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Obama Jokes About Biden's Costco Run

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“I told him he has too much work to do and I wasn't going to have him building roller coasters,” Obama jokes at K'Nex factory. Warns Republicans that “I’ve been keeping my own naughty and nice list in Washington.”

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White House Surprised That Republicans Were Surprised By Fiscal Cliff Plan

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“This is the approach that garnered the President a lot of support in the election”.

HATFIELD, Penn. — A White House spokesman expressed shock Frida that Republicans were shocked by the administration's proposal to solve the fiscal cliff.

"There was nothing included in those discussions that would surprise you," spokesman Josh Earnest express told reporters about Air Force One, when asked if the White House would release the proposal which got Republicans riled up on Thursday when presented to the congressional leadership by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. "I was surprised they [GOP] were surprised...There is no reason for anybody to be surprised."

Earnest reiterated that the election gave Obama leverage to ask to raise taxes on the rich.

"This is the approach that garnered the president a lot of support in the election," he said, saying that also means Republicans are at odds with the American people.

Earnest would not go into detail on Obama's plans to reform entitlements, but said it included $100 billion in savings from medicare prescriptions drug purchases, and from means testing the program for wealthier Americans.

The Republicans' Other Internal Numbers Predicted Defeat

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Romney was reportedly shocked that his internal numbers were proven wrong on Election Day. Left out of that narrative: Alex Gage's maps.

Romney emerges from backstage to concede the election.

Image by Stephan Savoia / AP

If Mitt Romney really was surprised by his defeat on Election Day, it might have been because he ignored the projections of one of his longest-serving number-crunchers.

Countless campaign post-mortems in the press since Nov. 6 have depicted the candidate and his top advisers as genuinely shocked that they lost the election. The campaign's internal polling — first reported by CNN's Peter Hamby, and detailed today by The New Republic's Noam Scheiber — showed Romney winning in virtually every key battleground state.

But Romney lost them all, save North Carolina.

"I'm not sure what the answer is," puzzled Romney pollster Neil Newhouse told Scheiber, who went on to explain how the campaign had been too reliant on voters' self-reported enthusiasm and inaccurately predicted the demographic composition of the electorate.

This narrative of Republican surprise serves elements of the post-election agenda of Romney's circle — it underscores their argument that they weren't deceiving the press and donors — but it leaves out an important fact: A longtime Romney adviser was circulating a second, rival set of numbers that showed President Obama winning with "over 300" electoral votes, one person who saw them told BuzzFeed.

Alex Gage, the Republican targeting expert who compiled the projections, was not working directly for the campaign. But he was hardly an outsider: Gage began advising Romney in 2002, and his wife, Katie Packer Gage, was Romney's deputy campaign manager in 2012. Prominent Republicans close to the campaign circulated his numbers, though a top aide denied having seen them.

And on the afternoon of Election Day, Gage e-mailed a "best case" scenario map that had Romney winning by just two electoral votes— but losing Colorado, Iowa, and a slew of other battleground states, many of which the Romney team swore to the bitter end that they were going to win.

A source forwarded Gage's "best case" map to BuzzFeed. Gage did not respond to requests for comment.

An adviser's "best case" scenario for Romney

An adviser's "best case" scenario for Romney

Gage gained fame in GOP circles for his data savvy in 2004, when he helped George W. Bush win reelection by applying private-sector marketing techniques to campaign micro-targeting. But he had already helped Romney become governor of Massachusetts with a similarly sophisticated approach, earning the admiration of the venture-capitalists-turned-politicos running Romney's campaign. When Romney threw his hat in the ring in 2007, Gage was quick to sign on.

He wasn't on the Romney campaign's payroll this time around, and a senior campaign strategist told BuzzFeed he had "never seen [Gage's numbers] or heard any reference to it."

But outside Republicans who saw Gage's projections marveled at the campaign's insistence that they had no idea what was coming, and one shared the charts with BuzzFeed on the condition of anonymity as a challenge to what has become the post-election conventional wisdom.


