Debt Limit Weeks Away
After spending bill clears Congress, another debt limit confrontation looms. Bloomberg: "Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said yesterday that Congress should act as soon as possible to raise the borrowing cap at least by late February ... Democrats are sticking to their refusal to consider Republican demands for other fiscal changes in exchange for raising the borrowing limit ..."
House Republicans may not propose a budget for next year. National Journal: "House Republicans are quietly discussing the option of not writing a budget in 2014, a maneuver that would free up time on the legislative calendar and protect GOP lawmakers from a potentially damaging vote in an election year ... the fact that Ryan-Murray set spending figures for the next fiscal year anyhow, has some House Republicans wondering if a budgeting process this year is really necessary."
GOP risking political backlash from their own base over unemployment insurance, argues National Journal's Michael Hirsh: "... long-term unemployed are ... more likely now to live the GOP's geographic strongholds. They now make up 26.8 percent of the total in the West (versus 19.9 percent in 2007), and they are slightly more likely to live in the South (34.8 percent now versus 31.7 percent in 2007) instead of in the Midwest (18.9 percent now versus 29.1 percent in 2007). Finally, because economic studies show that the condition of long-term unemployment can last into the next generation, affecting the education and job prospects of the children of today's sufferers, the political effects could endure as well."'
Obama Trade Strategy In Jeopardy
Anti-trade deal Dems bolstered by recent leak of draft proposals. Politico: "...with Democrats fighting to retain their seats in a midterm election year, the administration is confronted with a potential Democratic insurgency on trade that could grow if the agenda Obama undertook in response to the U.S. recession falls victim to additional negative attention, including more leaked trade papers."
Republicans attack Obama for not pushing trade enough. Bloomberg: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on the Senate floor that a bipartisan measure that would give Obama the ability to win passage of trade deals without amendment may not get enough support if Obama doesn’t start talking more on the issue ... House Speaker John Boehner said today at his weekly news conference that Obama has to 'pull out all the stops' to get trade promotion legislation passed."
Cost Of Climate Inaction Rises
UN warns that further delay on capping carbon will cost. NYT: "...the risk of severe economic disruption is rising, according to a draft United Nations report. Another 15 years of failure to limit carbon emissions could make the problem virtually impossible to solve with current technologies, experts found."
Europe may be scaling back its climate strategy. NYT: "The details are still being negotiated in Brussels, but officials said the European Commission’s energy and climate proposal will probably include a binding target of reducing emissions by 35 percent to 40 percent by 2030. Some officials wanted to make the new targets for renewable energy nonbinding. But opposition this week appears to have turned the tide in favor of having a binding renewable target — although it would be applied across the European Union rather than to individual nations ... Instead they will have the flexibility to decide on their own path to a lower carbon economy."
Breakfast Sides
Obama believes House will pass immigration. The Hill: "Obama believes Republicans will feel politically vulnerable if they fail to advance the issue, a high priority among Hispanic voters, according to Democratic senators who met with the president this week ... Obama cautioned senators to brace themselves for difficult negotiations with House Republicans later this year."
"America is becoming for liberal" says Steve Rosenthal in W. Post oped: "The last time the nation considered immigration reform, in 2006, 52 percent of respondents told Gallup that the priority should be halting the flow of illegal immigration ... last July, the numbers had flipped:55 percent thought the focus should be on immigrants already here ... In October Gallup polling, 58 percent of respondents favored legalization [of marijuana] ... Americans have grown more mistrustful of big business since 2002, when 50 percent of respondents told Gallup they were “very or somewhat satisfied” with the influence of major corporations. This number bottomed out at 29 percent in 2011..."
