That’s essentially what the U.S. has going now for an estimated 11.5 million undocumented immigrants already in the country, 8 million of them working, the way Rubio sees it.

And the plan he and other senators are proposing will install an arduous path to working permits and eventually citizenship for some that first demands a lot of the government: The implementation of an “E-verify” system that checks the legal status of all employees, and entry-exit visa system that tracks people in both directions — nearly half of those here illegally now over-stayed their visas rather than sneaking into the country — and “real border security.”

Their proposal demands that the Department of Homeland Security come up with a plan for all that within six months, and provides more than $3 billion for the effort, and if 100 percent of the nation’s borders aren’t 90-percent effective in preventing illegal crossings after five years a new commission takes over the work.

Only when that is in place, Rubio said several times today in a sweep of the Sunday talk shows, can the undocumented start applying for work permits. And, then, he said, they will have to undergo criminal background checks, pay back taxes and a fee to get a work permit. The path to actual citizenship is another decade down the road.

“If you are undocumented… you can’t even apply until after all this happens.,” Rubio said on CNN’s “State of the Union” today, in his response to those who will call his plan amnesty. “We’re not awarding anything. all we’re doing is eventually giving people access… to our modernized immigration system.”

Rubio voiced optimism about passage of this plan. “I’m optimistic about it,” he said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “This bill answers all of the questions that people raise. That’s why it’s taken so long, that’s why we spent so much time on it. “This bill does three things that are fundamentally important for our country. It modernizes our legal immigration system – something we need to do no matter what. It puts in place the toughest enforcement measures in the history of the United States, potentially in the world. And it once and for all deals with the issue of those that are here illegally, but does so in a way that is fair and compassionate but does not encourage people to come illegally in the future, and isn’t unfair to the people that have done it the right way.”

On ABC News’ “This Week,” Rubio said: “After some period of time, over 10 years that’s elapsed, the only thing you will get — assuming that the border is secure, that E-Verify is in place, that an entry-exit system is in place for tracking visas — then the only thing you get is the chance to apply for a green card, like everybody else does. ”

At the same time, Rubio readily acknowledged that eight senators aren’t rewriting the nation’s immigration laws. “It is a starting point of reform,” he said. “There are 92 other senators who have ideas of their own. And I think that, from them, we are going to get ways to improve this. … Now, there are amendments designed to undermine this. There are amendments that will be designed to make this thing undoable. And obviously, I’ll oppose those.”

Finally, the political question, from CNN’s Candy Crowley: “You seem to be the go-to guy for this Gang of Eight. Do you think this would help or hurt Marco Rubio if he, perhaps, ran for president in 2016?”

“You know, I haven’t even thought about it in that way,” Rubio insisted. “I really haven’t. I have a job. My belief has always been that if I do my job and I do my job well, I’ll have options and opportunities in the future to do things — whether it’s run for reelection, run for something else or give someone else a chance at public service. And that’s how I view this issue.”

Original post is Rubio: The Selling of Immigration by Political Capital.

Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Speaker of the House John Boehner speaks during a press briefing March 14, 2013 at the Capitol in Washington, DC.

Updated at 11:30 am EDT

House Speaker John Boehner has given at the office.

And he’s not giving any more on taxes, he reasserted today.

The Ohio Republican, in an interview with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz airing on “This Week” today, said that any talk of including new tax revenue as part of a so-called grand bargain with the White House on taming the federal deficit is “over.”

“The president believes that we have to have more taxes from the American people. We’re not going to get very far,” Boehner said. “The president got his tax hikes on January 1. The talk about raising revenue is over. It’s time to deal with the spending problem.”

Like the president, who sat for an interview with ABC News last week, the speaker says the United States does not face an immediate debt problem. However, the White House maintains that any effort to rein in the deficit should include a “balanced” approach of tax revenue and spending cuts.

“We do not have an immediate debt crisis – but we all know that we have one looming,” he said. “And we have one looming because we have entitlement programs that are not sustainable in their current form. They’re going to go bankrupt.”

