Reuters: “A White House report says that if that Congress allows taxes to go up on middle-class families, consumers will spend $200 billion less in 2013.”
USA Today: “President Obama's economic team is combining Cyber Monday and the Christmas shopping season with a warning about the perils of the fiscal cliff. A report released Monday details what the White House calls ‘the impact to retailers and consumer spending if Congress fails to act to avoid taxes going up on 98 percent of Americans at the end of the year.’”
Mother Jones’ Corn argues that the notion that Obama “caved in” on the Bush tax cuts in 2010 is a myth. “Obama didn't wave the white flag in 2010. He turned a face-off over the Bush tax cuts into an opportunity to enact a second stimulus that he otherwise could not get past Senate Republicans. His failure at that time was not that he mustered insufficient mettle; he failed to convey to the world that he had ju-jitsued the GOPers.”
“After two decades in which gay rights moved from the margin to capture the support of most Americans, the Supreme Court justices will go behind closed doors this week to decide whether now is the time to rule on whether gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry,” the L.A. Times reports.
“The Obama administration faces major logistical and financial challenges in creating health insurance exchanges for states that have declined to set up their own systems,” The Hill writes, adding, “Sixteen states — most of them governed by Republicans — have said they will not set up their own systems, forcing the federal government to come up with one instead. Another five states said they want a federal-state partnership, while four others are considering partnerships. It's a situation no one anticipated when the Affordable Care Act was written. The law assumed states would create and operate their own exchanges, and set aside billions in grants for that purpose.”
“Vice President Biden took a swim in the frigid waters off Nantucket on Thursday as part of a fundraiser for the island's public library for children,” The Hill writes. “Biden, who turned 70 on Tuesday, was in Nantucket to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with his family. It is the vice president's 36th Thanksgiving on the island, according to the Boston Herald, and the 11th year for the Cold Turkey Plunge fundraiser.”
“Responding to violent protests over the last four days, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi insisted that he assumed control of the judiciary to stabilize the country – not to concentrate power,” per NBCNews.com. Protesters say that Morsi, who became the country’s first democratically-elected president on June 30, issued a decree of near-total executive power to elevate himself to Pharaoh-like status. They also worry that Morsi and his supporters will draft a constitution that will put Egypt on track to becoming like Turkey or religiously conservative Iran. Morsi’s supporters say his control of the courts is temporary – a necessary move, they say, because the courts are governed by former President Hosni Mubarak appointees who have blocked the country's transition to democracy.”