MORNING MESSAGE: Too Much Health Care Is Not The Problem
OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "Nate Silver has a much-discussed post today in The New York Times, 'What Is Driving Growth in Government Spending?' ... he is right: health care costs have been rising at an unsustainable rate ... Some people fear that Nate’s analysis, combined with his credibility, will cause people to conclude that we just have to cut medical spending in the budget. This is a mistake. In fact, we should not address this as a budget issue, because it is a symptom, not a cause. We need to fix the cause."
GOP Grasping For Debt Limit Plan
GOPers try agreeing on a debt limit strategy at retreat. W. Post: "One possible course, aides said, would involve raising the debt ceiling for just a few months in exchange for several hundred billion dollars in budget cuts, probably culled from a bipartisan list developed in 2011 in talks led by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Vice President Biden. A longer-term debt-limit increase would be available thereafter, but only if the Republican-led House and the Democratic-led Senate approved a framework to set tax and spending policies for the next decade."
No one believes the GOP will let America default. HuffPost: "Republican aides in the House and Senate told The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin that the 'the threat of bumping up against the debt ceiling is not realistic and hence not useful,' prompting the GOP to explore other options. 'The jig is nearly up,' Rubin writes. And conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer warned Republicans to not 'immolate' themselves by overreaching in the debt ceiling debate. 'Don’t force the issue when you don’t have the power,' he writes."
But government shutdown still possible. The Hill: "GOP leaders on Thursday heard from rank-and-file members in a closed-door session, with many urging sequester cuts or a government shutdown to take effect in hopes of forcing the White House into accepting spending cuts."
The deficit is mostly solved, notes NYT's Paul Krugman: "It’s true that right now we have a large federal budget deficit. But that deficit is mainly the result of a depressed economy — and you’re actually supposed to run deficits in a depressed economy to help support overall demand. The deficit will come down as the economy recovers ... will economic recovery be enough to stabilize the fiscal outlook? The answer is, pretty much."
GOP moderates looking to deal. Roll Call: "Republican moderates such as Reps. Charlie Dent and Tim Murphy, both of Pennsylvania, say they are open to being part of bipartisan coalitions on some issues and are working with supporters to deal with any political fallout from their decision to support the contentious fiscal cliff agreement. Dent, chairman of the moderate 45-member Tuesday Group, said he hoped to recruit new members to attend his weekly lunches."
WH v. NRA
WH starts grassroots campaign vs. NRA. LAT: "The administration will use Obama's fearsome campaign infrastructure to try to galvanize supporters around an issue that faces a protracted fight on Capitol Hill. To do so, the administration will pit its own grass-roots network against gun-rights groups, such as the National Rifle Assn."
Democrats split on how far legislation should go. NYT: "Many Democrats, and some Senate Republicans, believe the only legislation that has a whisper of a chance of passing would be bills that are tightly focused on more consensus elements like enhancing background checks or limits on magazines, subjected to debate in committee and then brought to a vote after building bipartisan support ... Others, particularly those senators who have long fought for gun control measures, believe a plodding process allows too much time for opposition to build, and prefer to fast-track measures by adding them as amendments to other bills, even blocking bills in ways that have angered Democrats, until they are granted votes on those ideas."
Rubio Moves Left On Immigration
Sen. Marco Rubio floats immigration compromise. NYT: "As a tactical matter, Mr. Rubio is not delving too deeply into the details at this stage. His plan would give a temporary 'nonimmigrant visa' to illegal immigrants, which would allow them to remain and work in the United States. They would have to wait a 'significant but reasonable' period of time before they could apply to become legal permanent residents, going to the back of the line in the existing system. Once they became residents, they could go on like other legal immigrants to naturalize as citizens."
Immigrant advocates ready big push. The Hill: "[Carlos] Gutierrez, who helped Mitt Romney's campaign with Hispanic outreach, is teaming up with former Mitt Romney super-PAC head Charlie Spies to create a political action committee that will spend heavily to protect pro-reform Republicans from primary challenges ... U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said he was regularly talking to other pro-reform advocates, meeting over a recent breakfast with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. He said the pro-reform groups needed to get together on broad principles, then push together for reform."
Infrastructure Jobs Programs Face High Hurdles
"Obama Promise to Raise Middle Class Living Already Seen in Peril" reports Bloomberg: "Looming battles over the budget, the legal debt limit and a round of automatic spending cuts scheduled for the end of February restrict Obama’s leeway for other priorities, such as boosting infrastructure spending to stimulate economic growth. The pieces of his economic agenda most likely to raise middle-class living standards in the near term are 'the parts that look like they’re not going anywhere,' said Larry Katz, a labor economics professor at Harvard University. These include plans for an infrastructure bank and tax breaks for new hires."
World needs $57T for infrastructure by 2030. W. Post: "Building and repairing roads and power grids are the two areas with the greatest need for new investment, followed by water provision and telecom networks ... the [McKinsey Global Institute] paper also makes clear that in some important respects, U.S. infrastructure bears a closer resemblance to middle-income countries like South Africa and China than it does to other developed countries like Japan and Germany."
Amtrak leads high-speed rail push. McClatchy: "California high-speed rail officials allied themselves with Amtrak on Thursday, forming a politically attuned partnership designed to ease the purchase of similar trains."
Breakfast Sides
Reid backs away from "talking filibuster" proposal. Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) doesn’t plan to advance a 'talking filibuster' proposal envisioned by liberals who want sweeping changes to the stodgy Senate. But he still may invoke what critics call the 'nuclear option' to change Senate rules that would limit the use of the filibuster, force senators to hold the floor in certain situations and require those stalling legislation to deliver 41 votes ... Reid is still trying to cut a bipartisan deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to avert a partisan showdown on the floor next week."
David Shuster lacerates Republicans for blocking D.C. statehood: "So why is Washington, D.C. treated like a bastard stepchild? The key driving force is a toxic mix of politics and racism ... the constitution does not articulate a minimum size for this congressionally controlled seat of the government, only a maximum size of 10 square miles. In other words, Congress could declare the District to be the area along the mall from the Capitol building to White House and Lincoln memorial; note the residential areas outside of this land, and award Congressional representation and statehood to those citizens."
