Essential Reads
Essential Reads is your one-stop source for the top stories of the day as reported by your favorite Washington Week panelists. It's a simple way to save time and stay informed about the news you need to know. Check it out every day!
Oct 31, 2011
-
The debt fallout: How Social Security went ‘cash negative’ earlier than expected
By Lori Montgomery, The Washington PostLast year, as a debate over the runaway national debt gathered steam in Washington, Social Security passed a treacherous milestone. It went “cash negative.” For most of its 75-year history, the program had paid its own way through a dedicated stream of payroll taxes, even generating huge surpluses for the past two decades. But in 2010, under the strain of a recession that caused tax revenue to plummet, the cost of benefits outstripped tax collections for the first time since the early 1980s.
Read more -
U.S. Seeks Aid from Pakistan in Peace Effort
By Eric Schmitt and David E. Sanger, The New York TimesJust a month after accusing Pakistan's spy agency of secretly supporting the Haqqani terrorist network, which has mounted attacks on Americans, the Obama administration is now relying on the same intelligence service to help organize and kick-start reconciliation talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan.
Read more -
U.S. Service Members Killed in Afghan Suicide Bomb Attack
By Nick Schifrin, Martha Raddatz, and Aleem Agha, ABC NewsAt least five NATO service members and eight civilian contractors, many believed to be American, were killed in Kabul today when a land cruiser with 1,500 pounds of explosives blew up next to an armored U.S. bus -- the deadliest attack on U.S. troops in the Afghan capital in 10 years of war.
Read more
Oct 28, 2011
-
More Than Luck: A veteran intelligence chief talks about finally connecting the dots.
By James Kitfield, National JournalIn a string of successful operations this year, U.S. counterterrorism forces have drawn a bead on the top tier of the terrorist hierarchy. They killed Qaida chief Osama bin Laden last May, and then Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, two top leaders in al-Qaida’s dangerous franchise in Yemen. Ten years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, U.S. officials seem to be accurately “connecting the dots” from terrorism plots back to the masterminds who hatched them. National Journal Senior Correspondent James Kitfield spoke recently with David Shedd, an intelligence veteran who is now deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, about what the recent successes say about post-9/11 intelligence reforms. Edited excerpts from the interview follow.
Read more -
Clause and effect: The business cycle matters when assessing the cost of new regulations
By The EconomistAmerican policymakers are pulling every lever they can to revive the economy, from fiscal stimulus to quantitative easing. The big exception has been regulatory policy. From environmental protection to bank oversight, the rule book has steadily thickened in recent years. Republican critics of Barack Obama think this explains America’s economic malaise. Scrap the rules, they claim, and the economy will spring to life. Nonsense, responds the Treasury. In a recent article, Jan Eberly, an assistant secretary for economic policy, scrutinised the behaviour of corporate-bond yields, corporate profits and other indicators. She found no evidence that regulatory uncertainty is holding businesses back from hiring or investment; weak demand is the big culprit.
Read more -
2012: What a Long, Dull Road It's been (So Far)
By Susan Davis, National JournalThe good folks at Pew Research Center put a data point on what most American already know: so far this presidential race has been dull. According to their latest poll, a majority, 51 percent, of Americans say the campaign has been "dull" while 35 percent say it has been "interesting." Fully half, 50 percent, say the campaign season is too long--and there's still more than a year to go.
Read more
.jpg)
-
White House turns the screws on Congress over 9 percent approval
By Sam Youngman, The HillA number of White House officials, sensing momentum on their side, blasted Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail, mocking recent measures and Congress's 9 percent approval rating.
Read more -
Super Committee & the Budget Debate
With John Harwood, CNBCThe Super Committee is just weeks away from having to decide on a massive new budget plan. CNBC's John Harwood has the details on whether Europe's deal has put more pressure on Congress to follow suit.
Watch
Oct 27, 2011
-
Taxpayers' Billions: Missing in Baghdad
With Eamon Javers, CNBCA report on the billions of dollars in cash, sent to Iraq from the New York Fed, are missing.
