Personally, my favorite part of John Boehner’s “Plan B” is how exquisitely it exposes the low cost of hypocrisy in politics. Last year, Dems were fighting amongst themselves over whether the threshold for extending the Bush tax cuts should be set at $1 million or $250,000. Today, a $1 million threshold is a non-starter. (Yes, an election interceded, but let’s not pretend Chuck Schumer preferred the $1 million threshold for purely political reasons).

On the other side of that coin, Republicans are now claiming “Plan B” — which would lock in the Bush tax cuts for income under $1 million — is a huge tax cut. But of course, if that’s a tax cut, so is setting the threshold at $250,000, which Republicans have spent the last year describing as a huge tax increase on small businesses.

But on a strategic level, I think Boehner’s plan, while clever, is also risky — if in fact his goal is to cut a deal with President Obama. Read More

White House says no dice on Speaker Boehner’s ‘Plan B.’

We’re hiring a Front End Developer to be based out of our New York City office. Help build great apps like PollTracker and do elegant and intuitive front end design that makes facts beautiful. Full description after the jump. Read More

TPM is taking applications for our revolving Tech Fellowship. Details after the jump. Read More

Obama and Biden to address gun control in a White House briefing room appearance at 11:45 ET.

Those who watch these things closely say the Newtown massacre has catalyzed a genuine political shift on gun control. How broad and deep a shift remains to be seen, but it’s more substantial than anything that happened after other recent mass shootings. Still, there is the matter of the House GOP majority, which by all appearances is an immovable object in the path to more sensible gun regulation.

TPM Reader SE just flagged this piece from Minnesota Public Radio surveying the Minnesota congressional delegation in the wake of the Newtown, CT massacre. MPR notes that last year Michele Bachmann said that her favorite firearm was the AR-15, the weapon used last week by Adam Lanza. And they link to the video of her interview, which happens to be a TPM video. (Bachmann declined the station’s request for comment.) Read More

This case involves a convicted Ponzi schemer who apparently tried to scam his way out of a prison sentence by putting the squeeze on a sitting congresswoman. His plan didn’t work out too well.

There’s still a lot we don’t understand about the way dark money groups did business in the run-up to the election. But details continue to trickle out about one Arizona group that acted as the middleman for millions of dollars in political spending. Here’s the latest turn.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) reportedly will veto the bill already on his desk that would allow concealed carry in schools.