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President Obama's Promise Zone initiative targets high-poverty areas to increase economic security and expand educational opportunities.
Getty Images
President shakes hands with students of Harlem Children's Zone Promise Academy in New York City as he is joined by representatives and community members from San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, southeastern Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma during an East Room event Jan. 9, 2014 at the White House in Washington, D.C. President Obama announced the five areas as his administration's first five "Promise Zones" to help the local communities to combat poverty. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)President Barack Obama rolled out his plan for Promise Zones on Thursday, announcing that communities in San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, southeastern Kentucky and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma would be the first to receive federal support aimed at bolstering their economies.
But what, exactly, is a Promise Zone?
Administration officials described the initiative as an effort that will lend federal support to areas with high poverty rates to increase economic security, expand educational opportunities, increase access to quality, affordable housing, improve public safety and create jobs. The federal government won't just be cutting checks, though.
The administration hasn't attached a dollar figure to this initiative or allocated funds specifically for these communities. Instead, the Promise Zones will receive a competitive advantage when they apply for federal grants and loans. They'll receive technical assistance to help them navigate a range of federal programs, and each zone will be provided with five AmeriCorps VISTA members to help them implement strategic plans.
The president also has called on Congress to offer tax credits in these communities to attract businesses and create jobs, but no action has been taken yet.
The White House plans to designate a total of 20 Promise Zones during the next three years.
Mr. Obama's initiative is just the latest in a series of like-minded efforts that have spanned the last few decades. As a congressman and later as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush administration, Jack Kemp proposed the creation of enterprise zones to attract business to inner cities. Former President Bill Clinton created empowerment zones to spur economic growth in distressed communities.
Last month, Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) introduced legislation to create Economic Freedom Zones. Areas with unemployment rates that are at least one-and-a-half times the national average would be eligible for assistance aimed at reducing taxes and red tape. Mr. McConnell said Thursday that his proposal represented a more comprehensive approach to unraveling government regulations and removing tax barriers.
Administration officials did not comment on the Republicans' legislation, but they said the White House's initiative would incorporate best practices from other programs with similar objectives.
President Barack Obama announces five "Promise Zones" today.
Associated Press
President speaks about his Promise Zones Initiative, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)Saying that children's course in life should be determined by their work ethic and not their zip code, President Barack Obama announced five "Promise Zones" Thursday in an effort to partner with local leaders to create jobs, improve educational opportunities and jumpstart the economy in struggling areas.
"There are communities where for too many young people, it feels like their future only extends to the next street corner or the outskirts of town — too many communities where no matter how hard you work, your destiny … feels like it's already been determined for you before you took that first step," Mr. Obama said.
The first five areas that will receive access to grants and technical assistance from the federal government are San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, southeastern Kentucky and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Ultimately, the White House plans to designate 20 Promise Zones during the next three years.
The initiative spurred a rare show of bipartisan support, as two vocal critics of the president, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, attended today's event. In his remarks, Mr. Obama praised the senators from Kentucky, saying he was happy to see Republicans at the White House.
"This should be a challenge that unites us all," the president said. "I don't care whether the ideas are Democrat or Republican. I do care that they work."
Last year, Mr. McConnell wrote in support of designating eight Kentucky counties as a Promise Zone. On Thursday, the Senate minority leader lauded the program, even as he blamed the president for some of the hardship in his state.
"There's no doubt that eastern Kentucky is a region that has suffered enormous hardship in recent years – much of it, unfortunately, related to the very same administration's 'war' on coal families," Mr. McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday morning. "But the Promise Zone designation is a step in the right direction, nonetheless."
While Mr. McConnell said that he and Mr. Paul were encouraged by the president's focus on a concrete approach to jobs, he urged Congress to do more by supporting legislation to create "Economic Freedom Zones." He described the proposal he and Mr. Paul introduced as a more comprehensive approach that would reach additional communities in need of revitalization.
After Thursday's event, Mr. Paul said the president's plan doesn't go far enough to help places suffering from chronic unemployment.
