Morning Examiner: The ethanol vote as debt deal preview

Norquist and Coburn have been unfriendly for some time, but the most recent animosities flared up after Coburn voted in favor of the debt commission’s report which included a number of closed tax loopholes far beyond ethanol. And as both Michael Gerson and Charles Krauthammer report, the debt deal coming out of the Gang of Biden is going to necessarily include many of those revenue raisers. Gerson writes:

Will this be enough to win over the Republican votes needed to pass a deal? Krauthammer thinks so. He told Fox News last night: “But there is $1.1 trillion in tax expenditures [available for cutting], for example, on ethanol subsidies that are useless. You cut them out. Eight people in the country will say it is a tax increase. It’s not. I think you could get a settlement.”

Norquist might dispute that “eight people” number. But the outlines of deal do seem to be coming into shape: Democrats must accept a Paul Ryan-lite Medicare reform, while Republicans have to vote for a net increase in tax revenues. That’s gonna be a tough sell for the Gang of Biden.

Around the Bigs

The Hill, Senate kills off ethanol tax credits in possible break with tax pledge: “The Senate voted 73-27 Thursday to kill a major tax break that benefits the ethanol industry, handing a political win to a bipartisan group of lawmakers that call the incentive needless and expensive.

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The Wall Street Journal, Key Seniors Association Pivots on Benefit Cut: “AARP, the powerful lobbying group for older Americans, is dropping its longstanding opposition to cutting Social Security benefits … AARP now has concluded that change is inevitable, and it wants to be at the table to try to minimize the pain.”

The Washington Post, Coming soon: A bigger, costlier Obamacare, by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., and Doug Holtz Eakin: “The promises Obamacare supporters have made about the ultimate cost of the program are based on highly unlikely premises. Those who support the 2010 health-care law are betting that costs will remain under control largely because its central feature — health insurance exchanges, which amount to a centralized, government-run market of subsidized insurance policies — will not be all that popular. They are counting on the notion that when the government offers “free” money, there will be few takers. This is not realistic.”

The Hill, Boehner says House could move to cut off funding for Libya: “Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday said the Obama administration failed to answer all his questions about the U.S. mission in Libya and raised the possibility that the House would move to cut off funding for the operation.”

The New York Times editorial page, Libya and the War Powers Act: “Mr. Obama cannot evade his responsibility, under the War Powers Act, to seek Congressional approval to continue the operation. The White House’s argument for not doing so borders on sophistry … Partisan brinkmanship or not, Mr. Obama doesn’t have a choice. He needs to go to Congress and make his case. Congress then needs to authorize continued American support for NATO’s air campaign over Libya.”

Politico, Carney: Obama ‘owns’ Libya report: “President Obama worked directly on the report given to Congress that explains the administration’s legal justification for attacking Libya, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Thursday. … ‘It is his position, and he worked with the White house counsel and his team,’ Carney said. ‘As a constitutional law professor himself, obviously he owns this document.’”

Politico, Senate scrambles on Libya: “On Thursday evening, the No. 2 Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois unveiled a resolution that would authorize the use of force, short of ground troops, in compliance with the War Powers Act. It would carry the force of law, unlike a resolution crafted by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). Two other resolutions are under consideration, as well.”

The Washington Post, Daley’s courtship of executives hits rough patch: “But the outreach soon turned into a rare public dressing down of the president’s policies with his highest-ranking aide. One by one, exasperated executives stood to air their grievances on environmental regulations and stalled free-trade deals. … At one point, the room erupted in applause when Massachusetts utility executive Doug Starrett, his voice shaking with emotion, accused the administration of blocking construction on one of his facilities to protect fish, saying government ‘throws sand into the gears of progress.’”

The New York Times, Obama Admin Objects to Alaska Oil and Gas Development Bill: “The Obama administration today said a proposal from House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) to expedite oil and gas leasing and energy infrastructure permitting in an Alaska reserve could force federal regulators to flout environmental laws and includes a costly, redundant resource assessment. … Mike Pool, deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management … said the bill’s requirement to hold lease sales in the areas most likely to produce commercial oil and gas and set permitting deadlines could undermine the agency’s public land management process, including the National Environmental Policy Act.”

Associated Press, Southern Baptists urge path to citizenship for illegal immigrants: “The Southern Baptist Convention has passed a resolution advocating a path to legal status for illegal immigrants. The resolution was passed on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the nation’s largest protestant denomination in Phoenix. It also calls on Southern Baptists to reject bigotry and to minister to all people, regardless of immigration status.”

The Wall Street Journal, Restaurant Groups Sue Labor Department: “Trade groups representing the restaurant industry are suing the U.S. Labor Department for allegedly not allowing them to comment on new rules governing the way restaurants pay their employees.”

Associated Press, Unions go on attack at rally over NJ benefits bill: “Labor leaders rallying for collective bargaining rights in New Jersey went on the offensive Thursday with one comparing Gov. Chris Christie to Adolf Hitler and two Democratic legislative leaders to his generals, then apologizing.”

Campaign 2012

Gallup: “Forty-four percent of registered voters say they are more likely to vote for “the Republican Party’s candidate” and 39% for Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election, according to Gallup’s June update. The current five-percentage-point edge for the generic Republican is not a statistically significant lead, and neither side has held a meaningful lead at any point thus far in 2011.”

Romney: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney told a coffee shop full of voters in Tampa, Florida, that, “I’m also unemployed.” The New York Times reports that the patrons joined in Romney’s levity, but many in the press, including the Times, are calling the multi-millionaire self-comparison to today’s unemployed “awkward.” The Fox News headline reads, “Romney Jeered for Saying ‘I’m Also Unemployed’” but only sites criticism from Democrats.

Pawlenty: Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty joined the ranks of glitter victims, as same-sex marriage advocates coated him in the protest product at a stop in San Francisco yesterday. … Pawlenty also made news via twitter, conceding that while he may have lost Monday night’s debate with Romney, at least he didn’t Romneycare. … But the similarities between Pawlenty’s Medicare plan and Obamacare are catching up with him. At the America’s Health Insurance Plans conference in SF, Pawlenty had to explain that he “still wants to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law — even though [Pawlenty’s plan] sets up experiments that are supposed to do the same thing.”

Righty Playbook

• The Corner‘s Yuval Levin advises liberals to take a closer look at the latest WSJ/NBC poll before basing their next campaign on Mediscare: “At the very least, this suggests that at this point the Republican Medicare proposal is far less of a problem for Republicans than Obamacare is for Democrats. Like a slew of other polls, it also suggests that public opinion about Medicare reform is undefined and malleable. Maybe that means the Democrats will be able to work people up into a rage about premium support, but that certainly doesn’t seem all that clear so far.”
• The Weekly Standard‘s Jay Cost asks, Is Obama Another Jimmy Carter? “Put simply, Obama is in much better shape with his own coalition than Carter ever was. … This gives Obama a substantially stronger base of support than Carter had. … Barring some kind of precipitous decline in the condition of the economy – like the kind of runaway inflation suffered in 1979-80 – I have a hard time seeing Obama’s numbers falling much farther than the mid- to low-40s. That’s the level where the core of the Democratic coalition remains united behind him. It’s not enough to win, of course, but it is enough to make it interesting.”
• The Corner‘s Andrew McCarthy responds to both Mark Krikorian and Kris Kobach on the House’s latest version of E-Verify: “The fact that [Mark supports] Rep. Smith’s bill weighs heavily with me, but I do worry that the bill is exactly what I was concerned about: the feds preempt the states and then do no enforcement themselves.”

Lefty Playbook