memeorandum: Spending cuts, not policy riders, held up a deal, GOP aides say (The Hill)

5:15 PM ET, April 10, 2011

Top Items:

Joshua Miller / ABCNEWS:

Obama Advisor David Plouffe: Budget Cuts Both ‘Draconian’ and ‘Historic’ — Plouffe Lauds Bipartisanship and Slams Trump — Senior Advisor to the President David Plouffe conceded this morning that some of the cuts the White House agreed to in order to avoid a government shutdown were draconian.

Discussion: CNN, USA Today, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, PERRspectives and That Mr. G Guy's Blog

Abby Phillip / The Politico:

Obama to make major budget address — President Barack Obama will lay out a long-term deficit reduction plan this week, White House senior adviser David Plouffe said Sunday. — “The president will be laying out his approach to long-term deficit reduction later this week,” Plouffe said on NBC's …

Discussion: CNN, Reuters, Outside the Beltway, TalkLeft, Associated Press and MyDD

Joseph Berger / New York Times:

Obama to Offer Details of Plan to Reduce U.S. Budget Deficit — President Obama will lay out a long-term deficit reduction plan later this week that will take “a scalpel, not a machete,” to programs like Medicare and education and try once again to extract more taxes from the wealthiest Americans, his senior adviser said Sunday.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and Paul Krugman

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:
Plouffe: Obama to speak on long-term deficit reduction

Discussion: CNN

Abby Phillip / The Politico:

Budget deal leaves liberals disheartened — The $38.5 billion deal brokered between Republicans and President Barack Obama on Friday night may have resolved the immediate threat of a government shutdown. But it didn't take long for many liberal Democrats to begin to realize that there might …

Discussion: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Proof Positive, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, The Other McCain, UrbanGrounds, That Mr. G Guy's Blog, The Hill, MyDD, Fox News, CNSNews and The Hill

The Hill:
Spending cuts, not policy riders, held up a deal, GOP aides say

Discussion: Pajamas Media

New York Times:
Concessions and Tension, Then a Deal

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Politico and The Note

Sarah Devlin / Mediaite:

Sarah Palin On Trump's Birth Certificate Investigation: ‘More Power To Him!’ — Sarah Palin was interviewed live today on Fox News' Justice with Judge Jeanine, and was asked to weigh in on the rather sudden addition of Donald Trump's voice to the “Birther movement”, as well as the money …

Discussion: Cubachi, No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside the Beltway, Liberty Pundits Blog, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Scared Monkeys, Connecting.the.Dots, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers and iOwnTheWorld.com

Michael Isikoff / msnbc.com:

Comments follow statements by Donald Trump questioning legitimacy of president's birth record — Below: — The Hawaiian state health official who personally reviewed Barack Obama's original birth certificate has affirmed again that the document is “real” and denounced “conspiracy theorists” …

Discussion: Mediaite and Outside the Beltway

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Blowin' in the Idiot Wind — Bob Dylan may have done the impossible: broken creative new ground in selling out. — The idea that the raspy troubadour of '60s freedom anthems would go to a dictatorship and not sing those anthems is a whole new kind of sellout — even worse than Beyoncé …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Booman Tribune, That Mr. G Guy's Blog and Pajamas Media

New York Times:

Banks Are Off the Hook Again — Americans know that banks have mistreated borrowers in many ways in foreclosure cases. Among other things, they habitually filed false court documents. There were investigations. We've been waiting for federal and state regulators to crack down.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and That Mr. G Guy's Blog

NWCN:

Third day of ‘sleep-in’ at Washington state capitol — OLYMPIA, Wash. - Thousands of union members from all over Washington poured into the state Capitol Friday, calling on lawmakers to “put people first” by ending corporate tax breaks and painful cuts to public programs.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

David S. Cloud / Los Angeles Times:

Anatomy of an Afghan war tragedy — U.S. Predator teams and a special operations unit on the ground studying a suspicious convoy make a series of fateful missteps as they try to distinguish friend from foe. — Nearly three miles above the rugged hills of central Afghanistan …

Discussion: Unqualified Offerings

Lucy Madison / CBS News:

Schumer: Holding down debt ceiling plays with fire — N.Y. Sen. warns failing to raise debt ceiling could cause recession; GOP's Sessions says Obama will have to make concessions — New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D) warned on Sunday that a congressional stalemate on raising the debt ceiling would be …

Discussion: Weekly Standard

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:

Republican Rep.: Congress deserves to be ‘tarred and feathered’ — Washington (CNN) - Fresh off the debate to avoid a government shutdown, Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin expressed cautious optimism following the resolution, while gearing up politically for the debt ceiling drama.

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Jackie Calmes / New York Times:
Next on the Agenda for Washington: Fight Over Debt

Discussion: Firedoglake, Balloon Juice, Washington Monthly, Booman Tribune and Moonbattery

Katherine Kersten / Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Always room in the budget for white guilt — Teachers are headed for a conference that brims with fashionable grievances. — These are tough times for Minnesota schools. In Lakeville, for example, the school board recently announced wrenching cuts of almost $7 million.

Discussion: Big Government and Power Line