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Obama Warns Of "Scrooge Christmas" If Congress Doesn't Act On Fiscal Cliff

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Tax increases are “a lump of coal,” he says in Hatfield, PA.

Source: youtube.com

Florida Threw Out Christian Slater's Vote

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Slater!

Via: @ChristianSlate4

Christian Slater really tried to vote in the election this year, but Florida turned him down. The Hollywood star tweeted his travails at the polling place on Election Day from his verified account, and today briefly posted and then deleted a picture of the rejection letter that Florida sent to him — misspelling his name "Christina D. Slater." Republicans in Florida enacted controversial laws making it more difficult to vote this year.

Via: @ChristianSlate4

UPDATE (1:30 p.m.): After this story was published, Slater deleted the two tweets that contained photographs of the letter.


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John McCain Has Same Iranian Business Investments As Susan Rice

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The likely next Secretary of State's leading critic can't fault her on this one.

Image by Jason Reed / Reuters

Republicans aimed criticism at U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice Thursday for having modest stakes in companies that did business with Iran. And while the revelation has driven new questions and fodder for those opposing her nomination as secretary of state, one of Rice's most vocal critics, Senator John McCain, maintains investments in two of the same companies -- ENI and Royal Dutch Shell --through funds revealed in his financial disclosures.

McCain holds stock holds between $1,000-$15,000 in the JPMorgan International Value Fund through his spouse, according to his 2011 financial disclosure form. 3.6% of the fund is currently invested in Royal Dutch Shell, the dutch oil company which owes Iran more than $1 billion in oil payments.

Also through his wife, McCain holds additional investment valued between $1,000-$15,000 in the T. Rowe Price Overseas Stock Fund. One of the fund's ten largest holdings is also in Royal Dutch Shell.

In addition to Royal Dutch Shell, 2.9% of the JPMorgan International Value Fund's investment are in the Italian international oil company ENI. While ENI has stated it no longer does business with Iran, the company has a waiver from sanctions to collect more than $1 billion Iran owes them through pre-sanctions deals.

11 Pictures Explaining What's Going On With Gay Couples At The Supreme Court

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There is a lot happening . The legal arguments and the stakes in 11 easy pieces.

On Friday, the nine justices met to decide whether they will hear cases challenging the federal definition of marriage in the Defense of Marriage Act, California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex couples marrying and more.

On Friday, the nine justices met to decide whether they will hear cases challenging the federal definition of marriage in the Defense of Marriage Act, California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex couples marrying and more.

Addressing marriage rights, the way the federal government treats married couples and the way the law treats gay, lesbian and bisexual people generally, these cases are important. "These are the most significant cases these nine Justices have ever considered, and probably that they will ever decide," SCOTUSblog's Tom Goldstein wrote on Friday.

Image by Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

They almost certainly will hear at least one of the DOMA cases, like Edith Windsor's challenge, because two federal appeals courts have said the law is unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court will want to resolve that inconsistency.

They almost certainly will hear at least one of the DOMA cases, like Edith Windsor's challenge, because two federal appeals courts have said the law is unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court will want to resolve that inconsistency.

Image by Richard Drew, File / AP

The justices also could hear the challenge to California's Proposition 8 brought by the American Foundation for Equal Rights, but it also could do two other things.

The justices also could hear the challenge to California's Proposition 8 brought by the American Foundation for Equal Rights, but it also could do two other things.

It could deny the appeal, which would put into effect the appeals court decision striking down the initiative and allow same-sex couples to resume marrying in the state, or it could hold the case until it reaches a decision on DOMA.

Image by Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has asked the court to hear an appeal of a decision stopping the state from enforcing a new law that would end domestic partner benefits for state employees. Same-sex couples sued and won below.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has asked the court to hear an appeal of a decision stopping the state from enforcing a new law that would end domestic partner benefits for state employees. Same-sex couples sued and won below.

Image by Darryl Webb / Reuters


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Boehner Says Talks Have Hit "Stalemate"

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It's not just posturing, Speaker John Boehner says. “Let’s not kid ourselves.”

