Hope everyone had a good Memorial Day. Summer is unofficially under way and here's what's going on today. Today's Outlook and Underbuzzed will be here later today, so check back.
TODAY
- No public events scheduled for the president.
BUDGET
- House expected to vote down a clean bill lifting the debt ceiling today.
- House GOP rigged the test vote by requiring a two-thirds margin of victory.
- Senate GOP capitalizes on Dem debt-ceiling cave by demanding Medicare cuts.
- Senate Dems want Geithner to freeze congressional pay in the event of a default.
- House GOP rolls out its 2012 budget proposals, like cutting funding to ensure the safety of your food.
- House GOP continues to stand by the Ryan Plan.
- Fmr. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson tells his party how to salvage the principles of the Ryan Plan.
- NY-26 fuels new Democratic candidates.
- House Republican Leader Eric Cantor calls Medicare's role in NY-26 "undeniable."
- One Democrat thinks he can beat Ryan himself.
- GOP candidate attacks Dem for opposing the Ryan Plan.
- The Hill compiles political rhetoric on Medicare.
JOBS
- Krugman: How "serious" economic solutions have eclipsed the right ones.
- The jobs that are returning come with lower wages.
- Dionne: Republicans think America is #1, but their policies are changing that.
- Graph: States benefiting from auto bailout provide backdrop for Dems' 2012 campaign.
- Graph: It's not small businesses that create jobs any more.
HOUSING
- Home prices are still falling.
- It's the biggest decline in 16 months.
- Rate of home-ownership back down to 1998 levels; undoing all the gains of which Mr. Bush was so proud.
SECURITY STATE
- The Pentagon decides that cyber-attacks constitute a declaration of war. (Who decided the Pentagon gets to decide that?)
AFGHANISTAN
- The essential Rajiv Chandrasekraran reports the bottom line for some of Obama's advisers on Afghanistan is money.
- The White House agrees it's too expensive.
- Dems are coalescing around consensus for accelerated withdrawal.
- Karzai tells NATO to stop air strikes.
- VIDEO: Reuters report on Karzai's warning.
LIBYA
- Report shows western boots on the ground, in violation of UN resolution.
TORNADOES
- How Cantorism plays in practice on the ground in Alabama.
- The list of missing in Joplin dwindles.
WEINER-GATE
- Rep. Anthony Weiner retains counsel.
- He has young, female followers on Twitter. What other evidence is needed?
STATES
- Polls: Voters suffer buyer's remorse over their turn to Republican governors.
HEALTH CARE
- GOP governors are getting into the health-care exchange business.
- Feds are targeting execs, rather than just corporations, for fraud charges.
CLIMATE CHANGE
- Global emissions reach new record in 2010.
CIVIL RIGHTS
- Obama Administration aggressively prosecuting police violations of civil rights.
LATINOPHOBIA
- Tea Party digs at Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for failing to meet their goals on immigration.
OBAMA
- Poll: Approval rating rises.
- Analysis: It's not just the bin Laden killing.
- The strategy for winning Florida? Run against its Republican governor.
- The GOP strategy for winning Florida? Make it harder to register voters.
GOP 2012
- New efforts under way to pull Ryan and Christie into the field.
ROMNEY
- VIDEO: He gives Obama presidency an 'F.'
- VIDEO: He gives himself better-than-even odds of becoming president.
- He distances himself from the vampire lobby.
PAWLENTY
- VIDEO: Pawlenty wants to be president because America "is in big trouble;" so if America were in fine shape he wouldn't want to be president?
SCOTT BROWN
- Small donations comprise a dwindling portion of his haul.
GOLDMAN SACHS
- GS blew Libya's money; offered to make it a major shareholder in return.
BIRTHERISM
- New book lands on the bestseller list.
(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, Firedoglake, the NYT Caucus, Daily Kos. What Pandora has me listening to: I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), by The Proclaimers.)