Obama points to pain and progress in budget compromise

It's all about the budget.

Emphasizing some of the upside of the budget compromise (a functioning government, for one), President Obama in this morning's weekly address also admitted the pain that will emerge from the cuts and the nonsense of inserting pet social issues into the economic debate:

This is an agreement to invest in our country?s future while making the largest annual spending cut in our history. Like any compromise, this required everyone to give ground on issues that were important to them. I certainly did. Some of the cuts we agreed to will be painful?programs people rely on will be cut back; needed infrastructure projects will be delayed. And I would not have made these cuts in better circumstances. But we also prevented this important debate from being overtaken by politics and unrelated disagreements on social issues.

He also returned to a favorite metaphor of his for the government?a family struggling to live within its means:

And beginning to live within our means is the only way to protect the investments that will help America compete for new jobs?investments in our kids? education and student loans; in clean energy and life-saving medical research.

Reducing spending while still investing in the future is just common sense. That?s what families do in tough times. They sacrifice where they can, even if it?s hard, to afford what?s really important.

He reminded listeners of the recent past compromise on extending the Bush tax cuts, pointing to it with apparent pride and using it as an example of how the two parties can overcome differences for what he appears to believe is for the common good of the American people:

A few months ago, I was able to sign a tax cut for American families because both parties worked through their differences and found common ground. Now, the same cooperation has made it possible for us to move forward with the biggest annual spending cut in history. And it?s my sincere hope that we can continue to come together as we face the many difficult challenges that lie ahead?from creating jobs and growing our economy to educating our children and reducing our long-term deficits.

The full transcript can be found beneath the fold and on the White House website.


Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/7_k94L-GKyw/-Obama-points-to-pain-and-progress-in-budget-compromise

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Debt Fight Brings Political Knives

The compromise that averted a government shutdown late Friday night has among its hallmarks the distinction of being the type of agreement that both sides attacked before they came around to embrace it. Republicans insisted on more cuts and more policy bite; they settled for less money and none of the most significant provisions impacting abortion and environmental law. Democrats drew a line in the sand on budget cuts, but they had to redraw it even without knowing what the line-item impact will be.

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Who would lead the Democratic National Committee?

If Kaine runs for the seat being vacated by fellow Democrat Jim Webb, President Obama will be charged with picking a new man (or woman) to run the DNC - one of the most public faces of the party on the verge of the 2012 election.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/13/AR2011031303878.html?wprss=rss_politics

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Shutdown To Preclude Civil War Nerds From Re-Taking Fort Sumter

Won’t somebody think of the real victims? Hundreds of Union and Confederate re-enactors plan to stay in Forts Sumter and Moultrie, another Park Service site across the harbor, during a week of events. If there is a shutdown, plans will move forward to re-enact the bombardment Tuesday with about 30 cannons ringing the harbor from [...]

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Wisconsin Supreme Court race won't be certified until after probe of 14,000 'found' votes

GAB-logo
For more information on the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, see its website.

The Supreme Court race isn't over yet in Wisconsin:

The agency overseeing Wisconsin elections will not certify results of Tuesday's state Supreme Court race until it concludes a probe into how a county clerk misplaced and then found some 14,000 votes that upended the contest.

Michael Haas, Government Accountability Board staff attorney, told Reuters on Friday the watchdog agency was looking into vote tabulation errors in Republican-leaning Waukesha County which gave the conservative incumbent a net gain of more than 7,000 votes -- a lead his union-backed challenger seems unlikely to surmount.

"We're going to do a review of the procedures and the records in Waukesha before we certify the statewide results," Haas said.

"It's not that we necessarily expect to find anything criminal. But we want to make sure the public has confidence in the results."

The Government Accountability Board is overseen by six board members. All of them were appointed by former Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat.

David Prosser currently leads the vote count by 7,481. Without the new votes found in Waukesha County, he would be trailing by 101.

Still, it's probably best not to get your hopes up about Kloppenburg potentially winning the campaign as a result of this probe. There are, as I noted earlier today, good reasons to believe that this was gross incompetence rather than fraud, even if the clerk and circumstances involved are extremely sketchy.

No matter what actually happened, it's very important that an investigation will take place before the results are certified. The incident is disturbing on a number of levels. It should not be allowed to pass by without official inquiry.

For more discussion of this development, see Lefty Coaster's diary on the rec list.


Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/0q2Rz4yrXKc/-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-race-wont-be-certified-until-after-probe-of-14,000foundvotes

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Late afternoon/early evening open thread

What's coming up on Sunday Kos ?.

  • Chris Bowers will give an update on the Ohio referendum to overturn the new law stripping public workers of their collective bargaining rights.
  • It's not hard to understand the reasons we have a deficit, but Mark Sumner finds it very hard to understand why the proposed budget deal addresses none of those reasons.
  • Laurence Lewis will take a look at Republican budget priorities, and what they say about Republicans.
  • Conservatives are total hypocrites when it comes to deciding whether tax breaks count as a government subsidy or not. Dante Atkins will elaborate.
  • Steve Singiser will look at the results out of Wisconsin this week, and will explain why Scott Walker and his allies should be very, very nervous.
  • brooklynbadboy will talk about the four years that have passed since he last saw Barack Obama and Al Sharpton together on stage.
  • Thanks to the prolific Public Policy Polling, we now have a test of how President Obama fares in every state likely to be targeted in 2012 against the GOP's four frontrunners. Arjun Jaikumar will run the numbers.


Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/c8HcF13FJi8/-Late-afternoon-early-evening-open-thread

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Fed Eye: SEC porn sting netted workers in 7 cities

The 33 Securities and Exchange Commission employees and contractors reprimanded last year for accessing pornography on agency computers worked in Washington, D.C. and six regional offices, according to documents released as part of a lawsuit.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/09/AR2011030902989.html?wprss=rss_politics

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