News Feed Aggregation Blog

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California Governor Jerry Brown, under court order to produce a plan to ease overcrowding in state prisons, pointed to plans to reopen two closed facilities and move some inmates to camps, but otherwise defiantly rapped a three-judge panel for the “intrusiveness” of the case.

Brown’s filing stopped short of laying out precisely how the most populous U.S. state would realistically reduce the prison population to a level demanded by the court in a move that could put him on a collision course with the judges.

“We respect the court’s authority to order the list of measures, but we submitted it under protest,” Jeff Beard, Brown’s secretary for corrections and rehabilitation, said of the response to the panel’s demand for a blueprint.

The judges had previously threatened Brown with contempt unless a detailed plan was filed by a midnight deadline Thursday.

California has been under court orders to reduce population in the 33-prison system since 2009, when the same judicial panel ordered it to relieve the overcrowding that has caused inadequate medical and mental healthcare.

Brown asked the judges in January to vacate the order to further lower the prison population, saying California had fixed its overcrowding problem and the poor prison healthcare services that had resulted from it.

He said further releases of prisoners would harm public safety, but federal judges rejected that bid last month.

California’s prisons currently hold about 50 percent more inmates than they were designed to house. The court order requires the state to reduce that number so the facilities are only 37.5 percent over maximum capacity.

Among possible ways to reduce crowding, Brown said in the filing, would be to move some prisoners to fire camps, where they can learn to help emergency crews respond to wildfires that plague California every spring and summer.

SOME OPTIONS ‘NOT DESIRABLE’

But many of the plan’s 46 pages were spent explaining that the changes outlined were either not possible without changes approved by the legislature or were undesirable.

Among potential remedies that would require legislative approval would be changing the rules to make it easier for prisoners to earn parole, the filing said. Others include contracting with local counties to house more inmates in their jails or sending inmates to private prisons.

Brown said in the filing that his administration would write proposed new laws but not necessarily work for their passage.

“The court’s … directive certainly cannot mean that the governor must advocate for the legislature to pass measures that would jeopardize public safety,” Brown and his lawyers wrote.

Brown promised to appeal the judges’ order to the U.S. Supreme Court, even though the high court has already ruled against the state in the case.

Beard, who heads the prison system, said the only way to reduce the population without going to the legislature would be to rely on the already planned reopening of two prisons in the Stockton area, and to use the fire camps.

One of the Stockton prisons will open in July, and the other next February, he said, housing a total of 2,800 inmates. But Beard said neither that nor more use of fire camps would bring the prison population to target levels.

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported 119,213 inmates on January 2, just under 150 percent of capacity but well above the 137.5 percent target.

The other options “are not desirable things,” he said. “Some of the things could affect public safety. It could also be very costly to the taxpayers.”

Mike Bien, an attorney representing inmates in the case, said the state’s response did not provide a concrete plan for easing overcrowding, as the judges had ordered.

“I don’t see anything in here that’s new or additional,” Bien said. “It’s a pretty defiant position.”

In its filing, submitted late Thursday night, Brown argued that the healthcare issues underlying the court’s order had already been addressed and called on the judges to consider “the current state of the prison health care system.”

“This is especially true given the significant cost and intrusiveness of these decades-old cases,” the filing said.

The judges have not signaled when they will respond to the state’s latest move in the case.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and; Eric Beech)

Story By: by Mark Memmott

Former first lady Barbara Bush in March 2012.

Thanks, mom.

On the day her son George’s presidential library is being dedicated in Dallas, former first lady Barbara Bush has told NBC’s Today show that “we’ve had enough Bushes” when it comes to seeing the presidency.

She was asked about the possibility of another son, former GOP Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, running for the White House, in 2016.

Today adds that:

“She still called her son [Jeb] ‘by far the best-qualified man,’ but went on to say she thought there were many worthy candidates.”

Story By: by Ken Rudin

Hopefully, the disappointment/frustration of that April Fool’s ScuttleButton has subsided and now you’re ready for the real stuff.

