President Obama is fighting the cuts incurred by the House Budget Committee's FY 2012 budget bill. Everybody on the Hill is in agreement that the U.S. deficit is too big and cuts need to be made in order to reign in the out of control spending by the government.
Democrats and Republicans scrambled last week to find common ground on what should be cut from the federal government annual budget.
Politico's coverage has been excellent throughout the government shutdown crisis this past week. I have referred to their political coverage on more than one occasion.
President Obama will address the long-term deficit reduction plan coming up this week and Politico released a pregame summary of some of the things that he talk about.
"For instance, freezing the pay of federal workers for a period of time...Fundamental reform of the government...We obviously then have to do more," Plouffe said. "And that's what the president's gonna lay out."
I'm not bothered that the quote came from a TV interview because that is sometimes where the story starts. The writer backed up the quotes with information that will be addressed that has been key in the budget negotiations.
"Plouffe indicated that Obama Would address finding savings in Medicare and Medicaid, but would not endorse man of the proposals in the longer-term deficit reduction plan offered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee."
This was a good paraphrase of Plouffe's words because it addressed an issue that polarized the two aisles during the weeks of continuing resolutions and negotiations.
The entire article only has one source for quotes, but in this case, I think that's ok. Plouffe is a credible and reliable source. If a reporter has a source that close to the President talking about something Obama is going to do, you can feel confident enough to use his words.
There are certain people that can make news with their words. People of power, significance and importance can often create a story by things that they say in interviews, on twitter or in an op-ed of their own. Plouffe makes news.
The writer used a great quote further down the story that addressed Plouffe's opinions on what was going to happen with the Republican budget.
"It may pass the House. It's it's not gonna become law," Plouffe said. "I don't think the American people are gonna sign up for something that puts - most of the burden on the middle class, people trying to go to college, on senior citizens while not just asking nothing of the wealthy - giving them at least a $200,000 tax [break] and so that's a choice you're making."
Interesting thing about quoting someone is that reporters are instructed to write exactly what the person said. Even if they said something they say is grammatically flawed, out of place, or doesn't quite make sense. I think that people being quoted would like a reporter to fix the grammar so that they don't sound so silly when quoted in the article, but that's just me.
This was a concise article, but overall I think it was well done.
Impressive blog! -Arron
Posted by: rc helicopter | December 21, 2011 at 09:47 AM