Saturday opinion.
NY Times:
They have been foes and they have been, kind of, friends. And on Friday afternoon, President Obama and former President Bill Clinton walked unexpectedly into the White House briefing room for a news conference that was part surreal flashback, part one-two political punch.
Marc Ambinder:
How did things get so bad so quickly?
After House Democrats took a voice vote against the tax-cut deal that President Obama brokered with congressional Republicans, White House officials and Democratic House leaders tried to play down the rebuke, pledging to continue negotiating until they got it right.
But the vote was ugly, a harbinger of what may be many more to come.
Charlie Cook:
Given the pervasive lack of trust between congressional Republicans and Democrats, it’s not at all clear whether the tax-cut deal is a sign of more compromises to come. Lawmakers tell me they would like to strike some bargains to address the nation’s big problems, but they are reluctant to gamble that the other side will negotiate in good faith.
Liberals seem myopically focused on the fact that a group they hate—the rich—will achieve some benefit from the tax-cut agreement. What many of them fail to appreciate is that the benefits of the deal are real and immediate for many working families. If placating Republicans was the price to pay, so be it.
Dunno about the "hate the rich" part, but the mistrust is certainly real.
Charles M. Blow:
As we begin inevitably wrangling over budget cuts and other austerity measures, we must not lose sight of the plight of the most vulnerable among us — the ones who have little say and few choices: the nation’s poorest children.
The gap between those children and the rest of our children is already unacceptably wide, and it can’t afford to get wider. In fact, a report entitled "The Children Left Behind," released by Unicef last Friday, examined inequality in well-being on a wide range of measures among children in 24 of the world’s richest countries. America’s rankings were among the worst.
Wanting to address that does not mean hating the rich.
Gail Collins:
I know you’ve been worried.
The Tulsa City Council has voted to allow the parade to go forward Saturday night, despite protests against the disappearance of the word "Christmas" from its name.
It’s not entirely clear that the council actually could have stopped it, or even whether the parade ever officially had Christmas in its name. But Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma is outraged.
CNN:
The Congressional Budget Office released its score Friday on the tax plan hammered out between Republicans and President Barack Obama, showing a $893 billion hit on the deficit over the next five years.
The bulk of the deficit increase comes from loss of revenue -- $756 billion -- with the rest coming from additional direct outlays.
The 13-month extension of unemployment benefits adds less than $57 billion to the deficit.
The highest price item is the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, which will add more than $400 billion to the deficit, followed by the payroll tax holiday at about $225 billion.
So where are the deficit peacocks?