Op-Eds and Blogs

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) appeared on Morning Joe on MSNBC Monday morning. JOHNSON: Well, it’s obviously the law of the land right now. Obviously, I’m concerned about it. I think that the cost estimate of Obamacare is grossly understated. I think far more Americans are going to lose their employer-sponsored health care, because there are incentives for employers who drop the coverage and make their employees eligible for the huge subsidies in the exchanges. I think it will explode our deficit. It’s going to lead to rationing. It will lead to rationing and lower-quality care. Here is the basic economic problem. BARNICLE: Why will it lead to rationing?

As President Obama ratchets up his outreach effort to Congressional Republicans on Wednesday with a dinner date at the Jefferson Hotel, his guests will include some of his fiercest critics in the Senate, some conciliators and some lawmakers who hardly have made a ripple in the public debate over how to tackle the federal debt. And for now, the senators on the guest list are taking the White House overture as sincere. “I’ve always said I’m willing to work with anybody who’s willing to acknowledge the problem to solve it. Maybe that got noticed,” said SenatorRon Johnson of Wisconsin, who swept to victory in the Tea Party-fueled wave of 2010 and will have at dinner what he said would be the first substantive conversation of his life with the president. “I’ll certainly give the president the benefit of the doubt.”

Five days before Chuck Hagel is expected to be confirmed as Secretary of Defense, 15 GOP senators have signed a letter asking President Obama to withdraw his nomination. "While we respect Sen. Hagel's honorable military service, in the interest of national security, we respectfully request that you withdraw his nomination," the senators wrote. "It would be unprecedented for a Secretary of Defense to take office without the broad base of bipartisan support and confidence needed to serve effectively in this critical position."

From President Obama's State of the Union address, one might have come away with the impression that the nation's finances are hunky-dory. Obama suggested that most of the heavy lifting on deficit reduction is already done, and that the rest can be accomplished by making minor adjustments to spending and closing tax loopholes on wealthier Americans. Obama said he's already signed $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the last several years and argued that's more than halfway to the $4 trillion needed to address the deficit problem. A Congressional Budget Office report released last week assumes that the automatic spending cuts under sequestration provide an additional $1.2 trillion in 10-year deficit reduction. In other words, the CBO already assumes deficit reduction roughly in line with what Obama claimed was the goal.