“Hope springs eternal,” Boehner said of a possible budget deal. He maintains that he has a “very good relationship” with the president, “absolutely” trusts him and considers the “charm offensive” that Obama has mounted in the past two weeks — dining with Republican senators and meeting with both parties’ caucuses in both chambers at the Capitol — a “good thing.”

“It’s always a good thing to engage in more conversation, engage more members in the conversation that have not been involved up to this point,” he said.

Asked about the rifts within his own party, Boehner said:

“There’s nothin’ wrong with the principles of our party. But Republicans have not done as an effective job as we should in terms of talking about our principles in terms that average people can appreciate — why balancing the budget, as an example, would be good for American families. We’ve got to do a better job of helping people understand what our principles are in terms that they deal with every day. ”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was ready with another take on that question today:

– 72 percent of Americans “Disapprove of the way Republicans in Congress are doing their jobs.” According to a Washington Post ABC News poll, 72 percent of poll respondents disapprove of Congressional Republicans.”

– 62 percent of Americans say the Republican Party is “Out of Touch,” 52 Percent Say Republicans Are “Too Extreme.” According to a February 2013 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center: “Sixty-two percent of adults say the GOP is out of touch with the American people, 56 percent say it’s not open to change and 52 percent say it’s too extreme, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday.”

Original post is Boehner: Tax Talk ‘Over’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

An adult daycare center in Novato, California.

“We don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt,” President Barack Obama said, during a discussion of the federal deficit and budget talks with Congress in an interview aired today by ABC News’ “Good Morning America.”’ “In fact,” the president said, “for the next 10 years, it’s gonna be in a sustainable place.”

The folks at The Public Notice, a nonprofit dedicated to reporting on the economy and government policy, have paired up the president’s comments with some other reports.

Such as the Congressional Budget Office’s annual budget and economic outlook:

“If the current laws that govern federal taxes and spending do not change, the budget deficit will shrink this year to $845 billion, or 5.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), its smallest size since 2008. In CBO’s baseline projections, deficits continue to shrink over the next few years, falling to 2.4 percent of GDP by 2015. Deficits are projected to increase later in the coming decade…

“However, because of the pressures of an aging population, rising health care costs, an expansion of federal subsidies for health insurance, and growing interest payments on federal debt. As a result, federal debt held by the public is projected to remain historically high relative to the size of the economy for the next decade. ”

“By 2023, if current laws remain in place, debt will equal 77 percent of GDP and be on an upward path, CBO projects such high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences: When interest rates rose to more normal levels, federal spending on interest payments would increase substantially.”

“Moreover, because federal borrowing reduces national saving, the capital stock would be smaller and total wages would be lower than they would be if the debt was reduced. In addition, lawmakers would have less flexibility than they might ordinarily to use tax and spending policies to respond to unexpected challenges. Finally, such a large debt would increase the risk of a fiscal crisis, during which investors would lose so much confidence in the government’s ability to manage its budget that the government would be unable to borrow at affordable rates.”

Original post is Obama: Debt No ‘Immediate Crisis’ — CBO: ‘Serious Consequences’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Elementary school kids pose for a picture in front of the White House on March 8, 2013. Their class had the last tour of the day.

In Washington, the time-honored threat of the impact of government budget cuts has centered on closing the Washington Monument.

The obelisk on the National Mall is already closed, however — thanks to repairs underway following the 2011 earthquake centered in Virginia. The 5.8 temblor loosened some stones.

So White House tours have taken the place of the monument closing.

When across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration started taking effect March 1, the White House announced it would have to suspend the popular tours of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They stopped March 9.

The tours are crowd-pleasers for the many visitors to the nation’s capital who obtain tickets through their congressmen and senators.

The Secret Service explained that it must furlough its forces — and overtime has been cut back for the people who guard the grounds and screen visitors.

“We have no White House tours right now, but they’ve got $250 million to give to Egypt?” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky asked, alluding to Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent announcement of the latest U.S. aid package for Cairo.

Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas complained that, while the White House tours are suspended, the president’s golf tour goes on — the Republican proposed a budget amendment barring spending on the president’s golf outings.

Today, in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos aired on “Good Morning America,” President Barack Obama said he’s looking for a solution.

Obama said he’s asked the Secret Service to find a way to let school groups tour the White House.

“What I’m asking them is, ‘Are there ways for us to accommodate school groups who may have traveled here?’” Obama said. “Can we make sure that kids potentially can still come to tour?”

The tours are big during Spring break.

Yet tours or no tours, the White House grounds will remain open for the Easter Egg Roll.

That’s on April 1. Really.

 Roger Runningen contributed to this report from the White House.

Original post is Obama Asks Secret Service to Let Schoolkids in for White House Tours by Political Capital.

Photograph by Danny Wilcox Frazier/Redux

An NRA supporter in Des Moines.

That’s the percentage of House members who received funding from the National Rifle Association’s political committee in their most recent race, according to the Sunlight Foundation.

The NRA, which has 4 million members, probably will oppose a package of proposals to curb gun violence that President Barack Obama is set to announce today.

One of the proposals is a ban on so-called assault weapons. While the proposal has public support — 58 percent back an assault weapons ban, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll conducted Jan. 10-13 — the Republican-controlled House is unlikely to approve it.

“Reinstating an expired 1994 assault-weapons ban, administration officials have indicated, will be among the most difficult to pass, given opposition from gun-rights groups and their allies on Capitol Hill,” Bloomberg’s Lisa Lerer and Heidi Przybyla wrote yesterday.

The NRA supports a plan to put armed guards in schools. About 55 percent of people back that proposal, according to the Washington Post-ABC poll.

The New York legislature this week advanced a bill that would “toughen gun controls and make it easier to keep firearms from the mentally ill,” Bloomberg’s Freeman Klopott and William Selway reported.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 47 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Ida Mae Astute/ABC via Getty Images

Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically injured two years ago when a gunman opened fired in Tucson, Arizona, and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly talk to Diane Sawyer about the need for changes in gun control laws and greater awareness of mental health issues on Jan. 5, 2013 in New York City.

Two years after the Tucson, Arizona, shootings that critically injured former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, she and her husband are adding their voices to a movement for gun control.

Big-city mayors are marking the anniversary with a TV ad tailored for the Washington market and communities that have suffered mass shootings featuring the mother of a 9-year-old girl killed in the Tucson shootings.

“Enough,” Giffords says in an interview on  ABC”s “World News with Diane Sawyer” airing tonight.

“After the shooting in Tucson, there was talk about addressing some of these issues, [and] again after [a movie theater massacre in] Aurora,” Colorado, her husband Mark Kelly, the astronaut, says in an interview also following the Dec. 14 killings of 20 young schoolchildren and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut. “I’m hopeful that this time is different, and I think it is. Twenty first-graders’ being murdered in their classrooms is a very personal thing for everybody.”

Gifffords and Kelly visited Newtown to meet with families of the victims.

The “first couple that we spoke to, the dad took out his cell phone and showed us a picture of his daughter and I just about lost it, just by looking at the picture,” Kelly says in the interview, excerpts released by ABC. “It was just very tough and it brought back a lot of memories about what that was like for us some two years ago.”

Giffords and Kelly are proposing “common sense” changes through “Americans for Responsible Solutions.”  They propose a comprehensive background check for the private sale of firearms and controls on large magazines of ammunition.

Jared Loughner, the accused shooter in Tucson, used a magazine with 33 rounds. Adam Lanza, the Newtown shooter who also  killed his mother and himself, used numerous 30-round magazines in a Bushmaster AR-15.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns today released a new TV ad featuring Roxanna Green, mother of Christina-Taylor Green, the 9-year-old killed in Tucson. It opens with a scene from the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. In the ad, Green demands that elected officials in Washington take immediate action to curb gun violence in America.

“I have one question for our political leaders,” Green says in the ad. “When will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby?  Whose child has to die next?”