ScuttleButton, of course, is that once-a-week waste of time exercise in which each Monday or Tuesday I put up a vertical display of buttons on this site. Your job is to simply take one word (or concept) per button, add ‘em up, and, hopefully, you will arrive at a famous name or a familiar expression. (And seriously, by familiar, I mean it’s something that more than one person on Earth would recognize.)

For years, a correct answer chosen at random would get his or her name posted in this column, an incredible honor in itself. Now the stakes are even higher. Thanks to the efforts of the folks at Talk of the Nation, that person also hears their name mentioned on the Wednesday show (by me) and receives a Political Junkie t-shirt in the bargain. Is this a great country or what?

You can’t use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state — you won’t win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

(Why do people keep forgetting to include their name and city/state?)

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be among the first on your block to receive notice about the column and the puzzle. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck!

By the way, I always announce the winner on Wednesday’s Junkie segment on TOTN — many days after the puzzle first goes up. So you should try and get your answer in as soon as possible. But logistically, you have about a week to submit your guess.

Here are the infamous buttons used in the April Fool’s puzzle:

Re-elect Roy Dyson/The Best Man for Our Bay Country — Dyson was a Democratic member of the House from Maryland.

Wooo! Wooo! (picture of train) — Nothing more than that.

Let’s Get It Straight/Vote For Davis in the 8th — Need more information about this button.

Kennedy Is Sex, But McCarthy Is Love — One difference between two Democratic presidential candidates from 1968.

So don’t even bother adding these up. They don’t amount to anything other than the fact that the puzzle was posted on April 1st.

And yet, some figured it out. And the randomly selected winner is Lori Rose of Greenbackville, Va., who wrote, “After struggling for hours with this week’s puzzle I’m going to go out on a limb and say that there is no solution-April Fool’s prank??”

It was indeed. Lori gets not only the coveted Political Junkie t-shirt — but the Official No Prize Button as well!

And don’t forget to check out this week’s Political Junkie column, which focuses on the Mark Sanford and Anthony Weiner attempts for political redemption. Click here to read the column.

Story By: Talk of the Nation

Marilyn Geewax, senior business editor, NPR
Ron Elving, senior Washington editor, NPR
Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor under President George Bush
Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton

President Obama nominated Jack Lew, his current chief of staff, for Treasury Secretary today. Former cabinet members explain what it takes to put together a good cabinet, and how to get the members to work together.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a U.S. Congress packed with big egos, Tom Cole keeps a low profile but isn’t afraid to speak his mind.

He did so on Wednesday, breaking ranks with Republicans by suggesting that they agree to President Barack Obama’s plans to extend Bush-era tax rates on all but the wealthiest Americans.

The comments thrust Cole, 63, into the spotlight, drawing a swift rebuke from House Speaker John Boehner and giving hope to Democrats that Republicans’ opposition to any and all tax hikes was starting to crack.

“Tom Cole is now our favorite Republican,” a senior Democratic aide said of the Oklahoma conservative first elected to the House a decade ago.

What Cole did – initially behind closed doors on Tuesday – was to urge colleagues to accept Obama’s offer to renew tax cuts this year for 98 percent of Americans, and put off for another day a battle over the other 2 percent, those earning more than $250,000.

This would remove the “Sword of Damocles” hanging over the middle class, he told Reuters, and improve Republicans’ negotiating position over the “fiscal cliff” of $600 billion in year-end tax hikes and federal spending cuts that threaten to plunge the United States back into recession.

Republicans have insisted that Obama cave and renew all of the tax cuts to avoid the cliff, but they want to extract big spending cuts on the Medicare and Social Security benefits programs for the elderly and pursue a sweeping tax reform plan next year.

“My advice was solicited by my own leadership in what was supposedly confidential meetings,” Cole told Reuters on Wednesday after his suggestion was made public by Politico.

