Wednesday, Continued; GOP Will Let The Trainwreck Dominate The Headlines; No Government Shutdown; Jobs Reports Disappointing -- Bernanke

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Breaking News

" ... at least two more South Floridians had successfully signed up for the ObamaCare."  I can't make this stuff up. They are counting new enrollees one by one over at MiamiCBSLocal. 

Fox News more than doubles CNN and MSNBC's combined prime time viewers Monday:

As TVNewser reported, FNC averaged 2.3 million viewers Monday compared to MSNBC's 688K and CNN's 373K.

In the all important demographic of folks aged 25 to 54, FNC averaged 391k prime time viewers, MSNBC 189K, and CNN 111K.

Fox also dominated in the total day viewers nearly doubling the combined average of MSNBC and CNN.

FNC averaged 1.5 million, MSNBC 456K and CNN 340K.

Business News

• Nine companies announce increased dividends/distributions, including Wells Fargo preferred from 22 to 37 cents.
• Retailers (Lowe's, Staples, others, reporting mixed results) Lowe's profits surge 26%. Deere posts higher Q4 profits, huge quarter. Volvo reports October truck deliveries increased 13% year-over-year to 20,897 vehicles.
• Futures -- oil is holding steady at around $93. 

Keep on stimulating, no "tapering." CNN Money is reporting:

Forget that strong October jobs report. It wasn't strong enough to convince Ben Bernanke to slow the Federal Reserve's stimulus program.

The latest data show the economy added an average of 200,000 jobs each of the last three months -- marking a sudden breakout for the labor market after months of weaker reports.

Immediately after the October report was released, Fed watchers started speculating that it may just be the good news the Fed has been waiting for: Would the Fed start winding down its stimulus program at its next meeting in December?

Now, it doesn't sound like it.

Political News

The Hill is reporting:

President Obama’s relationship with congressional Democrats has worsened to an unprecedented low, Democratic aides say.

They are letting it be known that House and Senate Democrats are increasingly frustrated, bitter and angry with the White House over ObamaCare’s botched rollout, and that the president’s mea culpa in a news conference last week failed to soothe any ill will.
Sources who attended a meeting of House chiefs of staff on Monday say the room was seething with anger over the immense damage being done to the Democratic Party and talk was of scrapping rollout events for the Affordable Care Act. 

“Here we are, we’re supposed to be selling this to people, and it’s all screwed up,” one chief of staff ranted. “This either gets fixed or this could be the demise of the Democratic Party.

“It’s probably the worst I’ve ever seen it,” the aide said of the recent mood on Capitol Hill. “It’s bad. It’s really bad.”

I think this is what bothers them a tad:

ObamaCare enrollment site: a) 40% still needs to "built." And there was a surge to "fix" it when it failed in early October. This means that this site was in much more trouble than was initially reported: b) it was known throughout the administration that the site did not have the "pay" module up and running when it went live. Apparently Congress did not know; and, c) hackers can access the "cloud" where personal information transits; Consumer Reports is on record advising folks to "avoid" the ObamaCare webite. But despite that, the President told his supporters, from prepared noted, that more than 100 million Americans have successfully enrolled. The President was enjoying the success of the ObamaCare roll out so much he shelved plans to attend the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg, perhaps the most important battlefield engagement on US soil. 

The Hill, with a headline, "Ryan Caves, No Budget Cuts, No Threat of Another Government Shutdown," reports:

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that the country doesn’t need to worry about another government shutdown in January when the current stopgap spending bill runs out.

The government shutdown lasted for 16 days in October after Republicans demanded that President Obama defund his signature healthcare law.

To avoid another shutdown, Ryan said either he and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) would strike a budget deal or Congress would pass a stopgap keeping existing spending levels.

Smartest move ever. Budget cuts don't amount to a hill of beans, and the ObamaCare story would be diluted. GOP just needs to step aside and let the trainwreck occur.