Image by Win McNamee / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner said Friday that fiscal cliff negotiations have stalled and that a week of on-and-off talks and noisy political maneuverings by both sides have achieved no results.

"There’s a stalemate," Boehner told reporters in a press conference after President Barack Obama's speech. “Let’s not kid ourselves.”

Later, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she hoped Boehner did not mean talks were indeed in a "stalemate." "Maybe that's a figure of speech," she suggested.

"We all know what is at stake here," Pelosi added. "So why are we stalling? … I don't know what the wait is for." The minority leader said she will try to push the middle-class tax cut extension to the House floor for a vote next week, which would require a petition.

Since Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner presented the administration's initial offer to congressional leaders Thursday, Republicans have panned the proposal, calling it "inadequate" and "not serious."

On Friday, Boehner insisted that those comments weren't simply political posturing, as some Democrats have charged. Boehner also indicated that Republicans remain open to further negotiation.

“Republicans are not seeking to impose our will on the president,” he said.

Discussions are hung up on many of the same issues that have provoked partisan bickering for weeks: Whether to raise rates for the top 2% of American taxpayers; by how much to cut entitlements; and whether to raise the debt limit as part of the fiscal cliff package.

Boehner said that “sooner is better than later” for a fiscal cliff deal, but the speaker would not specify a deadline by which talks must conclude. He has remained in touch with the president, he said, most recently during a 30-minute phone call Wednesday.

Meanwhile, House Democratic leaders defended the president against Republican attacks.

"The president has put forth a very specific offer," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said earlier Friday. "It doesn’t mean (Republicans) have to like the offer.”

"I don't think it's an ending point," Hoyer added, referring to the president's plan. "This is a democratic process."


Harry Reid's Many 2005 Press Releases Against Reforming The Filibuster

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The now-Majority Leader's old statements are no longer available on his website. Then, Democrats were in the minority and relying on the Senate requirement of 60 votes to pass legislation.


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No Word From Supreme Court On Gay Rights' Cases

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No action from the Supreme Court Friday on cases involving same-sex couples' marriage rights. News could come Monday, but that looks unlikely.

Thom Watson (right) and Jeff Tabaco kiss as they hold paperwork for a marriage license in California on Aug. 12, 2010, in San Francisco.

Image by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court took no action Friday on the closely watched cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act or California's Proposition 8.

After a day in which the court was scheduled to consider 10 different petitions addressing same-sex couples' relationship claims, an order posted on the Supreme Court's website about 3:30 p.m. added two new cases to the court's docket — but made no reference to any of the cases challenging DOMA or the challenge to Proposition 8 or an Arizona law rescinding domestic partner benefits for state employees.

Because the court did announce two new cases in which it granted certiorari, it is unlikely that the court will announce any other new grants, as they are called, on Monday when it would be expected to issue its order list from Friday's conference. As noted by SCOTUSblog, the "[f]ailure to act on [the marriage-related cases] today prob[ably] means [the Supreme Court] needs time to work out which case(s) to take."

If that is so, the justices are next scheduled to meet in conference to consider new cases on Dec. 7.

Others have noted that other reasons, such as a justice writing a dissent to whatever decision was made about hearing or not hearing one of the couples' rights cases, could be the reason for the lack of any news on Friday.

Republicans Take Tentative First Step On Immigration Reform

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“They are saying my father was too stupid to make it. And I resent it,” says Rep. Luis Gutierrez of narrow bill aimed at higher education graduates.

Image by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — House Republicans hailed passage of a narrowly crafted immigration bill benefiting high-tech master's and PhD degree students, arguing a piecemeal approach to the thorny issue is the only way forward.

The so-called “STEM bill,” which lifts requirements that foreign students leave the country once their degree programs are completed, has virtually no chance of becoming law: President Obama has said he wants to tackle immigration in a comprehensive manner and activists have opposed the measure.

