The Federal Budget

There's a defense wing of defense hawks, and they've been pretty vocal about the impact on the Defense Department and national security, generally. And we know there's a hard-core group as well that's opposed to any and all revenue increases. And between the two of those, there's no agreed-upon path of what to do, and so it looks like they may prefer the sequester to any alternative — certainly the alternatives the Democrats are offering up.

The important shift seems to be the [Obama] administration is not waiting for the legislature, [but is] maximizing the things they can do themselves. [More private capital into infrastructure investment] is not going to solve all our infrastructure problems—we still have a long way to go. [However,] this will go a long way.

Don’t hold your breath [on Obama seriously tackling entitlement reform]. He has every reason to sit tight and play to his base. The American public is very much on his side.