TheLoop21.com

By: Alyssa Giachino (Add to your loop)
Fri, 02/05/2010 - 01:00

Colin Powell came out in support of gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.

It's been a busy week with trillion dollar budgets, million dollar bonuses, and major car trouble. Here are five stories to keep you in The Loop.

1. Taking the budget to New Hampshire
President Obama presented his $3.8 trillion budget for 2011 with tax increases for households earning above $250,000, and a bigger tax burden for oil and gas companies. He’s got tax breaks for the middle class and small businesses, and also looks to cut the deficit in half by 2013, the end of his (first?) term.

Once the budget was out, Obama had a busy week of public appearances, a strategy to sell his proposals to the American public, skeptical Republicans, and slightly-less-skeptical Democrats.

His visit to Nashua, New Hampshire, gave Obama the opportunity to shed the jacket, roll up his shirtsleeves, and break down his proposals from wonky budget-speak to a more natural English. He explained his priority focus on jobs, small businesses and education.

Then he met with Democrats, basically pushing them to get up off the ground and keep fighting. He taught them how to count, with a reminder that 59 seats vs. 41 seats in the Senate is still a majority, and a historic one at that. He urged them to keep pushing for health care reform, and said their obligation to the American people is to get legislation passed, not moan about surprise upsets in Massachusetts.

The meeting with Democrats wasn’t as exciting as the debate with Republicans last Friday, where Obama took the opposition on with considerable poise, ricocheting GOP talking points back at them to force a real conversation on issues.

2. Demise of DADT?
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell just might be shelved, allowing gays and lesbians to finally come out of the closet. The highest ranking military officer in the nation, Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Adm. Mike Mullen testified before the Senate against the policy. In his words, “Allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do ... I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. For me personally, it comes down to integrity.”

His words are not quite satisfying, since they don’t result in action. Instead, the policy will still be in effect while a commission spends a year reviewing it.

But to add to the momentum, Retired Army Gen. Colin Powell spoke up a day later, throwing his weight behind a repeal. Since Powell was instrumental in getting DADT implemented in 1993, his reversal of opinion is pretty significant. He cited how the country has evolved in its views on homosexuality in the last generation as the reason for his change of opinion.

Of course, there was another significant reversal of opinion, in the other direction from Sen.