Washington News

Senate Rejects Obama's Call To End Oil Subsidies As Gas Nears $4 Per Gallon President Obama on Thursday called on Congress to repeal billions of dollars in tax subsidies for the oil industry. However, the Senate voted 51-47 , nine short of the 60 needed for cloture, on a measure that would have ended the subsidies for the five largest oil companies. The story is getting a great deal of coverage in this morning's newspapers. Many of the reports note that the President's remarks and the Senate vote occurred as both parties seek to avoid blame for rising gas prices.
The CBS Evening News reported, "The latest hot button issue in politics is the rising prices of gas. The national average hit $3.92 a gallon today. It's up 18 cents this month." NBC Nightly News reported, "Many analysts think we could be headed towards $4.25 a gallon as a national average, but already for a family earning $40,000 a year, gas is consuming about $2,600 of that income."
John Harwood said on CNBC that before the vote, the President "tried to capitalize on public anger over high gas prices" by "rip[ping] into oil company profits and rip[ping] into Republicans for not joining him in taking away the industry's tax breaks."
Fox News' Special Report reported that the President's "message" was that "oil companies are hitting the US where it hurts twice." Ed Henry added, "Just weeks after vowing he would never support a policy that raises gasoline prices in an election year, President Obama did just that today." Henry reported that the "nonpartisan Congressional Research Service says the move would make oil and natural gas more expensive for US consumers and likely increase foreign dependence."
The Financial Times notes that Obama said the companies were reaping record profits while Americans were paying higher prices at the gas pump. He urged Congress to "double down" on clean energy investments instead of continuing to reward the oil companies.
The Washington Post says Obama delivered "fiery, campaign style remarks," in "a populist speech that sought to turn the blame for gas prices nearing $4 a gallon back onto his Republican critics." The President "told lawmakers that they can 'stand with big oil companies, or they can stand with the American people.'" The Post adds, "Senate Democrats followed by forcing a vote to end tax cuts for the five largest oil companies, which Republicans resoundingly defeated."
McConnell Says Eliminating Subsidies Would Make Gas Prices Go Up Senate Minority Leader McConnell, on CNBC's Kudlow Report, said, "Every time gas prices go up, the President says we need to raise taxes on energy companies, which, of course, would make the price of gas go even higher. It doesn't make any sense at all. ... But that's what they always do, when prices go up, take off after gas and oil companies."

House Passes Ryan Budget Plan 228-191 The AP reports "a divided House" voted 228-191 Thursday to approve a "$3.6 trillion Republican budget...recasting Medicare and imposing sweeping cuts in domestic programs, capping a battle that gave both political parties a campaign-season stage to spotlight their warring deficit-cutting priorities." The AP says the "partisan divisions over the measure, which is dead on arrival in the Democratic-led Senate, also underscores how tough it will be for lawmakers to achieve the co-operation needed to contend with a tsunami of tax and spending decisions that will engulf Congress right after this fall's elections."
Bloomberg News reports House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's plan "calls for $5.3 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade that would hit a large share of the federal government." Like the AP, Bloomberg News says the budget "is doomed in the Senate, where majority Democrats say it would take too much from lower-income Americans while giving tax breaks to the wealthy. Senate Democrats have said they don't plan to pass their own budget." Rather, the Christian Science Monitor reports, Senate Majority Leader Reid "has said the upper chamber will use the caps imposed by last summer's debt-ceiling deal as guidelines for its spending this year and therefore doesn't need a budget."
USA Today says "the GOP set up a fundamentally different spending plan than President Obama's that further highlights the ideological differences between the two sides." Ryan said, "It is so rare in American politics to arrive at a moment in which the debate revolves around the fundamental nature of American democracy and the social contract. But that is exactly where we are today."
The New York Times says Ryan's plan passed "with no Democratic votes and 10 Republican defections." It "will form the template around which much of the 2012 election will be fought. Democrats will try to hang its extensive changes to Medicare around the necks of vulnerable Republican candidates, along with the accusation that Republicans supported a program to punish the poor and elderly while rewarding the rich with still more tax cuts." In response, Republicans "will say theirs is the party willing to make the tough choices to tame a soaring federal debt."
The Los Angeles Times says the Ryan plan's "proposed overhaul of Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly, that could provide the greatest contrast between the parties -- and have the most lasting political effect." But the Wall Street Journal says the budget would also convert Medicaid into a block grant program, reduce top tax rates, and cut spending drastically.

