Staffers in this White House in particular float trial balloons on a continual basis on virtually every issue of importance to gauge public response, and the whole point of that exercise is to actually respond to it rather than not take it seriously. And if that’s the case, and the eligibility age conversation represented a trial balloon, I think we can say it’s been effectively and efficiently popped. Because over the weekend, Dick Durbin, perhaps the closest US Senator to the White House, criticized the idea.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who has almost become the liaison to the left for cuts to federal health care programs in the grand bargain, gave a speech today at the Center for American Progress that included a couple important points: • Durbin sequenced the provisions of the deal, saying that Republicans would have to build [...]

I again think gridlock is the best ally of anyone who would rather not see a bad deal on social insurance put together. Clearly Democrats are dying to knife their base. What’s more, gridlock would put Democrats in a better position, particularly on taxes, because of what automatically results after January.

The big story I’m supposed to chase today concerns Republican legislative figures distancing themselves from the Grover Norquist pledge, opening the door a crack to increases in tax revenue. This is really a Washington process story about lobbying power rather than a legitimate policy evolution, however. Who are these rebels, anyway? Here’s a roster. You [...]

Here’s some additional analysis of Chuck Schumer’s big speech to the National Press Club that really disrupted any effort to put together a grand bargain on tax and fiscal policy issues. Here’s the key point: Schumer said tax reform should be rooted in three principles: First, reduce tax deductions and loopholes while protecting those most [...]

Paul Krugman looked past the election yesterday and toward its aftermath, framing the election as a referendum on the social safety net and warning Democrats not to take the wrong lesson. Here’s the reason he felt the need to do that. Jonathan Weisman’s lead story in today’s New York Times puts together the three-stage process [...]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his top lieutenant Chuck Schumer joined 29 Senate Democrats in all, pledging to oppose any cuts to Social Security inside a broader deficit package. Several model deficit reduction packages, like the Bowles-Simpson recommendations, included cuts to Social Security benefits in the form of changing the calculation of the cost [...]

Above is an ad put together by Republicans to commemorate the reaching of $16 trillion in overall debt, a figure that’s supposed to frighten the public. It very skillfully uses President Obama’s debt trolling against him, including his invocation of debt being “irresponsible” and his worry about “lack of confidence” wrecking the economy if the [...]

Just to follow up on this tax return issue that is playing havoc with Mitt Romney’s Presidential campaign, it turns out that the returns he claimed to have fully disclosed were not fully disclosed: Mitt Romney has not released his full tax records from 2010, including key documentation connected to his Swiss bank account [...] [...]

There’s still been nary a peep from Congress on deals on the two major expiring measures that conclude at the end of the week, one on transportation funding and another on federal student loan interest rates. All we know is that Harry Reid has threatened to keep the Senate in session over the weekend to [...]

For reasons only he and his producers can fathom, NBC’s Meet the Press host, David Gregory, thought it would be edifying to feature a debate about the economy and budget issues between two men who don’t have a clue about how to help the economy and who differ only in degree about how much Congress [...]