The Commentariat -- April 15

Art by Berkeley Illustration.David Cay Johnston in the Willamette (Oregon) Week: "Nine things the rich don't want you to know about taxes." Something to further raise your blood pressure during tax week. With charts and graphs! Thanks to one of my readers for providing the link. ...

... CW Note: Federal tax returns must be posted before the end of the day Monday, April 18. I don't know if any states are sticking to the traditional April 15 filing deadline.

Why Have No Banksters Been Prosecuted? This is not some evil conspiracy of two guys sitting in a room saying we should let people create crony capitalism and steal with impunity. But their policies have created an exceptional criminogenic environment. There were no criminal referrals from the regulators. No fraud working groups. No national task force. There has been no effective punishment of the elites here. -- William Black

     ... But was it two guys sitting in a room? And were those two guys Tim Geithner & Andrew Cuomo? Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times has background on this & other missteps of the Curiously Complacent "Regulators." ...

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase.     ... Karen Garcia reflects on "Bankers and Other Protected Species." It's bad news for the Wolves of Montana, but the Wolves of Wall Street remain free to roam. (Here's a link to an AP story: "The White House is poised to accept a budget bill that includes an unprecedented end-run around Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in five Western states — the first time Congress has targeted a species protected under the 37-year-old law.")

John McKinnon of the Wall Street Journal: "Critics are seizing on the current U.S. deficit debate to urge a new crackdown on offshore tax havens, which have long benefited American and foreign corporations." Democracy Now! News covers this subject with an interview of Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking & Tax Havens. CW: I had trouble getting the video to load on their site, but you can watch the interview, in two parts, here and here. Thanks to reader Deborah K.

Hawaii-Born & Hornless. I think a problem for [the Republicans is] when they want to actually run in a general election where most people feel pretty confident the President was born where he says he was, in Hawaii.  He -- he doesn't have horns ... we're not really worrying about conspiracy theories or -- or birth certificates.
-- Barack Obama to George Stephanopoulos of ABC News

Put it in a separate bill. We'll call it up. And if you think you can overturn my veto, try it. But don't try to sneak this through.
-- Barack Obama, relating at a campaign fundraiser what he told Speaker Boehner about the Republican attempt to defund Planned Parenthood in a rider to the budget bill. Via CBS News

I said, 'You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We'll have that debate. You're not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we're stupid?' -- Barack Obama, relating what he said to John Boehner during budget negotiations. Via CBS News. CBS has the audio here.

President Obama on his 2006 Senate vote against raising the debt limit:

     ... Harry Reid says he's "embarrassed" by his 2006 vote against raising the debt ceiling:

... Jonathan Chait of The New Republic on "Obama's Insane Hostage Bargaining Strategy: ... If Obama is going to begin by saying he'd like a straight vote on the debt ceiling but is willing to make policy concessions, what do you expect the Republicans to do? Keep in mind, the assumption that the Congressional minority can use the debt ceiling as a hostage to win substantive policy the president opposes is entirely novel. Obama has introduced this new development." ...

... ** Dana Milbank: since Barack Obama broke up with Nancy Pelosi, he is drifting, principle-free, to the center. ...

... AND Pelosi talks to bloggers about taking a hard line on entitlement programs.

Paul Krugman on competing budget proposals: "What happened over the past two weeks, then, was more about staking out positions than about enacting policies. On one side [Ryan] you had a combination of mean-spiritedness and fantasy; on the other [Obama] you had a reaffirmation of American compassion and community, coupled with fairly realistic numbers. Which would you choose?"

