memeorandum: The Note: Down The Rabbit Hole: Where Does Congress Go From Here? (The Note)

10:40 AM ET, July 29, 2011

Top Items:

Wonkbook: Boehner failed. Now what? — Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill July 28. (JOSHUA ROBERTS - REUTERS) The lengths John Boehner went to ensure his bill failed in the Senate rather than the House were impressive, but ultimately, insufficient.

Discussion: Healthwatch

Erick Erickson / RedState:

The Worst Negotiators — I cannot decide who the worst negotiators are, Republican leaders or House conservatives. — John Boehner's plan couldn't get the votes last night so Boehner had to agree to add language conditioning a vote on a balanced budget amendment — an amendment House Republicans …

Washington Post:
Debt ceiling deadlock: What will Mitch McConnell do?

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Booman Tribune, Ballot Box and msnbc.com

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Why no vote tonight — A House aide just e-mailed me: “Buckets of crazy.”

Discussion: Power Line, Associated Press, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Bloomberg, The Greenroom, The Gateway Pundit, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, New York Times, The Politico and The Page

Josiah Ryan / The Hill:
Reid: The House is ‘having trouble’ conducting its work

Discussion: The Hill, Boston Globe, NY Daily News and Washington Post

Joe Klein / Swampland:
Republicans' Debt Ceiling Charade Is Downright Dangerous

Discussion: Shakesville, Connecting.the.Dots and Mother Jones

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Dems suggest compromise on debt

Discussion: CNN, The Heritage Foundation, Washington Monthly, RedState, Crooks and Liars, The Hill and The Right Scoop

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:
What the final deal is likely to look like

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, TalkLeft, The Politico, A plain blog about politics and Washington Monthly

Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
What Tonight's House Vote Means

Discussion: National Review, theblogprof, Hot Air and AlterNet

Lucia Mutikani / Reuters:

Weak growth raises concerns on economy — (Reuters) - The U.S. economy came perilously close to flat-lining in the first quarter and grew at a meager 1.3 percent annual rate in the April-June period as consumer spending barely rose. — The Commerce Department data on Friday also showed …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Pajamas Media, International Liberty and americanthinker.com

CNBC:

Economy Grows at Sluggish 1.3%; Consumers Pull Back — The U.S. economy grew less than expected in the second quarter as consumer spending barely rose, and growth braked sharply in the prior quarter, a government report showed on Friday. — Growth in gross domestic product …

Discussion: Don Surber and RedState

Catherine Rampell / New York Times:

Recovery Still Slow as New Data Show Little Growth — WASHINGTON — The United States economy has slowed considerably this year from a year ago, according to a report from the Commerce Department released on Friday. — The country's gross domestic product, a broad measure of the goods …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Page and The Agonist

Shobhana Chandra / Bloomberg:

Economy in U.S. Grows Less Than Forecast After Almost Stalling — The U.S. economy grew less than forecast in the second quarter, after almost coming to a halt at the start of the year, as consumers retrenched. — Gross domestic product climbed at a 1.3 percent annual rate following …

Discussion: TalkLeft

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Q2 GDP falls to 1.3%; Whoa: Q1 revised downward to 0.4%?

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review and The Right Scoop

Wall Street Journal:
U.S. GDP Grows Just 1.3%

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Greg Robb / MarketWatch:
U.S. GDP up 1.3% in second quarter from weak Q1

Discussion: JammieWearingFool, ThinkProgress and Grasping Reality …

Joe Hallett / The Columbus Dispatch:

Payback may be coming for congressman's ‘disloyalty’ — U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan's open defiance of Speaker John Boehner's efforts to solve the debt-ceiling crisis could cost the Urbana Republican his safe seat in next year's election. — Two Republican sources deeply involved in configuring …

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Conservatives angry over Pell Grant funding in Boehner debt bill — House conservatives who have stalled legislation to raise the national debt limit are angry that it includes $17 billion in supplemental spending for Pell Grants, which some compare to welfare.

