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!
May 10, 2013
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As Hispanic Vote Lags, Millions of Votes Left on the Table
By Reid Wilson, National JournalThe electorate that turned out in November to give President Obama a second term is nearly as diverse as the U.S. population at large, according to new data released by the Census Bureau this week. But the nation's fastest-growing minority group isn't experiencing the kind of explosive growth of political power that other ethnic groups have felt.
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GOP Senators’ Assault Shows Tough Path for Immigration Measure
By Ed O’Keefe and David Nakamura, Washington PostThe difficult road ahead for comprehensive immigration reform became more evident Thursday as Republican critics mounted a sustained assault on the legislation, demanding that it include considerably greater border security measures before legalizing any undocumented immigrants.
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May 09, 2013
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Dems: GOP Fails to Show Scandal in Benghazi Deaths
By Charles Babington, Associated Press
Politicians love few things better than a scandal to trip up their opponents, and Republicans hope last year's fatal attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya will do exactly that to Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democrats.
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Lawmakers Seek Public Support for Tax Overhaul
Susan Davis, USA TodayThe top two tax writers on Capitol Hill want to overhaul the federal tax code for the first time since 1986 and they are soliciting help from the public to help get it done.
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Economists See Deficit Emphasis as Impeding Recovery
By Jackie Calmes and Jonathan Weisman, The New York TimesThe nation’s unemployment rate would probably be nearly a point lower, roughly 6.5 percent, and economic growth almost two points higher this year if Washington had not cut spending and raised taxes as it has since 2011, according to private-sector and government economists.
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Deficit-Cutting: Not If, But When
With David Wessel, Wall Street Journal Watch more -
The Enemy Within
By James Kitfield, National JournalEvery Friday, on a grassy parade ground ringed by vintage warplanes, a freshly minted class of airmen takes the oath of duty and is officially “welcomed into the blue.” Young men and women who arrived at basic training as confused and frightened individuals seven weeks earlier march by the reviewing stand in precise formation. Nowhere is the U.S. military’s unique alchemy—turning unformed young citizens into a warrior fraternity—on clearer display.
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Inside The American Crossroads And Koch Post-Mortems
By Reid Wilson, National Journal's HotlineAt a ritzy California hotel two weeks ago, donors who had spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to defeat President Obama watched presentations from strategists tasked with illustrating why they had failed. The gathering had the atmosphere of a corporate retreat, where only the presenters wore suits. Everyone had a name tag, some pinned to T-shirts that read: "I'm a Koch Brother."
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May 08, 2013
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Paris, South Carolina
By John Dickerson, Slate Magazine
Mark Sanford's long walk has ended. From the South Carolina governor's office to the Appalachian Trail to Argentina and back, he has returned to win a seat in the House of Representatives. Political victory has redemptive powers and so Sanford now has a chance to write a new chapter in his personal history. Whatever may become of him in Washington, he has already changed the shape of Republican politics in South Carolina. The state that is home to Bob Jones University and where residents still resist removing the Confederate flag from over the state house is now defining the new standard for forgiving personal indiscretions.
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Ex-South Carolina Governor Sanford Beats Colbert Busch in Special House Election
By Karen Tumulty, The Washington PostThe conservative electorate of South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District voted Tuesday to resurrect the political career of disgraced former governor Mark Sanford (R) by returning him to his former House seat.
Sanford’s special-election race against Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, 58, a businesswoman and first-time candidate, took twists nearly right up to the last moments. But in the end, he cruised to an easy victory, winning 54 percent of the vote to Colbert Busch’s 45 percent.
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Internet Sales Tax Faces Hurdles in GOP House
By Susan Davis, USA TodayA bill to allow states to collect taxes from online sales cruised through the Senate Monday with bipartisan support, but the legislation faces a slower, more complicated path through the GOP-controlled House.
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May Is Make-or-Break Month for Congress, Obama
By Alexis Simendinger and Caitlin Huey-Burns, Real Clear PoliticsThe president’s second term began less than four months ago, and 2013 may still feel fresh with promise, but this month is zero hour for Congress and the White House: Before May is over, they will decide if the year goes out with a bang or a whimper.
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Obama's Plan to Avoid Lame-Duckery
By Doyle McManus, Los Angeles TimesFor the last two months, President Obama has been mired in Washington's inside game, caught up in backroom congressional politics as he tried unsuccessfully to pass a bill on gun control and nudge Republican senators toward compromise on the budget.
But do his losses mean, as some pundits suggest, that, four months into his second term, the president is already a lame duck?
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May 07, 2013
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New Worries for Democrats on Health Law
By Jackie Calmes, The New York Times
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As the administration struggles to put in place the final, complex piece of President Obama’s signature health care law, an endeavor on a scale not seen since Medicare’s creation nearly a half-century ago, Democrats are worried that major snags will be exploited by Republicans in next year’s midterm elections. -
Some Republicans Signal Willingness to Revive Gun Debate
By Ed O'Keefe, The Washington PostThe push for stricter gun laws may return to the forefront of the congressional agenda in the coming weeks as at least two Republican senators who voted against a bipartisan proposal to expand the national gun background check system have approached Democrats about possibly restarting debate on the issue, according to senior Senate aides familiar with the talks
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What’s Changed in the Fight for New Gun Laws
By Ed O'Keefe, The Washington Post
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Gun-control groups scored modest public relations victories last week as they engaged senators of both parties who voted against a bipartisan plan to expand the national gun background-check system. Activists pushed senators to explain their votes in public settings in their home states, part of a new campaign to keep the issue of gun-control alive as long as necessary — which could mean the midterm elections in 2014. -
The Heritage Foundation’s Argument on Immigration is Really About High School
By Jim Tankersley, The Washington Post
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The Heritage Foundation is out with a new report contending that illegal immigration imposes huge costs on U.S. taxpayers. You could easily read it as a treatise on Why Every American Kid Should Finish High School (And Then Keep Going). -
U.S. Turns Up Heat On Costly Commercial Cyber Theft In China
By Tom Gjelten, NPRAmerican companies that do business with China make good money. They also lose a lot of money there to cyberthieves, who routinely hack into the computers of the U.S. firms and steal their trade and technology secrets.
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U.S. Directly Blames China’s Military for Cyberattacks
By David Sanger, The New York TimesThe Obama administration on Monday explicitly accused China’s military of mounting attacks on American government computer systems and defense contractors, saying one motive could be to map “military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis.”
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Pentagon Assault Officer Charged With Sexual Battery
With Martha Raddatz, ABC NewsThe man in charge of Air Force sexual-assault prevention and response was arrested.
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