The debate on deficit reduction is all over the map. Mike Lillis of The Hill: "Predicting the next big budget battle will center on taxes on the wealthy, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) floated a plan Thursday to raise rates only on incomes above $1 million a year. The offer came just one day after President Obama endorsed a broader revenue-raising strategy that would hike taxes on those earning more than $250,000 annually, beginning in 2013." Meanwhile ... Peter Wallsten & Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "Republicans are feuding over whether to abandon the party’s long-held opposition to higher taxes in pursuit of a deficit-cutting deal with Democrats. The rift in the Republican ranks has surfaced in a bitter back-and-forth between two heroes of the conservative movement: Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who has been working with a bipartisan group of senators on a compromise to reduce government borrowing, and Grover Norquist, author of the no-tax-increase pledge that has become a rite of passage for GOP candidates." THEN ... there's "the People's Budget" promoted by the Congressional Progressive Caucus that reduces the deficit by increasing taxes on the rich, cutting defense spending & maintaining or increasing jobs-creating and entitlement programs. CW Note: Karen Garcia (#10) & I (#20) promoted the CPC budget in our comments on Krugman's column today. ...

... AND ... When Is a Tax Increase Not a Tax Increase? Ezra Klein notes that the tax "increases" in President Obama's budget proposal are not increases at all -- he's simply proposing to let the "temporary" Bush tax cuts on the wealthy expire, but he's extending the cuts for the middle class, which -- when the numbers are tallied -- means that the Obama plan actually represents a tax cut -- for the middle class.

How big is that FY 2011 budget cut? Obama, Boehner & Reid say its $38 billion. The CBO says it's less than one percent of that: $352 million. Ezra Klein explains why it's really neither, & is closer to $20 - $25 billion.

Tim Egan: why are Republicans determined to end funding for NPR when out in the hinterlands of Red America, conservatives rely on public, federally-funded radio stations as a sole source for news and other programming?

Viveca Novak & Fred Schulte of the Center for Public Integrity, in Politico: White House "logs are missing the names of thousands of ... visitors to the White House, including lobbyists, government employees, campaign donors, policy experts and friends of the first family, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity.... The Center’s analysis shows that the logs routinely omit or cloud key details about the identity of visitors, whom they met with and the nature of their visits. The logs even include the names of people who never showed up. These are critical gaps that raise doubts about the records’ historical accuracy...."

Depressed, Ladies? Have Unprotected Sex with a Potent Man to Cheer Yourself Up! Dr. Paul Chen in the New York Times: "A Valentine’s Day editorial in the official newspaper of the American College of Surgeons has set off a firestorm of controversy that has divided the largest professional organization of surgeons in the country and raised questions about the current leadership and its attitudes toward women and gay and lesbian members. The editorial, written by Dr. Lazar J. Greenfield, an emeritus professor of surgery ... and president-elect of the American College of Surgeons, extols the mood-enhancing effects of semen on women. It begins with a reference to the mating behaviors of fruit flies, then goes on to discuss studies on the menstrual cycles of heterosexual and lesbian women who live together." Here's a link that includes the text of Greenfield's editorial.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is no match for Rep. Dennis Kucinich. During a Congressional hearing, Kucinich forces Walker to admit that some anti-union provisions in his infamous "budget repair bill" did not save the state any money:

     ... As Zaid Jilani of Think Progress writes, "Walker’s admission is crucial because he had long claimed that his anti-union 'budget repair bill' was designed to save the state money, not bust unions." ...

... AND David Dayan of Firedoglake has more on Scott Walker's Bad Day. For instance, during the hearing, Dem Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia got Walker to admit that he didn’t campaign on stripping workers of their collective bargaining rights, which directly contradicts previous assertions that he did." Update: here's the video:

Nate Silver handicaps the GOP's chances of taking control of the Senate in 2012. The odds are in their favor, but not so much as some prognosticators suspect.

 Right Wing World *

Mrs. Alan Greenspan discusses the budget & debt ceiling with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.). The whole discussion is fascinating in a perverse way, but my favorite bit has to be at about 3 minutes in when Toomey relates the federal debt to a typical family budget:

So what I am saying is, the better form of the analogy is the family that has been living beyond its means and run up huge debt, would have to make some tough decisions like maybe laying off the nanny, maybe not going on an expensive vacation, maybe discontinuing the gardeners who come and cut their grass. Maybe they would have to make some cuts. -- Pat Toomey

     ... Heather of Crooks & Liars wonders, "I've just got to ask, in what America does Pat Toomey think he's living in these days if those are the things that pop into his head when talking about what most Americans would have to give up if they have to tighten up their household budgets?" ...

