The Edge: How Obama Is a Threat to Good Government
The Edge is National Journal's daily look at today in Washington -- and what's coming next. The email features analysis from NJ's top correspondents, the biggest stories of the day -- and always a few surprises. To subscribe, click here.
How Obama Is a Threat to Good Government
I like government. I don't like what the fallout from these past few weeks might do to the public's faith in it.
You don't need to be a liberal Democrat to root for government efficiency, transparency, and solvency. Even tea-party conservatives expect certain things from Washington: a strong military; pensions and health care for the aged; student and small-business loans; safe food and drugs; secure borders; and, of course, federal police protection against terrorists, both foreign and domestic.
The core argument of President Obama during his rise to power -- and a uniting belief of his coalition of young, minority and well-educated voters -- is that government can do good things, and do them well.
But look at what clichés the past few weeks wrought. Government is intrusive, Orwellian, incompetent, heartless, secretive, overly complicated, and potentially corrupt.
The Internal Revenue Service scandal, details of blanket surveillance by the National Security Agency, and a handful of other assorted controversies all lead to a credibility crisis. The Pew Research Center found this year that fewer Americans than ever have faith in the decisions made by government. And now, all this. Read more
Ron Fournier
rfournier@nationaljournal.com
TOP NEWS
OBAMA DEFENDS SURVEILLANCE PROGRAMS. Answering questions at an event devoted to the Affordable Care Act in San Jose, Calif., today, President Obama defended two recently revealed government surveillance programs, The New York Times reports. "Nobody is listening to your telephone calls," Obama said. "That's not what this program is about." The president emphasized the fact that members of the legislative and judicial branches were privy to the programs. "You can't have 100 percent security and then also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience," said Obama. "You know, we're going to have to make some choices as a society." Read more
GOVERNMENT OBTAINS DATA FROM INTERNET COMPANIES. The NSA and the FBI are obtaining user information from nine Internet companies as part of a program codenamed PRISM, The Washington Post reports. According to a document obtained by The Post, the program involves "collection directly from the servers of these U.S. service providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple." The information collected includes "audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs," The Post reports. London's The Guardianreports that the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters has had access to PRISM "since at least June 2010." Read more
The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald contends that "future revelations" on the government's data collection are "coming shortly." Read more
OBAMA, XI TO DISCUSS KEY ISSUES IN CALIFORNIA MEETINGS. President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet this evening and Saturday at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where they are expected to discuss contentious issues including cybersecurity and North Korea, the Associated Press reports. The two leaders also may address economic concerns, including Chinese claims of business discrimination. Obama and Xi, who first met in March, initially were not scheduled to meet again until September, but agreed to move up the meeting due to the complexity of the issues facing them. National Journal's George E. Condon Jr. explores who has the upper hand in the relationship. Read more
U.S. intelligence officials have determined that the Chinese hacked the Obama and McCain presidential campaigns in 2008, NBC News reports. Read more
RUBIO: 'WON'T ABANDON' IMMIGRATION REFORM. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Thursday that while he is pushing for stricter border-security measures in the comprehensive immigration bill pending in the Senate, he is not abandoning the bill, the Orlando Sentinel reports. "I'm working as hard today on immigration reform as I ever have," Rubio said. "That's what I'm committed to trying to accomplish, and that's what I'm spending all of my time on, figuring out how we can get a bill that passes the Senate and serves as a starting point to get it passed in the House as well." Rubio faces criticism from both sides of the immigration debate, as well as concerns that he is motivated by his own presidential ambitions. "I won't abandon this issue until it's done, until we get a bill passed," Rubio said. Read more
National Journal's Beth Reinhard writes that there is a growing rebellion in the House against immigration reform. And Rebecca Kaplan writes how Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, holds the keys to immigration reform in the chamber.
IRS OFFICIALS SAY TARGETING INSTRUCTIONS CAME FROM SUPERVISORS. Two IRS workers said supervisors in Washington were behind the targeting of conservative groups, the Associated Press reports. But the staffers, who work in the agency's Cincinnati office, offered no proof to back up their claims. Interviewed by congressional investigators, one agent said an IRS lawyer in D.C. "closely supervised" her work. Said Gary Muthert, one of the IRS agents, about his supervisor: "He told me that Washington, D.C., wanted some cases." Meanwhile, Reuters reports that some IRS officials in Washington became aware of the agency targeting conservative groups after an e-mail was accidently sent to the entire IRS Exempt Organization Rulings and Agreements unit in D.C. in 2010. Read more
CONGRESS HAS PASSED 13 LAWS THIS YEAR, AND NONE HAVE TO DO WITH JOBS. It's tough to draw a decisive conclusion from the jobs report out this morning, but one thing is clear: At this rate, it will take nearly a decade to return to prerecession employment levels, National Journal's Niraj Chokshi reports. In the six months and four days since the 113th Congress began, it has passed 13 laws. And, despite lawmakers constantly beating the drum on boosting jobs, none of the new measures have been focused on employment. Here's a list of what the 113th Congress has passed in its first six months. Read more
QUOTABLE
"Were you raising your hand or flirting with me?" -- Anthony Weiner, to an elderly woman at a forum Thursday in Brooklyn, in an off-the-cuff comment that drew slightly uncomfortable laughter (Politicker)
PLAY OF THE DAY
YES, THE NSA CAN HEAR YOU NOW. With news coming out that the National Security Agency has been collecting telephone data on millions of Verizon customers, late-night comedians focused on Barack Obama's role in the program. Jay Leno made played with the idea of "big brother" and made a joke about the amount of telephone time Americans use calling for pizza. Late Night's Jimmy Fallon also used some wordplay in referencing a formerly famous Verizon slogan. On Comedy Central, Stephen Colbert asked, in light of the NSA news, about the differences between the Obama and Bush administrations. Colbert also skewered comments made by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on the topic of privacy. Watch it here
BEDTIME READING
AFTER MAN SPENDS 25 YEARS IN PRISON FOR WIFE'S MURDER, DNA HELPS CONVICT SOMEONE ELSE. In 1986 Michael Morton's wife, Christine, was murdered. Despite a lack of physical evidence, Morton was given a life sentence. In the fall of 2011 he was released and exonerated of the charges, after bloodstains on a blue bandana collected near the crime scene were tested. Traces of the DNA of his wife and a man named Mark Norwood, who had a criminal record, were found. Morton was released, Norwood was arrested. After a trial that lasted eight days, the jury found Norton guilty of capital murder, and he received a life sentence. Read more
REALITY CHECK
WHY THE GOP CAN IGNORE ITS PROBLEMS—FOR NOW. Republicans have a problem with young voters. Democrats have a problem with young nonvoters. But as National Journal's Ronald Brownstein writes, the GOP can enjoy another strong midterm election in 2014 without doing much more to attract young or minority voters. Read more
TODAY'S CHART
THE NEW JOBS REPORT IN CHARTS. The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May, beating expectations, and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.6 percent. Quartz's Ritchie King offers two charts -- one showing the breakdown of employment status for all Americans 16 and older, and another showing what job creation and job loss looked like in various industries last month.
