TPMDC Dan Pfeiffer
Budget
Deja Vu: House GOP Reignites The Medicare Fight With Its Budget
On Tuesday, House Republicans unveiled an updated version of their controversial long-term budget -- a sweeping plan that envisions dramatically lower tax rates on wealthy Americans, deep cuts to federal support programs for the poor and the eventual phase-out of the existing Medicare system, which would be replaced by a subsidized private insurance system, including traditional Medicare as an option.
You can read the GOP gloss on their plan here. Among its claims: The latest "Path to Prosperity" "Restores economic freedom and ensures a level playing field for all by putting an end to special-interest favoritism and corporate welfare" and "cuts government spending to protect hardworking taxpayers."
The reaction from the White House was swift.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Budget, CBO, Congressional Budget Office, Dan Pfeiffer, Medicare, Patty Murray, Paul Ryan, Taxes
Barack Obama
More Backlash For Wyden Than For Ryan On Controversial Medicare Plan
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Sen. Ron Wyden wants to assure his colleagues he hasn't undermined them politically. In a head-turning move, Wyden announced Wednesday that he's teamed up with House GOP budget chair Paul Ryan on a policy framework to partially privatize Medicare -- a move that stunned his fellow Democrats.
Setting aside the policy -- which would in essence turn Medicare into ObamaCare with a robust public option -- the very existence of the plan has deep implications for the 2012 elections, most of them bad for his own party.
Speaking to reporters Thursday after an event with Ryan, Wyden said the political ramifications are overblown.
"Nobody ducks their past votes and their previous statements," Wyden said. "That's just a given."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, Dan Pfeiffer, Health Care, Jay Carney, John Boehner, Joseph Cao, Medicare, Medicare Privatization, Mitt Romney, Nancy Pelosi, Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, Pete Stark, Ron Wyden
Barack Obama
Is Tweeting Unpresidential? Obama Will Hold Twitter Town Hall But Will Not Tweet
President Barack Obama
President Obama will hold his first ever Twitter town hall Wednesday at 2 p.m., but there is little if any chance the tweeting of this presidency will result in the same sort of online mishaps that make the new social medium such a tempting but dangerous place for many pols.
The White House and Twitter, which is co-hosting the Tweet-up, is taking measures to ensure there's no chance Obama will fall prey to some of the Twitter mishaps that have ensnared the likes of Sarah Palin (who memorably and quite unintentionally coined the new word "refudiate" in one tweet) and former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) who showed just how easily Twitter can get you into trouble by a simple slip of the mouse or misdirected twitpic.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Anthony Weiner, Barack Obama, Dan Pfeiffer, Facebook, Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Twitter
Netroots Nation
Netroots Challenge White House Spokesman on Gay Rights
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer
MINNEAPOLIS -- Here's how Netroots works: Just about everyone here plans on voting for President Obama next year, and more than a few of them will work on his behalf, too. But you don't come here to talk about how great the White House is -- you come here to talk about how disappointed you are in the team that's running it.
On Friday morning, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer came to Minneapolis to face the music. In an hour-long grilling session led by DailyKos blogger Kaili Joy Gray, Pfeiffer took tough questions about tax cuts, the health care plan, the environment, the general ineffectiveness of Congress, Afghanistan, Libya and progressives' number one beef, Obama's compromising nature.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Dan Pfeiffer, Gay Rights, Netroots Nation, netroots2011
Health Care
Obama Goes On The Offensive With His Health Care Stump Speech
President Barack Obama With Jon Favreau and Ben Rhodes
Listen closely to President Obama today in Philadelphia -- his remarks on health care will serve as a message to wavering Democrats as Congress attempts to finish up the battle to pass reform legislation. But they also will serve as a preview for a broad health care campaign this fall.
It's true that members of Congress are eager to pass something and move on. But rather than sweep it under the rug, you can expect to hear more, not less, from Obama on health care once it becomes law. Democrats acknowledge they lost the message war last summer and are just starting to tip the scales back in their favor. One way to lock in support from the American people before and after Obama signs the bill will be to clearly explain what's in it.
Obama has promised Democrats he will be the chief booster for the reform legislation, detailing how it will help everyone, not just the uninsured. As I reported recently, Senate Democrats have been given a set of talking points that directly deal with how people with insurance will be helped by the measure, something that aides believe is critical to boosting public support for the plan.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Barack Obama, Dan Pfeiffer, Health Care, Insurance rate hikes, White House
Roundup
TPMDC Morning Roundup
WaPo: White House Revamps Communications Strategy
The Washington Post reports that the White House is retooling its communications strategy for this midterm election year. "It was clear that too often we didn't have the ball -- Congress had the ball in terms of driving the message," said communications director Dan Pfeiffer. "In 2010, the president will constantly be doing high-profile things to be the person driving the narrative."
NYT: After 9/11 Trial Plan, Holder Hones Political Ear
The New York Times reports that Attorney General Eric Holder has started to work on his political skills, in the wake of controversy over the planned 9/11 terrorism trials: "'The political attacks over terrorism cases were 'starting to constrain my ability to function as attorney general,' he said in an interview last week. 'I have to do a better job in explaining the decisions that I have made," Mr. Holder also said, adding, 'I have to be more forceful in advocating for why I believe these are trials that should be held on the civilian side.'"
Topics: Dan Pfeiffer, Eric Holder, Health Care, Hillary Clinton, Joe the Plumber, Roundup
Flight 253
WH Hits Back: Obama 'Doesn't Need To Beat His Chest To Prove' Nation Is At War
President Obama
In an unusually direct and aggressive blog post, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer today criticizes former Vice President Dick Cheney for his constant critique of the administration's national security policies.
Pfeiffer wrote, "it is telling that Vice President Cheney and others seem to be more focused on criticizing the Administration than condemning the attackers."
Pfeiffer said that in his statement to Politico today Cheney makes a "clearly untrue" claim that Obama doesn't realize we're at war.
"I don't think anyone realizes this very hard reality more than President Obama," Pfeiffer wrote, detailing the times Obama and his top advisers have used the term.
"The difference is this: President Obama doesn't need to beat his chest to prove it, and - unlike the last Administration - we are not at war with a tactic ("terrorism"), we [are] at war with something that is tangible: al Qaeda and its violent extremist allies. And we will prosecute that war as long as the American people are endangered," he wrote.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Topics: Dan Pfeiffer, Dick Cheney, Flight 253, Terrorism, White House
White House
White House Disputes Fox Report On New Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer
The White House is pushing back against a Fox News report spinning the results of a new study on breast cancer screening.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer blogged a response to a Fox report suggesting "Critics See Health Care Rationing Behind New Mammography Recommendations."
Pfeiffer quoted from the report, which suggested "some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are blasting new guidelines from a government task force that recommends against routine mammographies for women under 50, questioning whether they are tantamount to health care 'rationing' in the fight against the No. 2 cancer killer in U.S. women."
His response:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Breast cancer study, Dan Pfeiffer, Fox News, Health Care, White House
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