I have a great relationship with the blacks. I've always had a great relationship with the blacks. -- Donald Trump

     ... And what better person to defend a white guy against charges of racial insensitivity than Mr. Racist himself, Pat Buchanan? who says Trump has a great relationship with "black folks." Watch the whole video via David at Crooks & Liars:

** Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post: "One of the more comical features of the budget debate is to watch the ways in which Republicans refuse to engage on the issue of economic fairness. When pressed, they deny, dissemble and throw out poll-tested phrases such as 'class warfare' and 'opportunity society.' And if that doesn’t work, they begin to spin an elaborate fiction about the absolutely devastating impact that any tax increase will have on international competitiveness and job creation, as if that settles the issue completely.... It’s looking less and less .. like Paul Ryan will emerge as the hero."

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

New York Times Editors: the Arizona Senate, controlled by Republicans, "just passed a bill that would bar presidential candidates from the ballot in Arizona unless they submitted extensive paperwork proving they were natural-born Americans." The editors think all the Republicans who voted for this bill, an intended -- though denied -- bow to birthers, should be ready to "post their sworn affidavits along with their birth certificates, baptismal and other records online for the world to see." ...

     ... AP Update: both houses have now passed the bill. It goes to Gov. Jan Brewer (Super R) for signature. ...

... Baja Arizona. The Economist: the Arizona state legislature & the aging, white, nativist population of Phoenix that backs it have so alienated many Pima County (Tucson) residents that there is a viable movement for the county to secede from the state.

News Ledes

President Obama kicks off his 2012 presidential campaign:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser emerged as the winner Friday over challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg in a heated election that drew national attention because of the fight over collective bargaining and a ballot reporting error in Waukesha County. A canvass of vote totals from the state's 72 counties finalized Friday afternoon shows Prosser beating Kloppenburg ... by 7,316 votes. Initial results in the election had showed Kloppenburg leading the race.... The margin - 0.488% - is within the 0.5% limit that would allow Kloppenburg to request a statewide recount at taxpayers' expense."

Washington Post: "The House on Friday passed a Republican budget plan for 2012 aimed at privatizing Medicare and dramatically scaling back the size of the federal government. Voting along party lines, the House approved the $3.5 trillion GOP blueprint 235 to 193 after final debate was repeatedly interrupted by protesters chanting and singing in the gallery. Four Republicans joined all Democrats in voting 'no.'”

New York Times: "Military forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who have surrounded this city and vowed to crush its anti-Qaddafi rebellion, have been firing into residential neighborhoods with heavy weapons, including cluster bombs that have been banned by much of the world and ground-to-ground rockets, according to the accounts of witnesses and survivors and physical evidence on the ground."

AP: "Activists and witnesses says thousands of people are demonstrating in several Syrian cities."

... Washington Post: "... five Western journalists ... have been missing and remain unaccounted for" in Libya. "Although the news is scant and sketchy, three of them ... have been spotted by Western sources in a government detention camp in Tripoli."

Atlanta Journal Constitution: "Complaining the federal government has failed to secure the nation’s borders, Georgia’s Legislature followed Arizona’s lead Thursday and approved an aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration." ...

... Birther Bill. AP: "The Arizona Legislature gave final approval late Thursday night to a proposal that would require President Obama and other presidential candidates to prove they are U.S. citizens before their names can appear on the state’s ballot.

AP: "The operator of Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear plant said Friday it would pay an initial $12,000 for each household forced to evacuate because of leaking radiation — a handout some of the displaced slammed as too little."

Los Angeles Times: President Obama kicked off his 2012 campaign with fundraisers in Chicago where he spoke of "'a caring America....' By night's end, Obama had collected more than $2 million, on the way to a fundraising haul that some advisors say could eventually hit a record-setting $1 billion." See video above.

