Fox News' Special Report reported that yesterday, President Obama said "there is a chance he will try to come up with a second economic stimulus package." Obama was shown saying, "I don't take anything off the table when unemployment is close to 10% and a lot of Americans are hurting out there." The Washington Post reports, "Nothing may be more important to public assessments of...Obama's leadership than the state of the economy, and at this point there are political warning lights flashing." The Administration is "trying to tamp down talk that it didn't get it quite right -- talk created by Vice President Biden," who told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that the Administration "misread the economy." Obama "tried to modulate the impact of the vice president's words." Obama said, "No, no, no, no, no. Rather than say 'misread,' we had incomplete information." The Washington Post also reports, in a front page story, that the "jobless rate is still climbing and the White House is scrambling to reassure an anxious public that President Obama's prescription for economic recovery is on the right track."
CNBC showed Obama saying: "We haven't always gotten the numbers right but I think the general overview is right. We went through a economic tsunami that was far worse than anything we've gone through since the great depression. Even early on, I think we did not see the full magnitude of what was going to happen." CNBC's John Harwood added, "I've got to tell you, after talking to officials in the White House and Treasury, there is not much appetite within the administration or the Congress for pursuing" a second stimulus package, "especially among Democrats concerned about this image that they are acquiring of spending more money than the government has and fueling this record deficit. So I think the outlook for a second stimulus is very cloudy at best."
The Wall Street Journal reports Senate majority leader Harry Reid "said Tuesday he didn't believe there is yet any case for another economic-stimulus package, saying the impact of the $787 billion plan has yet to be truly felt." The Hill says Reid "threw cold water on the idea of Senate passage of a second economic stimulus plan." Fox News' Special Report noted Reid "says nearly 90% of February's stimulus money hasn't been spent yet." However, according to The Hill, House majority leader Steny Hoyer "said Democrats are open to looking at a second stimulus package." According to The Politico, Democrats "are all over the map on the stimulus and the possibility of a sequel, and it's not hard to see why: When it comes to a second stimulus, they may be damned if they do and damned if they don't."
GAO: Stimulus Spending Ahead Of Schedule The Wall Street Journal reports the stimulus spending "is currently 'slightly ahead of estimates,' with $29 billion distributed to state governments through mid-June," according to the GAO.
The Hill reports that yesterday White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel "raised some eyebrows on Capitol Hill," when he appeared to suggest in a Wall Street Journal article that the White House might accept a healthcare reform deal without a public option for health insurance. In response, President Obama "issued a statement from halfway across the world reiterating his support for the creation of a government health insurance plan."
Roll Call says Emanuel also "reassured House Democrats on Tuesday night that...Obama strongly backs a government-run health insurance plan, seeking to quell a firestorm among liberals upset at Emanuel's comments in the Wall Street Journal that suggested such a plan could be delayed."
Another Roll Call article reports that Rep. Raúl Grijalva, co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, "fired off a letter to...Obama warning him against dropping a public insurance option from health care reform plans." The Financial Times says the "liberal hopes of a public element to US healthcare reform came under strain" as Emanuel "offered only qualified support and a more modest bipartisan proposal gained ground."
Another article from The Hill notes that Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, "posted the statement on OpenLeft.org, a liberal blog, to highlight Obama's support for the public plan. He used the headline 'Obama to Rahm: Shut. Up.'"
Bipartisan Healthcare Deal Talks Suffer "Significant Setback" The AP reports the attempts "to draft bipartisan health care legislation in the Senate have suffered a significant setback, with Democratic leaders objecting to a proposed tax on high-cost health benefits." Many "in the Democratic leadership also expressed support for a stronger provision allowing the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies."
According to the Wall Street Journal, "Senate negotiators are considering a wider range of ways to pay for expanding health coverage, including President Barack Obama's proposal to limit tax deductions for the wealthy and another proposal to impose an income surtax on the wealthy, people familiar with the matter said. Concerns about the cost of the package and the difficulty of paying for it were running high."
Fox News' Special Report reported, "Employers who provide health insurance coverage to roughly 160 million Americans are worried about possible mandates to provide more expensive insurance for their workers and less flexibility. ... Even those who support reform do concede it is an expensive proposition but they say may be the only way to get a handle on skyrocketing healthcare costs."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
According to media accounts, the Obama-Putin personal rapport may be, following their encounter, "less than warm." The CBS Evening News interviewed President Obama after his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Putin. Said Obama, "I think this is a very smart, very tough, very unsentimental person." CBS added that "despite that less than warm personal assessment, the President said they're mostly on the same page on some vital issues," including Iran and North Korea.
NBC Nightly News reported that "a senior White House aide" said "the two-hour private meeting was dominated by a 50-minute soliloquy by Putin about the history of US-Russia relations -- sort of a throwback to the Soviet era leaders." Obama, "who last week said Putin had one foot in the old ways of doing business, stuck to that assessment today." Fox News' Special Report says there "was a bit of the chill left over from the cold war as...Obama met with Russian prime minister."
Obama, in an interview with CNN's Ed Henry shown on CNN's The Situation Room, said, "I think in a lot of ways...Putin is representative of Russia. He is very popular here. I think that Russia is still, on the one hand, processing the transition out of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On the other hand, they recognize an interest in modernizing, diversifying; and recognize that economic power is going to be the most important currency in the 21st century."
On its front page, the Financial Times reports that "Moscow officials...delightedly quoted their White House counterparts as saying Mr Obama was 'now very convinced that the prime minister is a man of today and has got his eyes firmly on the future.'"
