First Read: “Politically, the CBO report suggests that passing a minimum-wage hike won’t be easy this year. Republicans can use the report to push back against Democrats demanding the increase. Of course, there’s a potential compromise here: Like we saw in 1996, the White House and the GOP-led Congress could reach an agreement to increase the minimum wage but also provide protections for businesses — as a way to soften any threat of job losses. Then again, compromise hasn’t been an easy thing either these last few years. However, there is a danger here for Republicans, too: They don’t want repeat the Mitt Romney mistake of just looking out for the concerns of business owners.”

Wonk Wire: Will an increase in the minimum wage really hurt jobs? A test case of the restaurant industry suggests it won’t.

“The costly $787 billion spending bill that President Barack Obama signed into law soon after taking office boosted the economy and helped avoid another Great Depression, the White House said in a status report on Monday’s fifth anniversary of the law’s enactment,” the AP reports.

“Republican leaders in Congress took note of the anniversary, too, but argued that the bill spent too much for too little in return.”

Wonk Wire has a report card.

“I believe it is immoral for this country to have as a policy extending long-term unemployment to people rather than us working on creation of jobs.”

— Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), quoted by the Washington Post.

Roll Call: “Senate Democratic leaders plan to again try to extend unemployment insurance after Republicans blocked their latest attempt Thursday.”

“Democratic leaders came up a single vote short of overcoming a GOP filibuster. The final tally was 58-40, short of the 60-vote threshold needed, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid switched his voted to preserve his right to reconsider the measure.”

New York Times: “Democrats hope to turn the issue into an election-year cudgel and have been blaming Republicans for ignoring people who are out of work. Republicans have balked at that as political smoke.”

A new NBC/Marist poll of Americans’ “view of the national economy and their own finances has uncovered a paradox: While nearly two-thirds think the country is in a recession or going in the wrong direction, the vast majority believe their personal prospects will improve or stay the course. A current of individual optimism — the highest level detected since 2009 — runs through the results of the survey, despite evidence that millions of Americans, especially those in lower income brackets, are struggling to balance their budgets. And yet that individual optimism is trumped by political pessimism of the country’s situation as a whole.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) “broke publicly with the White House Wednesday on trade policy, instantly imperiling two major international trade deals and punching a hole in one piece of the economic agenda the president outlined in his State of the Union address a day earlier,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Reid: “I’m against fast track. I think everyone would be well-advised just not to push this right now.”

“The move spells trouble for two sets of complicated talks, one with the European Union and the other with countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Both deals likely would have required such a ‘fast track’ approval to clear the Congress. The U.S.’s negotiating partners wouldn’t likely commit to a final agreement that could be unpopular back home without assurances that it couldn’t be modified by U.S. lawmakers.”

New York Times: “The best-known Republicans speaking out on poverty and opportunity have presidential ambitions, among them Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Influential conservative economists and columnists have spoken up as well.”

“While their comments suggest the two parties agree mainly on the problem, not the remedies, some Republicans and Democrats see a chance, if small, for compromises — perhaps on tax policy, education and job-training initiatives, even the federal minimum wage.”

Said GOP strategist Vin Weber: “The president could move the ball. And he doesn’t have to move it from a dead start. He’s got a little bit of movement on the right.”

A new Pew Research survey finds two-thirds of Americans see the gap between the rich and everyone else widening in the United States.

“Indeed, at a time when Republicans and Democrats disagree about almost everything, on this there is virtually no partisan gap: 61% of Republicans, 68% of Democrats and 67% of independents think economic inequality has been growing in the United States over the past decade.”

Wonk Wire: 85 richest people are as wealthy as the poorest 3 billion

The Hill:
“President Obama is considering using his executive authority to raise
the minimum wage for federal contractors, he told Senate Democrats
during a closed meeting at the White House. Lawmakers present at the
Wednesday night session said Thursday that Obama did not bring up the
matter himself, but appeared receptive to the idea when questioned on
the topic.”

“Efforts to reach a bipartisan deal extending benefits for the long-term unemployed floundered Tuesday, sunk by squabbles over Senate procedure magnified by both parties’ efforts to reap political points in an election year,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Lawmakers had been working for weeks to restore emergency unemployment insurance benefits that expired on Dec. 28, but progress ground to a halt Tuesday as tensions rose over Republicans’ role in the Senate’s legislative process.”

