• Sen. Michael Bennet, “bailing” on Barack Obama on further stimulus spending, backs tax credits and incentives:
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), a politically vulnerable Democratic senator, is bailing on President Barack Obama’s $50 billion infrastructure spending proposal.
Bennet — who already faced a tough primary battler earlier this summer — will not support a “second stimulus package,” he says, contending that Congress and the White House should look to unused funds from the original stimulus package instead. […]
Bennet’s early dismissal of the Obama administration’s proposal, which the president announced Monday, is a bad sign for a White House pressing to pass more stimulative measures heading into the November elections. […]
But Bennet did express support for implementing a series of tax cuts — a plan devised by the White House after several high-level meetings with economic advisers last week.
“I will support the research tax credit, clean energy tax credits and tax incentives to purchase new equipment because they will spur investment, innovation, job creation and economic growth in Colorado,” Bennet said.
• Bennet’s refusal to support Obama’s plans appears likely to thwart not only increased spending but also a modified tax cut plan that allows some of the Bush-era tax cuts to expire but keeps others in place.
• Bennet and other “endangered” Democrats are still running from the 2009 stimulus.
• While Bennet’s campaign argues that Ken Buck is “moderating” his campaign positions, Buck’s camp defends the website edits as providing “clarity.”
• Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight.com predictions are now housed at the New York Times, and his statistical simulations produce this outcome in Colorado’s U.S. Senate race, where Buck would defeat Bennet 50.5 to 46.6 percent. It also gives Buck the chance of winning the seat by any margin at 74 percent, based on 100,000 simulations.
•Pollster’s updated polling tracker with trendlines shows Buck with a slight edge over Bennet:
•A 9NEWS “truth test” on an ad from Crossroads GPS targeting Sen. Michael Bennet for his stimulus spending record:
•This “truth test,” also from 9NEWS, tackles an ad from Sen. Bennet attacking Buck for comments on a variety of issues, including Social Security and abortion: