Disarray

White House Refutes…White House
Answering a participant in a town-hall meeting in Nashua who asked about green jobs—those connected to renewable energy—and so-called cap-and-trade legislation, Mr. Obama said, "The only thing I would say about it is this: We may be able to separate these things out. And it's possible that that's where the Senate ends up." A White House spokesman downplayed the president's comments, saying Mr. Obama still favored a bill that would combine measures to encourage jobs in green-energy fields with the establishment of a trading mechanism for emissions. (our emphasis) (WSJ, 2/3/2010)


Anybody else catch this one?

Free to Be Me
Mr. Dodd also appeared slightly annoyed that President Barack Obama threatened during his State of the Union speech last week to veto the legislation if administration officials weren't satisfied with it. Mr. Dodd called it "somewhat interesting" that the White House would threaten a veto when Mr. Dodd's bill was the only major piece of legislation in the Senate that had a chance of attracting Republican support. White House officials didn't respond to questions about Mr. Dodd's comments on the veto threat.

Mr. Dodd also slammed the White House for not having answers to technical questions about the proposals, saying he was calling the administration and "not getting good answers." (WSJ, 2/3/2010)

See what happens when a Dem is no longer beholden to Obama?

More Cracks
President Barack Obama's 10-year budget plan is off to a rocky start in Congress, where his Democratic allies have spent much of the past two days picking it apart.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.) complained about cuts to farm subsidies. Rep. Mike Thompson (D., Calif.) was upset about a user-fee proposal that would force wineries and others in the alcoholic-beverage sector to fund the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.) bemoaned a proposal to end four tax breaks for the coal industry. "I want you to know there really isn't anything in this budget which I can take home or talk about in favorable terms," he told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a Tuesday hearing.

But underneath the parochial concerns—which perhaps are to be expected from a budget that attempts to chip away at trillion-dollar-plus annual deficits—lies a deeper unease about Mr. Obama's response to unemployment that remains above 10% and the continued reliance of the federal government to borrow for its spending needs. (WSJ, 2/3/2010)

Slip sliding away....