memeorandum: Medicaid Expansion Is Rejected in Florida (Lizette Alvarez/New York Times)

10:05 AM ET, March 12, 2013

Top Items:

The GOP Plan to Balance the Budget by 2023 — The goal can be reached, with no new taxes, while increasing spending 3.4% annually instead of the current 5%. — America's national debt is over $16 trillion. Yet Washington can't figure out how to cut $85 billion—or just 2% of the federal budget …

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, The Plum Line, NBCNews.com, Taylor Marsh, The Maddow Blog, Roll Call, Jared Bernstein, Politico, First Read, msnbc.com, Business Insider, Washington Wire and ABCNEWS

Jesse Helfrich / The Hill:

Ryan to rally GOP on 10-year plan — The target set by Ryan (R-Wis.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, is more aggressive than the one Democrats rejected last year that took until nearly 2040 to balance. — Ryan will take center stage for the third year in a row to roll …

Discussion: Politico and First Read

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

House and Senate Work Simultaneously to Create Budgets, a Rarity — WASHINGTON — Congress this week will begin taking the first steps toward a more structured and orderly budget process, beginning what both parties hope is a move away from the vicious cycle of deadline-driven quick fixes.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

NationalJournal.com:
Why the Senate Democrats' Budget Will Be Vague

Discussion: Hot Air, Post Politics, PostPartisan, Hit & Run, The Hill, American Prospect and Washington Post

Michael Howard Saul / Wall Street Journal:

Judge Halts New York City Soda Ban … A state judge on Monday stopped Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration from banning the sale of large sugary drinks at New York City restaurants and other venues, a major defeat for a mayor who has made public-health initiatives a cornerstone of his tenure.

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

Judge Invalidates Bloomberg's Ban on Sugary Drinks — A judge invalidated New York City's ban on large sugary drinks on Monday, one day before it was to go into effect, dealing Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg a major blow. — The decision by Justice Milton A. Tingling Jr. of State Supreme Court …

Discussion: Shakesville, The Reaction, ThinkProgress, JONATHAN TURLEY, The Week, Wonkblog, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, The Truth About Guns, Liberal Values, Twitchy, Hit & Run, Philly.com and LewRockwell.com Blog

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
The War Against the Second Amendment Has Only Just Begun

Discussion: Associated Press, Lawyers, Guns & Money, protein wisdom and Fox News

Joseph Ax / Reuters:
New York City cannot ban sales of large sodas: judge

Discussion: Daily Mail, Politicker and EconLog

New York Post:
Judge halts mayor's soda ban, calls it ‘arbitrary and capricious’

Discussion: Betsy's Page, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Daily Caller and Michelle Malkin

Jackie Calmes / New York Times:

In President's Outreach to G.O.P., Past Failures Loom — WASHINGTON — For all the attention to President Obama's new campaign of outreach to Republicans, it was four months ago — on the eve of bipartisan budget talks — that he secretly invited five of them to the White House for a movie screening …

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, msnbc.com, Politico, Prairie Weather, TheBlaze.com and The Reaction

Politico:

Is he serious? — President Barack Obama's unusual tour of Capitol Hill this week could answer a central question dogging his renewed effort to strike a grand bargain on deficit reduction: — How serious is he? — Starting Tuesday, Obama will shuttle between basement House meeting rooms …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Right Wing News

Alex Pareene / Salon:
The undead, unnecessary, unhelpful Grand Bargain

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars and The Confluence

New York Post:

The ‘fair share’ White House — Those who make the rules should play by them. Especially a White House that lectures the rest of America about the importance of paying your “fair share” of taxes. — So we were struck by IRS reports that no fewer than 40 aides to President Obama still owe …

Roger Simon / Politico:

Save the sequester, crush the children! — If American politics has but one purpose in modern times, it is to crush the hopes and dreams of young people everywhere. — And this is why President Barack Obama's closing of the White House to public tours makes so much sense.