"The president's heart is in the right place, but this isn't enough," Mr. Paul said outside the White House. "I want more and want more dramatic change."
He added that he wants significant tax breaks to help bring jobs to underserved areas.
The president has called on Congress to cut taxes on hiring and investment in the Promise Zones.
Mr. Obama first announced this initiative during last year's State of the Union Address. But until this week, the White House had said little more about Promise Zones.
The president described the effort as a collaborative approach that will lend federal support to communities with high poverty rates and will help local business and community leaders achieve strategic goals. The Promise Zones won't receive a lump sum of federal funds but will have a competitive advantage when applying for federal grants and loans.
"We will help them succeed, not with a handout, but as partners with them every step of the way," Mr. Obama said.
The Promise Zones are part of the president's promised focus on income inequality and a wide-ranging effort to close the gap between rich and poor.
–Jared A. Favole contributed to this post.
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Related: Colleen McCain-Nelson has details on the News Hub.
The federal panel that makes sentencing recommendations for federal judges unveiled a plan Thursday that could mean shorter sentences for thousands of future drug defendants, if the proposal can make it through the gantlet of law enforcement and Congress.
Associated Press
In this Oct. 10, 2006 file photo, a Los Angeles police officer counts the number of doses of crack cocaine, as he files an evidence police report after a drug related arrest in downtown Los Angeles.The federal panel that makes sentencing recommendations for federal judges unveiled a plan Thursday that could mean shorter sentences for thousands of future drug defendants, if the proposal can make it through the gantlet of law enforcement and Congress.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission unveiled a recommendation that would lower by two levels the base offense levels in drug trafficking cases. The proposed change would mean drug trafficking offenders would be looking at a sentence about 11-months shorter than defendants being sentenced now in cases with the same level of drugs, the panel said.
The change brings the guideline into line with the mandatory minimum statutes. Sentencing reform activists have said the guidelines often ended up being more punitive than the mandatory minimum law called for.
Thursday's step is the first in a long journey that will include two-months of public comments, a public hearing a commission vote in April. The non-partisan panel formally sends its recommendations to Congress in May. They become law later in the year, unless Congress takes action against them. That has happened in the past, the first time in 1995 when Congress rejected the Commission's proposed attempt to change the crack and powder cocaine sentencing guidelines.
The Commission's Chairwoman, federal Judge Patti B. Saris, called the step a "modest" proposal she hoped would reflect the Commission's "priority of reducing costs of incarceration and overcapacity of prisons without endangering public safety."
The Commission took a similar step in the past on crack cocaine in 2007 when it reduced guideline offenses for crack cocaine offenders by two levels.
Mary Price, general counsel of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said the action Thursday was a "good step but it's really just the beginning. We certainly support this effort on the commission's part" but deeper change will have to come from Congress.
People convicted of drug crimes make up major portion of the population of the federal prison system, which has continued to grow while states have been reducing their inmate populations. More than half of the federal system's 216,000 prisoners are serving sentences for drug offenses, according to the latest statistics from the Bureau of Prisons. About one-third of all defendants sentenced last year in federal courts were sentenced for drug crimes.
There has been some movement on the federal prison front. In December President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of several people serving lengthy prison terms for crack cocaine offenses. It was some of the most visible action he has taken to date on what he and Attorney General Eric Holder have said are unfair penalties.
More
How Drug Wars Led to Harsh Federal Sentences (December 2013) Crack Sentences Still Tough (2010)
Take responsibility, but draw distance from the scandal. That was the strategy Chris Christie adopted today in his nearly two-hour nationally televised press conference about the apparent political vendetta that led to lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in September.
Getty Images
New Jersey Gov. speaks about his knowledge of a traffic study that snarled traffic at the George Washington Bridge during a news conference in Trenton, New Jersey.He also said dismissed the alleged motivation for the bridge-lane closures – as retribution to Mayor Mark Sokolich of Fort Lee for declining to endorse Mr. Christie's re-election as governor. Mr. Sokolich "was never on my radar screen,'' the governor said. "He was never mentioned to me as somebody whose endorsement we were even pursuing.'' That was a further attempt to show that he could have played no role in the lane closures.
