memeorandum: President Clinton Says Gridlock in Washington Hurting the Economy (Imtiyaz Delawala/ABCNEWS)

3:30 PM ET, September 18, 2011

Top Items:

Jackie Calmes / New York Times:

Obama Tax Plan Would Ask More of Millionaires — WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday will call for a new minimum tax rate for individuals making more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers, according to administration officials.

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

Ever-increasing tax breaks for U.S. families eclipse benefits for special interests — As President Obama and congressional Republicans argue over how to rewrite the U.S. tax code, the debate has revolved around “loopholes” for corporate jets and ending “carve-outs” for well-heeled special interests.

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Outside the Beltway, AMERICAN FUTURE, ThinkProgress and americanthinker.com

Washington Post:

Obama to call for new minimum tax rate for millionaires — President Obama plans to call Monday for a new minimum tax rate on millionaires as part of a comprehensive rewrite of the U.S. tax code to force the wealthiest Americans to pay the same share of income in taxes as middle-class families.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Daily Kos, Don Surber, Instapundit and Runnin' Scared

Jessica Yellin / CNN:
Obama to propose new tax rate for millionaires

Discussion: The Political Carnival

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Egghead and Blockheads — THERE are two American archetypes that were sometimes played against each other in old Westerns. — The egghead Eastern lawyer who lacks the skills or stomach for a gunfight is contrasted with the tough Western rancher and ace shot who has no patience for book learnin'.

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Northern Reflections and Althouse

Gail Collins / New York Times:

Rick Perry, Uber Texan — YOU think of Rick Perry, you think of Texas. And more Texas. Perry the cowboy coyote-killer, the lord of the Texas job-creation machine, the g-dropping glad-hander with a “howdy” for every stranger in the room. He barely exists in the national mind outside of the Texas connection.

Discussion: The Crawdad Hole, Connecting.the.Dots, Althouse and Prairie Weather

Steve Chapman / Chicago Tribune:

Why Obama should withdraw — When Ronald Reagan ran for re-election in 1984, his slogan was “Morning in America.” For Barack Obama, it's more like midnight in a coal mine. — The sputtering economy is about to stall out, unemployment is high, his jobs program may not pass …

Discussion: Hot Air

Washington Post:

Book portrays dysfunction in Obama White House — The book, which covers Obama's presidency through February of this year and is based on more than 700 hours of interviews, suggests that the president was not always the dominant figure in his White House. — Suskind cites a series of memos …

Discussion: Firedoglake, JustOneMinute, NewsBusters.org and Ben Smith's Blog

Mike Allen / The Politico:

W.H. pushes back hard at Suskind — The White House launched an aggressive response to a forthcoming book that chronicles internal dissent and second-guessing of President Barack Obama by his own staff and presents Obama as a conflicted, sometimes wavering leader.

Discussion: The Crawdad Hole and National Review

National Post:

Rex Murphy: The media's love affair with a disastrous president — As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United States — with a double-dip recession now all but certain — a reckoning is overdue. American journalism will have to look back at the period starting with Barrack Obama's rise …

Discussion: Questions and Observations, Sister Toldjah, M.JOSEPH SHEPPARD'S …, Conservatives4Palin, Pajamas Media and Instapundit

Tom Kington / Guardian:

Silvio Berlusconi wiretaps reveal boast of spending night with eight women — Conversations show that Italian PM resented meetings with the Pope and world leaders interfering with his partying — Magistrates investigating an alleged prostitution ring in Italy have published wiretaps …

Discussion: Mediaite, Taegan Goddard's …, Gawker and Business Insider

Colin Moynihan / City Room:

Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrators Blocked — For months the protesters had planned to descend on Wall Street on a Saturday and occupy parts of it as an expression of anger over a financial system that they said favors the rich and powerful at the expense of ordinary citizens.

Discussion: NY1.com, ThinkProgress, Big Government, The Raw Story, msnbc.com and Joe. My. God.

Imtiyaz Delawala / ABCNEWS:

President Clinton Says Gridlock in Washington Hurting the Economy — On the eve of the annual meeting of his Clinton Global Initiative, Former President Bill Clinton says that partisanship in Washington is hampering any ability to reach economic solutions for the country.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Associated Press:

Kara Kennedy, senator's daughter, dies of heart attack — WASHINGTON — Kara Kennedy, the oldest child of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, died at a Washington-area health club, her brother said Saturday. She was 51. — Patrick Kennedy, a former congressman from Rhode Island, said his sister died Friday.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, CNN, LA Observed and TalkLeft