Discussion: The Politico, CNN, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, CANNONFIRE, TPMDC, The New Republic, Cato @ Liberty, Hullabaloo, Open Congress and The Hill

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
Bachmann: Debt impasse is not an emergency

Discussion: The Politico, The Note, USA Today, Mother Jones, The Talking Dog, ThinkProgress, GOP 12 and The Hill

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Centrist Cop-Out — The facts of the crisis over the debt ceiling aren't complicated. Republicans have, in effect, taken America hostage, threatening to undermine the economy and disrupt the essential business of government unless they get policy concessions they would never have been able to enact through legislation.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Weasel Zippers and Prairie Weather

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:

National Income and Product Accounts — Gross Domestic Product: Second Quarter 2011 (Advance Estimate) — Revised Estimates: 2003 through First Quarter 2011 — Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, FT Alphaville, Daily Kos, naked capitalism, CRFB.org, Calculated Risk and Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

Financial Post:

U.S. balance now less than Apple cash — Steve Jobs is now more liquid than Uncle Sam. — While it's highly unlikely that President Barack Obama is looking to ask the founder and chief executive of Apple Inc. for a loan, it became a fact as of Thursday afternoon — the world's largest technology company …

Discussion: The Next Web and The Atlantic Online, more at Techmeme »

Matt Rosoff / Politics:
Apple Now Has More Cash Than The U.S. Government

Discussion: National Review

Mike Lillis / The Hill:

Rep. Hoyer endorses 14th Amendment option as a last-resort solution — President Obama should invoke the 14th Amendment to hike the debt ceiling unilaterally as a last resort to prevent a government default, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday. — “It's arguably his power to do so,” Hoyer told MSNBC.

Discussion: Grasping Reality …, Weasel Zippers and Pundit & Pundette

Jennifer Bendery / The Huffington Post:
Hoyer Backs Obama Using 14th Amendment To Resolve Debt Crisis

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Balkinization, Grasping Reality …, Robert Kuttner, The Politico and Hullabaloo

William Yeomans / The Politico:

The tea party's terrorist tactics — It has become commonplace to call the tea party faction in the House “hostage takers.” But they have now become full-blown terrorists. — They have joined the villains of American history who have been sufficiently craven to inflict massive harm …

Discussion: Pirate's Cove

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
Tea Party groups target ‘defectors’ on debt vote

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The Hill

Scott Clement / Washington Post:

Americans split on New York gay marriage law — As New York gears up for its second weekend of same-sex nuptials, a Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Americans split 50 to 46 percent over whether the state's law legalizing such unions is a positive or negative outcome.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Towleroad News #gay

Donald Marron:

Why Do Half of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax? — You may have heard the claim that about half of Americans pay no federal income tax. That's a true fact. My Tax Policy Center colleagues estimate, for example, that 46% of households either will pay no federal income tax in 2011 …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo, The Incidental Economist, Democracy in America, The Daily Dish and Mother Jones

Elissa Gootman / New York Times:

Atheists Sue to Block Display of Cross-Shaped Beam in 9/11 Museum — In the days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, some workers and mourners at the World Trade Center site seized upon a cross-shaped steel beam found amid the rubble as a symbol of faith and hope.

Discussion: Don Surber, The Gateway Pundit, 911memorial.org and How Appealing

Monica Potts / American Prospect:

Big Mess — A lawsuit against a Utah polygamy law is a nightmare for liberals and conservatives alike. — Last year, at the end of the first season of Sister Wives, a reality show about a polygamist family in Utah, Kody Brown took a fourth wife, Robyn. Rain threatened to cancel the religious ceremony.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Kathy Kiely / NationalJournal.com:

Culture Clash — Sen. Jim DeMint wants to change the way Washington does business and then “go home and rock on my front porch.” — Two-termer: Jim DeMint — In his new book, The Great American Awakening, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., recalls how he was ostracized for two years by fellow Republicans for his unbending conservatism.

Discussion: GOP 12 and RedState

Anne Bayefsky / Fox News:

U.N. Busy Deciding How to Slam Israel — Member states of the U.N. General Assembly are busy hammering out how to slam Israel and restrict human rights like free speech at “Durban III” - the racist “anti-racism” event to be held in New York on Sept. 22. — With the recent pull-outs …

Discussion: americanthinker.com and Israel Matzav