He took responsibility…
"I'm the governor. So, I'm taking that responsibility,'' he said.
…But he suggested that no governor could have full control of the state bureaucracy.
While saying he took responsibility, Mr. Christie made a plea of sorts: "I have 65,000 people working for me every day. And I cannot know what each one of them is doing at every minute.''
He took action and answered many reporter questions . . . Mr. Christie said that on Thursday morning he fired a deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, saying that "she lied to me'' when he queried his staff four weeks ago on whether they had any information about the decision to close traffic lanes in Fort Lee. Mr. Christie also in essence fired a close political aide, Bill Stepien, who had run his campaigns for governor.
Moreover, Mr. Christie answered questions – for nearly two hours. His goal clearly is to show himself as fully forthcoming.
Mr. Christie also said that he would "work cooperatively'' with other investigations into the bridge matter. That offer becomes important, given that the U.S. attorney in New Jersey has started an inquiry into whether the lane closures violated federal law.
. . . But some questions will linger. Mr. Christie said he queried his staff four months ago about the bridge matter – and critics are sure to ask why he was satisfied by answers that have turned out to be false. Questions also will continue about the emails released so far, which include large numbers of redactions. Mr. Christie's critics are sure to ask what material is being held from public view.
Will the press conference put the matter behind him?
With prosecutors now looking at the case, it's too early to know. If the federal investigator shakes loose information that casts doubt on Mr. Christie's statements today, the political damage to him would be great.
Moreover, new information about the case may emerge from David Wildstein, the longtime Christie associate who appeared to have played a central role in the lane closures from his former post at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Mr. Wildstein on Thursday refused to answer questions before a legislative committee, citing his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.
Mr. Christie may have made a strong case for himself with his press conference, arguing that he took decisive action quickly once he learned that his staff was involved in the lane closures.
Democrats, however, are sure to argue that Mr. Christie is directly responsible for the people who work closest to him — and that he built the culture that allowed the lane closure incident to take place. Whether the public comes to judge Mr. Christie by judging the people he fired today remains an open question.
Follow @wsjwashington on Twitter.
More
Christie Fires Aide in Bridge Scandal as U.S. Opens Probe
Emails Raise New Questions for Christie | Email Exchange
Timeline of the Lane Closure Fallout | What Laws Are at Issue?
Polls Showed Christie as GOP Front-Runner for 2016
Video: Christie on why he terminated employee
If he's telling the truth, will voters forgive him?
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
Getty ImagesIt's obviously too early to tell whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a likely Republican candidate for president in 2016, can fully recover from the George Washington Bridge scandal. But he's off to a good start. Mr. Christie announced at a press conference Thursday that he had fired Bridget Anne Kelly, the deputy chief of [...]
More budget contradictions from California's governor.
Jerry Brown has a reputation for governing in contradictions. For example, he preaches fiscal prudence—and then insists that the state charge full-steam ahead with its quarter-baked $70 billion bullet train. Another example would be his budget plan for the upcoming year. The $106 billion general-fund budget increases spending by $8 billion thanks largely to a [...]
Following New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's nearly two-hour press conference answering questions about the controversial George Washington Bridge lane closures, House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) told reporters that the governor's response was likely sufficient to keep him in contention if he runs for president in 2016.
Associated Press
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks during a news conference Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, at the Statehouse in Trenton. N.J.Following New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's nearly two-hour press conference answering questions about the controversial George Washington Bridge lane closures, House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) told reporters that the governor's response was likely sufficient to keep him in contention if he runs for president in 2016.
Asked if Mr. Christie's response was enough to keep him in the top tier of potential 2016 presidential contenders, Mr. Boehner said, "I think so."
Asked if he had watched Mr. Christie's press conference, Mr. Boehner wryly responded, "No, I wasn't fortunate enough to have that opportunity."
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) did not watch the press conference but said he had read the emails, calling them "really bad." But he said the issue doesn't require congressional attention. "I don't know if Congress shouldn't be investigating this."
Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown said Mr. Christie passed "the test" with his press conference, calling the governor's response "refreshing" on Fox News' "Happening Now" Thursday afternoon.
"Obviously, he still has to do his due diligence, and that's what you're looking for in a leader, I don't care if it's Democrat or Republican," Mr. Brown said. "He did pass the test."
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus praised Mr. Christie's behavior during the press conference. "Governor Christie did the right thing today and demonstrated what leaders do when actions of the team are unacceptable and wrong," Mr. Priebus said.
Sen. Rand Paul (R.,Ky.)—who trails Mr. Christie by just a few points in recent polling of potential 2016 primary matchups—said he did "not really" have a comment on the revelations about the bridge closure or on today's press conference.
Rep. Frank Pallone (D., N.J.) called for Mr. Christie to "come clean, take full responsibility and explain in detail exactly what occurred" in a statement after the press conference. Calling the Christie administration's behavior "disgraceful" and an "abuse of public trust," Mr. Pallone said, "Today's press conference served to raise more questions than it answered. All of the facts surrounding this incident must be put on the table immediately and any and all appropriate actions should be taken to hold everyone involved accountable."
The Democratic National Committee issued a scathing statement on Mr. Christie's conduct during the press conference. "For nearly two hours today, Chris Christie stood up and repeatedly made himself out to be the victim," DNC Communications Director Mo Elleithee said. "But Chris Christie is not the victim. The people of New Jersey who trusted him are."
The DNC faulted Mr. Christie for ignoring questions about the lane closures for several months "until his administration was finally caught red-handed," and for creating a culture in his administration where "this type of conduct was considered appropriate."
Mr. Christie addressed reporters Thursday after one of his top staffer's subpoenaed emails showed she had sought to close lanes on the busy George Washington Bridge apparently to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing the governor in his 2013 re-election bid. Mr. Christie fired that staffer Thursday morning. At the press conference, Mr. Christie apologized to New Jersey citizens and said he had been betrayed by his staff.
Siobhan Hughes and Janet Hook contributed to this article.
More
Christie Fires Aide in Bridge Scandal as U.S. Opens Probe
Emails Raise New Questions for Christie | Email Exchange
Timeline of the Lane Closure Fallout | What Laws Are at Issue?
Polls Showed Christie as GOP Front-Runner for 2016
Video: Christie on why he terminated employee
Lawmakers unveiled legislation to put congressional backing of trade deals on a fast track, including language aimed at discouraging trading partners from using their currencies to gain a competitive advantage.
WASHINGTON—Lawmakers on Thursday unveiled legislation to put congressional backing of trade deals on a fast track, including language aimed at discouraging trading partners from using their currencies to gain a competitive advantage. The legislation—known formally as "trade promotion authority," which means Congress approves trade pacts on an up-or-down vote without amending them—would apply to trade [...]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.,Nev.) Tuesday said he is "cautiously optimistic" that a bipartisan agreement on extending benefits for the long term unemployed will be reached later today, saying that any deal will likely be a one-year extension if it complies with GOP demands that its cost be offset.
Reuters
U.S. Senate Majority Leader (D., Nev.) speaks to reporters after the weekly Democratic caucus luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, January 7, 2014.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.,Nev.) Tuesday said he is "cautiously optimistic" that a bipartisan agreement on extending benefits for the long term unemployed will be reached later today, saying that any deal will likely be a one-year extension if it complies with GOP demands that its cost be offset.
A senior Democratic official said that a compromise year-long extension will be proposed to a closed-door lunch meeting of Senate Democrats Thursday, as the Senate takes a midday break from debate on a three-month extension of the jobless aid program that expired Dec. 28 — a bill Republicans have opposed because its $6.5 billion cost is not offset.