Republicans v. Women

Gail Collins: The Republican attack on Planned Parenthood "is a wide-ranging attack on women’s right to control their reproductive lives that the women themselves would strongly object to if it was stated clearly." It is not, as Republicans pretend, an anti-abortion crusade. And it all "makes sense, as long as you lay off the factual statements." Collins highlights Sen. Jon Kyl's Senate floor speech in which he asserted that "over 90 percent" of Planned Parenthood's services were abortions. The actual percentage is closer to three. Here's a clip from Kyl's floor speech:

A Kyl spokesperson later put out a statement in which he said Kyl's "...remark was not intended to be a factual statement, but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, does subsidize abortions." Here's Don Lemmon of CNN reporting on that:

The New York Times moderators have scrambled out my comment (see Update 2 below), so here it is, and it's probably worth reading:

Let's face it: Jon Kyl is anti-woman. Not only is he unconcerned about women's ability to obtain contraceptive and other reproductive-related services, he doesn't even care if they get proper care AFTER he makes sure they become pregnant if they're going to indulge in sex.

Second only to his fact-free attack on Planned Parenthood last week is his indifference to maternity care. During the healthcare debate, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said during a committee hearing that insurers should be required to cover basic maternity care. Kyl sneered: "I don't need maternity care. So requiring that on my insurance policy is something that I don't need and will make the policy more expensive." Stabenow replied: "I think your mom probably did." (The amendment went down to defeat anyway.) Here's the videotape:

It isn't just Republican men who so vehemently oppose contraception that they're willing to lie about it. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) asserted on Monday, "The executive director of Planned Parenthood in Illinois said they want to become the LensCrafter of BIG ABORTION in Illinois."

This wasn't the first time she had made such a statement, either. Of course, it wasn't true, but in fact-free Right Wing World, that doesn't matter. As Anderson Cooper of CNN laid out, it turns out that the CEO of Planned Parenthood Illinois said, "I like to think of Planned Parenthood as the LensCrafters of FAMILY PLANNING."

In other words, just as Collins lays out, to Bachmann, "big abortion" and "family planning" are the same thing. And they're both really bad. (Bachmann has promised to quit spreading this disinformation, not because Planned Parenthood complained it was untrue, but because LensCrafters asked her to knock it off!)

The party that claims it wants to "get us our freedoms back" does not include a women's right to personal privacy among those "freedoms." It's hard to imagine any law that is much more intrusive than one that comes between a woman and her health provider. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"? Not if they in any way involve sex.

Republicans really want to make sure that girls who just wanna have fun -- don't.

Update: Rachel Maddow weighs in:

     ... Maddow's interview of Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, who is -- you know -- factual, is here.

Update 2: you can find my comment at #235 & Karen Garcia's at #234. The reason we were pushed off the front page? As nearly as I can tell, it's because we both used the word "sex" in our comments. Oh, horrors! And in response to a column about -- sex!

The Commentariat -- April 14

See the next post -- "President Obama's Fiscal Plan" -- for commentary regarding the President's speech yesterday.

Dana Milbank reports on the rollout of "The People's Budget," an alternate budget proposal put forward by the Congressional Progressive Congress. "Among the highlights: A $4 trillion tax increase over 10 years. An increase in the top tax rate to 49 percent. A $2.3 trillion cut in defense spending – and an increase in domestic spending. Oh, and they would revive the “public option” to offer government-run health care." CW: the CPC may not be ready for primetime, if Milbank's description of their rollout event is accurate, but their budget plan sounds mighty sensible to me. ...

     ... Update: here's a pdf of an overview of the CPC "People's Budget." AND here's a pdf of a working paper on the budget by policy analyst Andrew Fieldhouse of the Economic Policy Institute.

