memeorandum: Cantor Sees Current Medicare and Medicaid Programs As A ‘Safety Net’ For 'People Who Frankly Don't Need One' (Tanya Somanader/ThinkProgress)

2:42 AM ET, April 11, 2011

Top Items:

Jackie Calmes / New York Times:

Obama to Call for Broad Plan to Reduce Debt — WASHINGTON — President Obama will call this week for Republicans to join him in writing a broad plan to raise revenues and reduce the growth of popular entitlement programs, as the battle over the nation's financial troubles moves past Friday's …

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, USA Today, The Atlantic Online, The Daily Dish, Paul Krugman and Booman Tribune

Wall Street Journal:

Obama Puts Taxes on Table — President Barack Obama will lay out his plan for reducing the nation's deficit Wednesday, belatedly entering a fight over the nation's long-term financial future. But in addition to suggesting cuts—the current focus of debate—the White House looks set to aim …

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative, Zandar Versus The Stupid and Instapundit

Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:

Cantor Sees Current Medicare and Medicaid Programs As A ‘Safety Net’ For 'People Who Frankly Don't Need One' — Having secured “draconian” cuts in a last-minute budget deal last week, House Republicans are hyping House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-WI) new “Path to Prosperity” plan.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Hullabaloo

Joshua Miller / ABCNEWS:
Obama Advisor David Plouffe: Budget Cuts Both ‘Draconian’ and ‘Historic’

Discussion: USA Today, Washington Monthly, Riehl World View, Crooks and Liars, PERRspectives, CNN and Taylor Marsh

Abby Phillip / The Politico:
Obama to make major budget address

Discussion: Reuters, Outside the Beltway, CNN, Pirate's Cove, MyDD, TalkLeft and Associated Press

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

Discussion: Doug Ross

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: ABCNEWS, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Mediaite, CNN, Outside the Beltway, Cubachi, George's Bottom Line and The Reality-Based Community

James Poulos / Ricochet.com:

Trump is Final Proof that the Political Class Has Failed — There are two main theories cooperating to explain the Trump phenomenon: — Donald Trump is today's best self-promoter and professional opportunist. — The Republican field of presumptive candidates for president is lame.

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Shot in the Dark and PoliPundit.com

Jon Wiener / The Nation:

NPR Station in LA Suspends Planned Parenthood Spots — One of two NPR stations in the Los Angeles area, KPCC-FM, suspended its regularly-scheduled Planned Parenthood spots on Friday, in response to Republican demands that Congress eliminate federal funding for the family planning group.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, LA Observed, RHRealityCheck.org and Pajamas Media

John Thompson / New York Times:

The Prosecution Rests, but I Can't — I SPENT 18 years in prison for robbery and murder, 14 of them on death row. I've been free since 2003, exonerated after evidence covered up by prosecutors surfaced just weeks before my execution date. Those prosecutors were never punished.

Claire Ellicott / Daily Mail:

BNP man ‘videoed burning Koran in garage’ arrested and charged — A senior member of the British National Party has been arrested for allegedly burning a copy of the Koran in his garage. — Sion Owens, a BNP candidate in the forthcoming Welsh Assembly elections, was charged under the Public Order Act.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Jawa Report

Elise Foley / The Huffington Post:

Mike Pence: Spending Deal ‘Probably Not Good Enough’ To Vote For … WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), a leading conservative House Republican, said Sunday he will likely vote against a budget deal to cut about $38 billion from federal spending levels because the compromise bill does not eliminate subsidies for Planned Parenthood.

Discussion: Washington Post, Riehl World View, The Daily Caller, Yglesias and Wall Street Journal

Chris Buckley / Reuters:

China tells U.S. to quit as human rights judge — (Reuters) - The United States is beset by violence, racism and torture and has no authority to condemn other governments' human rights problems, China said on Sunday, countering U.S. criticism of Beijing's crackdown.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Truthdig

William J. McGee / New York Times:

Forcing the F.A.A. to Fly Blind — PASSENGERS fainted when a 5-foot hole opened in the roof of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 flying from Phoenix to Sacramento last week. The most frightening moment may have been when, as one passenger said, “You could look out and see blue sky.”

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Robert Kuttner / American Prospect:

Keynes' Ghost — I'm blogging from Bretton Woods, NH, site of the 1944 conference that reconstructed the rules for the global financial, monetary and trading system and the postwar recovery. This weekend, the world's leading critics of the current economic mess have gathered here to discuss measures …

Discussion: Yglesias

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: Firedoglake and Unqualified Offerings