Democrats have resisted offsetting the cost of a three month bill, but have been willing to talk about spending cuts to pay for a longer-term extension. A year-long extension of the current program would cost over $25 billion. The Democratic official said the compromise under discussion could cost less than that by scaling back benefits under the extended program. One idea being floated for offsetting the cost would be to extend the across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, beyond their scheduled 2021 expiration.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he terminated Bridget Anne Kelly, the employee at the center of the controversy surrounding lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, and that he will continue to seek information from his staff. Photo: AP.
House Republicans are launching an investigation into the Justice Department's crackdown on banks and other companies that handle payments for online lenders and alleged scam artists.
Reuters
Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) appears with moderator David Gregory on "Meet the Press" in Washington in this Dec. 29, 2013 photograph provided by NBC.House Republicans are launching an investigation into the Justice Department's decision to crack down on banks and other companies that handle payments for online lenders and alleged scam artists.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, accused the government of abusing its authority in a probe known informally as "Operation Choke Point."
The probe, reported last year by The Wall Street Journal, focuses on whether banks and payment firms are enabling illicit activity, including fraudulent offerings to erase debt and work-from home schemes.
Mr. Issa, along with Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) argued in a letter sent Wednesday to Attorney General Eric Holder that the government's true goal is to intimidate legal businesses such as online lenders. They say the government has inappropriately demanded banks cut off relationships with online lenders and companies that process payments for them.
The Justice Department is "needlessly punishing good actors with the bad, and threatening legitimate merchants' access to the payment transfer system," the lawmakers wrote.
The Republicans requested the Justice Department provide "all documents and communications" since January 2011 related to the probe.
A Justice Department official did not immediately comment.
Officials at the DOJ have said the crackdown is not aimed specifically at online lending, but rather a wide range of allegedly fraudulent merchants.
A DOJ official, Michael Bresnick, said in a speech last year that banks have a responsibility to avoid facilitating illegal activity. "If they don't, they might be allowing some unscrupulous scam artist to be taking the last dollars of a senior citizen who fell prey to another fraud scheme, and hundreds of millions of dollars of additional proceeds of fraud to flow through their institutions," said Mr. Bresnick, who has since left the agency.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie apologized to the people of New Jersey in a controversy over lane closures at the George Washington Bridge. Gov. Christie fired a key aide at the center of the scandal. Photo: AP.
Republicans angling to take back control of the U.S. Senate need to tell voters what they would do with it, GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said this week.
European Pressphoto Agency
Republican Senator from Tennessee Lamar Alexander, right, speaks with Republican Senator from North Carolina Richard Burr as they walk to the Senate subway on Capitol Hill in Decembe 2013."If we want people to trust us with the government we need to say what we'll do if they put us in charge. That starts with the debt, that starts with health care, that starts with balancing the budget," Mr. Alexander said. "That doesn't make as much news as what we're against, but it's an important part of what we need to say."
Not all Republicans are as eager to widen the conversation. Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said he plans in 2014 to "fight even harder…to repeal every word of Obamacare" in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
When House GOP leaders told their rank-and-file on Wednesday they plan to tackle an immigration overhaul this year, some conservative lawmakers objected to changing the subject from the problems dogging the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
But Mr. Alexander said that while lawmakers should continue to take steps to ease the burden of the health-care law, he hopes to communicate other policy goals.
"Tennesseans know I'm against Obamacare," he said. "What I want them also to know is what I would do if they trust us with the [Senate] majority."
Prior to this week's controversy over lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie held a steady lead on potential Republican primary opponents for 2016.
Associated Press
New Jersey Gov. and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2011.Sen. Cruz signals he isn't likely to take a kinder and gentler approach in 2014, and recommended reading from around the web.
The Christie Controversy and Lessons on What Feeds Political Scandals
The bridge scandal swirling around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is a particular problem because it carries two of the elements that inevitably make political scandals worse: It reinforces an existing stereotype, and it carries a whiff of hypocrisy.