"Plutocracy Now." Mother Jones posts eleven charts & graphs that explain what's wrong with the U.S. Here's one of them, but take a look at the rest:

News Flash!! the Federal Government Finds that Financial Institutions Screwed Mortgagors. And regulators did nothing about it. And they're still doing nothing about it. ...

... Gretchen Morgenson & Louise Story of the New York Times: "A voluminous report on the financial crisis by the United States Senate — citing internal documents and private communications of bank executives, regulators, credit ratings agencies and investors — describes business practices that were rife with conflicts during the mortgage mania and reckless activities that were ignored inside the banks and among their federal regulators.... The report adds significant new evidence to previously disclosed material showing that a wide swath of the financial industry chose profits over propriety during the mortgage lending spree. It also casts a harsh light on what the report calls regulatory failures, which helped deepen the crisis. Singled out for criticism is the Office of Thrift Supervision...." The 650-page report is here. ...

In my judgment, Goldman clearly misled their clients and they misled the Congress. -- Sen. Carl Levin

     ... Well, at least Carl Levin says the government should do something about it. Bloomberg Update: "Senator Carl Levin, releasing the findings of a two-year inquiry yesterday, said he wants the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to examine whether Goldman Sachs violated the law by misleading clients who bought the complex securities known as collateralized debt obligations without knowing the firm would benefit if they fell in value. The Michigan Democrat also said federal prosecutors should review whether to bring perjury charges against Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein and other current and former employees who testified in Congress last year. Levin said they denied under oath that Goldman Sachs took a financial position against the mortgage market solely for its own profit, statements the senator said were untrue." ...

... Daniel Indiviglio of The Atlantic: "Big banks and mortgage servicers have reportedly botched loan documentation, falsified foreclosure paperwork, and aggressively avoided modifying mortgages. Today, federal regulators, via the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, told them they really shouldn't have been such crooks. "There were no fines issued.... While regulators have gone pretty easy on the banks and servicers, this isn't the end of foreclosuregate. Lawsuits are still pending from the state attorneys general. A settlement or more serious punishment may come from that. Some investors are also suing banks over their poor documentation and procedures. So we'll have to wait to see if the courts treat the big banks as kindly as regulators." The Fed's gutsy press release boasts about the government's tough enforcement actions.

Steven Dennis of Roll Call: "Speaker John Boehner is playing defense ahead of Thursday’s House vote on a compromise fiscal 2011 spending bill after a new report showed the deal would have almost no impact on this year’s deficit, despite making $38 billion in spending cuts." ...

... Here's the report, by David Rogers of Politico: the budget settled on among the leaders "will have only a minimal impact on outlays or direct spending before the 2011 fiscal year ends Sept. 30. And once contingency funds related to Afghanistan and Pakistan are counted, the news gets worse: The CBO now says that total appropriations outlays for 2011 are higher — not lower — by about $3.3 billion than it had estimated in December."

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "... playing chicken with the full faith and credit of the United States is a very dangerous game. And yet there is a report today that one of the adults on Capitol Hill — yeah, I’m talking about you, Speaker Boehner — is seeking a way out of the rules of the game." Capehart cites a report by Ben Smith in Politico, but he's actually referring to this report by Politico's Ben White, which we linked in yesterday's Ledes.

"Spillionaires." Kim Barker of the Washington Post: "The oil spill that was once expected to bring economic ruin to the Gulf Coast appears to have delivered something entirely different: a gusher of money." But BP's cash handouts, totaling "more than $16 billion so far," have been uneven and unfair. "To show how the money flowed, ProPublica interviewed people who worked on the spill and examined records for St. Bernard Parish, a coastal community about five miles southeast of downtown New Orleans. Those documents show that companies with ties to parish insiders got lucrative contracts and then charged BP for every possible expense.... Assignments for individual fishermen also fell under the control of political leaders."