“Something leaked, that’s hardly a surprise in Washington, I guess. And so it’s now public, but that’s fine,” Cole added.

“I’m happy to make my argument, make my case. It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to support my team, and support my speaker, because I will.”

THANKS, BUT NO THANKS

Cole said reaction among fellow Republicans seemed mixed.

“That’s a good idea,” said Republican Representative Lamar Smith of Texas. “We think we can still argue about the other 2 percent, but let’s get the 98 percent done.”

But Boehner, who is leading the negotiations with Obama, shot the idea down, affirming his opposition to tax rate hikes.

“I told Tom earlier … that I disagreed with him,” Boehner told a Capitol Hill news conference. “You’re not going to grow the economy if you raise taxes on the top two rates.”

Anti-tax hike activist Grover Norquist on Wednesday dismissed Cole’s suggestions as more “impure thoughts” by Republican lawmakers.

“They’ve been thinking about raising taxes, but they haven’t done it,” said Norquist, who has demanded that lawmakers sign a pledge against tax hikes.

Cole, a fifth-generation Oklahoman and a Native American member of the Chickasaw Nation Tribe, is known as one of the House’s most pragmatic Republicans.

Although a prominent member of the House Appropriations and Budget committees, he does not draw invitations to spout views on the Sunday TV talk shows. But he commands respect on Capitol Hill from members of both parties.

“Tom Cole is a very smart and savvy member of our conference who is attempting to make sure that all the viewpoints of our conference are heard from,” said Representative Pete Sessions, a member of House Republican leadership.

But a “vast majority” of Republicans oppose tax rate increases on the wealthy because they believe it would hurt job growth, Sessions said.

Cole is seen as a staunch supporter of Boehner despite earlier differences, including complaints about Cole’s stewardship of the 2008 House Republican campaign committee, which came up far short in its bid to take back the chamber that they now control.

Cole had no problem with his own House campaign this fall, winning a sixth term with 68 percent of the vote in Oklahoma’s 4th District, which stretches from the Oklahoma City suburbs south to the Texas border. It includes the college town of Norman, home of the University of Oklahoma, where Cole taught history before getting into politics in the late 1980s.

Often in Washington when a member of Congress breaks ranks with leadership, they try to downplay it or claim that they were misquoted or taken out of context.

But Cole, who is used to defending a thesis, stuck by his remarks when speaking with a group of reporters on Wednesday after another closed-door meeting with Republican colleagues.

“If we do nothing, rates are going to go up for every American,” Cole said. “I just don’t think we should allow that to happen.”

Cole said it’s time to find common ground.

“We all agree that we’re not going to raise taxes on people that make less than $250,000,” Cole said. “We should just take them out of this discussion right now.”

(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New comments from top Republican lawmaker John Boehner slamming health care reforms illustrate how hard it will be for Washington to reach a deficit reduction deal when talks resume next week, analysts said on Thursday.

President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress will begin negotiating next week on a plan that could avert tax hikes and spending cuts set to begin in January that economists worry could push the U.S. economy over the “fiscal cliff” and into recession.

Boehner did not explicitly mention the “fiscal cliff” talks in an opinion piece published in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Wednesday. But he argued the nation cannot afford the costs of Obama’s 2010 health care reform law, given the United State’s sluggish economy and massive $16 trillion debt.

“That’s why I’ve been clear that the law has to stay on the table as both parties discuss ways to solve our nation’s massive debt challenge,” said Boehner, who is a key player in the talks.

Boehner’s comments show it won’t be easy to reach a deal on the thorny tax and spending issues, said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group in Washington.

“There’s an enormous gulf between the two parties on the details,” he said, noting it is still possible that Obama and Congress may agree by January to broad spending and tax measures, and then take months afterwards to iron out details.

“Plunging off the cliff, then passing a tax cut in January that excludes the rich — is still a very live option,” Valliere said.