Discussion: CNN, americanthinker.com, The Hill and TheBlaze.com

Mark Gongloff / The Huffington Post:

FDIC Secretly Settling Bank Cases For Years With ‘No Press Release’ Clause: Report — At the request of rule-breaking bankers, a top U.S. regulator has for years settled bank cases in secret, raising the bar on just how far regulators are willing to go to help the industry they regulate.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

E. Scott Reckard / Los Angeles Times:
In major policy shift, scores of FDIC settlements go unannounced

Discussion: naked capitalism and The Political Carnival

Wall Street Journal:
Fisher and Rosenblum: How to Shrink the ‘Too-Big-to-Fail’ Banks

Discussion: Firedoglake and Hot Air

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:

After Watering Down Financial Reform, Ex-Senator Scott Brown Joins Goldman Sachs' Lobbying Firm … During his nearly three years in the U.S. Senate, Scott Brown (R-MA) frequently came to the aid of the financial sector — watering down the Dodd-Frank bill and working to weaken it after its passage …

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, Firedoglake and The Political Carnival

Michael Levenson / Boston Globe:
Scott Brown to join Boston law firm Nixon Peabody

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, msnbc.com, Mediaite, DealBook and Rumproast

David S. Cloud / Los Angeles Times:

New Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel tries to find his balance — A three-day visit to Afghanistan is a rocky beginning for the Defense secretary, who had faced a bitter confirmation fight. Now awaiting him is $47 billion in budget cuts. — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, right, arrives in Germany on Monday.

Thom Shanker / New York Times:
In First Overseas Trip, Hagel Offers a Terse Review: 'It's Complicated'

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, First Read, msnbc.com, emptywheel and Mediaite

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

Rush Limbaugh Sides With Rand Paul: ‘The Neocons Are Paranoid’ — The most popular conservative demagogue in America signals that hawkish foreign policy dogma may be losing its hold on the GOP. — In the Spring of 2011, I wrote a widely ignored article arguing that the Republican Party's …

Discussion: Ross Douthat and Mondoweiss

Harry J Enten / Guardian:
Rand Paul's 2016 presidential chances are better than most people realize

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Power Line and Althouse

Washington Examiner:

Byron York: Ted Cruz pushes for vote to stop funding for Obamacare — “Some senators may choose to hurl insults and personal attacks,” says new Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. “That's their prerogative. I have no intention of reciprocating.” — Cruz wouldn't name names, but clearly …

Discussion: Hit & Run

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

CBC leader concerned Obama has named no blacks to new Cabinet — The chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus said she is concerned that President Obama has not yet appointed African-Americans to his second-term Cabinet. — Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) said Obama's appointees do not reflect …

Discussion: Politic365 and The Caucus

CNN:
Congressional Black Caucus ‘disappointed’ in Obama's Cabinet picks

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Associated Press:

Colorado Senate OKs gun control bill — A gun control package pushed by Colorado Democrats cleared the state Senate on Monday, as sponsors described it as a needed response to Colorado's blood-soaked history of mass shootings. — One Democrat after another rose Monday to talk …

Discussion: americanthinker.com

Jon Donnison / BBC:

UN disputes Gaza strike on BBC man's house — Jehad Mashhrawi's 11-month-old son Omar was killed in the attack on his house in Gaza — The son of a BBC journalist and two relatives killed in last November's war in Gaza may have been hit by a misfired Palestinian rocket, a UN agency says.

Discussion: WorldViews, Power Line, Associated Press, Elder of Ziyon, Israel Matzav, New York Times, The Times of Israel and National Review

Alexandra Jaffe / Ballot Box:

Report: DSCC pulling back from Judd after Kentucky Senate polling shows her vulnerable — A survey conducted for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee of the Kentucky Senate race by one of their leading pollsters may be cause for the DSCC to pull back from supporting Ashley Judd's potential campaign …

Discussion: Politico, The Moderate Voice, Weasel Zippers, The Last Refuge, Hot Air, Post Politics and The Daily Caller

Lizette Alvarez / New York Times:

Medicaid Expansion Is Rejected in Florida — MIAMI — Rebuffing Gov. Rick Scott's support of Medicaid expansion, a Florida Senate committee on Monday rejected the idea, all but ending the possibility that the state would add more poor people to Medicaid rolls.

Discussion: americanthinker.com, msnbc.com and The PJ Tatler

Ryan Cooper / Washington Monthly:

How Does Jeff Sachs Explain the Great Recession? — Facebook Twitter Digg Reddit StumbleUpon Delicious — First, let me recommend Mark Thoma, who takes apart Sachs' very crude representations of Paul Krugman's positions. I want to circle back to one particular point that leaped out at me:

Discussion: Brad DeLong