How to Steal a Small Object so Only 5 Million People Will Notice. Robert Mackey of the New York Times: A video of Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, "admiring a ceremonial pen during a state visit to Chile, and then attempting to slip it into his pocket without anyone noticing, was annotated and set to music by the Czech television program 168 Hours on Sunday." The pen "was encrusted with semiprecious Chilean lapis lazuili stones." Videos of the incident have had a total of more than 5 million hits:

Right Wing World *

Paul Ryan tapes a "Kick Me" sign to his own ass. Conservative David Frum: "The Republican insistence on joining two negatives [cutting social programs & taxes on the rich] in hopes of producing one positive opened the way to President Obama’s speech Wednesday. That speech ... frames the debate in a way that is maximally useful for Democrats. This framing was made possible by the efforts of Republicans themselves, blinded by their own hopes, misdirected by their own messaging."

CW: I've brought the next two stories forward because I added them fairly late yesterday.

"He damn near hit us." Smoking Gun: "Newly released Federal Aviation Administration documents and audiotapes shed a scary new light on a bizarre incident late last year during which U.S. Senator James Inhofe landed his Cessna on a closed runway at a south Texas airport, scattering construction workers who ran for their lives as the politician’s plane hopscotched over them and six vehicles. The FAA material ... details how Inhofe, 76, chose to land on the main runway at the Cameron County Airport on October 21 despite being aware that it was closed and had a large ‘X’ on its threshold.... In a bid to avoid 'legal enforcement action,' Inhofe, who has a commercial pilot’s license, agreed to 'complete a program of remedial training,' according to an FAA letter sent in January to Inhofe.... In a statement today, Inhofe said, 'This is an old story, and the FAA and I have long consider the matter closed.'" With audio & facsimile of FAA documentation. ...

... Rachel Maddow features Inhofe's aviation skills in "Debunktion Junction":

Because they have no earthly idea what kind of a toll manual labor takes on an older person's body, nor do they give a damn, "Three Republican senators on Wednesday will propose a Social Security reform package that would raise the retirement age to 70 and cut benefits for the wealthy. Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Mike Lee (Utah) previewed their proposal on Fox News, saying that it will put the entitlement program on a long-term path to solvency without raising taxes." Reporting by Julian Fabian of The Hill.

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

The President speaks to the press before a meeting on his framework to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over twelve years with Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the chairmen of his bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform:



CNN: "In a joint opinion piece to be published Friday, the leaders of the United States, Britain and France lay out in stark terms their contention that Libya's future must not include its leader, Moammar Gadhafi. 'It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government,' said the article, titled 'Libya's Pathway to Peace,' by U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. 'It would be an unconscionable betrayal.' The article, which is slated to appear in the International Herald Tribune, Le Figaro, and Times of London, was sent to reporters by the White House." The New York Times publishes the joint letter here. ...

... Washington Post: "The splintered coalition of nations engaged in a four-week-old air campaign over Libya struggled Wednesday to come up with new tactics to topple Moammar Gaddafi without resorting to further Western engagement in Libya’s back-and-forth civil war. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, the vanguard of intervention in favor of rebel forces, met at the Elysee Palace with British Prime Minister David Cameron. The two leaders have been the main actors in the NATO-led air war since the United States handed over leadership March 31 and pulled back most of its aircraft into a support role." ...

... New York Times: "Pentagon officials disclosed Wednesday that American warplanes had continued to strike targets in Libya even after the Obama administration said the United States was stepping back from offensive missions and letting NATO take the lead." ...

... AP: "A rebel in the besieged western Libyan city of Misrata says Moammar Gadhafi's troops have unleashed heavy shelling of the city's port, killing nine and wounding 20 people in the hours-long barrage."

Al Jazeera: "Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, has formed a new cabinet two weeks after sacking the country's government amid unprecendented protests against his rule. Assad also ordered the release of hundreds of protesters detained over the past couple of weeks but said  those who committed crimes 'against the nation and the citizens' would remain in jail."

