memeorandum: Corporate profits hit record as wages get squeezed (Chris Isidore/CNNMoney.com)

10:40 PM ET, December 3, 2012

Top Items:

Russell Berman / The Hill:

House GOP makes a $2.2 trillion debt counteroffer to Obama on cliff — House Republican leaders have made a counteroffer to President Obama in the fiscal cliff negotiations, proposing to cut $2.2 trillion with a combination of spending cuts, entitlement reforms and $800 billion in new tax revenue.

Discussion: Politico, CNN, Michelle Malkin, AEIdeas, Red Alert Politics, “The Lid”, Washington Examiner, Vodkapundit, Hot Air, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Other McCain and USA Today

Jonathan Karl / ABCNEWS:

Republican Doomsday Plan: Cave on Taxes, Vote ‘Present’ — Republicans are seriously considering a Doomsday Plan if fiscal cliff talks collapse entirely. It's quite simple: House Republicans would allow a vote on extending the Bush middle class tax cuts (the bill passed in August by the Senate) …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The New Republic, ABCNEWS, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, New York Magazine, Truthdig, Applesauce, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, “The Lid” and Taylor Marsh

Andrew Malcolm / Investor's Business Daily:

As Americans face a fiscal cliff, the Obamas make do with 54 Christmas trees — Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty Images (2011) — Amazing how a reelection can reshape an incumbent's thinking about many things. Now safely ensconced in the White House for 49 more months, the Obamas have decorated …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, New York Times, Wonkette, The Daily Caller, CNN, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, Ed Driscoll, No More Mister Nice Blog, Patterico's Pontifications and Althouse

Daniel Gross / The Daily Beast:

On the Fiscal Cliff, Republicans Got Nothin' — It's Day 26 of the fiscal-cliff hostage situation, and it's clear that GOP negotiators have lost touch with reality. Daniel Gross on their astounding lack of a counteroffer to the Dems. — Adrenaline-filled, aggressive combatants paraded around …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The Hill, CNN, Talking Points Memo and Campaign for America's …

David Corn / Mother Jones:

John Boehner's Hostage Crisis — As the fiscal cliff looms, the House speaker finds himself once again at the mercy of the tea partiers within his ranks. — In the past week or two, there's been crowing on the left about anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist's slipping influence, as a small …

Discussion: Power Line and Shakesville

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:

Obama Rejects Boehner Fiscal Cliff Plan — “Their plan includes nothing new,” Pfeiffer says. — Image by Carolyn Kaster, File / AP — WASHINGTON — White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer rejected Speaker of the House John Boehner's counter-proposal to avert the fiscal cliff in a statement to reporters Monday afternoon.

Discussion: Washington Post, Weekly Standard, Hot Air and Weasel Zippers

Jeremy Herb / The Hill:
Petition: Obama should build Death Star

Discussion: Ballot Box, Politico, The PJ Tatler, Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes' and Outside the Beltway

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
White House willing to go over fiscal cliff if absolutely necessary

Discussion: The Week, Hullabaloo, The Impolitic, Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, National Review and Connecting.the.Dots

Jessica Yellin / CNN:
White House won't counter Boehner's fiscal proposal

Discussion: Politico and Weasel Zippers

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo: GOP Leaders May Be Pondering Surrender On Taxes

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Do Democrats actually want to go over the fiscal cliff?

Discussion: Politico, Hot Air, Wake up America, Taegan Goddard's …, Washington Post and Post Politics

Keith Hennessey / Wall Street Journal:
Time to Call the President's Budget Bluff

Discussion: Keith Hennessey, Ricochet Conversations Feed and Hot Air

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
Boehner, House GOP leaders offer ‘fiscal cliff’ counterproposal

Discussion: Wonkblog, White House Dossier, Jared Bernstein, The BLT and Post Politics

Lisa Mascaro / Los Angeles Times:
Boehner makes counteroffer on ‘fiscal cliff’

Discussion: The Agonist and Hullabaloo

First Read:
GOP offers own proposal to avert ‘fiscal cliff’

Discussion: Speaker.gov, The Huffington Post, Economy Watch, Business Insider and Daily Kos

Janet Hook / Wall Street Journal: House GOP Makes Budget Counteroffer

Pat Garofalo / ThinkProgress:

Corporate Profits Hit Record High While Worker Wages Hit Record Low — A constant conservative charge against President Obama is that he is inherently anti-business. However, businesses keep defying the storyline by making larger and larger profits, rebounding nicely out of the Great Recession.

Chris Isidore / CNNMoney.com:

Corporate profits hit record as wages get squeezed — NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Just four years after the worst shock to the economy since the Great Depression, U.S. corporate profits are stronger than ever. — In the third quarter, corporate earnings were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6% from a year ago …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Mother Jones:

Exclusive: Dick Armey Quits Tea Party Group in Split Over Direction — In a move not publicly announced, former Rep. Dick Armey, the folksy conservative leader, has resigned as chairman of FreedomWorks, one of the main political outfits of the conservative movement and an instrumental force within the tea party.

Discussion: Politico and Post Politics

Michael Barbaro / New York Times:

Clinton for Mayor in '13? Bloomberg Asked Her to Consider Succeeding Him — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has long struggled to imagine a successor with the combination of star power, experience and grit to fill his shoes. — But not long ago, he was struck by an inspiration: Hillary Rodham Clinton, the retiring secretary of state.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Towleroad News #gay and Post Politics

Kevin Cirilli / Politico:

Rush Limbaugh: Bob Costas ‘cop out’ — Rush Limbaugh said Monday that Bob Costas' supporting tougher gun control laws on NBC Sunday was a “cop-out” and “an easy, almost lazy way” to approach Kansas City Chiefs football player Jovan Belcher's killing of the mother of his child and himself.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Rush Limbaugh and Examiner

Patrick Burke / CNSNews:

Rahm Emanuel: ‘Chicago Is the Most American of American Cities’ — (CNSNews.com) - Chicago, a city plagued by gangs, murder and a failing public education system, is the most American of cities, says Mayor Rahm Emanuel. — “Chicago is the most American of American cities,” …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Patrick Burke / CNSNews:
Rahm Emanuel Likens Obama to Lincoln

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

Annie-Rose Strasser / ThinkProgress:

NEWS FLASH — ONE QUARTER OF REPUBLICANS WANT TO SECEDE | Twenty five percent of registered Republicans want their state to secede from the United States, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling. This new statistic comes just weeks after Mitt Romney's loss prompted secession petitions …

Allison Samuels / The Daily Beast:

Michelle Obama's Next Move — What's next for our incredibly popular first lady? Samuel L. Jackson and other super-fans weigh in. — Chatting with a group backstage on the set of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in October, Michelle Obama made it clear that she wasn't thinking about what she might do in the future.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Associated Press, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Weekly Standard and National Review

Paul Krugman:

It's Health Care Costs, Stupid — Busy day, so not much blogging. But a further thought on budget issues. — In today's column, I tried to emphasize a point that is weirdly absent from public discourse, at least among VSPs: the favorite VSP “solution” to the long-run budget deficit …

Discussion: Eschaton

Jonathan Strong / Roll Call:

GOP Steering Committee Shuffles Conservatives — Speaker John A. Boehner initiated today a small purge of rebellious Republicans — mostly conservatives — from prominent committees; it's the latest instance of the Ohio Republican's clamping down on his fractious conference.

Discussion: Politico, Red Alert Politics, Twitchy, The Political Carnival, Daily Kos and Hit & Run

Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:

Boehner Counter Offer To Obama Includes Higher Medicare Age, Social Security Benefit Cut — Last November, a full year before President Obama's decisive re-election, Erskine Bowles, a co-chair of President Obama's fiscal responsibility commission, scratched out a series of measures …

Discussion: Daily Kos and Hullabaloo

Ed O'Keefe / 2chambers:

When Barney Frank announced he was ‘coming out of the room’ (er... the closet) — The story of when Barney Frank came out to his colleagues involves a double date with flight attendants on New Year's Eve in Egypt. — Frank, 72, is retiring next month after more than three decades in Congress.

Discussion: Advocate and Towleroad News #gay

Peter H. Stone / The Huffington Post:

Sheldon Adelson Spent Far More On Campaign Than Previously Known … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Elections 2012, John Boehner, Mitt Romney, Campaign Finance, Elections 2012, Newt Gingrich, Video, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Las Vegas Sands, Sheldon Adelson, Fcpa, Mitt Romney 2012, Sands Casino …

Discussion: Politico, msnbc.com, Mother Jones, ABCNEWS, Washington Monthly, The Raw Story, Post Politics and Balloon Juice

Christine Haughney / Media Decoder:

New York Times Seeks Buyouts From 30 in Newsroom — Aiming to cut costs in an increasingly troubled advertising environment, The New York Times announced on Monday morning that it would offer buyout packages to newsroom employees. While the primary goal of the buyout program is to trim managers …

Discussion: Forbes, Business Insider, The Week, JIMROMENESKO.COM, driftglass, ABCNEWS, Capital New York, Gawker, Poynter, Roger Ailes and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Santorum launches column for ‘birther’ website — Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has taken a job as a columnist for World Net Daily, a conservative website best known for articles advancing “birther” conspiracy theories about President Obama.

Discussion: The Raw Story, Washington Monthly, Little Green Footballs, The National Memo, Post Politics, Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes' and The Agonist

Hans Nichols / Bloomberg:

Obama Said to Consider Vogue Editor Wintour for U.K. Embassy — President Barack Obama is considering nominating Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, to be either his next ambassador to the U.K. or France, as he looks to reward his biggest fundraisers with embassies that never seem out of fashion …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and Weasel Zippers