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!
Jan 07, 2013
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Rebound in Construction Hiring Offers Hope for Economy
By Jim Tankersley and By Ylan Q. Mui, The Washington PostAfter five years of hemorrhaging jobs, the construction industry has become one of the bright spots of the labor market — a hopeful sign that one of the most damaged sectors of the economy may finally be starting to heal.
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Jan 04, 2013
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If US Could Only Spend What It Gets In Taxes ...
With Eamon Javers, CNBC
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Cliff? What cliff?
By Greg Ip, EconomistIT HAS been a month of high drama on America's economic policy front as leaders in Washington grappled with the fiscal cliff. But not many people out in the real world seemed to care, and the economy has done just fine. Non-farm employment advanced 155,000, or 0.1%, in December from November, the federal government reported today.
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Boehner Re-Elected as House speaker
By Susan Davis, USA TodayHouse Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was re-elected to a second two-year term to lead a polarized Congress, which convened for the 113th session on Thursday. Debates on deficit reduction, immigration, and gun laws are on the agenda.
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Fiscal-Cliff Law by the Numbers
By David Wessel, Wall Street JournalIt took a while, but the budget bean-counters are beginning to come up with charts and tables to show the impact of the tax law (formally, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012) that Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed this week.
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Paul Ryan vs. Marco Rubio: The Politics of the Cliff Vote
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalLumped together as two of the youngest and brightest Republican stars, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida parted ways on the fiscal cliff, with votes that reflect divergent strategies for building their party and political futures.
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This is What Happens When You Cross Chris Christie
By Molly Ball, The AtlanticLate Tuesday night, House Republicans abruptly decided that nearly derailing the bipartisan fiscal-cliff deal was not enough of a public-relations disaster. Surely, they reasoned, there was a way they could look worse in this whole process. And so, at the last minute, they declined to consider the bill passed by the Senate to deliver billions in disaster relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy.
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Taliban Commander Maulvi Nazir Killed in US Drone Attack
With Martha Raddatz, ABC NewsMartha Raddatz reports on the attack on the Pakistan-Afghanistan boarder
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Jan 03, 2013
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4 Lessons for Round 2 of 'Fiscal Cliff' Fight
By Susan Davis, David Jackson, Richard Wolf and Susan Page, USA TodayThis fiscal cliff: averted.
Next fiscal cliff: ahead.
Partisan divisions and brinksmanship politics defined the outgoing Congress right up to the final scramble to avoid the "fiscal cliff." The last-ditch deal dodged income-tax hikes for nearly all Americans and delayed for two months spending cuts for the Pentagon and domestic programs.
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House GOP Under Fire
With Eamon Javers, CNBC
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Lawmakers Gird for Next Fiscal Clash, on the Debt Ceiling
By Jackie Calmes and Michael D. Shear, The New York TimesWith the resolution of the year-end fiscal crisis just hours old, the next political confrontation is already taking shape as this city braces for a fight in February over raising the nation’s borrowing limit. But it is a debate President Obama says he will have nothing more to do with.
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Business Leaders Say ‘Cliff’ Deal Won’t Ease Economic Uncertainty
By Jim Tankersley, The Washington PostA day after Congress managed to avert the fiscal cliff, business leaders warned that the agreement will hurt sales and hiring, won’t unlock investment and leaves the economy riddled with congressionally imposed land mines for months to come.
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Obama Taking Campaign-Style Approach to New Goals
By Alexis Simendinger, Real Clear PoliticsIn the thick of the fiscal cliff impasse Monday, even as a Senate agreement was hours from being a certainty, Republican lawmakers were chagrined to hear President Obama zoom beyond the tax battle to plant some partisan seeds for spring.
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Has the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Fight Changed How Washington Works?
By Karen Tumulty and Peter Wallsten, The Washington PostAs ugly as they were, the “fiscal cliff” negotiations produced something Washington hadn’t seen in a long time: strongly bipartisan votes in the House and the Senate on a big, contentious issue.
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Jan 02, 2013
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Divided GOP House Approves Senate 'Fiscal Cliff' Plan
By Susan Davis and David Jackson, USA Today
A divided Republican House passed the Senate's "fiscal cliff" agreement Tuesday night, following a tense day of GOP protests that the plan does not do enough to rein in federal spending.
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Congress Passes Cliff Deal
By Janet Hook, Siobhan Hughes, and Corey Boles, Wall Street JournalCongress broke a rancorous stalemate Tuesday to pass legislation designed to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. But the compromise bill, which blocked most impending tax increases and postponed spending cuts largely by raising taxes on upper-income Americans, left a host of issues unresolved and guaranteed continued budget clashes between the parties.
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On the Left, Seeing Obama Giving Away Too Much, Again
By Peter Baker, The New York TimesFor President Obama, the fiscal deal passed by Congress on Tuesday finally ends four years of debate with Republicans about raising tax rates on the wealthy. But it seemed to reopen a debate within his party about the nature of his leadership and his skills as a negotiator.
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Gun-Control Converts Could Pave Way to New Laws
By Fawn Johnson and Alex Roarty, National JournalSen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., does not shy away from the “pro-gun Democrat” label. He has a B-plus rating with the National Rifle Association, a score docked only because he supported the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, and he represents a state with a strong hunting tradition.
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The Perils of Political Punditry
By Doyle McManus, Los Angeles TimesBack in 2011, at the dawn of a long presidential campaign, I established a fine baseline for my credentials as a political prognosticator: I told readers that Mitt Romney's strongest challengers for the Republican nomination would be Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
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Dec 28, 2012
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Cliff Talks Down to the Wire
By Janet Hook and Carol E. Lee, Wall Street JournalCongress and the White House took small steps toward breaking the budget impasse Thursday, but Democrats and Republicans grew increasingly fearful they won't be able to avert the tax increases and spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff, a prospect that is unnerving consumers and investors.
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