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Washington News
In Iowa, Obama Again Calls For Extension Of Low Student Loan Rates President Obama's appearance in Iowa as part of his campaign to keep interest rates on student loans from doubling this summer received widespread coverage last night and this morning, but not as much as was given to his similar college campus appearance in North Carolina Tuesday. NBC Nightly News and ABC World News both mentioned the President's speech within the context of segments on the nascent general election campaign.
The Iowa City (IA) Press-Citizen reports the President "told a crowd of several thousand Wednesday at the University of Iowa Field House that the fight to keep higher education affordable is a personal one" because he and the First Lady "just eight years ago finished paying off their own student loans. ... Not coming from wealthy families, the president said he and the First Lady 'have been in your shoes.'" The Press-Citizen notes that "upon arriving in Iowa City, Obama met with a group of five University of Iowa students who receive federal student loans."
According to the Des Moines (IA) Register , the President argued that "keeping federal student loan rates in check will help the economy, although some Republicans just 'don't get it.'" The Register reports that in an apparent reference to Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), the President said, "You've got one member of Congress who compared these student loans, I'm not kidding you, to a stage three cancer of socialism. Stage 3 cancer? I don't know where to start. What do you mean? What are you talking about?" Obama continued, "And then you've got the spokesman for the Speaker of the House who said we're -- meaning me, my administration -- we're just talking about student loans to distract people from the economy. Now, think about that for a second, because these guys don't get it. This is the economy! This is about your job security! This is about your future. If you do well, the economy does well. This is ABOUT the economy!"
The Quad-City (IA) Times , in an article titled, "Obama to students: 'You are the economy,'" spotlights the same passage from the President's remarks. According to the Times, the President "argu[ed] that an affordable college education is the ticket to the middle class for Americans," and "challenged the notion that his call for lower interest rates on student loans is an attempt to distract from the economy." The Times adds, "The visit was billed as an official trip," but the President "nonetheless appeared in campaign-form in a state generally considered important to his re-election and in front of an age group he dominated four years ago."
On NBC Nightly News, Chuck Todd said, "It's no accident that the President has spent the last two days courting young voters in battleground states like Iowa, hoping to reenergize the same supporters that propelled him into office four years ago."
Boehner Proposes To Use Healthcare "Slush Fund" To Subsidize Student Loans On NBC Nightly News, Chuck Todd reported that Speaker Boehner "tried to blunt the President's populist youth push on the student loan issue by announcing a new plan to keep the lower interest rate in place for another year. But where does Boehner find the money -- $6 billion to pay for this extension? Out of the President's healthcare law."
The Hill reports Boehner "scheduled a Friday vote to stop interest rates on student loans from doubling this summer," and "coupled the vote with an attack on Obama's healthcare law, announcing he would pay the $5.9 billion cost of extending the loans with funds from what he called a healthcare 'slush fund' set up for preventive care." The Hill notes Boehner "made his announcement during a hastily called press conference just hours after Obama named the Speaker as a chief impediment to the Democrats' plan to keep the loan benefit from expiring."
Politico reported that Senate Democrats are "aiming for a separate mechanism to offset the price tag of the extension. And that could set up a showdown between the two bodies and the president."
Fed Forecasts Modest Growth For Rest Of 2012 McClatchy reports, "The Federal Reserve on Wednesday looked past recent soft economic indicators and raised its forecast for the US economy, projecting stronger but still subpar growth this year." Chairman Ben Bernanke "in a follow-up news conference cautioned against reading too much into soft employment readings in March, but he acknowledged that hiring could remain sluggish for the rest of the year."
The Washington Post notes that "just ahead of the press conference, the Fed released its economic projections," saying "the economy would grow by up to 2.9 percent this year, compared with a top line of 2.7 percent from its January projection. In addition, the Fed projected that unemployment would end the year at between 7.8 percent and 8 percent, compared to a between 8.2 percent and 8.5 percent range in January." The CBS Evening News also noted that "the Fed now says growth this year could be 2.9% -- as we said, moderate -- and not a big help to unemployment."
Bernanke: No Chance To Save Economy If Hill, White House Don't Avoid "Fiscal Cliff" Politico reports that at his press conference, Bernanke said yesterday "he's trying to save the economy, but he warned Wednesday that he won't be able to if the president and Congress send the country off a 'fiscal cliff.'" Bernanke said Fed action on the economy "that won't make much of a difference if both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue can't agree to extend some of the expiring tax cuts." Said Bernanke, "If no action were to be taken by the fiscal authorities, the size of the fiscal cliff is such that there's absolutely no chance that the Federal Reserve could or would have any ability to offset that affect on the economy."
Supreme Court Appears Sympathetic To Arizona Immigration Law Coverage of the Supreme Court hearing on Arizona's immigration law indicates the court may be leaning toward upholding the law, and casts Solicitor General Donald Verrilli's arguments as facing skepticism from justices on both sides of the ideological divide. Justice Sonia Sotomayor's entreaty to Verrilli ("You can see it's not selling very well. Why don't you try to come up with something else?") was featured in the great majority of the TV and print stories. The hearing generated nearly 12 minutes of combined coverage on the network newscasts, two of which led with the story.
The New York Times , among other news outlets, reports on its front page this morning that "should the court uphold most or all of the Arizona law or strike down the heart of the healthcare law, it would represent a political blow to President Obama in the final stretch of the campaign season." The "politically charged clash," reports the Huffington Post , "served as a rematch between D.C. superlawyer Paul Clement and...Verrilli, who faced off in the healthcare cases over the course of three days in late March." The Christian Science Monitor , meanwhile, says the Administration "appears headed for a second potential election-year defeat in a major case at the US Supreme Court," with "the aggressive questioning" suggesting "there may be five votes in support of at least some of the four challenged provisions of the Arizona law."