Still, it makes clear that Republicans will embrace the issue in the 113th Congress and provides a preview of the economic arguments Republicans will make in pressing for reforms to the immigration system.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor praised the bill, insisting that expanding via opportunities is a key part of encouraging the economic recovery.

The bill is “directly related to getting the economy going again,” Cantor argued, saying the government should encourage higher education students “to stay in this country … [rather than] be forced to go back to their home countries and compete with us.”

Rep. Mario Dias Balart called the bill the “first step in fixing our broken immigration system … it’s immigration and economic recovery in one step.”

“This is the beginning of what we’re going to do for the next two years on immigration,” said Idaho Republican Rep. Raul Labrador.

Rep. Darryl Issa, who will serve on the Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee next year, argued that it has become clear over his dozen years in Congress that comprehensive reforms will prove impossible.

“Doing everything allowed somebody to not like some part of everything,” he said. “We need to break up the elephant into bite size pieces.”

“The Democrats had two years to do something on immigration reform,”
Labrador noted, insisting the failures for a lack of progress rests with Democrats. “Every time we get close to them they try to move the goal posts.”

Whether an economic-themed piecemeal approach can succeed, however, remains unclear.

Aside from a certain subset of workers in agriculture, the thorniest problems facing Congress are not how to make it easier for immigrants in the country legally to remain, but rather what to do with the estimated 13 million illegal workers.

Even reforms to the agriculture visa program would only go so far — Issa estimated proposed changes favored by Republicans could bring some one million workers “out of the shadows” and into the system.

But that leaves some 12 million others. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Obama administration, and activists alike appear dead set on implanting some sort of pathway to citizenship for those persons, and there is little trust amongst those groups that Republicans will tackle that outside a comprehensive framework.

But the climate has grown so toxic, even bills like the STEM measure have become a hotbed for partisan fighting.

Pointing to narrow restrictions on families of immigrants, incoming CHC Chairman Luis V. Gutierrez Friday slammed the legislation, and Republicans.

“That is not America. There was no special line for PhDs and master's degree holders at Ellis Island. There was not an asterisk on the Statue of Liberty that said your IQ must be this high to enter,” said Gutierrez, the son of an immigrant.

“They are saying my father was too stupid to make it. And I resent it. But he put two kids through college and one in the House of Representatives.”

Eight Presidents With Cats

Daughter Of Uzbek Dictator Loses It On Twitter

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Gulnara Karimova, glamorous business magnate and aspiring pop star, attacks a critic's “fat ass.”

Image by Yves Forestier / Getty Images

Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the iron-fisted president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, is known for her glamourous look and sideline as pop star "Googoosha," as well as her questionable business dealings and connections to organized crime.

Karimova maintains an active social media presence, and used it on Thursday and Friday to attack her critics. She was set off by a fake Twitter account, @realbooboosha, which she quickly blocked, and became irritated when people noticed.

A handful of academics and activists got involved in the back and forth, finding themselves in Karimova's crosshairs.


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A First: Pennsylvania State Rep. Mike Fleck Comes Out

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“I’m still the exact same person and I’m still a Republican … The only difference now is that I will also be doing so as honestly as I know how,” the Republican Pennsylvania lawmaker said.

Via: politicspa.com

Pennsylvania now has an out LGBT lawmaker — a few weeks earlier than expected.

"Coming out is hard enough, but doing it in the public eye is definitely something I never anticipated," Pennsylvania state Rep. Mike Fleck said to the Huntingdon Daily News in a groundbreaking interview. "I’m still the exact same person and I’m still a Republican and, most importantly, I’m still a person of faith trying to live life as a servant of God and the public. The only difference now is that I will also be doing so as honestly as I know how."

Via: repfleck.com

Raised in a religious family, Fleck believed that homosexuality was a choice.

"I wanted to live a ‘normal’ life and raise a family," Fleck said. “I also believed that by marrying, I was fulfilling God’s will and I thought my same-sex attraction would simply go away."

Fleck, who was also an executive director for Boy Scouts of America, felt compelled to stay in the closet even though he knew he was gay. "[M]y livelihood depended on hiding my true sexual orientation, something I was very good at."