Congress Agrees To 90-Day Extension For Transportation Funding Congress has passed a 90-day extension of transportation funding "to continue paying for the nation's highways and infrastructure programs, averting a halt in road and infrastructure projects because of the inability of lawmakers to agree on a broader transportation measure," the New York Times reports. The measure passed the House 266 to 158 yesterday, then passed the Senate two hours later on a voice vote. The Times notes, "The measure is the ninth extension since a $286 billion, multiyear plan ended in 2009; had Congress taken no action, the current extension would have expired over the weekend."
The Washington Post reports, "Angry Senators on Thursday bowed to the will of the House." In a "condemnation on the Senate floor," Sen. Barbara Boxer said, "They run off on their vacation and leave the people twisting in the wind."
Roll Call also says the Senate "bowed to pressure from the House." Boxer "said that move will result in job losses. 'They sent out a signal that America should be ready for hardship,' Boxer said." Sen. Mary Landrieu "warned that she would object to any further extensions and urged the House to take up the Senate bill."
The Hill reports in its "Floor Action" blog that because the House planned to "leave for recess at the end of Thursday, the Republican bill was daring Senate Democrats to reject the bill just days before federal authorization expires." House Republicans "knew they were putting intense pressure on the Senate to find some way to ensure federal highway funding continues after Saturday, one that would also allow it to save face in light of the House decision to send its temporary fix over at the last minute."

Supreme Court Set For Preliminary Vote On ACA Challenges The volume of coverage of the Supreme Court's review of the Affordable Care Act dropped off precipitously last night and this morning, a day after the final hearing. None of the networks covered the healthcare debate at all last night, and the rest of the White House press corps focused on President Obama's remarks regarding oil industry subsidies. This morning's print tends towards rather dry descriptions of the court's procedures and timelines, rather than analysis of the political implications.
The AP reports, "While the rest of us have to wait until June, the justices of the Supreme Court will know the likely outcome of the historic healthcare case by the time they go home this weekend. ... The justices will vote on the fate of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul in under an hour Friday morning," and "no one else will be present."
USA Today adds, "That initial decision may be altered as drafts of majority and dissenting opinions are written, circulated and rewritten, often many times. It might even be reversed during the lengthy writing process if one or more justices switch sides," but "for most of the next three months, only the justices and 39 law clerks...will be privy to the ruling. And even in an age of Twitter and YouTube, it won't leak."
Robert Barnes, in the Washington Post , says, "It will be interesting to see how the court's final decision matches the tone of the oral arguments, which split largely along the court's ideological divide. The questions at oral arguments are usually pretty true indicators of the justices' leanings. But there are cases -- especially those involving major constitutional issues -- in which the tone can be misleading."
According to McClatchy , "The judicial utterances during this week's lengthy oral arguments left a common impression that the conservative-led court might strike down some or all of the 2010 healthcare law," and, "unfortunately for the White House, these kinds of impressions can be valid clues."

