Not surprisingly, reaction to and analysis of last night's speeches dominate today's political news. In the actual economy, however, there is no shortage of stories suggesting we're still in trouble even if we do raise the debt ceiling. Here's today's Morning EDition:
TODAY
- The Senate debates the debt ceiling this afternoon.
BUDGET
- Is Aug. 2nd really a drop-dead deadline? Maybe not. It could be almost two weeks later. Yay?
- What the poll numbers say, and even if Obama is "winning," the debt battle is still hurting him on the economy.
- Sperling won't threaten veto of a short-term increase. (Have I mentioned I've thought all along a short-term clean-bill debt-ceiling hike will be the way out, here? JUST LIKE IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN.)
- Poll: More than a third of voters blame Obama policies for hurting the economy (how many think so on the left?)
- Obama's call for voters to contact Congress crashes some servers.
- Phone banks almost overloaded, too.
- Report: Ratings agency predicts downgrade under Speaker Boehner's (R-OH) plan, not under Senate Leader Reid's (D-NV).
- What Reid's up to.
- Think tank predicts Boehner plan will lead to massive spikes in poverty and hardship.
- Boehner might not even be able to pass his own plan. Despite House GOP Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) telling his own members to stop "whining" and vote for it.
- RSC leader says he will vote against the Boehner plan.
- Conservative lobbying group urges votes against the Boehner plan.
- Guess Limbaugh isn't so influential, after all.
- Boehner brings his plan to the floor tomorrow, with no certainty on whether he can pass it.
- Partial fact-check of Boehner's speech.
- Report: Boehner says he didn't sign up to go "mano-a-mano" with the president. Um, yes, he did.
- Poll: More Americans trust Obama than the GOP on the debt and the deficit.
- Analysis: Both Obama and Boehner are wrong, Hoover wrong.
- Boehner hits Reid plan for not doing something Boehner's plan doesn't do either.
- Senate Dems are working on how to tweak the House GOP plan so it can pass.
- Analysis: The problem isn't Washington, it's the Tea Party.
- The IMF sends its warning on default.
- Tanking the market isn't the only way default will slam the economy.
- Boehner's claim that small government means big people is untrue literally and metaphorically.
- Chart: Big government correlates with tall, healthy people.
- Bloomberg News reminds readers what's driven our debt.
- The only taxes the GOP wants to raise are taxes on the poor and middle class.
- Poll: Voters fear debt deal will hurt Medicare.
- Flashback: Boehner warned he wouldn't compromise.
- Analysis: Why should GOP ever say "yes," when "no" keeps getting them better offers?
- VIDEO: Cantor lets the truth slip.
- Cantor gets big bucks from the people whose tax rates he's protecting.
JOBS
- Companies are discriminating against the unemployed, because it's legal.
CLASS WARFARE
- Whites are winning; study finds ethnic disparities wider than ever, with Latinos on the losing end.
- The older and less-educated are also taking harder hits.
BROKEN GOVERNMENT
- The FAA shutdown is costing taxpayers $30 million a day.
- And it's costing airline passengers, too.
- The AFL-CIO alerts its members on the FAA fight.
WALL ST. / BANKS
- Prosecutors claim Florida AG fired them to protect mortgage lenders.
ENVIRONMENT
- House GOP bill easing pesticide rules moves forward.
BIG OIL
- BP reports "disappointing" profits of $5.6 billion. For one quarter.
VOTING RIGHTS
- Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) barrels ahead with disenfranchising the voting rights of the poor.
WISCONSIN
- The Club for Growth has pumped at least $1.5 million into Wisconsin's recall battle.
NEWT GINGRICH
- VIDEO: Not only don't quote his statements, don't even quote the taped, scripted ads he cuts.
(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: The Whole of the Moon by the Waterboys.)
Follow Senior Producer Jonathan Larsen (@jtlarsen) on Twitter