TOP STORY: The Supercommittee: will they or won’t they reach a deal one week from today when they report back on their deficit reduction proposal, as they are required to by law?
There have been conflicting reports throughout the day today as to whether the Committee will come up short or will reach a bi-partisan agreement. Today, the Committee announced that they will hold a public “mark-up” session next week, which will be an opportunity for each of the 12 members of the bi-partisan, bicameral panel to make public statements to voice their opinions on different pieces of the legislation, before they cast a single up or down vote in the middle of next week.
As we get closer to the final deadline for the Supercommittee, smaller issues are going to become big deals. Here’s what National Journal reports tonight is the latest sticking point: health care.
“A dispute broke out between super-committee negotiators on Wednesday over whether other committees can cut health programs in a two-step deficit-reduction process.
The disagreement involved the panel’s possible two-step strategy, which would have committees with tax jurisdiction raising billions from an overhaul of the tax code next year.
Republicans insisted that the committees also have the authority to cut any programs under their jurisdiction, including Medicare and Medicaid. Democrats balked, saying that the second-step committee cuts could come from tax changes only.”
One of the most remarkable traits of the Supercommittee since it was formed in the summer has been its overall secrecy and the ability of its members to be tight-lipped regarding aspects of the negotiations.
Indeed, on a pretty regular basis, each week has seen two types of stories: that the Committee was deadlocked and no where close to reaching a minimal agreement, and that the Committee was going to shock Washington, and the political system as a whole, by “going big” and producing a large deficit reduction grand bargain.
Still tonight, we don’t know which way the Committee is trending as there have been mixed signals for the past several days.
Here’s how POLITICO’s Jake Sherman & Manu Raju wrap up the Supercommittee’s day
“In sum, all the maneuvering seemed to paint a picture of confusion, panic and blame-passing as Congress with approval ratings in the gutter attempts to patch up yet another fiscal mess.
On a day when the national debt surpassed $15 trillion, the six Democrats and six Republicans on the supercommittee met separately in tense closed-door meetings and strategized with congressional leaders. In phone calls and personal meetings, Republicans discussed proposals old and new a half-dozen times — and each side struggled to coalesce around plans that could pass bipartisan muster, or be used to maximize political cover.”
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL TODAY
“Can you believe that? That’s what our president thinks is wrong with America? That Americans are lazy? That’s pathetic.” - Rick Perry
“Sometimes, I just don’t think that President Obama understands America.” - Mitt Romney
These quotes from the Republican presidential candidates come after President Obama was asked a question about foreign investment in the United States at the APEC Summit in Hawaii over the weekend. Here’s what he said:
“I think it’s important to remember that the United States is still the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world. And there are a lot of things that make foreign investors see the U.S. as a great opportunity: our stability, our openness, our innovative free-market culture. But we’ve been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted — well, people will want to come here, and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America.”
To be fair to the President, his Republican rivals are taking his remark squarely out of context. The President was speaking to a group of business executives and was not referring to the American people specifically. However, the quote is likely to find its way, explicitly or subliminally, into the Republican strategy throughout 2012.
WHITE HOUSE SHOOTING INVESTIGATION: Police in Pennsylvania today arrested a 21 year-old man, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, who is suspected of firing an AK-47 assault rifle in close proximity to the White House late Friday evening.
Yesterday, the Secret Service announced that they had found shell casings and believe that a bullet had grazed a window on the upper level of The White House but they had not yet drawn a definitive link back to Hernandez, who is wanted in Friday’s incident.
As the Washington Post reports:
“Ortega-Hernandez fired shots with an AK-47-style assault rifle about 9:30 p.m. Friday — his 21st birthday — while in a car at 16th Street and Constitution Avenue, police said.
Minutes later, Ortega-Hernandez abandoned the car a short distance away, in the 2300 block of Constitution Avenue, and ran away, police said. They said they found the rifle and an undisclosed number of spent shell casings in the car.”
As for the bullet that was found on the White House property:
“For several days after the shooting, police said they had not found bullet-related damage to structures in the area. On Tuesday morning, however, authorities discovered at least one bullet hole in a window on the side of the White House facing the Ellipse and the Washington Monument, according to the Secret Service.
The bullet had pierced the “historic exterior glass” of the window but was stopped by ballistic glass installed behind the normal glass. “One additional round has been found on the exterior of the White House,” the Secret Service said in a statement.
The official familiar with the investigation said FBI ballistics examiners will seek to determine whether the bullets came from the assault rifle found in the car that Ortega-Hernandez abandoned.
The Secret Service said the damage “has not been conclusively connected to Friday’s incident, and an assessment of the exterior of the White House is ongoing.”
President Obama was not at The White House on Friday and is now in Australia, as part of an Asian-Pacific tour. Today the President announced that 250 Marines will begin to form a US military base in Australia next year, and 2,500 troops will be stationed in the region by 2013.
WALL STREET: In the final hour of trading on Wall Street today, the ratings agency Fitch delivered a report on US bank exposure to Europe that sent the markets sharply lower. The report said, “unless the euro zone debt crisis is resolved in a timely and orderly manner, the broad credit outlook for the U.S. banking industry could worsen.”
- DOW down 191
- NASDAQ down 47
- S&P 500 down 21
ALL EYES ON SYRIA: Violence has intensified in Syria, the worst in the nearly seven months of consistent protest against the government of Bashar Assad, in the last 48-hours and all eyes are now on the region. The question everyone is asking is, “Is Syria next?” meaning the next nation to force its leader from power in the year-long Arab awakening.
Today the Arab League, which voted to kick Syria out over the weekend, issued a deadline for the Syrian government to end its oppression against its people in three days. It is not immediately clear what consequences may come as a result of that order. Many observers, however, say that the situation in Syria is much different that Libya or Egypt- namely that Assad has a greater chance of being toppled from within.
Here’s analysis from the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Damascus:
“As diplomatic pressure increases on Damascus, the situation on the ground is deteriorating as well.
Last night, soldiers who defected from the Syrian army mounted an attack on an intelligence base north of Damascus. It was the most significant attack so far by defectors and was remarkable for being against such a high-profile target so close to the capital.
More and more clashes are being reported between the regular army and opponents who now call themselves the Free Syrian Army.
That raises the spectre of this turning into a full-scale civil war. “
FINALLY...today Google announced its latest product, a large-scale entry into an already crowded market, with Google Music, at music.google.com. The launch of the Google Music Store, with easy download and integration with the Android platform, sets Google up as a competitor to Apple, which owns the iTunes Music Store which easily syncs with the iPhone and other Apple devices.
From the Associated Press,
“The desktop service is available to all users in the United States right now at music.google.com. The Google Music Android app should be available for all Android smartphones and tablets in the coming days for everyone with Android 2.2 and above. There was no mention of iOS devices like iPhones or iPads, though Google did note that the desktop Google Music Manager is available on Windows, Mac and Linux computers. (Beware, however, as the Google Music Beta was heavily criticized as taking weeks to upload a library worth of songs.)
Google also opened up a Google Music store, similar to iTunes, which the company says will be driven by musical recommendations. There are two kind of recommendations up front in the store: First, recommendations from Google’s “music geeks” about what’s hot on the music scene; and second, a machine-listening recommendation engine, which analyzes your entire collection and suggests which songs and albums the user may enjoy. The Android Market’s new music store is already open.”