President Obama will make remarks at a DNC fundraiser in Chicago at 7:25 pm ET, at another DNC fundraiser at 8:35 pm ET, & at a third DNC event at 10:30 pm ET. New York Times: "President Obama, having drawn battle lines with Republicans over how to cut the deficit, returned to his political home here Thursday for a fund-raising visit, bringing the message of fiscal responsibility and core Democratic values he laid out in a speech a day earlier. Mr. Obama’s overnight visit — which included a reunion with his former chief of staff, now the mayor-elect of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel — amounted to an unofficial kickoff of his re-election campaign." Chicago Tribune story here.

AP: "Congress sent President Barack Obama hard-fought legislation cutting a record $38 billion from federal spending on Thursday, bestowing bipartisan support on the first major compromise between the White House and newly empowered Republicans in Congress.... The tally in the House was 260-167. Among the supporters were 60 of the 87 first-term Republicans, many of them elected with tea party support.... The Senate added its approval a short while later, 81-19, and most of the opponents were conservatives who wanted deeper cuts." New York Times story here. ...

     ... Politico Related: "Fearing failure of a landmark budget deal that averted a government shutdown, House GOP leaders reached out to Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and top Democrats on the Appropriations Committee to pass the measure. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) contacted Hoyer on Wednesday and asked for his help, said GOP and Democratic sources. And Republicans certainly needed the help — on the 260-167 vote for passage, 59 Republicans voted no, and 81 Democrats voted yes."

     ... The Hill Update: "The House on Thursday afternoon approved two resolutions that would amend the FY 2011 spending bill to block funding designated for Planned Parenthood and last year's healthcare law. But House passage is largely symbolic, as the Senate did not pass either of the bills. Votes in both the House and the Senate were a condition that Republicans insisted on as part of last week's agreement on funding for the rest of the fiscal year." ...

     ... Washington Post Update 2: but Democrats held back their votes until late in the voting process, trying to force Republicans to "own" the spending cuts.

President Obama & Amir Hamad Khalifa al-Thani of Qatar will make statements to the press at 2:50 pm ET. AFP post-meeting report: "US President Barack Obama Thursday poured praise on the emir of Qatar, saying in Oval Office talks that the international coalition in Libya would have been impossible but for his leadership. Obama also thanked Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani for his role in supporting democratic transitions in Egypt and Tunisia, in a sign of an increasing convergence of interests between Washington and Doha."

AP: "The House and Senate are ready to vote on legislation cutting almost $40 billion from the budget for the current year, but President Barack Obama and his GOP rivals are both eager to move on to multiyear fiscal plans that cut trillions instead of billions." ...

... AP: "A new budget estimate released Wednesday shows that the spending bill negotiated between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner would produce less than 1 percent of the $38 billion in promised savings by the end of this budget year. The Congressional Budget Office estimate shows that compared with current spending rates the spending bill due for a House vote Thursday would cut federal outlays from non-war accounts by just $352 million through Sept. 30. About $8 billion in immediate cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid are offset by nearly equal increases in defense spending."

Washington Post: Virginia "Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has advised a state board that it cannot impose new regulations that some argue would for the first time allow gay couples to adopt children in Virginia.... Cuccinelli’s position reverses one of his predecessor, William C. Mims, a former Republican legislator and now a Virginia Supreme Court justice."

Washington Post: "A Nevada air traffic controller allegedly fell asleep early Wednesday as a medical flight carrying a sick patient tried to land, leading federal authorities to order an immediate end to the practice of leaving one controller on duty during overnight shifts. The plane landed safely at Reno-Tahoe International Airport with the help of a radar controller based in California, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The Reno controller was suspended, and the FAA is investigating...." ...

... Meanwhile ... Washington Post: "The Transportation Security Administration and one of its sharpest congressional critics [Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)] are vowing to review air passenger screening procedures for young children amid an uproar over a video of a TSA screener giving an enhanced pat-down to a 6-year-old girl."

AP: "North Korea confirmed Thursday that it is preparing to indict an American who was reportedly arrested for proselytizing. Jun Young Su has been held since November last year, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. The report did not state what crime he was accused of, but South Korean media have reported an American was detained for spreading Christianity."