Sorry I'm running late today. Maybe NJ Transit needs another tunnel into Manhattan. Enough griping, here's your Morning EDition:
TODAY
- The House goes home. Until Sept. 7th. Just like your summer vacation, right?
- Senate vote on the debt-ceiling deal is expected at noon.
- Pres. Obama will make a statement following the Senate vote.
BUDGET
- Who will sit on the "super committee"?
- VIDEO: Sen. GOP Leader McConnell (R-KY) vows to hold the debt ceiling hostage again. Why wouldn't he, when Dems keep rewarding it?
- Greg Sargent on what the reaction to the deal says about how screwed we are.
- White House does know how to draw some lines, e.g., Medicaid.
- Liberal reaction to the deal.
- Dems say GOP won.
- GOP says GOP won. (Though maybe that's to fool the Tea Party...)
- Taibbi says Democrats didn't fight because they didn't want to.
- The Ticktock.
- Both parties try to spin the deal as helpful to the economy. History be damned.
- Markets not happy.
- Lobbyists are.
- Gene Robinson: Liberals lost the battle, not the war.
- The GOP 2012 field finally weighs in on the deal.
- Union leader says the deal will kill jobs.
- The deal won't help the economy.
- Industry says the deal won't create jobs.
- What does create jobs? Government spending.
- So the Fed is considering stepping in again.
- The deal saves only what we spend on three months in Afghanistan, cuts aid to grad students.
- Most Tea Party supporters supported new revenues in the deal.
- Democrats will push for the debt committee to raise taxes, which Republicans will be able to prevent.
- The debt-ceiling battle cost taxpayers $1.7 billion.
- Think I saw a McConnell denial, but reports say GOPers who vote against deal won't get to sit on "super committee."
- Chart: The deal's cuts utterly dwarf the spending from the stimulus.
- Poll: Most Americans oppose the debt deal.
- Poll: Most Americans want a different representative. So much for 2010.
- VIDEO: Rep. Gabby Gifford (D-AZ) returns to the House to vote for the deal.
JOBS
- The administration plans a pivot to jobs.
- Corporations move to lay off tens of thousands.
- Pres. Obama talks jobs today with the AFL-CIO.
- Pivoting to jobs is tough without room to pivot.
- Manufacturing saw weakest growth in two years.
- If you thought electoral anger about unemployment was bad now, what about when the debt deal fails to improve things?
CLASS WARFARE
- Study finds weakening of unions has led to income disparity.
- Significant numbers of students may be unable to repay their loans.
- Wall St. has spent $100 million this year to fight back against already-weakened new rules.
BROKEN GOVERNMENT
- House members fly home on planes inspected by FAA safety inspectors working without pay. Leaving Dems defending rural airports. And unions.
- We could have another shutdown standoff next month.
- And another one.
- Map: Which states are actually the parasites on government?
- Analysis: Our system is fine, it's the GOP that's screwed up.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
- Judge orders Kansas to resume disbursing funds to Planned Parenthood.
LATINOPHOBIA
- DOJ files suit against Alabama's anti-immigrant law.
ISLAMOPHOBIA
- Fox attacks Obama's Ramadan statement.
WISCONSIN
- Could debt-deal loss dispirit Wisconsin progressives in the recall battle?
SYRIA
- President Assad continues killing reformers.
SOMALIA
- Islamist insurgents make the famine worse by detaining starving refugees.
RACISM
- Lawmaker apologizes to Pres. Obama for calling him a "tar baby."
RIGHT-WING MEDIA
2012
- Poll shows Obama in trouble in Pennsylvania.
(What I'm reading: Greg Sargent's Plum Line, Think Progress, Matt Yglesias, Talking Points Memo, TPMDC, Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, the Washington Monthly, CNN's PoliticalTicker, the National Journal, Ezra Klein, Politico's Playbook and Huddle, Dave Weigel, Wonkette, Firedoglake, the NYT Caucus, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars. What my iPod has me listening to: Pacing the Cage by Bruce Cockburn.)
Follow Senior Producer Jonathan Larsen (@jtlarsen) on Twitter