ABC World News says "several justices seemed sympathetic to the huge costs of illegal immigration." Verrilli "argued that the nation can have only one immigration code, not a patchwork across 50 states. But that argument didn't seem to convince even liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the nation's first Hispanic on the court," who "said, 'You can see it's not selling very well. Why don't you try to come up with something else?'"
NBC Nightly News reported in its lead story that "the most controversial parts of the Arizona law were immediately challenged in court and blocked, but judging from today's argument, the state may soon be able to start enforcing some of them." Also in lead story, the CBS Evening News noted that "liberal justices and conservative justices had tough questions for the Obama Administration and...seemed sympathetic to Arizona." Like nearly every news report on the hearing, CBS noted Sotomayor's comment to Verrilli, and recounted that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is "the key swing vote, talked of a Federal government without the 'money or resources to enforce our immigration laws' and states struggling with social disruption, economic disruption from illegal immigrants. He asked why couldn't those states 'enact laws to correct this problem?'"
USA Today adds that Chief Justice John Roberts "questioned why the federal government would not want a state to assist in identifying illegal immigrants." Justice Antonin Scalia, meanwhile, "repeatedly asked why Arizona should be barred from policing its own state."
Campaign News
Obama Will Appear At Campaign Rallies In Virginia And Ohio May 5 The AP reports, "Diving into campaign mode full-bore," President Obama "will headline his first re-election rallies next week. ... The president will hit the campaign trail in back-to-back rallies May 5 in Ohio and Virginia," which the President "carried...in the 2008 election and will likely need to win there again in November if he wants to hold on to his job." The rallies "will be held on the campuses of Ohio State University in Columbus and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond."
The Hill reports, "At the campaign rallies, the president will 'outline the choice the American people will make in November,' said campaign manager Jim Messina said on a conference call with reporters." David Axelrod added, "For the better part of last year, Romney has tried to tear down President Obama with a dishonest, negative campaign that even other Republicans have criticized."
According to the Los Angeles Times , "Obama's political activity to date has otherwise been limited to closed fundraising events, many in Washington, New York and Southern California."
RNC Accuses Obama Of Using Taxpayer Money To Campaign The Los Angeles Times (reports that Republicans "have been increasingly critical of the president for, in their view, campaigning on the taxpayer dime with events the White House has termed official business." Yesterday, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus "filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Office seeking an investigation for what the party calls a 'blatant campaigning and misuse of taxpayer dollars,' following a three-state, two-day swing by the president to pressure Republicans to extend lower student loan interest rates."
Gingrich Preparing To Drop Out, Back Romney NBC Nightly News reported, "Word from Newt Gingrich that he's ready to end his campaign for president a day after Mitt Romney swept five primary contests." NBC's Chuck Todd added, "Newt Gingrich today bowed to the political reality." Gingrich: "I think obviously that I would be a better candidate, but the objective factor is that the voters didn't think that."
The AP reports that Gingrich "began taking steps Wednesday to shut down his debt-laden White House bid." Gingrich "had a friendly telephone conversation Wednesday with Romney and had started planning an event where he would throw his support behind the likely nominee, Gingrich spokesman R.C Hammond said."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Gingrich "will drop out of the presidential race on Tuesday, the Gingrich campaign confirmed" Wednesday. Hammond "wrote in a text message that Gingrich will be 'laying out plans now how as a citizen he can best help stop [an] Obama second term and win congressional majorities. A source close to the campaign who asked not to be identified said Gingrich will 'very likely' endorse Romney at" an "event in the Washington, D.C. area."
Obama Campaign Asks For Union Dues To Pay For Charlotte Convention Bloomberg News reported that the President's "political advisers are pressing labor unions to help underwrite the Democratic convention in September to cover a fundraising shortfall that has resulted from their self-imposed ban on corporate donations." According to Bloomberg, "So far, the host committee in Charlotte is roughly halfway to its $36.6 million goal."
The Charlotte (NC) Observer says unions "represent a potentially lucrative fountain of money. While the convention's new self-imposed fundraising rules prohibit cash donations from corporations, lobbyists and PACs, they put no limits on money from union treasuries. In other words, organizers of the 2012 convention in Charlotte can't accept a penny in cash from businesses, but can take $1 million or more from a labor union."
Barrett Emerges As Frontrunner In Wisconsin Recall Democratic Primary The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that "in less than a month in the race," Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett "has established himself as the front-runner...in the Democratic recall primary for governor." Barrett "is ahead in all the polls in the Democratic primary; Gov. Scott Walker and Republican groups are focusing their attacks on Barrett."
The AP reports, "Polls show Barrett with a lead less than two weeks before election day, and a labor group supporting his chief opponent, Kathleen Falk, recently pulled its television ads off the air. A state teachers union that backed Falk now says it will support whoever emerges from the Democratic primary on May 8."
RGA Ad Slams Barrett The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on its website, "The Republican Governors Association released another ad Wednesday criticizing...Barrett." The RGA spot "sought to push back against Barrett's message that Walker created a 'civil war' in the state with his proposal to repeal most collective bargaining for most public workers in the state. 'Tom Barrett's agenda would take Wisconsin back to the same divisive problems,' the ad says, arguing Barrett raised taxes too much in Milwaukee."
Jobs Data Could Give Democrats An Opening The Christian Science Monitor reports that while Walker "fights to keep his job in a recall election scheduled for June, he is being forced to confront a harsh reality in his state: It lost more jobs during the past 12 months," 23,900, "than any other state in the" US. The Monitor notes that "no other state lost more than 3,500 jobs" in that same period, and "as expected, the two Democratic opponents who are campaigning to defeat Walker," Barrett and Falk, "have interpreted the new data to show the governor's policies are harmful to overall job growth."
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