The biggest story this weekend both nationally and internationally was the interim agreement signed between the world's biggest powers and Iran to curb that Middle Eastern country's nuclear program, and the negative reaction to it, both at home and abroad.
Internationally there are cries that this shows the U.S. is disengaging from the Middle East. Based on Americans weariness with Iran and Afghanistan, some might argue how terrible that would be. But just as importantly, there is dissent in Washington not just with Congressional Republicans about the deal. New York Senator Chuck Schumer said yesterday that the deal actually makes it much more likely that Congress will pass additional sanctions against Iran after they convene in Washington after the Thanksgiving break.
[jump]Florida's two U.S. Senators had different views of the announced deal. Marco Rubio's negative response was one of the most vehement, stating in a late Saturday night press release that "This agreement shows other rogue states that wish to go nuclear that you can obfuscate, cheat, and lie for a decade, and eventually the United States will tire and drop key demands. Iran will likely use this agreement - and any that follows that does not require any real concessions - to obtain a nuclear weapons capability." And like Schumer, he too now says additional sanctions will be needed. If that is to happen, this deal won't go through.
Bill Nelson's reaction was terse and succinct: “It is a choice between a pause or imminent war. I choose a verifiable pause.”
Some critics of the deal would no doubt take exception to that comment, believing that maintaining the current sanctions which have brought Iran to the negotiating table is certainly not the equivalent of dropping bombs.
Meanwhile, while the deal on Iran's nuclear program dominated the Sunday talk show circuit yesterday, there was a couple of minutes devoted to immigration reform in the interview that CBS's Bob Schieffer conducted with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Face The Nation. McCarthy reiterating John Boehner's comment from last week that immigration reform is not dead in the House. However, neither man has said when their leadership intends to do anything about it.
Kathy Castor told CL on Friday that she's "livid" over the failures of HealthCare.gov, the government's portal to get signed onto the Affordable Care Act. The failures of the website certainly aren't the only problem that Democrats face with the horrific debut of this new major government program - there's also the fact that many of them (including the Congresswoman) vowed that Americans wouldn't lose their plan under the ACA - when in fact some people are.
Castor also weighed in on what's happening with the moribund farm bill. The House and Senate are at loggerheads over how much to cut from the food stamp program. The executive director of Feeding America Tampa Bay, Thomas Mantz, says if $40 billion were cut out of the plan it would have a "devastating" effect on his organization.