What you need to know to navigate today's most critical debates.
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Obama, in Talk, Calls House G.O.P. Budget the Work of Rightist Radicals (NYT)
President Obama got feisty yesterday, describing Paul Ryan's budget proposal as "thinly veiled social Darwinism" and "a prescription for decline." Republicans would have refuted the charges, but they were probably busy trying to repeal the income tax.
Paul Ryan betrays his own views on income inequality (WaPo)
Ezra Klein notes that Paul Ryan has defined social mobility as the key to the American economy and way of life, but in crafting a budget that guts all the programs that give the poor an opportunity to get ahead, he's taken that key and swallowed it.
There Will Be Cheating: Another Gift to Big Banks Hidden in Obama’s Principal Reduction Strategy (Naked Capitalism)
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Matt Stoller points out that if Fannie and Freddie can't match first and second liens, liens held by taxpayers will be written down while liens held by banks go untouched because someone wrote "St." instead of "Street."
Why Conservatives Shouldn’t Gloat Yet (Slate)
Eliot Spitzer outlines four reasons why Justices Kennedy and maybe even Roberts may uphold the Affordable Care Act once they realize their conservative colleagues' constitutional analysis is copy and pasted from the comments at the Daily Caller.
Emerging Women Panel On Gender Issues In The 2012 Election (NY1)
ND2.0 Editor Bryce Covert joins Sayu Bhojwani, S.E. Cupp, Brooke Richie-Babbage, and Inside City Hall host Errol Louis to discuss why gender issues could be decisive in this election and why the GOP seems determined to make it so even if it kills them.
Federal Reserve Minutes Suggest No Bold Action (NYT)
Binyamin Appelbaum reports that at the Fed's last meeting its policy-making committee was concerned that the economy remains weak and job growth could start to slow, but they're not going to, like, make any policy about it.
Good Jobs: Three Reasons There Aren't More (Boston Review)
Paul Osterman debunks three myths about why the government should step back and let workers have whatever crappy, underpaid jobs employers will grace us with, and explains why raising standards and strengthening unions is the better option.
Why Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Wants to Run the World Bank (NYT)
Annie Lowrey interviews the Nigerian finance minister making an underdog bid for leadership of the World Bank and asks why she's best suited for the job aside from being the only one with endorsements from both Angola and the Financial Times.
Not World Bank of America (TAP)
Lant Pritchett argues that the head of a global organization should be chosen from a global slate of candidates, and it's hard to believe Jim Yong Kim is the best person in the whole world for the job when no one had ever heard of him two weeks ago.
How Mass Migration Cushioned the Great Depression (Slate)
Matthew Yglesias notes that data from the 1940 Census show the Depression could have been worse if people weren't desperate and deprived enough to drop everything and seek better opportunities elsewhere. See, the GOP's trying to help!
With additional research by Roosevelt Institute intern Elena Callahan.