Campaign News

Romney Wins Backing Of Ex-President George H.W. Bush, Rubio With a string of high-profile endorsements this week, Mitt Romney appears to have a significant momentum in the GOP primary contest. In the view of the media. For example, the CBS Evening News reported that "top Republicans are now gathering around Mitt Romney. Last night it was Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and late today, the first President Bush threw his support to Romney. He told him to 'get on and win the presidency.'"
NBC Nightly News described the Bush and Rubio endorsements as "highly coveted." The Washington Times reports, "Mr. Bush, who met with the candidate in his Houston office Thursday, called Mr. Romney a 'good man' who would 'make a great president.' 'I do think it's time for the party to get behind Gov. Romney,' he said." Bloomberg News reported that Bush's "backing capped a week in which Romney's campaign sought to cement a sense of inevitability surrounding his candidacy."
Roll Call reports that Rubio on Thursday said, "I think Mitt Romney has won this primary. I think the primary's over now, by the admission of his opponents." Referring to Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, Rubio added, "Once they, by their own admission, ended the primary by saying that the only way they could win is by having a floor fight in August, the primary's over."
Politico , in an article posted ahead of former President Bush's Thursday endorsement of Romney, reports that Rubio's backing of the former Massachusetts Governor "signals that the protracted" GOP presidential contest "may finally be drawing to a close."
Ryan Reportedly Poised To Endorse Romney The AP reports House Budget Chairman, Paul Ryan "is expected to endorse" Romney. Two Republican officials tell the AP "that Ryan's endorsement could come as soon as Friday, when Romney is scheduled to give an economic speech in Appleton, Wis. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly."
Politico reported on its website, "Paul Ryan's camp called Rick Santorum to alert him to a pending endorsement of...Romney, and the former senator's team then shared that courtesy call with" BuzzFeed , "stealing at least a bit of the frontrunner's thunder on the rollout."
The Daily Caller reported, "The timing seems to fit. Rep. Ryan wrapped up his Presidential Trust Duties today [Thursday]. The House just passed his budget. And with the Wisconsin primary right around the corner on Tuesday, Ryan's endorsement could be doubly effective."
Rothenberg: Romney "Has Won" The GOP Nomination In his Roll Call column, Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, wrote, "Finally, it's over. The fight for the GOP nomination, that is," as Mitt Romney "has won his party's nomination." Noting that "not everyone agrees that the race is over," Rothenberg says the delegate math and primary schedule leave Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum with no realistic chance of denying Romney the nomination. And with a "steady drumbeat of announcements of support for Romney from party insiders (or acknowledgements from uncommitted current and former officeholders that he will be the party's nominee)," Rothenberg adds, "You don't need to be a brain surgeon to understand what is happening."

Romney, Santorum Battle Over Social Issues In Wisconsin The Los Angeles Times reports, "For Republicans, Wisconsin and its embattled governor have come to symbolize the danger of lurching too far to the right in a presidential battleground state. Now," Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney "are running the risk of making the same stumble as Tuesday's primary nears." Noting that Santorum and Romney have been attacking each other over contraception and abortion-related issues, the Times adds, "The prominence of divisive social issues -- rather than a tight focus on jobs and the economy -- in the" GOP presidential contest "has delighted Democrats looking ahead to November. They hope that Republican scuffles over birth control will turn off independents, particularly women."
Politico says that Romney and Santorum "are hitching themselves to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in the hopes of gaining an edge in Tuesday's presidential primary. Both presidential candidates are embracing Walker ahead of the June 5 gubernatorial recall race, which is energizing GOP activists and sucking up more oxygen than the GOP race."

Romney Up Big In Maryland GOP Primary A new Rasmussen Reports survey of 750 likely Maryland GOP primary voters taken March 28 shows Mitt Romney leading with 45%, followed by Rick Santorum with 28%, Newt Gingrich with 12%, and Ron Paul with 7%. Maryland holds its primary on Tuesday, April 3.
Romney Expected To Easily Win District Of Columbia's GOP Primary The AP reports that GOP voters in the District of Columbia have been "all but ignored by presidential candidates who think their 16 convention delegates aren't worth fighting over." Still, "Republicans will head to the polls Tuesday to have their say in the presidential race and a handful of local elections. Mitt Romney is expected to coast to victory in the winner-take-all presidential primary, despite spending zero time and little money campaigning in the district."