s
self-definition: the emergence of a younger, more diverse, more secular
electorate, with a libertarian bias on social issues and immigration;
the decline of the exurban life style, following the housing bust; the
class politics, anathema to pro-business Southerners, that rose with the
recession; the end of America’s protracted wars, with cuts in military
spending bound to come. The Solid South speaks less and less for America
and more and more for itself alone.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I think the Republican Party is having an identity problem.”
— Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, on Meet the Press.
Is Air Leaking Out of Gun Control Balloon?
First Read: “The White House is serious about making a push for some new gun laws, with universal background checks serving as the likely centerpiece of what the president asks Congress to pass when guns are brought up at the State of the Union. But you also get the sense that the air is leaking ever-so-slightly out of this balloon that is called gun control — as those advocating new government regulations start accepting the political realities on Capitol Hill. The wild card here: the victim groups. Just like the 9/11 widows, they could become a powerful force that does move public opinion.”
A new Gallup poll finds 38% of Americans “are dissatisfied with
the nation’s gun laws and want them strengthened. This is up from 25%
who held this set of views a year ago, and is the highest since 2001.
Still, more Americans are either satisfied with current gun laws, 43%,
or think they should be loosened, 5%.”
Obama Step-Brother to Run for Office in Kenya
Malik Obama, the step-brother of President Obama, said he will run for governor of the western Kenyan county of Siaya, Bloomberg reports.
Far Fewer to Attend Obama Inauguration
McClatchy: “When Obama takes the oath of office outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 21 and looks onto the National Mall, he will see a different landscape than he did in 2009.”
“Then, an estimated 1.8 million people poured onto the Mall to witness the first African-American president sworn into office. Now, District of Columbia officials estimate that between 600,000 and 800,000 people will attend Obama’s second swearing-in, a steep decline from 2009 but an above-average audience for a second-term inauguration . George W. Bush’s second inauguration attracted between 300,000 and 400,000 people. Bill Clinton’s likely drew around 450,000.”
House GOP Weighs Government Shutdown
House Republicans “are seriously entertaining dramatic steps, including default or shutting down the government, to force President Obama to finally cut spending by the end of March,” Politico reports.
“The idea of allowing the country to default by refusing to increase the debt limit is getting more widespread and serious traction among House Republicans than people realize, though GOP leaders think shutting down the government is the much more likely outcome of the spending fights this winter.”
Key takeaway: “GOP officials said more than half of their members are prepared to allow default unless Obama agrees to dramatic cuts he has repeatedly said he opposes. Many more members, including some party leaders, are prepared to shut down the government to make their point.”
Wall Street Journal: “The Obama administration has said it has no backup plan to pay the government’s
bills if Congress refuses to raise the $16.4 trillion federal borrowing
limit.”
Quote of the Day
“Somebody got them the way they are now. Why can’t you change them?”
— New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, quoted by the Washington Post, on the Republican party.
Gun Control Efforts Shift to Congress
“After Vice President Joe Biden delivers his recommendations for reducing gun violence to the president Tuesday, the focus will shift to Congress, where legislation restricting firearms faces an uncertain path,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Senate leaders have offered assurances that gun-safety legislation will be among the first bills introduced, a Senate Democratic aide said. But Majority Leader Harry Reid already is expressing doubts about enacting an assault-weapons ban, which President Barack Obama has urged Congress to pass.”
Why Scott Brown May Pass on Another Senate Bid
Politico: “Topping the list: In 2014, he could run instead for Massachusetts governor, a job that Republicans have had much more success winning and keeping, as Mitt Romney can attest.”
“Even if Brown were to win an expected late spring special election for the Senate — he would enter as a favorite — he’d have to pick up and do it all over again next year, in a higher-turnout contest that could also be tough to win. A loss in that race could end his political career.”
Quote of the Day
“There are number of staffers who are coming forth now just talking about how he dealt with them.”
— Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), in an interview on This Week, raising questions about former Sen. Chuck Hagel’s (R-NE) temperament and suitability to be defense secretary.
National Memo: 5 Republicans who were for Hagel before they were against him.
Obama Plans Big Immigration Push
President Obama “plans to push Congress to move quickly in the coming months on an ambitious overhaul of the immigration system that would include a path to citizenship for most of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country,” the New York Times reports.
Democrats will propose the changes in one comprehensive bill, “resisting efforts by some Republicans to break the overhaul into smaller pieces — separately addressing young illegal immigrants, migrant farmworkers or highly skilled foreigners — which might be easier for reluctant members of their party to accept… The president and Democrats will also oppose measures that do not allow immigrants who gain legal status to become American citizens one day.”
Illinois GOP Chief Faces Revolt Over Gay Marriage
Illinois GOP chairman Pat Brady “is staring down a revolt from some state party bosses after he bucked the official GOP line last week and urged state lawmakers to approve same-sex marriage,” WBEZ reports.
“It’s unclear whether the party bosses opposing Brady have enough votes to oust him. But even those who stop short of asking for his resignation plan to take him to the woodshed for neglecting to notify party bosses before he publicly contradicted the party’s platform plank on gay marriage.”
Gregory Won’t Be Charged
The host of Meet the Press, David Gregory, will not be arrested or charged with a crime for waving what he claimed was a high-capacity ammunition gun clip on national television last month, the Washington Post reports.
White House Explains Rejecting $1 Trillion Coin
Paul Krugman gets a call from the White House after they rejected the trillion dollar coin idea to stave off default on the nation’s bonds:
“The White House insists that it is absolutely, positively not going to cave or indeed even negotiate over the debt ceiling — that it rejected the coin option as a gesture of strength, as a way to put the onus for avoiding default entirely on the GOP.”
Wall Street Journal: “The White House also has rejected another escape clause: invoking the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and borrowing more even if
Congress hasn’t acted.”
The Politics of Slow Growth
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.”