But after struggling to reconcile his sexual orientation with his religion, he was finally able to be honest to himself and therefor honest to those around him.

"Through years of counseling, I’ve met a lot of gay Christians who have tried hard to change their God-given sexual orientation, but at the end of the day, I know of none who’ve been successful," he said. "They’ve only succeeded at repressing their identity, only to have it reappear time and time again and always wreaking havoc not only on themselves, but especially on their family."

Now, Fleck is Pennsylvania's first out LGBT lawmaker. He stressed, though, that his politics have not changed and that he is still the same politician his voters reelected to represent them.

"I don’t see anything changing in my life, I don’t see my voting pattern changing," Fleck said. "I just want to do my very best for the 81st District. I’m just trying to be authentic and I do owe it to my constituency to do that."

Fleck's full, personal account can be read at PAPolitics.com.

His decision to come out now comes on the heels of the election of Brian Sims to the state House as well. Sims ran as an out candidate and was expected to become the first out member of the state's legislature when he takes office, but now will be the legislature's second out gay lawmaker, joining Fleck.


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Women Marry At West Point Chapel, First Same-Sex Couple To Wed There

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A little more than a year after “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” ended, one of its key opponents weds her longtime partner at the U.S. Military Academy, her alma mater.

Via: facebook.com

Brenda Sue Fulton and Penelope Gnesin married today at the U.S. Military Academy's Cadet Chapel at West Point — the first wedding of a same-sex couple to take place at the chapel.

Fulton graduated from West Point in 1980 and was appointed to serve on the Board of Visitors of the institution, the first out member of the advisory board.

"We had always said that we wanted to get married in New Jersey," Fulton told USA Today, which first reported the news. Of her and her partner of 17 years, though, she said, "we didn't want to wait any longer" and married in New York, particularly because Gnesim is a breast cancer survivor and suffers from multiple sclerosis.

The wedding happened a little more than a year after the military policy banning out lesbian, gay and bisexual service known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" came to an end. Although House Republicans have passed legislation in recent years banning same-sex couples from marrying on military property, the Senate Democratic majority and Obama administrations have opposed them, preventing such provisions from becoming law.

Fulton has been a leading figure in the long fight for out LGBT service. She is a founder of KnightsOut, the organization of West Point alumni supporting LGBT servicemembers, and is on the board of directors of the recently merged national organization addressing the topic, OutServe-SLDN.

Via: facebook.com


Republicans Go To Obama School

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At Harvard, GOP staffers sit at Axelrod's feet. “We weren't even running in the same race.”

Source: pics.lockerz.com  /  via: @jmartpolitico

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Demoralized Republicans arrived in Boston Wednesday night for a rare moment in American politics: They came to learn from Democrats.

Barack Obama's campaign schooled Mitt Romney’s in November, something of which the Republicans who gathered at the quadrennial, off-the-record Harvard Institute of Politics Campaign Managers Conference were intensely aware. And while the proceedings of the event are under embargo until the institute releases audio transcripts of the proceedings, some participants shared their reactions.

“We got our butts kicked, so I’m going to school,” said the manager of one 2012 Republican presidential campaign on his way into the sessions on Thursday morning, held in a cozy university conference space.

One Romney aide tried to convince Obama digital director Teddy Goff to join forces with Zac Moffatt, who ran Romney's digital efforts.

The evening-and-a-day conference is the tenth in a 40-year tradition of analyzing winning and losing campaigns. It is, the Institute says, convened “in an effort to allow future candidates, managers, journalists and scholars to better understand the nature of modern presidential campaigns. This year, the line between students and teachers is clear. The Obama team spent much of the morning at the Charles Hotel, and skipped the session at which Romney aides and their Republican primary opponents discussed the bitter nominating process, trading strategies and regrets.

When it was the Obama team’s turn to discuss their strategy, the room was packed with Republicans.