The ad is airing on Washington, DC, cable through Jan. 14, the group says, and in markets where there have been mass shootings:  Tucson, Waco, Texas, Roanoke, Denver, Binghamton, N.Y., and Milwaukee.

“How many more children must die before Washington does something to end our gun violence problem?” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, co-chair of the mayors’ group and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, says in a statement accompanying the ad’s release.

“Roxanna Green knows all too well the pain of losing a loved one gun violence – sadly, there are parents and siblings and friends who learn this every day in our country,” says co-chair Thomas Menino, mayor of Boston. “It’s time for Washington to act to reduce gun violence — for the 33 Americans that are killed every day and for all of our children.”

President Barack Obama has charged Vice President Joe Biden with assembling an agenda for legislative action following the Newtown shootings, asking for those goals by the end of this month.

The National Rifle Association has proposed stationing an armed guard at every school.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, urging Congress after the Newtown shootings  “to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation.”

“I bought a gun at Walmart recently and I went through a background check,” Kelly says in the ABC interview. “”Why can’t we just do that and make it more difficult for criminals and the mentally ill to get guns?”

Giffords has undergone a long and arduous recovery aided by physical therapy, speech therapy and yoga. She has been able to ride a horse and is preparing for a tandem bicycle ride with her husband, a space shuttle pilot. She plans to apply the same resolve toward the mission of gun control, Kelly says. “Gabby works very hard in her rehab,” he says. “Now we intend to work very hard on this new project.”

Original post is Tucson Two Years Later, Newtown: `Whose Child Has to Die Next?’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Sergio Dionisio/Bloomberg

Hillary Clinton, U.S. secretary of state, observes a moment of silence during a wreath-laying ceremony ahead of the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) in Perth, Australia.

Read my lips — Hillary Clinton’s response to the idea of running for president again.

“I’ve said I really don’t believe that that’s something I will do again,” she says in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters. “I am so grateful I had the experience of doing it before.”

When pressed, however, ABC reports, the soon-retiring secretary of state, Democrat candidate for president in 2008, former senator from New York and former first lady, “does admit” that if she did choose to run again in 2016 she would not be concerned about her age. Recently having turned 65, Clinton would be 77 years old at retirement if she were to win and hold office for two terms.

“I am, thankfully, knock on wood, not only healthy, but have incredible stamina and energy,” she says in the interview for the program, “Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2012,” airing tonight at 9:30 pm EST. “I just want to see what else is out there. I’ve been doing, you know, this, this incredibly important and, and satisfying work here in Washington, as I say, for 20 years, I want to get out and spend some time looking at what else I can do to contribute.”

If she chose to reconsider, a Bloomberg National Poll out today shows, she’d have a considerable advantage over the known potential competitors at this time.

As Mike Dorning reports, 59 percent of Americans and 81 percent of Democrats rate Clinton an “excellent” or “good” potential nominee for president in 2016.

She is among the most popular members of the Obama administration, with 70 percent of Americans holding a positive view of Clinton, compared with 55 percent voicing a favorable opinion of Obama and 48 percent  a positive view of Vice President Joe Biden.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, another potential Democratic nominee, is rated favorably as a nominee by 29 percent of the public and 40 percent of Democrats. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff for Obama, is rated favorably as a nominee by 19 percent of Americans and 32 percent of Democrats. The poll of all respondents has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Original post is Hillary Clinton: `Don’t Believe… That’s Something I Will Do Again’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner at the Capitol for meeting with Congressional leaders on Nov. 29, 2012.

Tim Geithner, secretary of the treasury, is performing a “Full Ginsburg” this weekend.

That’s the colloquial term for what the point-man in the Obama administration’s fiscal cliff talks will achieve Sunday morning, when he appears on ABC’s “This Week,” CBS’s “Face the Nation,” CNN’s “State of the Union,” FOX ‘s “News Sunday” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The moniker comes from the Monica era: William H. Ginsburg, attorney for former White House intern Monica Lewinsky during the “did not have sex” scandal involving President Bill Clinton, was the first person to accomplish the five broadcast-cable show sweep on Feb. 1, 1998.

