MORNING READ

Evan Soltas on structural deficits
Reihan Salam at his National Review blog responds to a blog post by Evan Soltas on structural budget deficits. 

Joe Arpaio accepted award from neo-Confederate group
America’s Toughest Sheriff accepted an award from a controversial Confederate heritage group, according to Salon.com’s Alex Seitz-Wald.

{mosads}No fix: The cliff dive is for keeps
Much of the likely “slow roll implementation” of sequestration is pure politics, argues the American Enterprise Institute’s Mackenzie Eaglen.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Obama, leaders to meet at White House on Friday
President Obama will meet with the top Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate on Friday with just a few days left before the so-called fiscal cliff deadline, reports The Hill’s Amie Parnes.

Politics, banking and congressional gridlock: A Q&A with Barney Frank
The American Banker‘s Rob Blackwell interviews
outgoing Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on a wide range of topics. In the
interview Frank says Americans feel Congress is deeply mired in gridlock
because of the Tea Party.