Rarely has it been as obvious as it was in 2012 that one side has fallen badly behind on the technology and techniques of politics. From the basic communications tool of mass email to the vital new frontier of big political data, the Obama campaign’s strategy and tactics have drawn a level of excitement that is, among political professionals at least, notably greater than the excitement around the candidate’s message or his hard-won victory.

Romney’s entire team gathered for the early morning session at Harvard, even those who weren’t on the panel, in what appeared to be a deliberate effort to keep poisonous post-mortem finger-pointing to a minimum. Romney’s campaign chairman and frequent campaign trail sidekick Bob White, and Ron Kaufman, a senior adviser and the campaign’s mascot, sat opposite to the other Romney aides away from the tables arranged in a rectangle.

But the hot ticket at Harvard was the late-morning session in the same — now packed-to-the-brim — conference room, to hear seven top Obama aides to revisit their winning efforts.

The sages around the table: Top strategist David Axelrod, campaign manager Jim Messina, deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter, Goff, field director Jeremy Bird, opinion research director David Simas, and ad man Jim Margolis. Every aspect of their effort has already been the subject of tens of thousands of words, and they have for weeks been fanning out across the country telling the story of their campaign’s success, but their rivals were still eager to learn.

Republican operatives from Rick Perry’s data-driven strategist Dave Carney, to Mark Block, Herman Cain’s chain-smoking campaign manager, filled the room, many visibly taking notes. Also listening were the SuperPAC kings: Carl Forti, Charlie Spies, and Steven Law, whose efforts on TV were solidly negated by the Obama campaign's field operation.

The final panel pitted the Obama and Romney aides against each other in a raw autopsy of the general election. Guests were undeterred by a blackout, as the lights went out while Obama senior adviser David Axelrod was beginning to explain the president’s terrible first debate performance — a coincidence quickly tweeted out by some in attendance. (The blackout cancelled the final, public, panel in which the top two strategists on both sides were set to face the cameras on stage.)

When it was finally over, more than one Republican walked out shaking his head.

“We weren’t even running in the same race,” one downtrodden Romney aide told BuzzFeed after hearing the details of the Obama operation. “They were just amazing.”

And over chicken potpie and mashed sweet potatoes in the wood-paneled dining room of the Harvard Kennedy School conference center, one Republican operative noted that Romney himself was reliving the election over lunch with President Barack Obama.

“Maybe [Mitt] can ask him what we need to do better next time,” the operative quipped.

Geithner: Obama Will Go Over "Fiscal Cliff" If Republicans Don't Raise Tax Rates On Rich

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Geithner says he's is confident that Republicans would bear the blame.

Geithner Appears To Contradict Himself On War Savings

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Says they count for deficit reduction.

Source: youtube.com

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner appeared to contradict himself on counting war savings as deficit reduction in an appearance on Fox News Sunday.

Geithner repeatedly maintained that the administration had made significant spending cuts by ending the war in Iraq and drawing down troops in Afghanistan, drawing skepticism from host Chris Wallace who called it a "budget gimmick."

Geithner said it represented real spending cuts. "If those wars had gone on, it would have been spent," he said.

But he didn't always feel that way.

In his book on Obama's first term, "The Price of Politics," Bob Woodward reported that Geithner neer thought war savings counted, but insisted they be included in the final deficit reduction total to keep the bond rating agencies and the markets happy.

"Geithner said that the savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – the overseas Contingency Operations fund – should be counted in the grand total," Woodward reported. "He conceded that this wasn’t real savings, but it was a peace dividend and it made the overall total look bigger. ‘We need to have this because the ratings agencies and markets believe in this stuff.'”

Rubio Warns Against International Internet Regulation

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As the International Telecom Union is set to meet, the Florida Republican encourages Americans to protest attempts to regulate the Internet. “Tell the ITU and enemies of freedom to keep the Internet open and keep the Internet free.”

Source: youtube.com

Joe Biden Goes To Mexico

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The Vice President was in Mexico Saturday to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Mexico's President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto. He looks like he had a good time.

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

(Reuters)

(Reuters)


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