“NEGOTIATING STRATEGY”

Analysts said Boehner’s renewed critique of the health care law is designed to appeal to Republicans in the House of Representatives who have voted more than 30 times to repeal it.

The law aims to extend health coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans starting in 2014. It also contains measures designed to contain the costs of America’s $2.6 trillion healthcare system, the most expensive in the world.

Republicans had promised to repeal the law, which they call “Obamacare”, if they won the November presidential elections.

But Obama won, and Democrats kept their majority in the Senate. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the reforms.

Boehner’s comments were “not constructive” for the fiscal talks ahead because there is little chance negotiations will lead to changes in the health care law, said Jim Kessler, senior vice president for policy at centrist think-tank Third Way.

“This is a complete non-starter and a clumsy starting point for negotiations,” Kessler said.

Larry Sabato, political scientist at the University of Virginia, said he thought Boehner’s comments seemed like a “bargaining chip” for the talks ahead.

“Just as President Obama is insisting that taxes must go up for everyone making $250,000 or more, the Republicans are saying that Obamacare is on the table,” he said, noting he expects the income trigger for tax increases will end up being much higher and that the healthcare law will stay untouched.

After the election, Boehner acknowledged in an ABC News interview that “Obamacare is the law of the land”, although he also said the law had to be “on the table” as legislators work toward balancing the nation’s budget.

Julie Barnes, director of healthcare policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the costs associated with getting the new health reforms in place pale in comparison to the much-larger costs of tax and spending issues before lawmakers.

“Small businesses and large businesses are not going to view Obamacare as what’s really causing the problem for their competitiveness. The problem is health care costs,” Barnes said.

(Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai and Richard Cowan; editing by Andrew Hay)

In between orders of crab cakes and pan seared scallops, many people wanted to congratulate Benjamin Jury and Joshua Cooper. The longtime couple could finally get married legally in Washington, according to ballots tallied from Tuesday’s election.

The state has joined Maine and Maryland, which have passed ballot measures making same-sex marriage legal.

Voters approve same-sex marriage on Election Day

After nearly two days of counting in Washington, the voting broke down this way: 1,269,917 residents are in favor of it while 1,146,439 are not. By early afternoon Friday, 75% of precincts were reporting results.

“In the past, getting married wasn’t something that I thought was possible,” Jury, 33, told CNN. “It never crossed my mind that I would get married. But after falling in love with Josh, and him just being a part of my life, how could we be given everything but the right to marry? Now it’s so real, and it feels equal.”

Cooper said he proposed marriage in January while the two vacationed in Thailand. They had been together for years. They started their business together. Their families adored each other. In every respect, they felt like partners for life.

If the state was only going to recognize them as domestic partners, that was unfortunate, they thought. But it wasn’t going to stop them from committing to each other symbolically.

“We had a kind attitude if the state didn’t see us as being married, at least we can,” Cooper said. “I would still tell people that he was my husband. But this is special. This right, this vote, it means a lot.”

Proponents of same-sex marriage echoed the couple’s jubilation this week. On Tuesday, Wisconsin elected the United States’ first openly lesbian senator, Democrat Tammy Baldwin. A re-elected President Obama became the first president to openly support same-sex marriage.

Also on Tuesday, Minnesota rejected a ban on same-sex marriage.

Back in Washington, Jeff Dorion and Ryan Hicks were thrilled that after 11 years together they could legally wed.

They’re heading to a courthouse December 10.

“We were engaged sort of but we never really called it that because we felt we couldn’t,” Dorion said.

Late Tuesday night as the first election results began coming in, his friends began getting in touch. They were overjoyed, many believing that same-sex marriage would be victorious in Washington, as it had been in Maine and Maryland.

Relatives living in Germany called to congratulate him.

“I was cautious at first,” he said. But when opponents conceded defeat and news organizations began calling results, he was all smiles.

Thursday afternoon, Dorion changed his Facebook status to “engaged.”

“We got so many responses,” he laughed. “That got everyone’s attention!”

