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In U.S., 46% Favor, 40% Oppose Repealing Healthcare Law — Three-quarters of Republicans favor repeal; 64% of Democrats oppose it — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans do not strongly endorse the new Republican House majority's efforts to repeal the landmark healthcare legislation passed last year.
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BREAKING: CBO Says Repealing ObamaCare Would Reduce Net Spending by $540 Billion — The Congressional Budget Office, in an email to Capitol Hill staffers obtained by the Spectator, has said that repealing the national health care law would reduce net spending by $540 billion in the ten year period from 2012 through 2021.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Wake up America, Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

Buckle Up for Round 2 — The health care reform law was signed 10 months ago, and what's striking now is how vulnerable it looks. Several threats have emerged — some of them scarcely discussed before passage — that together or alone could seriously endanger the new system. These include:
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, Firedoglake, The New Republic, The Huffington Post, Right Turn, Hit & Run, The Daily Dish, The Incidental Economist and Commentary


Republicans Are Given a Price Tag for Health Law Repeal, but Reject It
Discussion:
The Politico, ABCNEWS, Wonk Room and ACS Blog

CBO says health care repeal would deepen deficit
Discussion:
The Fix, Crooks and Liars, GOP 12, Capitol View, Prairie Weather and The Politico


Rudy gearing up for DC run — Confident that he'd have a chance to win, Rudy Giuliani is rounding up his top political advisers for a possible 2012 presidential run, sources tell Page Six. — Sources say the tough-talking former mayor “thinks the Republican race will be populated …
Discussion:
Salon, The Politico, AmSpecBlog, Weigel, Commentary, msnbc.com, Gothamist, GOP 12, Outside the Beltway, The Other McCain, Cubachi, No More Mister Nice Blog, New York Magazine, Hot Air, Indecision Forever, Pajamas Media, The Hill, Weasel Zippers, Wonkette, The Moderate Voice, National Review, JammieWearingFool, FrumForum, TPMDC and Conservatives4Palin
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Rudy Giuliani Considering Second White House Run
Discussion:
Fox Nation, No More Mister Nice Blog, GOP 12, The New Republic, Weasel Zippers and Hotline On Call

Romney flexes muscle in first NH Primary poll while Palin and others lag behind
Discussion:
Ballot Box, The Confluence, Conservatives4Palin, Hot Air, Weigel, Weasel Zippers and GOP 12

Obama would easily win Nevada again...except against Romney
Discussion:
Primaries For Palin and GOP 12


Obama mouthpiece Robert Gibbs was forced out by new henchman William Daley — I wondered yesterday whether Robert Gibbs jumped or was pushed and noted that President Barack Obama's words indicated that it was “not an entirely voluntary departure”. — It's being reported by John King …
Discussion:
msnbc.com, The Hill, Hot Air and Weasel Zippers
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A Shift in Tactics, Not in Ideology
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Politico, Ezra Klein, NewsBusters.org, Prairie Weather, Marbury, Daily Kos and National Review

At Obama White House, Back to the Future
Discussion:
The Plum Line, Daily Kos, Wake up America and The New Republic

Mitch McConnell: William Daley pick a ‘hopeful sign’
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and Ben Smith's Blog


Private Sector Improves Jobs Picture Only Moderately — The United States economy ended the year by adding 103,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department said Friday, a number that missed expectations. In addition, the unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent last month from 9.8 percent.
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Key Numbers In Unemployment Report Not So Good
Discussion:
Clusterstock, News Desk, Firedoglake, National Review, Power Line, JustOneMinute and Moe Lane

No good news for the long-term unemployed
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Wall Street Journal, Calculated Risk and New Deal 2.0

Labor Force Participation Rate Drops To Fresh 25 Year Low …
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Gateway Pundit, The Glittering Eye and Michelle Malkin


EXCLUSIVE: Sonny Bono's Widow - Rep. Mary Bono - In Lurid Photo Scandal With Woman Investigated By FBI — Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack has been caught on camera in a lurid scandal where another woman is apparently licking her breast. — RadarOnline.com has exclusively obtained the photo …
Discussion:
Wonkette, Left Coast Rebel, DownWithTyranny!, Oliver Willis and Raw Story