Read more -
Paul Ryan Slams Obama Over Economy, ‘Divisive Rhetoric’.
By Naftali Bendavid, Wall Street JournalRep. Paul Ryan delivered a blistering speech Wednesday criticizing President Barack Obama for dividing Americans and offering unworkable solutions to the country’s economic problems.
Read more -
Sneak Preview of Fall Attractions? Romney Visits NoVa
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalVirginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling thanked Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for taking “time away from his campaign’’ on Wednesday to come to this Washington, D.C., suburb, but the gratitude was certainly mutual. Sure, Romney offered a jolt of media exposure to the local and state candidates running on the Nov. 8 ballot who joined him at the party’s Fairfax County headquarters. But as the Republican front-runner himself pointed out, northern Virginia will undoubtedly be a battleground once again in the 2012 general election.
Read more -
Black Voters’ Support for Obama Is Steady and Strong
By Helene Cooper, New York TimesAbdul Malik seems the prototype of a disenchanted Barack Obama voter. Mr. Malik, 48, lost his job as a grading and landscape worker a year and a half ago, another victim of the housing bust. Since then, he has been searching for something, anything, to help make ends meet.
Read more
-
Economy, Politics Fan American Discontent
With David Wessel, Wall Street JournalThe 30% of Americans with four-year college degrees are less likely to be unemployed and make more money than the others, but they're just as pessimistic about the economy and the direction of the country. David Wessel explains on The News Hub.
Watch -
In Ohio, praise and questions for Herman Cain
By Dan Balz, Washington PostFirst impressions are important in politics, and no one has introduced himself better in the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination than businessman Herman Cain.
Read more
Oct 26, 2011
-
Inside Rick Perry's 20/20 Tax Plan
With John Harwood, CNBCA discussion of the Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry's tax reform plan.Watch -
Republican candidates offer a diverse set of economic plans
By Perry Bacon Jr. and Karen Tumulty, The Washington PostAt a moment when the fragility of the economy ranks at the top of American concerns, sharp differences have begun to emerge in how the leading GOP presidential contenders would solve the problem — illuminating not only a diversity in approach, but a striking contrast in the candidates’ governing philosophies.
Read more
.gif)
-
Obama Touts Two Lists: Campaign Promises Kept, and To-Do
By Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPoliticsPresident Obama is keeping his own report card, and gives himself an "incomplete." At multiple stops in California Monday and Tuesday while raising money for his campaign, the president told audiences that he keeps a list of his 2008 campaign promises in his desk drawer. "About once a week I take it out and make a check," he said Tuesday in San Francisco before heading off to Denver. He boasted that he has successfully tackled about 60 percent of that list in less than three years.
Read more -
Perry calls for sweeping tax cuts, benefit changes
By Charles Babington and Kasie Hunt, Associated PressRepublican presidential candidate Rick Perry proposed dramatic tax and spending changes Tuesday, saying he would let Americans choose between a 20 percent flat tax and the current system, allow private Social Security accounts and slash government spending and regulation.
Read more -
Romney Targeted in High-Dollar Ad Onslaught
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalFor now, the attacks on the Republican front-runner for president are mostly confined to snarky Internet videos, e-mails and Twitter posts. But the big-dollar war on Mitt Romney is coming, just as surely as winter. Millions of dollars raised by his Republican opponents and the so-called super PACS, as well as by groups on the extreme left and right of the political spectrum, will be hurled in his direction.
Read more -
Hard times: How the economic slowdown has changed consumer spending in America
By The EconomistAMERICANS are spending less on clothes and eating out and more on household fuel bills and healthcare, according to data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Between 2007 and 2010, average annual consumer spending per unit—defined as a family/shared household or single/financially independent person—fell by 3.1% to $48,109. Average prices over this period have risen by 5.2%, so real consumer spending has fallen by almost 8%.
Read more
