Democracy
TOP NEWS: Democracy: July 9, 2012
- Obama Poised for New Fight With G.O.P. Over Tax Cuts
- Romney outraised Obama in June
- Romney’s offshore accounts draw more fire
- Boehner: ‘People Probably Won’t Fall in Love With Romney’
- Tax-Exempt Groups Shield Political Gifts of Businesses
Excerpts and More Top Stories
TAXES: Obama Poised for New Fight With G.O.P. Over Tax Cuts
Mark Landler, NY Times – With a torpid job market and a fragile economy threatening his re-election chances, President Obama is changing the subject to tax fairness, calling for a one-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for people making less than $250,000.
ELECTIONS 2012: Romney outraised Obama in June, $106 million to $71 million
Aaron Blake, Washington Post - Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign outraised President Obama by $35 million in June, pulling in $106 million to the incumbent president’s $71 million, according to numbers announced by the campaigns Monday.
ELECTIONS 2012: On Tricky Terrain of Class, Contrasting Paths
Richard W. Stevenson, NY Times – The complex and fraught politics of wealth and class, undercurrents all along in the race between President Obamaand Mitt Romney, are surfacing in increasingly visible ways in the presidential campaign, presenting big risks and opportunities to both sides.
ELECTIONS 2012: Boehner: ‘People Probably Aren’t Going to Fall in Love With Romney’
Daniel Lippman, WSJ - House Speaker John Boehner offered an unusually candid reply when an attendee at a recent GOP fundraiser asked, “Can you make me love Mitt Romney?”
ELECTIONS 2012: GOP unnerved by Democrats’ candid camera techniques
Alex Isenstadt, POLITICO – While most serious campaigns on both sides use campaign trackers — staffers whose job is to record on video every public appearance and statement by an opponent — House Democrats are taking it to another level. They’re now recording video of the homes of GOP congressmen and candidates and posting the raw footage on the Internet for all to see.
ELECTIONS 2012: Romney’s offshore accounts draw more fire
Callum Borchers, Boston Globe – Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs suggested Sunday that Romney might have broken the law; at a minimum, Democrats say, Romney is guilty of secrecy and of betting against the country he aspires to govern.
ELECTIONS 2012: Mitt’s Gray Areas
Paul Krugman, NY Times, Opinion – Once upon a time a rich man named Romney ran for president. He could claim, with considerable justice, that his wealth was well-earned, that he had in fact done a lot to create good jobs for American workers. Nonetheless, the public understandably wanted to know both how he had grown so rich and what he had done with his wealth; he obliged by releasing extensive information about his financial history.
ELECTIONS 2012: Romney Mines the Hamptons for Campaign Cash
Michael Barbaro and Sarah Wheaton, NY Times – Mr. Romney arrived around noon for the first of three major fund-raisers on Sunday afternoon, his motorcade of Chevrolet Suburbans bypassing a line of gleaming Bentleys, Porsches and Mercedes-Benzes waiting to deposit guests paying up to $25,000 a head to hear him speak.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Tax-Exempt Groups Shield Political Gifts of Businesses
Mike McIntire and Nicholas Confessore, NY Times – Two years after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision opened the door for corporate spending on elections, relatively little money has flowed from company treasuries into “super PACs,” which can accept unlimited contributions but must also disclose donors. Instead, there is growing evidence that large corporations are trying to influence campaigns by donating money to tax-exempt organizations that can spend millions of dollars without being subject to the disclosure requirements that apply to candidates, parties and PACs.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Democrats to Ask for Curbs on Donor-Shielding Groups
Jonathan Weisman, NY Times – The Democratic Party’s Senate campaign arm will file a formal complaint on Monday with the Federal Election Commission against three of the Republicans’ biggest campaign groups, accusing them of willful violations of federal election law and asking that their electioneering be stopped.
HEALTHCARE: The Future of the Affordable Care Act: Uncertain, At Best
Kate Pickert, TIME - If Mitt Romney is elected President and Republicans emerge from this year’s elections with majorities in both houses of Congress, most experts agree that they could repeal huge swaths of the health care law via reconciliation, the parliamentary process that allowed Democrats to push health care reform over the finish line in 2010 without a supermajority in the Senate.
HEALTHCARE: Obama’s 4 major ACA hurdles to go
Tom Daschle, Politico – The ACA decision gave the Affordable Care Act greater legitimacy and political standing. Yet four major additional hurdles must still be overcome before President Barack Obama and his administration can consider themselves clear of danger. Like the legal hurdle, these too, if not successfully addressed, could substantially undermine the law’s future viability.
CONGRESS: Healthcare repeal, small-business tax cuts and voting records smashed: 5 things to watch this week in Congress
Ed O’Keefe, Washington Post - Congress will return to Washington after a week-long recess and plans to work through July on a series of measures never expected to earn President Obama’s signature. And that’s just how the two political parties want it.
POLL: Majority of voters believe Obama has changed country for worse
Sheldon Alberts - A new poll for The Hill found 56% of likely voters believe Obama’s first term has transformed the nation in a negative way, compared to 35% who believe the country has changed for the better under his leadership.
POLL: Swing states poll: Amid barrage of ads, Obama has edge
Susan Page, USA TODAY - At this point, Obama is the clear winner in the ad wars. Among swing-state voters who say the ads have changed their minds about a candidate, rather than just confirmed what they already thought, 76% now support the president, vs. 16% favoring Romney.
MILITARY BUDGET: Military Cuts Loom as Late Campaign Issue
Patrick O’Connor, WSJ - For all the focus on the unemployment rate, the layoffs that could most complicate President Barack Obama’s re-election prospects wouldn’t take effect until early next year. Unless Congress and the White House reach a compromise, the Pentagon would have to slash roughly $50 billion more from the current fiscal-year budget in January. That prospect of wide layoffs could undercut Mr. Obama in battleground states heavily dependent on military spending, particularly Virginia.