The contours of the controversy are well-known by now, of course: A top Christie aide suggested that another longtime associate of the governor create "traffic problems" in Fort Lee, N.J., where the Democratic mayor had declined to endorse the governor's re-election. Soon enough, lane closures leading to the George Washington Bridge choked traffic in the town, and town officials said school buses and emergency vehicles were severely delayed in some cases.
The governor has expressed outrage and said he didn't know of the machinations by his aides. Still, the controversy, like so many before it, is finding particular resonance because it seems to confirm a pre-existing public perception about the figure at its heart.
In this case, as Slate's John Dickerson notes, there already was a sense that Gov. Christie could be a bit of a bully.
That means that it's harder for the politician at the controversy's center to skirt around it because it fits into a perception for which the groundwork already was laid in voters' minds. Thus, it was hard for President Bill Clinton to move past the Monica Lewinsky scandal because it played directly into a pre-existing perception that he was a little loose on the marital fidelity front. Similarly, Republican candidate Mitt Romney was deeply damaged by comments suggesting he didn't care about the opinions of 47% of Americans who didn't like his economic policies because those comments, however fairly or unfairly they were characterized, seemed to confirm a sense among many voters that he was a bit of a wealthy elitist.
Moreover, as a long list of politicians have discovered, voters can be forgiving of many flaws and failings, but they have a hard time swallowing what they see as hypocrisy—which is to say, saying one thing and doing another. In this case, the problem for Gov. Christie is that, as the Journal's story on the controversy notes, he often portrays his administration as an exemplar of the kind of successful bipartisan cooperation that others should follow.
Those elements of the controversy also help explain why it has generated so much heat, as exemplified by a particularly harsh editorial in today's New York Daily News saying that, even in the best light, the incident shows Mr. Christie to be "a hardball-playing governor who horribly misjudged or distorted the character of those around him and compounded the felony by trying to skate by their wrongdoing without full investigation."
Recommended reading from around the Web:
In an interview with the WSJ's Neil King, Sen. Ted Cruz signals he isn't likely to take a kinder and gentler approach in 2014: "He lambasted Senate Republicans for a lack of courage, compared himself to Ronald Reagan and vowed to "fight even harder…to repeal every word of Obamacare." [WSJ]
Republican initiatives to address poverty in the U.S. fall short, writes Ryan Cooper, because the conservative instinct to blame the unemployed and poor for their plight leaves them "unable to cope with society-wide problems that have nothing to do with individual mistakes." [Washington Post]
Gallup now finds that a record 42% of Americans identify themselves as independents, while the share who call themselves Republican dropped to 25%, the lowest it has ever found in telephone surveying. The last time Gallup took a lower measurement of Republican identification was in 1983, when survey was conducted with face-to-face interviews. [WSJ]
While New Jersey's bridge scandal, now involving emails that suggest aides to Gov. Chris Christie engineered traffic jams as political retribution against a Democratic mayor, is an example of routine hardball politics at the local level, writes Erick Erickson, Christie won't get that far in a run for the presidency because of the factors that underlie this issue: "He and his staff operate as divas." [RedState]
John Dickerson writes that the bridge traffic-jam controversy surrounding Gov. Christie is important to his political future because it "confirms the existing stereotype that Christie is a bully from a state known for playing rough and being ethically loose," but also because how he handles it now poses a test of the leadership skills of someone who often lectures others on leadership. [Slate]
Jonathan Chait writes that Christie's bridge scandal reveals the political culture surrounding the rumored 2016 candidate and is particularly damning because it is so easy for voters to understand. This scandal and Christie's "brash Northeastern personality" may make it easier for Republicans to alienate him in the primaries. [New York Magazine]
@HowardKurtz: Christie may be playing typical Joisey politics but looks very different with a natl spotlight. No one would care if he was just Trenton guy
@philipaklein: Bridge story also another reminder of stupidity of predicting outcomes years out. So much is gonna come out on all candidates b/w now & '16.
