Not a lot of political news grabbing the headlines today. But behind the scenes the push-and-pull over the debt continues, with our economic future in the balance. And a number of important slow-moving stories poked their heads up today. The Exxon story in particular comes to mind. So does the state-level assault on Planned Parenthood. Check back later for today's Outlook and Underbuzzed, and let us know which of these stories you think are the day's big ones.
TODAY
- Senate debates bill reducing number of presidential appointments subject to confirmation.
- Senate hearing this morning on Pres. Obama's war powers, and Libya.
- The president goes to Iowa to talk about manufacturing initiatives.
BUDGET / ECONOMY
- Democrats find some steel and push for cutting additional tax breaks.
- GOP rift on taxes has Democrats confused.
- Gene Robinson makes the obvious, sidelined point: Deficit reduction must wait for true recovery.
- Tea Party intransigence will force GOP to get Democratic votes; which is good news for Medicare.
- White House won't use debt talks to push for an end to debt-fueling Bush tax cuts.
- Anti-poverty groups remind Pres. Obama that past budgets protected anti-poverty programs.
- Psst! The secret's out: Republicans don't care about the deficit, they just want low taxes for the rich.
- Ezra Klein: GOP is betting default deadline will force Democrats to rubber-stamp extending tax breaks for the rich.
- Obama is focusing on the super-rich.
- The White House wants about $400 billion in new revenues.
- Is the White House hoping it can peel off Boehner by neutralizing the Medicare issue?
- The effects of a debt deal could be wiped out by a change in interest rates.
- Chart: States that boosted spending saw job growth, states that cut lost jobs.
CLASS WARFARE
- Goldman Sachs is going to fire Americans so it can hire 1,000 people in Singapore.
- Eighty-two-year-old man loses everything when his home is mistakenly foreclosed.
- Eighty-one corporations band together to fight income-disparity disclosure.
- Seventeen states on Friday will lose grants for the poor for the first time since 1996.
HOUSING
HEALTH CARE
- Report: Half of all health-care spending is done on 5% of the population.
GAY RIGHTS
- Poll: Most New Yorkers support the new gay-marriage law.
KOCH BROTHERS
- Govs. Rick Perry (R-TX) and Bob McDonnell (R-VA) attended the weekend's Koch summit.
CORPORATIZATION
- Lobbyists take massive pay cuts to work in Congress. Wonder why?
CLIMATE CHANGE
- Did Exxon-Mobil break its pledge not to fund climate-change denial?
- VIDEO: Rep. Steve King (R-IA) says massive Missouri River flooding couldn't have been anticipated.
IMMIGRATION
- Democrats pitch DREAM Act as economic balm.
- Georgia judge blocks part of state immigration law.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
- Texas legislature votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
AFGHANISTAN
- War aims shift from cultural understanding to killing people.
LIBYA
- Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) slams Obama on Libya.
MINNESOTA
- A government shutdown looms in budget standoff.
ELECTIONS
- A second governor vetoes a bill curtailing voters' rights.
OBAMA 2012
- GOP's performance in Florida may put the state in play for Obama.
MITT ROMNEY
- After slamming TARP, Romney campaigns at bank that relied on TARP.
- Romney repeats debunked claim that Obama made the economy worse.
MICHELE BACHMANN
- The roots of Bachmann's right-wing theocracy.
- Bachmann stands by claim that founding fathers fought to end slavery.
- Tom Petty asks Bachmann to stop using his song, "American Girl." Lyrics here.
- Bachmann suggests Tea Party is not right wing.
- AP fact-checks Bachmann.
- VIDEO: Bachmann praises nine-year-old John Q. Adams as a founding father, and questions need for minimum wage.
- VIDEO: Bachmann wishes everything she said was perfect. Which, of course, is an impossible goal without doing something crazy like checking your facts first before you speak.
- VIDEO: Bachmann claims "a strong, academic, scholarly background."
TIM PAWLENTY
- Pawlenty hammers Obama as complete foreign-policy failure in the Middle East (which is currently democratizing at historic pace).
HERMAN CAIN
- Top aides quit Cain campaign.
RICK PERRY
- VIDEO: Gov. Perry says government can not create one job.
(What I'm reading: Greg Sargent's Plum Line, Think Progress, Matt Yglesias, The Wonk Room, Talking Points Memo, TPMDC, Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, the Washington Monthly, 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: Respectable by the Rolling Stones.)
Follow Senior Producer Jonathan Larsen (@jtlarsen) on Twitter