News Stories
National Journal - Michael Catalini
Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra on Wednesday said lawmakers should consider every option to solve the fiscal cliff only to backtrack moments later by arguing against reforming Social Security or Medicare.
"Everything should be on the table. Period," said Becerra, the vice chairman of the Democratic caucus.
Bloomberg - Kathleen Hunter & Roxana Tiron
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein is among the executives scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama today. The president is seeking business support for his campaign to extend tax cuts for middle-income Americans while letting rates rise for top earners.
Washington Post - Aaron Blake
Much of the news coverage of the so-called “fiscal cliff” in recent days has focused on whether Republicans are willing to violate their Grover Norquist-sponsored pledge not to vote to raise taxes.
But what if the the Norquist pledge doesn’t even apply to the current situation?
Politico - Jonathan Allen
Republican Rep. Tom Cole urged colleagues in a private session Tuesday to vote to extend the Bush tax rates for all but the highest earners before the end of the year — and to battle over the rest later.
The Hill - Russell Berman
Meeting with his conference for the first time since the election, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday told his troops to settle in for a long battle over the “fiscal cliff.”
“Sit back, this is going to take a while,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said in characterizing Boehner’s message at the closed-door meeting.
TIME Magazine - Michael Grunwald
The thing about an Etch A Sketch is that the picture never looks real. Mitt Romney‘s attempt to draw one self-portrait for the Republican primaries and a different one for the general election left voters unconvinced that he knew who he was. So how could they?
The Hill - Pete Kasperowicz
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) is calling on Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to speed up the process of reforming the department's internal postal service to ensure that members of the U.S. armed forces get their absentee ballots on time.
Roll Call - Daniel Newhauser
The House Republican Conference might have more women in its upper ranks than ever next year, and several members of the freshman class are seeking to raise their profiles, but not before a slate of contested races decides the leadership landscape.