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Busy traveling during the ill-conceived debt ceiling spectacle that consumed Congress during the summer of 2011? Craving an early start to an election year budget fight? Great news! On Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner vowed to block another (supposedly routine) increase to the federal debt ceiling this year unless the increase is offset by larger spending cuts. But Boehner’s remarks before a fiscal summit meeting in Washington revealed the GOP’s other motive: To extend the Bush-era tax cuts before they expire at the end of this year as President Obama and Republican leaders had agreed upon in 2010.

Boeher said at the summit:

Our bill to stop the New Year’s Day tax increase will also establish an expedited process by which Congress would enact real tax reform in 2013 … The Ways and Means Committee will work out the details, but the bottom line is, if we do this right, we will never again have to deal with the uncertainty of expiring tax rates. We’ll have replaced the broken status quo with a tax code that maintains progressivity, taxes income once, and creates a fairer, simpler code.

Of course, Obama and Democratic leaders do want to extend the tax cuts — for the middle class, not the top earners. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at the summit, “Our objective should be to replace that very large set of expiring tax provisions and broad-based, automatic, pretty crude spending cuts with a more responsible, balanced glide path to fiscal sustainability.” He continued, “This time without the drama and the pain and damage that caused the country last July.”

But what Geithner sees as Congress’s obligation to pass a budget without drama, Boehner views an opportunity to force action. “We shouldn’t dread the debt limit,” Boeher said. “We should welcome it. It’s an action-forcing event in a town that has become infamous for inaction.” The showdown is coming and, according to Boehner, we should welcome it.

Read more posts by Brett Smiley

Filed Under:
important ceilings
,debt ceiling
,death and taxes
,john boehner

via Daily Intel http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/05/debt-ceiling-showdown-part-congress.html

State Sen. Deb Fischer has won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Nebraska, making her the odds-on favorite to replace Ben Nelson. What you will hear: Sarah Palin endorsed a Mama Grizzly and pushed her over the top. The larger backstory: Fischer benefitted from a yearlong, bloody, stupid primary between state Attorney General Jon Bruning and Treasurer Don Stenberg. The former, working his way up the greasy pole for years, had spooked Chuck Hagel out of running for re-election in 2008, then gotten chased out of the primary by then-Agriculture Sec. Mike Johanns. The latter had lined up conservative support — Jim DeMint, Rick Santorum, Erick Erickson. The two of them tore chunks out of each other, leaving Fischer alone. So it goes with the three-way race.

via Slate Blogs http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/05/16/nebraska_prepare_yourself_for_stories_about_sarah_palin_kingmaker.html

Publishing house Weldon Owen created an infographic called “How a Book is Born,” tracing the path of a book from idea to final product.

We’ve embedded the whole infographic below–all book professionals can learn from this image which shows how a book is conceptualized, pitched, picked up, written, edited and who gets drunk along the way.

Check it out: “Here’s the heartwarming, only slightly messy, and roughly 74 percent accurate story of how an idea churns through the publishing process just like—as a publisher we once knew put it—a rat travels through an anaconda. Don’t think too much about that analogy. Just enjoy this flowchart that takes you from a brilliant idea to a best-selling trade book. And stop asking your mother embarrassing questions.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

via GalleyCat http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/how-a-book-is-born-infographic_b51636

More than any year in recent memory, the survival of shows this season did not hinge on ratings.

You had Fox’s Fringe getting renewed for a…

via EW.com: Top 5 Stories http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/15/canceled-shows/

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook will offer 96 million more shares, or 25 percent more than it was planning to offer previously.

via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/facebook-increases-number-of-shares-for-i-p-o/

President Obama and the Democrats raised $43.6 million in April, adding to the president’s edge over his rival, Mitt Romney, even as money continues to pour in to outside groups ahead of the fall campaign.

via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/obama-campaign-announces-raising-43-6-million-in-april/