Wednesday's Daily Brief: Why Is D.C.'s Answer to the Jobs Crisis a Deficit Solution?

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 Brain Dead: Why Is D.C.'s Answer to the Jobs Crisis a Deficit Solution? Arianna Huffington: Last week, President Obama proposed an initiative to map the complete structure and activity of the brain. "As humans we can identify galaxies light-years away," he said. "We can study particles smaller than an atom, but we still haven't unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears." I'm all in favor of the effort, especially if it can unlock one particular mystery of those three pounds that was very much in evidence in the days following the president's proposal: How can the human brain not perceive something that's right in front of it? I'm talking about the massive jobs crisis in which the country remains mired. You might think that, given the obviousness of our most urgent economic problem, the president's budget -- details of which were released only a few hours after the jobs numbers -- would naturally focus on this problem. But if that's what you thought, then the three pounds of matter between your ears led you astray. POLITICS Senators Reach Bipartisan Agreement On Background Checks POLITICS Boehner Gives Obama Proposal Some Credit MEDIA CNN Faces 'Stunning' Challenge WORLD SKorea: Possibility Of NKorea Missile Launch 'Very High' GAY VOICES Pro Football Player Joins Fight Against Homophobia In Sports BLOG POSTS Jared Bernstein: Another Day, Another Budget... Republican intransigence on tax revenues will continue to produce the gridlock that's ground fiscal policy to a halt, though perhaps now even the most misguided commentators will not be able to frame this as "a pox on both their houses!" Russell Brand: Remembering Margaret Thatcher, Britain's Unmaternal National Matriarch When I was a kid, Thatcher was the headmistress of our country. Her voice, a bellicose yawn, somehow both boring and boring -- I could ignore the content but the intent drilled its way in. I am, safe to say, one of Thatcher's children. How then do I feel on this day of matriarchal mourning? Robert Reich: Bi-Partisanship We Don't Need: The President Offers to Cut Social Security and Republicans Agree The president's predilection for negotiating with himself is not new. But his willingness to do it with Social Security, the government's most popular program -- which Democrats have protected from Republican assaults for almost eighty years -- doesn't bode well. Jonah Berger: Viral's Secret Formula Want to know why things go viral? Why some products get more word of mouth? Let me tell you a secret. It's not luck. Allison Tate: 'She Looks Just Like You' How do I raise my baby girl to love -- or, at the very least, not to hate -- the same features I have picked apart for so long?

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