Obama Sticks To Conciliatory Message Both in a speech delivered in Moscow and in his meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, President Obama yesterday continued to deliver a conciliatory message toward Russia something he emphasized in interviews broadcast on all three network news programs. Media reports and analyses, however, offer mixed assessments of Obama's success at the summit. The Wall Street Journal, for example, reports that "following some tough talk before his trip, Mr. Obama's visit to Moscow is likely to fuel criticism from some in the US who see the 'reset' he has proposed for relations with Russia as a series of concessions by Washington." The AP says Obama "ended up getting the expected agreement on deep cuts in nuclear arsenals, but he is leaving Moscow with few assurances of Kremlin help in solving other issues key to his foreign policy agenda."
More positive is the tone of the New York Times' story, which reports that "Obama kicked off a new chapter in Russian-American relations during his two-day visit with significant progress on several fronts." USA Today, meanwhile, says it "will take months to determine how successful this first summit has been." The Los Angeles Times reports that "by an old-fashioned score card," Obama "didn't exactly rack up a decisive victory during his two-day visit with Russian leaders this week."
"Afghan defense officials" tell McClatchy that "Taliban fighters and their commanders have escaped the Marines' big offensive in Afghanistan's Helmand province and moved into areas to the west and north, prompting fears that the US effort has just moved the Taliban problem elsewhere."
The AP also reports that "hundreds of militants...have fled the offensive the Marines launched last week in southern Helmand province." Marine officers now say that "keeping the Taliban from returning so the Afghan government can establish a stable presence will be a bigger challenge." The New York Times, meanwhile, reports, "One week after several battalions of Marines swept through the Helmand River valley, military commanders appear increasingly concerned about a lack of Afghan forces in the field."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
Top
USA Today reports Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) "bombshell" decision to step down as governor "has boosted her a bit among Republicans, a nationwide USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, though it also has dented her standing among Democrats and independents." Among those whose opinions were changed by Palin's move, "Democrats by a 4-1 ratio and independents by 2-to-1 view her less favorably," while Republicans "are somewhat inclined to see her more favorably." The Politico, however, reports a Rasmussen Reports poll found that 40% of Republicans think the move hurt Palin's odds of winning the 2012 GOP presidential nod, while 24% said it increased her chances.
Palin Doesn't Rule Out White House Run ABC World News reports Palin, in an interview yesterday, "wanted to make clear that ethics complaints forced her staff to waste time and money defending her" and were threatening her family with "personal bankruptcy," and regarding a 2012 bid, she told NBC Nightly News, "I don't know what the future holds. Can't predict what the next fish run is going to look like much less what happens in a couple years."
The Politico reports a new Public Policy Polling (D) survey of 617 likely Virginia voters taken June 30 to July 2 shows Bob McDonnell (R) leading state Sen. Creigh Deeds (D) 49%-43% in the gubernatorial race. The Richmond Times-Dispatch adds that the poll shows McDonnell "has picked up more support among independent voters and holds a 54-33 advantage over Deeds in that category." However, Deeds "has a 4-1 edge over McDonnell among blacks, who came out in unprecedented numbers last fall and helped Barack Obama carry the state," though the survey suggests there is "little interest" in the race among black voters and young voters, "whom pollsters expect to turn out in lower numbers than last year." The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot says McDonnell's lead is identical to the one Jerry Kilgore (R) held over Tim Kaine (D) at this stage in the 2005 race, though Kaine went on to win.
The AP reports that New Hampshire AG Kelly Ayotte (R), "who has enjoyed support from Republican and Democratic governors," announced yesterday she would step down from her position to explore a bid for her state's open Senate seat. The Hill says, "It took awhile, but Republicans are finally getting their Senate candidate in New Hampshire," though she has not run a campaign before as her current office is appointed. The Hill notes, "Despite never having been on the ballot, though, Ayotte led likely Democratic nominee" NH2 Rep. Paul Hodes (D) "in a UNH poll released last week. She was at 39 percent, compared to Hodes's 35 percent." While other Republicans could enter the race, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports, University of New Hampshire political science professor Dante Scala says, "I think she immediately goes to the top of the list for the party."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
Top
Conan O'Brien: "Today, in Russia, President Obama delivered a speech to the graduating class of Moscow's new economic school. That's right. The title of his speech was 'Can We Borrow 4 Trillion Rubles, Please?'"
Conan O'Brien: "It's an emotional day. A lot of us are still mourning the loss of one of America's most entertaining figures, who left us all too soon. But don't worry, folks, Sarah Palin will be back. ... Comedians everywhere are praying."
David Letterman: "Now how about this, ladies and gentlemen? The governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, has announced she is stepping down. She will no longer be the governor of Alaska. First thing, she woke up and went out on her porch and waved good-bye to Russia. Obama was waving to her."
Sign up here to get the US News Political Bulletin emailed to you each morning at 8 a.m.
Top
Click image for larger view.
Smart analysis, insightful reporting, in-depth perspective—in a new, digital format.
Log in | Buy Now | See sample
View sample page 2View sample page 3View sample page 4View sample page 5advertisement
Get your POLITICALBULLETIN
Click image for larger view.
Smart analysis, insightful reporting, in-depth perspective—in a new, digital format.
Log in | Buy Now | See sample
View sample page 2View sample page 3View sample page 4View sample page 5Embed exclusive U.S. News headlines, rankings, columns, and blog postings to your Web site, blog, or social network.
advertisement
Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our Terms and Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy.