Original post is Geithner’s `Full Ginsburg:’ Sunday by Political Capital.

Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Voters cast their ballots as they participate in early voting on Nov. 2, 2012 at the Silver Spring Civic Building in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“Tight as a tick” — President Barack Obama’s words for how close the vote is in some of the battleground states that matter most.

The latest national polling portrays a virtual tie among likely voters divided between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney — 50 percent Obama, 47 percent Romney in the Pew Poll; 48 Obama, 47 Romney, at NBC News and the Wall Street Journal; 48 Obama, 47 Romney, at CBS and the New York Times; 48-48 in the daily tracking poll at ABC News and the Washington Post; 46-46 at Fox News.

Yet it is those relative few swing states that will deliver the Electoral College victory of 270 votes. And, on the eve of Election Day 2012, there are more ticks than butterflies in the swing state surveys (and it’s worth noting that these are all states that Obama won in 2008):

OHIO: A must-win for any Republican who has ever won the White House. Without it, Romney would have to cobble another path to victory. It’s Obama 50, Romney 48, in the Columbus Dispatch poll run through Sunday. It was Obama 51, Romney 45, in the last NBC, Wall Street Journal poll through Nov. 1.

FLORIDA: One of the states Romney must win to make an Electoral College majority a reality, not so essential for Obama, who won it in 2008 by 2.8 percentage points. The NBC, Wall Street Journal survey run through Nov. 1 showed Obama at 49 percent, Romney 47. A Mason-Dixon poll run for the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald over the same time period: Romney 51, Obama 45.

VIRGINIA: Another state that Romney needs to overcome the Electoral College advantage Obama has in most pre-election surveys. It is 48 Obama percent, 47 Romney, in the NBC, Wall Street Journal poll out this morning, run through Nov. 2.

IOWA: Another state that Romney has hoped to capture. It is Obama 47 percent, 42 Romney, in the Des Moines Register poll released Saturday night. This is one of the most accurate state polls in the nation.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: This is where Romney’s roll begins on election night, if he rolls. The WMUR, University of New Hampshire poll showed Obama at 51 percent, Romney 48, in a survey run through Sunday. NBC and the Wall Street Journal, working with Marist College, found 49 for Obama, 47 Romney, through Oct. 29.

COLORADO: Another cornerstone of Romney’s formula for unseating Obama, particularly if the president holds Ohio. The Denver Post reports it’s Obama 47 percent, Romney 45, in a survey run through Halloween. CNN Opinion Research found Obama 50, Romney 48, through the same time frame.

If accurate, it all adds up to a potentially long election night.

Original post is `Tight’ Swing States, Long Night? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Salvatore Laporta/AP Photo

Two statuettes depicting President Barack Obama, left, and Mitt Romney in Naples, Italy.

Republican Mitt Romney inspires more confidence than President Barack Obama on the question of improving the economy.

Yet voters “disproportionately” blame former President George W. Bush for the state of the economy more than they blame Obama.

These cross-currents might help explain why the presidential contest remains virtually tied in the daily national tracking that ABC News and the Washington Post are conducting: 49 percent favor Obama, 48 percent Romney.

Fifty-four percent of those surveyed express some confidence that the economy would improve under Romney, while 47 percent voice that confidence in Obama’s re-election. Yet few are “very” confident with either candidate: 19 percent for Romney, 21 percent for Obama.

“Just 36 percent of likely voters say Obama is chiefly responsible for the country’s current economic problems,” pollster Gary Langer reports for the ABC and the Post. Fifty-one percent blame his Republican predecessor, three years and nine months after Bush left office.

The one-point difference in the overall track of likely voters is “insignificant, given sampling error,” Langer notes. In fact, though he hesitates to “imply false precision – taking it to two decimals, Obama has 48.56 percent support, Romney 48.49 percent.”

And that is exactly what it was on Oct. 23, with the edge for Romney, after the last presidential debate.

Original post is Obama 48.56%, Romney 48.49% — Talk About Too Close to Call by Political Capital.