Top Items:
Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
Obama Seeks Freeze on Many Domestic Programs — WASHINGTON — President Obama will call for a three-year freeze in spending on many domestic programs, and for increases no greater than inflation after that, an initiative intended to signal his seriousness about cutting the budget deficit, administration officials said Monday.
Discussion:
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Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
The White House's Brain Freeze — First reactions aren't always the best ones, but my first reaction to tonight's news is that it's a mistake on par with John McCain's “suspending my campaign” gaffe. Politico: … I'll let the economists talk about the wisdom of curtailing government spending …
Brad DeLong / Grasping Reality with Opposable Thumbs:
Barack Herbert Hoover Obama? — UPDATE An administration source says that he believes that discretionary non-security is not frozen at 2010 ex-stimulus levels for 2011, but is instead bumped up from 2010 to 2011—that the freeze part applies to fiscal 2012, 2013, and 2014.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Firedoglake, TalkLeft, The Mahablog, Outside The Beltway, Clusterstock, The Politico, Taylor Marsh and The Page
Paul Krugman:
Obama Liquidates Himself — A spending freeze? That's the brilliant response of the Obama team to their first serious political setback? — It's appalling on every level. — It's bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, National Review Online, Political Punch, Raw Story and AMERICAblog News
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Obama Budget to Call for Freeze in Non-Security Discretionary Spending — On an exciting phone call with progressive internet writers earlier this evening, a senior administration official outlined the Obama administration's plan to call for a freeze in non-security discretionary spending spending starting …
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Newshoggers.com, Free exchange, Whiskey Fire, Outside The Beltway, Chicago Tribune, Donkeylicious and Director's Blog
Ezra Klein:
Mr. Freeze — On a conference call last night, the administration announced that its upcoming budget would freeze non-security discretionary spending between 2011 and 2013. That's like freezing non-defense discretionary spending, but it also exempts the Department of Homeland Security and the Veteran's Administration from the cuts.
Discussion:
The Hill, The Politico, Daily Kos, Suburban Guerrilla, TalkLeft, The Daily Caller and The Reaction
Breitbart.tv:
Flashback: Obama Ridicules McCain's Call for Spending Freeze
Flashback: Obama Ridicules McCain's Call for Spending Freeze
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Moonbattery, The Lonely Conservative, The washington times Blogs and HotAirPundit
Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
Obama to propose freeze on government spending
Obama to propose freeze on government spending
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Beat the Press, Salon, Los Angeles Times, Hot Air, Politics Daily and Political Punch
Mark Thoma / Economist's View:
Obama Wants to Limit Government Spending Despite High Unemployment …
Obama Wants to Limit Government Spending Despite High Unemployment …
Discussion:
Grasping Reality …
Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
Sources: Obama to propose discretionary spending freeze
Sources: Obama to propose discretionary spending freeze
Discussion:
pandagon.net, Firedoglake, Sadly, No!, Grist, The Reality-Based Community, The Huffington Post and Clusterstock
Mark Mooney / ABCNEWS:
Exclusive: Obama Would ‘Rather Be Really Good One-Term President’ — Obama Tells Diane Sawyer That Health Care Bill Had Political Cost — President Obama, buffeted by criticism of his massive health care reform bill and election setbacks, said today he remained determined to tackle health care …
Discussion:
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Patterico's Pontifications:
Newspaper Editors Begin to Address Pro-Obama Astroturfing — One of the principal functions of political blogs is to keep Big Media in check. If you are concerned by the discovery this past weekend of a spate of pro-Obama Astroturfing, it's because you agree that political persuasion …
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Quinnipiac University:
Rubio Edges Crist In Florida Gop Senate Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; President Obama Under Water As Voters Disapprove — Former State House Speaker Marco Rubio has squeaked past Gov. Charlie Crist in the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, leading 47 …
Paul Rosenberg / Open Left:
It's Official: Obama is an idiot — As noted in quick hits by BDB and rayj, [UPDATE] and by David in a diary that just caused me to push back this diary's publication time, Obama has now gone off the deep end. After passing a stimulus that most economists (not just liberal ones) …
Front Page Magazine:
An Open Letter to Charles Johnson — Posted by Dennis Prager on Jan 26th, 2010 and filed under FrontPage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry … Dear Charles: — As you know, over the years …
Discussion:
American Power
Kate Zernike / New York Times:
Tea Party Disputes Take Toll on Convention — A Tea Party convention billed as the coming together of the grass-roots groups that began sprouting up around the country a year ago is unraveling as sponsors and participants pull out to protest its expense and express concerns about “profiteering.”
