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- Senators mostly agree that the reporting requirements for small businesses in the health-care bill are going to create more headaches than they’re worth. Two different bills to reform the system were debated today, both stymied by partisan bickering. To Ezra Klein, it's just another day in the Senate. “The reality is that if the Senate didn't rely on rules that require supermajorities to pass anything, the 1099 requirement would've been reformed today,” he says. “As it is, the incentives for party-line voting are stronger than the incentives to make good policy.”
- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to argue that all the Bush tax cuts should be extended because it's not lost tax revenue generated by Republicans that's caused massive government deficits; it's -- you guessed it -- profligate Democrat spending: “Democrats spent the last two years putting government in charge of health care, the financial sector, car companies, insurance companies, student loans — you name it,” he said. Trouble is, as Jonathan Chait points out, none of those five programs is actually increasing the deficit.
- ThinkProgress published a survey yesterday of Republican Senate candidates on the environment. It pegged Rep. Mark Castle, currently competing in a hotly contested primary, as the last GOP climate supporter. But wait, might John McCain readopt his pre-2008 support for cap-and-trade? Politico wonders, but it's sort of irrelevant. Either way, it’s fair to say climate change won’t be moving off the back burner any time soon.
- Remainders: Paul Krugman notes that the “Kenyan anticolonialist” policy Dinesh D’Souza accuses Obama of carrying out in the oil wells of Brazil was actually created by Bush; Congressional primaries don’t get a lot of mainstream media attention, but they may be the most important elections of all; having an Ivy League degree doesn’t preclude a run for Tea Party leadership; and Obama writes a children's book.
-- Sarah Babbage
