congressional republicans face a major test this week as they seek to pass a budget that makes both fiscal and defense <u+201c>hawks<u+201d> happy, and the big story right now is that republicans may not resolve the impasse between the warring camps. but they very well might <u+2014> and at that point, a bruising political battle with democrats will unfold as republicans move towards a congressional vote on repealing obamacare (a key pillar of the gop fiscal blueprint) and a possible presidential veto looms.









gearing up for the fight to come, the senate democratic caucus will release a report this morning that previews how they will prosecute the political case.









first, though, republicans have to find a way to unify. politico and roll call report this morning that the house gop leadership will try a new strategy to resolve their internal divisions.









here<u+2019>s how it will work: the house will hold votes on both a budget that the fiscal <u+201c>hawks<u+201d> want (which would balance the budget in 10 years with no new revenues and less defense spending) and on a budget that the defense <u+201c>hawks<u+201d> want (which would balance the budget in 10 years with no new revenues and more defense spending, while not counting it as spending that busts the sequester caps conservatives want to keep in place). such are the parameters of responsible gop budgeting in this congress.









whichever gets more votes will be the winner, whereupon the effort will begin to reconcile that budget with the senate gop version (presuming one passes). if republicans fail to unify, there will be countless stories about their failure to govern, and it will raise the possibility of a lot more chaos ahead. but if they do agree on a budget, a whole new chapter begins.









thus, the forthcoming report from the senate democratic policy and communications center will argue that the spending cuts that are detailed in the gop blueprints <u+2014> such as the repeal of obamacare (while keeping its savings) and the block-granting of medicaid to states <u+2014> would <u+201c>take affordable health coverage away from millions of americans.<u+201d> and it will argue that, to get to its goal of balance within 10 years with no new revenues, the house and senate gop fiscal blueprints go to extraordinary lengths to conceal the real impact of the spending cuts that would be required to accomplish that goal:









says senator chuck schumer: <u+201c>fuzzy math, sleight of hand, and arithmetic acrobatics can disguise but not change the fact that the republican budgets would devastate programs that the middle class relies upon.<u+201d> meanwhile, the liberal center on budget and policy priorities calculates that 69 percent of the cuts in the gop budgets would have to fall on programs helping people with lower incomes.









but will republicans pay any political price for any of this? one key thing to watch will be how gop senators up for reelection in states carried by obama handle the politics of it. meanwhile, most house republicans are cossetted away in safe districts where gop voters are presumably happy to be told that it<u+2019>s perfectly possible to balance the budget in 10 years with no new taxes while hiking defense spending, with the vast bulk of any cuts (to the degree that they<u+2019>re detailed at all) falling on people with low incomes, even as relatively few of the cuts hit programs that serve older americans.









* israel spied on iran talks: the wall street journal reports that senior white house officials learned soon after negotiations began over iran<u+2019>s nuclear program began that israel was spying on the talks, as part of a broader effort to undermine the possibility of a deal:









this could conceivably give some skittish congressional democrats the cover they need to side with obama on any eventual nuclear deal with iran. on the other hand, the benjamin netanyahu speech arranged by congressional republicans was supposed to accomplish that, too, but it<u+2019>s still unclear whether it will.









* israeli ambassador lobbies house dems: meanwhile, politico reports that israeli ambassador ron dermer held a dinner last night with a number of house democrats. according to one of them









this is yet another reminder that, if there is a deal with iran, many democrats may find themselves forced to choose between the israeli government and the obama-led one.









* vote on loretta lynch delayed until mid-april? bloomberg news reports that senate republicans may not put up loretta lynch<u+2019>s nomination as attorney general for a vote until at least mid-april, because of a partisan dispute over a human trafficking bill. democrats are filibustering it due to an anti-abortion provision; republicans are saying lynch won<u+2019>t move until that dispute is resolved.









that would mean the vote on lynch could come five months after she was first nominated. while lynch would be the first female african american attorney general, the delay could also make history in another way, one that doesn<u+2019>t reflect particularly well on republicans.









* camp hillary is psyched about cruz presidential run: hillary advisers think ted cruz<u+2019>s presidential announcement is very much in her interests:









well, okay. it<u+2019>s not clear to me that the lack of any serious challenge to clinton will end up benefiting her, but we<u+2019>ll see.









* the next conservative attack on jeb bush: byron york previews it: conservative activists are complaining that jeb bush, turning his years in business after his tenure as florida governor, was not vocal enough in publicly joining the republicans<u+2019> <u+201c>desperate attempt to stop obamacare.<u+201d>









ted cruz launched his presidential run on the premise that only he possesses the heroism and perseverance required to fully vanquish obama<u+2019>s efforts to destroy america. watch for the <u+201c>where were you while there was still a chance to defeat obamacare before it began enslaving millions?<u+201d> line to emerge as a key attack.









* and obamacare is a disaster, part 973: the associated press reports:









better get the supreme court to do something about this right quick!
morning plum: will gop pay any political price for budgetary hocus-pocus?
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