Rush Limbaugh / The Onion:
I Don't Even Want To Be Alive Anymore — I know there are a lot of people out there who are upset about some of the things I've been saying on my radio program lately. My comments about the situation in Haiti have hurt and angered many Americans who genuinely care about the plight of the Haitian people …
Jennifer Golson / New Jersey Online:
Somerset authorities seize grenade launcher, weapons cache from Virginia man at motel … BRANCHBURG — Somerset County investigators seized a cache of weapons including a grenade launcher and hundreds of rounds of ammunition today from the Branchburg motel room of a Virginia man …
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Bob Herbert / New York Times:
Obama's Credibility Gap — Who is Barack Obama? — Americans are still looking for the answer, and if they don't get it soon — or if they don't like the answer — the president's current political problems will look like a walk in the park. — Mr. Obama may be personally very appealing …
Sharyl Attkisson / CBS News:
Congress Went to Denmark, You Got the Bill — Exclusive: CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson Follows the Money from Copenhagen to the U.S. Taxpayer — (CBS) Thanks to a recently filed Congressional expense reports there's new light shed on the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Denmark and how much it cost taxpayers.
Discussion:
Moonbattery, JammieWearingFool, The Lonely Conservative, Pundit & Pundette, Big Government and Don Surber
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Populist Addiction — Politics, some believe, is the organization of hatreds. The people who try to divide society on the basis of ethnicity we call racists. The people who try to divide it on the basis of religion we call sectarians. The people who try to divide it on the basis …
New York Times:
Decision Looms on Advancing Health Care Bill — WASHINGTON — Seeking to avert the collapse of major health care legislation, the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress face a crucial decision about whether to use a procedural maneuver that would allow them to advance the bill despite …
Discussion:
Washington Times, Washington Monthly, The Politico, TPMDC, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Daily Kos, The Hill, Ezra Klein and TPM LiveWire
Joby Warrick / Washington Post:
Report says Al-Qaeda still aims to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S. — When al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called off a planned chemical attack on New York's subway system in 2003, he offered a chilling explanation: The plot to unleash poison gas on New Yorkers was being dropped for …
Peter Wallsten / Wall Street Journal:
Rahm Emanuel Draws Fire From Left — WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama's liberal backers have a long list of grievances. The Guantanamo Bay prison is still open. Health care hasn't been transformed. And Wall Street banks are still paying huge bonuses.
New York Times:
A Payroll Tax Break for Jobs — WITH the national unemployment rate at 10 percent, and more than 15 million Americans looking for work, ideas to spur job creation are at the forefront of everyone's minds. While we may represent different political philosophies, we recognize that high unemployment …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein
Tony Mauro / The BLT:
NRA Will Argue in Second Amendment Case — The Supreme Court this morning granted a motion by the National Rifle Association for argument time March 2, when the justices will consider whether the Second Amendment individual right to bear arms applies against state and local restrictions on firearms.
Roxana Tiron / The Hill:
White House asks Levin to hold off on hearing to repeal 'Don't ask, don't tell' — The White House has asked the top Senate Democrat on military affairs to postpone announcing a hearing that would explore repealing the controversial law that bans openly gay people from serving in the military.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather