memeorandum: Senate Democrats give up on earmark-laden spending bill (Washington Post)

2:30 PM ET, December 17, 2010

Top Items:

PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: ‘A government takeover of health care’ — In the spring of 2009, a Republican strategist settled on a brilliant and powerful attack line for President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to overhaul America's health insurance system.

Kevin Sack / New York Times:

Judge Hints He May Rule Against Health Law — PENSACOLA, Fla. — A federal judge asserted on Thursday that it would be “a giant leap” for the Supreme Court to accept the Obama administration's defense of a central provision of the new health care law, suggesting he may become the second judge to strike it down as unconstitutional.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, JustOneMinute, Weasel Zippers, AmSpecBlog, ACS Blog and Wonk Room

Linda Greenhouse / Opinionator:
The Revolution Next Time? — It has been 15 years since …

Discussion: The American Scene and Hit & Run

Jason Mazzone / New York Times:
Can Congress Force You to Be Healthy?

Discussion: PrawfsBlawg, Wall Street Journal and Hit & Run

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
Government Arguing That Health Insurance Premiums Are Really Taxes?

Discussion: protein wisdom, theblogprof, Hit & Run, Bloomberg and Online NewsHour

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

The new comeback kid — If Barack Obama wins reelection in 2012, as is now more likely than not, historians will mark his comeback as beginning on Dec. 6, the day of the Great Tax Cut Deal of 2010. — Obama had a bad November. Self-confessedly shellacked in the midterm election …

David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:

Congress Sends $801 Billion Tax Cut Bill to Obama — WASHINGTON — Congress at midnight Thursday approved an $801 billion package of tax cuts and $57 billion for extended unemployment insurance. The vote sealed the first major deal between President Obama and Congressional Republicans …

Discussion: Politics Daily, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, PrawfsBlawg, ThinkProgress, Economix, TalkLeft, Washington Monthly, Wonkette, Wake up America, Prairie Weather, The Freeman, AOL News, Questions and Observations, Daily Kos and Taegan Goddard's …

David Rogers / The Politico:

Democrats concede budget fight to Republicans — Senate Democrats abruptly abandoned an omnibus budget bill for the coming year, pushing major spending decisions into the next Congress and giving Republicans immense new leverage to confront President Barack Obama priorities.

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

$1.1 trillion spending bill collapses as GOP senators yank support — Senate Democrats have given up on their plan to pass a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill in the face of unified Republican opposition. — The bill's collapse will take with it more than 6,000 earmarks …

Discussion: CNN, The New Republic, Student Activism, TPMDC, The Plum Line, The American Independent, Booman Tribune, Associated Press, ThinkProgress, Right Wing News, JOSHUAPUNDIT and The Hill

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Dems are earmark junkies but GOP goes straight

Discussion: Hot Air and The Gateway Pundit

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
A Primer On The Fallout Of OmnibusFAIL

Discussion: Eschaton

David Dayen / Firedoglake:
GOP Gets Chance to Cut Spending in February After Omnibus Collapses

Discussion: Weigel, Crooks and Liars, TPMDC and TalkLeft

The Huffington Post:
Tea Party Era Begins With Refusal To Debate ‘Omnibus’ Spending Bill

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Washington Post:
Senate Democrats give up on earmark-laden spending bill

Discussion: Federal Eye, Cato @ Liberty, Washington Monthly, Ezra Klein, Online NewsHour, Right Turn, Big Government, The Politico, Althouse, The Hill and The Daily Dish

Rich Lowry / National Review:
The Appropriators Buckle — Tonight may indeed may be a “seminal moment,” as McCain said.

Discussion: neo-neocon, Power Line and GayPatriot

David Frum / FrumForum:

How Would President Romney Govern? — “Sincerity is everything - once you can fake that, you've got it made.” — There's Mitt Romney's problem in 1 sentence. He cannot fake sincerity. His insincerity is blatant, inescapable, clumsy and off-putting. Ross Douthat phrased the indictment …

Discussion: A plain blog about politics, The Daily Dish, Right Turn, Eunomia, The New Republic, Ben Smith's Blog and Ross Douthat

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
The Ames Straw Poll: To compete or not to compete

Discussion: The Page, Mother Jones, msnbc.com and The Note

Myglesias / Yglesias: Mitt Romney and Olive Garden

Ezra Klein:
Can you count on Mitt Romney's never-ending pasta bowl?

Discussion: The New Republic

Huma Khan / ABCNEWS:

Exclusive: Sarah Palin on 2012 Plans, Double Standards for Women — Palin Says Thinking About Presidential Run Is a ‘Prayerful Consideration’ — Sarah Palin is surveying the lay of the land to consider whether to make a presidential run in 2012, she told “Good Morning America” …

Discussion: CNN, Wonkette, The Daily Dish, National Review, Weigel, Politics Daily and Daily Kos

ABCNEWS:
ABC News Poll: Palin for President? No Way

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Huma Khan / ABCNEWS:
Sarah Palin: Tax Cut Deal is ‘Lousy,’ New Congress Should Take up Issue

Discussion: CNN and The Page

Washington Post:
Post-ABC poll: Sarah Palin lags Obama in theoretical 2012 presidential election

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Commentary, The Plum Line, Outside the Beltway, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Politico and PostPartisan

Fay Schlesinger / Daily Mail:

Snub for Obamas as Royal sources reveal they will not be invited to Prince William's wedding — President Obama and his wife Michelle will not be invited to Prince William's wedding next year. — Because Prince William is not yet heir to the throne, his wedding to Kate Middleton is not classed …

Discussion: Fox Nation, Gothamist and Gawker

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Royal snub for the Obamas: No wedding invite from Prince William and Kate Middleton — Oh, the humiliation. Once not so long ago one of the world's top celebrities in his own right, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle did not make the cut for invitations to the royal wedding in London next spring.

Discussion: BLACKFIVE and Sky Dancing

Peggy O'Hare / Houston Chronicle:

HPD knows names of 2 slain robbers — In the back room of a humble jewelry store and pawn shop in Houston's East End Thursday afternoon, a gunman tied Eva Castillo's wrists tightly — too tightly. She complained of the pain, so he loosened the bindings. Then Castillo's husband was ordered …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, msnbc.com and JammieWearingFool

KOCO Oklahoma City's Channel 5:

Feds Force Okla. Bank To Remove Crosses, Bible Verse — Federal Examiners Say Religious Decoration Inappropriate — PERKINS, Okla. — A small-town bank in Oklahoma said the Federal Reserve won't let it keep religious signs and symbols on display. — Federal Reserve examiners come every four years …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

Jillian Rayfield / TPM LiveWire:

Breaking? Study Finds Fox News Viewers Are The Most Misinformed — To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers. — The University of Maryland study, called “Misinformation and the 2010 Election,” …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and TPMDC

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Wall Street Whitewash — When the financial crisis struck, many people — myself included — considered it a teachable moment. Above all, we expected the crisis to remind everyone why banks need to be effectively regulated. — How naïve we were. We should have realized …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, AMERICAblog News and Paul Krugman

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:

The Limits of the Taxing Power — An interesting question emerges from one of my comment threads on whether or not congress should be able to use the taxing power to get over limits on its enumerated powers. — 1) Can Congress enact a $50,000 tax on second term abortions?

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Outside the Beltway

The Cook Political Report:

Reapportionment Preview: Mapping Out States “On the Bubble” — House Editor David Wasserman kicks off the Cook Political Report's in-depth coverage of Redistricting 2012, which you can also follow via Twitter handle @Redistrict as the remap gets underway. Over the next year …

Discussion: The Fix and Derek Wallbank

Sam Graham-Felsen / Washington Post:

Why is Obama leaving the grass roots on the sidelines? — In the wake of President Obama's deal to extend the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, pundits have focused on how Obama has alienated the left. But the issue isn't the left - it's the list.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Glenn Harlan Reynolds / New York Post:

Columbia U. vs. the little guy — Tweet — We often hear politicians and pundits denounce property rights. Property rights, we're told, protect the fat cats against the needs of the public. They're a tool for keeping the little guy down. — Like a lot of what we hear from politicians and pundits …

Discussion: Don Surber and Hit & Run

Lynn Sweet / Politics Daily:

Michelle Obama, Sasha, Malia, Bo to Hawaii; Not Taking the Jumbo Jet … First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Sasha and Malia and family dog Bo will fly to Hawaii on Saturday for a winter vacation, Politics Daily has learned, while President Obama remains in Washington to deal with Congress.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Ezra Klein:

An incoherent Congress — The tax deal passed last night, and without changes. Liberals don't really like it. Conservatives don't really like it. Even people who supported the deal — myself included — don't really like it. It's tempting to say that this broad spectrum …

Discussion: Mother Jones

Jack Healy / New York Times:

In Seconds Before Blast, the Making of a Hero — BALAD RUZ, Iraq — As the suicide bomber clutched the detonator to his explosive belt, preparing to spray fire and shrapnel into a religious procession here, an Iraqi police officer named Bilal Ali Muhammad faced a choice between his own life and something larger.

Discussion: FrumForum

Bob Egelko / San Francisco Chronicle:

NOW goes after Hooters for catering to kids — (12-16) 17:51 PST SAN FRANCISCO — The National Organization for Women filed complaints against local Hooters restaurants Thursday, but not for exploiting its scantily clad waitresses by subjecting them to leering and groping customers.