While gay rights proponents celebrate this week, many are looking to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices are expected to decide November 20 on whether to weigh several cases including whether the federal government can deny benefits to married same-sex couples.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mitt Romney’s proposed cap on itemizing tax deductions could not on its own raise enough new government tax revenue to compensate for revenues lost by the Republican presidential candidate’s plan to slash income tax rates, a think tank said on Wednesday.

The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group that has weighed in on other Romney proposals, said his deductions cap could raise up to $1.7 trillion over 10 years. The center said earlier this year Romney’s 20-percent tax rate cut would cost $4.8 trillion.

The former Massachusetts governor has argued that his plan will not cost $4.8 trillion. At a debate on Tuesday with Democratic President Barack Obama, Romney reiterated that he would pay for his tax cut proposal by capping tax deductions by a set dollar amount. Taxpayers could choose their deductions under the cap, such as the home mortgage interest and charitable donation write-offs, among others, he said.

“I’m going to bring rates down across the board for everybody, but I’m going to limit deductions and exemptions and credits, particularly for people at the high end,” Romney said at the debate in Hempstead, New York.

The Tax Policy Center acknowledged its latest estimates were based on an incomplete picture of Romney’s tax plan.

“The Tax Policy Center has again inserted their own assumptions in order to reach a biased conclusion,” a Romney campaign spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The Romney campaign had previously criticized the Tax Policy Center’s estimates, saying they did not account for economic growth that can pay for tax cuts and that the center excluded some tax breaks in their studies.

The campaign has said the limit on itemized deductions would be only part of its plan to fund the rate cut. For instance, it would also revamp the tax treatment of healthcare, which now comes in the form of an exclusion when health insurance is workplace-based.

Romney has shifted the dollar amount taxpayers might be able to deduct. “I’ll pick a number – $25,000 of deductions and credits, and you can decide which ones to use,” he said.

Romney earlier this month floated a cap on deductions set at $17,000. His campaign later said that proposal is one of a range of options. Romney has also said $50,000 could serve as the cap.

The higher the cap, the less money Romney’s tax plan could raise to offset tax rate cuts, the center’s estimates show.

A cap of $17,000 would raise $1.7 trillion over 10 years while the $50,000 cap would raise only $760 billion. If Romney eliminated all itemized deductions, his plan could raise $2 trillion over 10 years, the center has estimated.

Obama has called for a cap on itemized deductions of 28 percent of adjusted gross income for individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and families earning more than $250,000.

(Reporting by Patrick Temple-West and Kim Dixon; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh)

Editor’s note: Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of “Jimmy Carter” and of the new book “Governing America.”

The uproar in the Middle East over a YouTube video that featured anti-Islamic messages triggered widespread protests. An attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya left four people dead, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Protests in Egypt were equally intense as some people in a crowd of more than 2,000 scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy. Protests spread to 20 other countries in the Middle East and beyond. In Tunis, protesters destroyed a school run by Americans while in Afghanistan protesters lit with a torch an effigy of Obama, the U.S. leader once hailed as the president who would repair America’s image in the world, and watched it burn up.

Added to this brew was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning that, in his mind, President Obama has refused to be tough enough with Iran on its nuclear program and the prospect that Israel could take military action against Iran on its own.

World: Where Obama, Romney stand on foreign policy challenges

These issues immediately entered into the campaign. Speaking of the tragedy in Libya, President Obama reiterated that “We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None.”

Mitt Romney, mistakenly interpreting a statement released earlier by the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, before most of the protests, criticized the administration’s statements as “akin to apology.” Democrats complained that Romney was politicizing this tragedy. One of Obama’s campaign officials, Ben LaBolt, said “We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Gov. Romney would choose to launch a political attack.”

When foreign policy crises intrude into presidential elections, they have the ability to shake up campaigns and force candidates to adjust their plans.