Levi's Vindication: The Self-Exposure Of Sarah Palin — As a long-standing Palin hysteric, I have to confess a mite less concern in 2011 than at any time since she has been farcically commanding the attention of the political class. Not much has changed essentially: Palin's favorable ratings remain roughly where they have been.
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House approves resolution fixing problem with missed swearing-in — The House has just approved H.Res. 26, which is meant to fix the problems created when two Republican members were not properly sworn in on Jan. 5. — The resolution was approved over Democratic objections in a 257-159 vote.
Discussion:
The Politico and Washington Monthly
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Weiner Mocks House GOP Oath Blunder: 'We Violated The Constitution …
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Sunlight Foundation Blog and Salon

MA Supreme Court Deals Banks a Major Blow on Foreclosure Fraud, in the Ibanez Case — In a major ruling in the Massachusetts Supreme Court today, US Bank and Wells Fargo lost the “Ibanez case,” meaning that they don't have standing to foreclose due to improper mortgage assignment.
Discussion:
FT Alphaville, The Huffington Post, Balloon Juice, Emptywheel, Clusterstock, Bloomberg and naked capitalism

‘Job-killing’ regulation? ‘Job-killing’ spending? Let's kill this GOP canard. — Republicans these days can't get through a sentence without tossing in their new favorite adjective, “job-killing.” — There's “job-killing legislation,” in particular the health-care reform law.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Yglesias, Left Coast Rebel, Hullabaloo, Wonk Room, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and The Politico
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Harvard Economist Estimates Health Repeal Would Destroy Up To 400,000 Jobs Per Year Over Decade — Just as House Republicans gear up to repeal the “job killing” Affordable Care Act, the Department of Labor is reporting that the U.S. economy added 103,000 jobs last month, pushing the jobless rate down to a 19-month low of 9.4 percent.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The Huffington Post, The Plum Line and Daily Kos


White Flight — President Obama's path to a second term may rely on states shaped by the same social forces he embodies. — Right turn: Sen. Marco Rubio's supporters in Florida included many whites who voted for Obama in 2008. — By any standard, white voters' rejection of Democrats …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, The Plum Line, Mediaite, Don Surber, Hullabaloo, Weasel Zippers and JammieWearingFool

To House GOP, illegal immigration is a jobs issue — With Republicans now in control of the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder and other Justice Department officials are going to be answering a lot of questions in the next two years. “We're going to start fast,” …
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Illegal immigration foe passed over for chairman of Judiciary subpanel
Discussion:
The Politico

The Texas Omen — These are tough times for state governments. Huge deficits loom almost everywhere, from California to New York, from New Jersey to Texas. — Wait — Texas? Wasn't Texas supposed to be thriving even as the rest of America suffered? Didn't its governor declare …

Another CPAC Dust-Up Over Gays — Nearly every presumptive 2012 Republican presidential candidate will be there, along with 120 conservative groups and thousands of activists. — But the first big conservative forum of the 2012 election—next month's Conservative Political Action Conference …
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, Weigel, TPMDC and Politics Daily
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Memo to Speaker Boehner: If You Won a Congessional Majority Because You Pledged to Cut Spending and You Can't Think of a Single Program to Cut Now, Please Go Home — That Congress botched its first-ever public reading of the Constitution is worrisome, but less so than the fact they've spent …
Discussion:
Clusterstock, Outside the Beltway, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Other McCain and AMERICAblog News

Parts of the Constitution inadvertently skipped in ‘historic reading’ on floor — The U.S. Constitution has still never been read in its entirety and in order on the House floor. — During Thursday morning's “historic reading,” one member apparently skipped Article 4 Section 4 and part …
Discussion:
New York Times, Washington Post, Theo Spark, Raw Story, Politics Daily, Washington Monthly, TPMDC and The Nation

Bachmann for President? 'I'm Going to Iowa - There's Your Answer' — ABC News' Rick Klein reports: Rep. Michele Bachmann confirmed to ABC News today that she's considering a run for president in 2012 — albeit with a non-traditional sense of her own timeline for making a decision.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Shot in the Dark and Capitol View

Pence introduces anti-abortion bill ahead of conservative gathering — (CNN) - Rep. Mike Pence, the Indiana congressman who is considering a presidential bid, introduced an anti-abortion bill Friday that is certain to be greeted fondly by many Republicans ahead of his attendance …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog