On issues, public is more aligned with Obama than GOP  —  SETTING A NATIONAL AGENDA: WHAT NEEDS TO GET DONE THIS YEAR?  —  In a USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll, Americans were asked how urgent it was for President Obama and Congress to pass major legislation on some top issues this year.

If No Deal is Struck, Four-in-Ten Say Let the Sequester Happen  —  Deficit Reduction: Focus Mostly on Spending But Keep Taxes in Mix  —  OVERVIEW  —  After a series of fiscal crises over the past few years, the public is not expressing a particular sense of urgency over the pending March 1 sequester deadline.

Americans aren't buying what GOP is selling  —  A new Bloomberg National Poll shows President Obama's approval rating reaching a three-year high and public approval of Republicans reaching a three-year low.  The same poll found that a plurality of Americans blame the congressional GOP, not Democrats, for “what's wrong in Washington.”

A Better Republican Sequester Strategy  —  Congressional Republicans are simultaneously united, divided and confused about the $85 billion of cuts in defense and domestic discretionary spending that begin on March 1 when the budget sequester takes effect.  —  Republicans are united …

Republicans Coalesce Around Clever Plan To Make Looming Spending Cuts Much Less Draconian  —  The GOP's emerging legislative fix to the sequester is both counterintuitive and clever.  But it probably won't force Democrats to abandon their insistence that the coming automatic cuts be replaced in part by new revenue.