Sometimes foreign policy can benefit an incumbent. Republican Dwight Eisenhower, who was a military hero before becoming president, survived crises overseas in October 1956 and emerged on Election Day with a decisive victory. Eisenhower had come under criticism from congressional Democrats for being so consumed by balancing the budget that he had supported military cuts that they argued would endanger the nation.

In late October, Israeli and British forces attacked Egypt, which under President Gamal Abdel Nasser had taken over the Suez Canal and nationalized the British-owned corporation that managed the area. After the attacks on Egypt, and Soviet warnings that they would intervene, Eisenhower worked hard in public and behind-the-scenes to defuse the situation and force Britain, France and Israel to back down.

The other crisis, which also took place in late October and early November, was when the Soviets proceeded to crush a rebellion in Hungary against the communist regime. Eisenhower decided not to respond, fearing that U.S. interference could trigger a nuclear war. Democrats argued that the refusal to respond revealed that all the talk by conservatives about liberating Eastern European people was false. In Detroit, Eisenhower’s opponent, Adlai Stevenson, warned that “whatever the provocation, aggression can no longer be tolerated in the atomic age.”

But these crises only ended up bolstering the image of Eisenhower as a strong commander in chief who could coolly guide the nation through crisis. The president coasted to re-election with 457 electoral votes and 57.4 percent of the popular vote.

But on other occasions, a foreign policy crisis greatly damaged the incumbent. In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The invasion, which took President Carter by surprise, played into the hands of Republicans, who were arguing that the White House didn’t know how to handle these kinds of situations.

Even though Carter responded to the Soviets by calling for higher levels of defense spending and announcing a buildup of forces in the Persian Gulf, Republicans accused him of doing too little too late.

With U.S. hostages already being held in Iran, Ronald Reagan and other conservatives pointed to this as more evidence that Carter could not be trusted as leader. The Republican National Committee said that the “policy of patience” from Carter was the “policy of weakness.” While this was certainly not the sole issue that handed Reagan his victory, it played an important role in pushing the electoral map in favor of the Republicans.

What will happen if the current crises continue or get even worse? For President Obama the risks are very clear. If the situation deteriorates, these hot spots will offer the GOP evidence that the president is not an effective leader. Republicans will argue that this proves all the talk about the successes of his foreign policy record is overblown. The danger is particularly acute with Libya and Egypt, two countries that have been described as relative success stories in the Obama era of foreign policy since autocratic leaders were overthrown. These crises will also force the president to devote more attention to working in the Oval Office rather than spending time on the campaign trail.

The risks are also great for Mitt Romney. The crises could easily benefit Obama just as they did Eisenhower.

Anything having to do with overseas issues takes attention away from the economy, the area where Obama is most vulnerable.

Opinion: What if U.S. stops policing the world?

As was evident in their convention, Democrats feel they now have the so-called national security advantage. The successful drone strikes against al-Qaeda, as well as the death of Osama bin Laden, have given the White House a foundation from which to say the president is better prepared to handle these challenges.

Mitt Romney has not helped his cause, since he made widely publicized mistakes during his trip abroad, such as insulting the British about how they were handling the Olympics and making controversial remarks asserting the cultural superiority of the Israelis over Palestinians. Then during his acceptance speech in Tampa, Romney failed to praise the work of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

As was the case with Eisenhower, foreign policy crises, at least in the short term, can create a rally-around-the-leader effect while raising questions about whether Romney is ready for the White House.

If the crises subside, the campaign is likely to shift its focus back to what’s going on Main Street. But if not, Obama and Romney will need to calibrate their responses so that foreign policy does not pose a damaging blow to their campaigns.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer.

Story By: by Ari Shapiro

Romney Says He Paid A Tax Rate Of At Least 13 Percent

Mitt Romney told reporters Thursday that he has never paid less than a 13 percent tax rate over the past decade. Until now, the presumptive Republican nominee had sidestepped questions about his personal income taxes. Romney has come under withering criticism over the tax issue from President Obama’s campaign and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.