Nick Wing writes that, in the wake of Colorado's legalization of pot, "the momentum is on marijuana's side. While it now has the forces of capitalism behind it — one study has predicted a $10 billion industry by 2018 and steps may soon be taken to further normalize the marijuana business — legalization is also becoming widely accepted as a social justice issue." [Huffington Post]
Sen. Tom Coburn, who is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer and may face a decision about whether he'll finish his term, tells Politico that he still feels strong and boasts that he worked from 4 a.m. until around 7:30 p.m. one day earlier this week. "My health is good, as far as endurance," he said. "Probably people should judge my mental health rather than my physical health on why you want to be here." [Politico]
Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin writes that unsound fiscal conditions in the U.S. will almost surely destabilize markets at some point. "Recent reductions in deficit projections do not change the basic structural picture – except that healthcare cost increases are slowing – and are partly based on sequestration, a terrible policy that already looks too onerous to stick," he writes. [FT]
Follow @wsjwashington and Washington Bureau Chief Jerry Seib (@GeraldFSeib) on Twitter.
The bridge scandal swirling around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is a particular problem because it carries two of the elements that inevitably make political scandals worse: It reinforces an existing stereotype, and it carries a whiff of hypocrisy.
The bridge scandal swirling around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is a particular problem because it carries two of the elements that inevitably make political scandals worse: It reinforces an existing stereotype, and it carries a whiff of hypocrisy.
The contours of the controversy are well-known by now, of course: A top Christie aide suggested that another longtime associate of the governor create "traffic problems" in Fort Lee, N.J., where the Democratic mayor had declined to endorse the governor's re-election. Soon enough, lane closures leading to the George Washington Bridge choked traffic in the town, and town officials said school buses and emergency vehicles were severely delayed in some cases.
The governor has expressed outrage and said he didn't know of the machinations by his aides. Still, the controversy, like so many before it, is finding particular resonance because it seems to confirm a pre-existing public perception about the figure at its heart.
In this case, as Slate's John Dickerson notes, there already was a sense that Gov. Christie could be a bit of a bully.
That means that it's harder for the politician at the controversy's center to skirt around it because it fits into a perception for which the groundwork already was laid in voters' minds. Thus, it was hard for President Bill Clinton to move past the Monica Lewinsky scandal because it played directly into a pre-existing perception that he was a little loose on the marital fidelity front. Similarly, Republican candidate Mitt Romney was deeply damaged by comments suggesting he didn't care about the opinions of 47% of Americans who didn't like his economic policies because those comments, however fairly or unfairly they were characterized, seemed to confirm a sense among many voters that he was a bit of a wealthy elitist.
Moreover, as a long list of politicians have discovered, voters can be forgiving of many flaws and failings, but they have a hard time swallowing what they see as hypocrisy—which is to say, saying one thing and doing another. In this case, the problem for Gov. Christie is that, as the Journal's story on the controversy notes, he often portrays his administration as an exemplar of the kind of successful bipartisan cooperation that others should follow.
Those elements of the controversy also help explain why it has generated so much heat, as exemplified by a particularly harsh editorial in today's New York Daily News saying that, even in the best light, the incident shows Mr. Christie to be "a hardball-playing governor who horribly misjudged or distorted the character of those around him and compounded the felony by trying to skate by their wrongdoing without full investigation."
Follow @wsjwashington and Washington Bureau Chief Jerry Seib (@GeraldFSeib) on Twitter.
Secretary of Energy Moniz has postponed a trip to India that was planned for next week, in a sign of the worsening fallout over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York last month.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz has postponed a trip to India that was planned for next week, a spokesman for the Energy Department official said late Wednesday, in a sign of the worsening fallout over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York last month.
"We have been in conversation with Indian counterparts" about rescheduling, said the official. "We agreed to hold the dialogue in the near future at a mutually convenient date."
"We place great emphasis on the U.S.-India energy partnership, which is a key element of the overall strategic partnership. We regularly exchange views on clean and renewable energy, civilian nuclear energy, regional energy projects," said the Energy Department spokesman.
The abrupt postponement of the U.S. energy secretary's visit comes at a critical time in which the U.S. has been trying to encourage India to become more active in dealing with carbon emissions and climate change. India is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gases.