“A series of closed-door meetings and votes produced no headway in reaching an agreement on an extension of the unemployment insurance. A key procedural vote to end debate on the bill extending the benefits failed in a party-line 55-45 vote, ending more than a week’s worth of unsuccessful negotiations. The measure needed 60 votes to advance.”

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) told a trade show audience that 12-year-olds should be allowed to work in Maine, the Portland Press Herald reports.

Said LePage: “We don’t allow children to work until they’re 16, but two years later, when they’re 18, they can go to war and fight for us. That’s causing damage to our economy. I started working far earlier than that, and it didn’t hurt me at all. There is nothing wrong with being a paperboy at 12 years old, or at a store sorting bottles at 12 years old.”

“The Democratic effort to extend federal benefits for the long-term unemployed got a surprise boost Tuesday as skeptical Republicans in the Senate voted to allow the proposal to advance, with issues of poverty and economic opportunity emerging as a central battleground between the parties,” the Washington Post reports.

“The reprieve came after President Obama’s outreach to some GOP senators produced the narrowest of victories for the White House.”

Roll Call: “Six Republicans bucked the party line Tuesday to open debate on a temporary reinstatement of lapsed jobless benefits — and for some, the story behind their support is one of high unemployment at home, combined with Democratic delegation mates who create inherent political tension.”

“Democrats are confident that a strong economy in 2014 will help them retain their Senate majority,” The Hill reports.

“Democratic senators speaking on the record are more cautious, but believe that the economy will boost their party’s chances of holding the upper chamber.”

“A Democratic push to extend unemployment benefits that have expired moved forward on Tuesday morning, barely avoiding a Republican filibuster,” the New York Times reports.

“The Senate’s 60-37 vote to simply take up a three-month extension of benefits passed with no room to spare, which will set off a negotiation to try to pass the bill later this week.. Even some of the Republicans who voted yes want the cost of the extension set off by cuts elsewhere in the budget.”

Roll Call: “Even if it gets out of the Senate, House Republican leadership aides have said that their bosses will not bring a bill to the floor unless it is fully paid for.”

“A bipartisan plan to once again provide federal unemployment insurance for more than 1 million Americans appears to be falling short of the Republican support needed to clear a key procedural vote scheduled for Monday evening in the Senate,” the Washington Post reports.

“Payments for about 1.3 million out-of-work people expired last month after lawmakers did not extend the program as part of a bipartisan budget agreement.”

Meanwhile, Politico reports President Obama “returns from his Hawaii holiday toting a familiar message — blame the Republicans — as the White House and its allies launch a fresh weeklong effort to spotlight Congress’s failure to renew long-term unemployment benefits.”

“An emergency federal program that acts as a lifeline for 1.3 million jobless workers will end on Saturday, drastically curtailing government support for the long-term unemployed and setting the stage for a major political fight in the new year,” the New York Times reports.

“The program, in place since the recession started in 2008, provides up to 47 weeks of supplemental unemployment insurance payments to jobless people looking for work. Its expiration is expected to have far-reaching ramifications for the economy, cutting job growth by about 300,000 positions next year and pushing hundreds of thousands of households below the poverty line.”

“When the federal program expires, just one in four unemployed Americans will receive jobless benefits — the smallest proportion in half a century.”

The Los Angeles Times has “six things to know about why long-term jobless benefits went away and who is affected by the change.”

A new New York Times/CBS News poll finds that last week’s “reports of hopeful economic indicators did nothing to improve the American public’s negative opinion of President Obama’s stewardship of the nation’s economy. However, while most Americans describe the economy as in bad condition, there has been a slight uptick in the number who view the nation’s fiscal circumstances positively.”

Key findings: “37% of those surveyed approve of Obama’s handling of the economy; 58% disapprove. These numbers are indistinguishable from the results of a CBS News poll taken last month, although better-than-expected unemployment numbers and other positive economic data were released last week.”

“I do support unemployment benefits for the 26 weeks that they’re paid for. If you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers.”

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview on Fox News.