memeorandum: How insurance improves living standards (Felix Salmon)

3:30 PM ET, July 30, 2011

Top Items:

Reid alters debt plan to win GOP support — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has revised his plan to raise the debt limit in a last-ditch bid to attract Republican support. — The biggest change is that Reid would give the president almost unilateral power to raise the debt limit …

Discussion: The Politico, CNN, Ballot Box, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Crooks and Liars, americanthinker.com and AMERICAblog News

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:

The trigger that could lead to a debt deal — It's all going to come down to the trigger. — Look closely at the Reid and Boehner bills. The first round of cuts are pretty much the same. The joint congressional committee charged with recommending further deficit reduction is pretty much the same.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Economist's View and Daily Kos

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

Democrats enforce filibuster against their own debt bill — Senate Republicans want a 60-vote threshold for a debt-limit bill to pass the chamber, but it's actually Democrats who are enforcing the filibuster on their own legislation, insisting on delaying a vote until 1 a.m. Sunday morning.

Discussion: Conservatives4Palin and Weasel Zippers

Josiah Ryan / The Hill:

Forty-three GOP senators pledge opposition to Reid debt-ceiling plan — Forty-three GOP senators on Saturday signed a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) expressing opposition to his debt-ceiling legislation currently being considered in the upper chamber.

Bob Cusack / The Hill:

Days after lauding McConnell, Democratic leaders rip him — Four days after publicly praising Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Senate Democratic leaders are now ripping him. — The Democrats' comments about McConnell at an impromptu press conference late Friday night signaled …

Discussion: The Caucus and Connecting.the.Dots

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:

Kyl: Dems using debt debate for ‘much broader tax increases’ — Republicans have tried to work with Democrats to solve the debt crisis, but “behind the scenes” Democrats insisted on hug tax increases, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz) said Saturday. — “Unfortunately, after weeks of negotiations …

Discussion: CNN, Hullabaloo and Hot Air

Rosalind S. Helderman / Washington Post:

Senate headed for critical debt vote Sunday — The Senate is driving toward a climactic and dramatic vote at 1 a.m. Sunday that could determine whether a bipartisan deal to raise the nation's legal borrowing limit is possible or a government default is likely.

Discussion: Associated Press and Washington Monthly

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:

Reid Aims For GOP Support By Adopting McConnell Debt Limit Plan Fallback Plan — The Senate adjourned late Friday night without an agreed-upon framework for raising the debt limit. Shortly before this, a source passed to TPM a blueprint of what Democrats hope will be the way out of this imbroglio.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Christian Science Monitor, The Politico, The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh, Washington Post, Daily Kos, The Daily Dish and The Note

David Dayen / Firedoglake:
As Congress Nears Debt Limit Endgame, Attention Turns to a Trigger

Discussion: Open Congress

The Hill:
Senate quickly tables Boehner debt plan

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Questions and Observations, Don Surber, A plain blog about politics and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
Over to You, Harry — Thankfully, the House passed Boehner 3 tonight, 218-210.

Discussion: Viking Pundit and The Hill

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Intense talks under way between Senate Dems, GOP on debt deal

Discussion: The Hill, Riehl World View, Outside the Beltway and Daily Kos

Mj Lee / The Politico:

Obama demands plan by Tuesday — Just days ahead of the Aug. 2 debt ceiling deadline and as partisan rankling continued on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama urged Congress to show him a plan that would divert the country from national default by Tuesday.

Discussion: Right Wing News, Balkinization, Weasel Zippers, Riehl World View and White House.gov Blog

The White House:
WEEKLY ADDRESS: Acting Responsibly on Behalf of the American People

Discussion: The Other McCain and The Gateway Pundit

Bloomberg:
Congress Deadlocked on Plan to Avert Default

Discussion: The Atlanta Post

Gautham Nagesh / The Hill:
Obama: House Republicans wasted ‘precious days’ with Boehner plan

Discussion: The Hill

Paul Krugman:

The Corrosion of the Conservative Economic Mind — First Michael Boskin, now John Taylor: there seems be an epidemic of politically conservative economists who used to be technically competent repeating the obviously wrong falsehood that Reagan ushered in an era of “unprecedented” growth.

Discussion: Sky Dancing, Grasping Reality … and National Review

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

Boehner: ‘I stuck my neck out a mile’ for debt-ceiling deal with White House — A defiant House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) late Friday defended his debt-ceiling plan by saying it is the only viable plan on paper so far. — The Speaker said he'd risked political capital and stuck his neck …

Discussion: Opinion L.A., YID With LID and Crooks and Liars

The Politico:
The no votes: 22 GOPers who balked Boehner

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, The Caucus, Swampland, americanthinker.com, The Other McCain and Pajamas Media

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
Senate Tables Boehner Bill

Discussion: New York Times, UPI, Firedoglake, Outside the Beltway, Liberal Values, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Wonkette and Connecting.the.Dots

CNN:
Huntsman makes his pitch to college students

Discussion: The Politico and The Note

Paul Krugman:

The Truth About Federal Spending — Whenever someone like me or Bruce Bartlett points out how little Obama resembles the right's portrait of a raging leftist, someone is sure to come back with the assertion that Obama has presided over a vast expansion of federal spending.

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Hullabaloo, The Big Picture, Balloon Juice and Firedoglake

Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org:

Charles Krauthammer Scolds Margaret Carlson for Saying Tea Party ‘Strapped Explosives to the Capitol’ — Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson on Friday accused the Tea Party of wanting “to burn the place down” and having figuratively “strapped explosives to the Capitol” during debt ceiling negotiations.

Discussion: Don Surber and The Gateway Pundit

Victor Davis Hanson / National Review:

Behind the D.C. Slugfest — About 50 percent of taxpayers don't pay federal income taxes. Almost half of American adults receive either the majority of or all of their income in some form from government. They are naturally desirous of even more entitlements, in the sense that even higher taxes …

Discussion: Pundit & Pundette