Grand Bargain Out, Fighting Inequality In, For SOTU
"Obama isn’t expected to spend much time on deficit reduction and entitlement reform during Tuesday’s State of the Union," reports Politico: "For Obama, the shifting political landscape is a chance to move past an issue that some Democrats see as a political loser headed into the midterms — the president even complained to Senate Democrats this month that he doesn’t get enough credit for previous deficit cuts ... White House aides said Obama stands by his last offer to Boehner in December 2012, which included Medicare cuts that infuriated Democrats. But the president believes he’s reached the end of the line with Republicans on this issue, aides said, and has reoriented his White House toward fighting income inequality."
But prospects dim for getting House Republicans to vote for increased spending. NYT: "Congress has shunned a $75 billion plan to expand early childhood education that Mr. Obama proposed in last year’s State of the Union, and the infrastructure bank he has pushed for four years ... Government investments in infrastructure, research and development, and education and training, at 3.3 percent of the nation’s economy, match the level from President George W. Bush’s sixth year in office ... Spending on what the federal government classifies as investments peaked in 1968 at 6.6 percent ..."
SOTU should set the bar for the future, argues W. Post's E. J. Dionne: "The president should certainly play for some immediate policy victories, notably on immigration reform. But his larger task is the one Ronald Reagan always kept in mind: to encourage a shift in public opinion that is already moving toward his ideas."
President Ready To Work Around Congress ... Except Immigration
Obama's plans for executive action makes Republicans sad. AP: "'The president has sort of hung out on the left and tried to get what he wants through the bureaucracy as opposed to moving to the political center,' said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky ... Added Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.: 'It sounds vaguely like a threat, and I think it also has a certain amount of arrogance.'"
But WH hopeful for bipartisan immigration bill. The Hill: "'I think there is reason to believe that the prospects for passing comprehensive immigration reform through Congress so that it reaches the president’s desk are better in 2014 than they have ever been,' [Press Sec Jay Carney] said in an interview with Univision News."
Both sides of immigration fight lobbying Tea Party congresspeople hard. The Hill: "Proponents and opponents of creating a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants and other reforms have zeroed in on “peer leaders” in the House GOP. These conservatives include Reps. Jason Chaffetz (Utah), Trey Gowdy (S.C.), Justin Amash (Mich.), Renee Ellmers (N.C.) and Steve Scalise (La.) ... Tea Party-affiliated lawmakers fall into various camps. Amash, for example, has a libertarian streak while Pearce represents a district that is 52 percent Hispanic and Ellmers is a Democratic target this year. 'Libertarians are more inclined to an open borders strategy,' said a GOP aide."
GOP Wobbly On Debt Limit
Republicans ready for debt limit fight .. or are they? WSJ: "...Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said President Barack Obama’s demand for an unconditional debt-limit increase is 'unreasonable,' and that 'something significant' ought to be attached ... McConnell added in the interview: 'We need not have a default, we’re never going to default. [House Speaker John Boehner] and I have made that clear.'"
GOP, again, doesn't know what to demand, The Hill: "Republican leaders have yet to figure out what they want to get out of the debt limit fight, just weeks before risking a default ... An exact plan is at least a week away and is likely to be debated at the GOP retreat starting Jan. 29 ... Items being bandied about include a provision authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline, conditions to fast-track tax reform or eliminating so-called 'risk corridors' in the healthcare reform law."
Tea Party Squeezed By Unions, Farmers
Unions, big business, team up to fight Tea Party in GOP primaries. Bloomberg: "A Republican group promoting pro-business candidates as it battles the Tea Party in U.S. primary campaigns is being financed mostly by labor unions ... Jay Lederer, communications director for the International Union of Operating Engineers, said that transportation and infrastructure projects that provide jobs are getting 'bogged down in this extreme polarization we’ve seen' in Congress ... In some races, the result may be that labor is on both sides of a contest..."
Tea Party may turn rural voters into Democrats. The Atlantic's Molly Ball: "In favoring a farm bill that combines agriculture supports with food stamps, the farm lobby parts ways with the GOP's ideological right wing, and sides with the Obama Administration, which has disappointed environmentalists by not aggressively seeking farm-policy reforms ... The dynamic is similar when it comes to immigration reform to legalize the millions of illegal workers currently living in the U.S. and create new guest-worker programs. The Heritage Foundation and a hard-right faction in Congress oppose such a policy. But farm leaders paint a grim picture of crops rotting on the vine, and even farmers giving up their land, because of a shortage of workers ... 'If the Republican Party moves to a place where it no longer mirrors the viewpoints of any segment of rural America,' [Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman] said, 'there will be a switch, I would predict.'"
WI Gov. Scott Walker's re-election in doubt. Reuters: "A Marquette University Law School poll of registered voters last October showed the candidates in a virtual dead heat ... progress on jobs is far short of what Walker promised during his 2010 election campaign ... John Binder, an independent voter in central Wisconsin, is no fan of unions but says Walker has been too aggressive. 'We're not used to scorched-earth politics around here,' he said. 'I'm not sure I want four more years of Walker.'"
