At ThinkProgress Alex Zielinski’s “Republicans Advance Strategy To Get Around Senate Democrats To Dismantle Obamacare” reveals that GOP leaders are planning to leverage the budget reconciliation process “to get around a potential Democratic filibuster in the Senate.”
Democratic presidential candidate Gov. Martin O’Malley unveils bold plan for campaign finance reform.
Politico’s Theodoric Meyer and Kenneth P. Vogel note that “Some of the country’s biggest liberal donors are quietly huddling this week with Democratic state lawmakers in Washington, preparing a nationwide fight to take back state legislatures from Republicans. The closed-door meetings represent a milestone for the young group orchestrating the fight, the State Innovation Exchange — or SiX for short. The group appears on track to outraise previous efforts to push liberal polices in the states and is looking to generate more cash and momentum.”
In “Will the Supreme Court Decide That Democrats Have Too Much Power?,” The Atlantic’s Garrett Epps explores the possible fallout of three upcoming High Court cases.
Paul Krugman clarifies the differences on tax policy and deficit spending between the GOP presidential candidates: “So Donald Trump has unveiled his tax plan. It would, it turns out, lavish huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit…This is in contrast to Jeb Bush’s plan, which would lavish huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit, and Marco Rubio’s plan, which would lavish huge cuts on the wealthy while blowing up the deficit.” Yet, adds Krugman, “According to Gallup, only 13 percent of Americans believe that upper-income individuals pay too much in taxes, while 61 percent believe that they pay too little. Even among self-identified Republicans, those who say that the rich should pay more outnumber those who say they should pay less by two to one.”
At Talking Points Memo Tierney Sneed reports “Alabama Demands Voter ID–Then Closes Driver’s License Offices In Black Counties.”
It appears that the aura of failure is taking a toll on Scott Walker’s hopes for a third term as Wisconsin’s governor. “A new Marquette Law School poll released yesterday gives the Republican [Gov. Scott] Walker 37-percent approval, two points lower than his all-time low of 39-percent in August. T,” reports WSAU.com.
NYT columnist David Brooks spotlights Carly Fiorina’s messaging strategy: “In such a giant field of candidates what matters most is the ability to grab the spotlight. The era of YouTube and FaceTime video links has further magnified the power of a candidate who can create significant moments. Fiorina is great at it, perfectly suited to this environment…She can go on MSNBC or some other outlet and bludgeon a host with a barrage of forcefully delivered bullet points, which then goes viral. When challenged on the accuracy or fairness of her assertions, she blasts straight through…And yet for all her feisty outsider bravado, if you actually look at her views on substance and her behavior in the past, she is a completely conventional Republican…stylistically she is a renegade outsider, but substantively she’s completely establishmentarian.”
From “The Decider” to “The Disrupter.”