In June, Secretary of State John Kerry visited India, joined by Mr. Moniz. During a speech in New Delhi, Mr. Kerry stressed the importance of lowering carbon emissions, citing possible effects on heat waves, droughts and flooding.
Last week Mr. Kerry again raised climate change as a crucial issue in foreign policy, and for his remaining tenure as secretary of state. He has indicated he hopes to broker an international climate treaty in 2015.
Mr. Kerry's most recent remarks were partly framed to set up Mr. Moniz's visit to India, said an administration official. The official said the Indian government is concerned that implementing stronger policies to cut energy consumption could slow the country's economic development.
As part of the rift between the U.S. and India, the Indian government told the U.S. on Wednesday to shut down its club for American expatriates to non-diplomats and close shops in its embassy compound by Jan. 16, an Indian government official familiar with the matter said.
In addition, the official said, the government would suspend diplomatic immunity from traffic rules for U.S. diplomats.
More:
Sixteen House Republicans vehemently rejected President Barack Obama's calls for the House to overhaul the immigration system in a letter sent to the president on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON–Sixteen House Republicans vehemently rejected President Barack Obama's calls for the House to overhaul the immigration system in a letter sent to the president on Wednesday.
A group of 16 of the House's most conservative lawmakers criticized Mr. Obama for supporting an immigration bill passed by the Senate last year that would allow illegal immigrants already living in the U.S. to eventually become U.S. citizens.
Congress should be focused on lowering unemployment, reducing poverty and increasing wages for U.S. workers, the lawmakers wrote to Mr. Obama. "Your immigration proposals do the exact opposite on every count."
Signers of the letter include vocal critics of the Senate's pathway to citizenship, such as Rep. Mo Brooks (R., Ala.), and a handful of lawmakers running for Senate seats in this year's midterm elections: GOP Reps. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Phil Gingrey of Georgia and Steve Stockman of Texas.
In their letter, the lawmakers wrote that broad immigration reform would benefit "big businesses who want to reduce labor costs," but would be "an awful deal" for U.S. workers.
"Is it the position of the White House that the hotel industry cannot be asked to find employees from among the legions of unemployed residing here today?" the letter asked.
Some employers, such as dairy farmers, have said they cannot find enough U.S. citizens willing to take the jobs they are trying to fill. Labor unions, which supported the Senate bill, have said an immigration overhaul would help lift workers out of poverty.
Earlier Wednesday, both House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) listed a rewrite of immigration laws as among their top priorities for the coming year in a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers. The 16 lawmakers who signed the letter to Mr. Obama are unlikely to support most immigration legislation that could pass the House.
Some advocates of a sweeping immigration overhaul took the House leaders' comments as a positive sign for an immigration rewrite, whose prospects appeared bleak late last year.
"Things continue to look better and better for immigration reform, and we hope to work with Republicans to get something real done," Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in a statement Wednesday.
The White House came out in support of extending operation of the international space station to at least 2024, four more years than planned, despite signs of waning enthusiasm for the project by some partners.
The international space station got a boost from the White House.
Associated PressThe White House on Wednesday came out in support of extending operation of the international space station to at least 2024, four more years than currently planned, despite signs of waning enthusiasm for the project by some partners. The announcement, which surprised many industry officials and members of Congress, came before release of the results [...]
Don't expect Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who helped instigate the government shutdown and earned the label of "whacko bird" from fellow Republican Sen. John McCain, to flash a newfound mellowness this year.
Sen. Ted Cruz said he lists 'elevating the debate' on the 2010 health law as his top achievement of last year.
Associated PressTexas Sen. Ted Cruz stirred a larger disturbance in Congress last year than any freshman senator in recent times, helping to instigate the government shutdown and earning the label of "whacko bird" from fellow Republican Sen. John McCain. But don't expect Mr. Cruz, back in Washington after what he calls the "whirlwind" of 2013, to [...]
http://stream.wsj.com/story/campaign-2012-continuous-coverage/SS-2-9156/SS-2-423758/
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