• White House says leaked immigration plan a backup if Congress doesn't act

    Scott Olson / Getty Images

    President Barack Obama speaks to students and guests during a visit to Hyde Park Academy High School on Feb. 15, 2013, in Chicago, Ill.

    By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

    President Barack Obama’s draft immigration proposal is nothing more than a backup plan in case Congress fails to produce comprehensive legislation of their own, a White House official said Monday.

    “The administration will be ready to move forward in the event the bipartisan process gets bogged down and is not able to produce a bill,” the administration official said. “But our focus remains on supporting the congressional process.”

    The president set off a firestorm Saturday night when USA Today reported it had obtained a draft of the White House immigration plan. Republicans in Congress quickly panned the administration for leaking the proposal with no bipartisan input.

    White House spokesman Jay Carney addresses whether the release of a draft immigration bill was done on purpose.

    But the White House official said the administration was not “floating anything” and was “surprised” to find out the press had obtained the details.  Instead, the official said, the White House was simply preparing for the possibility that the current political climate could cause gridlock that would delay or prevent the president from following through on one of his campaign promises.

    “We’ll be prepared in the event that the bipartisan talks going on on the Hill -- which by the way we’re aggressively supporting --  if those do not work out, then we’ll have an option we’re ready to put out there,” White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

    White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough reiterates key principles in the administration's plan for immigration reform and its potential for passage on Capitol Hill.

    But on msnbc on Monday, a former senior adviser to the president, David Axelrod, conceded that the administration likely made an error by circulating the memo to various government agencies and throughout the West Wing. “The mistake there was to disseminate it so widely in the administration that it got leaked, and I’m sure if they could they’d take that back,” he said.

    The leak solicited immediate reaction from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who issued a statement saying the plan would be “dead on arrival” and calling it “a mistake” for the White House to draft a plan without consulting with Republicans in Congress.

    Rubio is part of a bipartisan group of senators that announced last month that they had agreed on principles that could pave the way for a bill that would overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. Those tenets include creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country and developing a system to ensure employers don’t hire illegal immigrants.

    The White House proposal would allow illegal immigrants to become permanent residents within eight years, as well as create a lawful prospective immigrant visa, require employers to check the immigration status of workers and provide more border security funding.

    Since Obama’s re-election in November, fueled by Hispanic voters, the president has renewed calls for comprehensive immigration reform. News of the White House proposal came just days after the president lauded the Senate’s work during last week’s State of the Union address.

    “As we speak, bipartisan groups in both chambers are working diligently to draft a bill, and I applaud their efforts,” Obama said. “Now let’s get this done. Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away."

    The White House official said the focus “remains on supporting the congressional process” and that after the draft became public late Saturday, members of the administration reached out to senators on both sides of the aisle.

    Still, that did not stop Republicans from panning the proposals on the Sunday morning talk shows.

    Rep. Paul Ryan, R–Wisc., said on ABC’s “This Week” that the leaked plan “tells us that (Obama is) looking for a partisan advantage and not a bipartisan solution.”

    Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., talks about immigration reform and gun control initiatives in the White House and Capitol Hill.

    On NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, a member of the group of senators working to craft a bipartisan immigration bill, called on the president to shelve his proposal and allow Congress to continue working on legislation. 

    “I believe we are making progress on a bipartisan basis,” said McCain. “I believe we can come up with a product.”

    And the White House says it is still optimistic that a solution can come from Congress. “The President is pleased by current state of progress being made by bipartisan efforts on the Hill and the Administration looks forward to continuing to work with them,” said the official.

    NBC's Shawna Thomas contributed to this report

  • Rubio offers bill to waive taxes on Olympic medals, winnings

    Adrees Latif / Reuters

    After the hugs, comes the tax bill. Teammates embrace McKayla Maroney, center, after her performance on the vault helped the U.S. women's gymnastics team win the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

    By Patrick Rizzo, NBC News

    When America's Olympic gold-medal winning women gymnasts return from London, they'll be coming home to accolades, parades, interviews, endorsements -- and tax bills.

    In a move timed to coincide with the huge interest in the Olympic Games in London (and the upcoming election in November), Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has introduced a bill to waive taxes for the honorariums winning athletes get along with their gold, silver or bronze medals.

    Besides a medal, winning athletes also get an honorarium: $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze. So for the Fab Five gymnasts who won Tuesday in London -- McKayla Maroney, Kyla Ross, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber -- that's a total honorarium of $125,000.

    Americans for Tax Reform, a group that opposes tax increases, has calculated that an athlete's tax bill for winning a gold medal totals $8,936, including $8,750 based on a 35 percent tax on the honorarium, and $236 for the value of the medal. Based on that, the Fab Five would owe Uncle Sam $44,680 collectively.

    Of course, some might say that these are winnings, and just like any other winnings, they are subject to U.S. federal income taxes.

    Rubio, who's considered a possible running mate for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, thinks the athletes should get an exemption, though.

    “We need a fundamental overhaul of our tax code, but we shouldn’t wait any time we have a chance to aggressively fix ridiculous tax laws like this tax on Olympians’ medals and prize money,” Rubio said in a statement to introduce the The Olympic Tax Elimination Act, or TEAM Act.  “We can all agree that these Olympians who dedicate their lives to athletic excellence should not be punished when they achieve it.”

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    Once the excitement of earning a medal at the 2012 Olympics wears off, athletes will have to pay a price for victory in the form of taxes on their cash prizes, which add up to almost $9,000 for every gold medal. NBC's Natalie Morales reports.

  • Rubio's Mormon past revealed

    By NBC's Domenico Montanaro

     

    *** UPDATED AT 1:45 PM ET WITH COMMENT FROM RUBIO SPOKESMAN AND CORRECTS TIMELINE***

    Quick: What religion is the son of Cuban exiles?

    Answer: Roman Catholic, right? Right.

    And also Mormon?

    That’s right, Marco Rubio, the conservative senator on everyone’s short list for vice president, was a member of the LDS Church in his youth, BuzzFeed reports.

     

    Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

    When Rubio's family moved to a suburb of Las Vegas, many in his immediate family converted.

    When Rubio's family moved to a suburb of Las Vegas, near cousins who were Mormon, many in his immediate family (but not his father) converted, including Marco. Rubio was baptized in the church when he was 8 and enthusiastically participated in the religion, according to the report.

    Rubio spokesman Alex Conant tells First Read BuzzFeed is incorrect that "Rubio's steadfast participation in the Mormon church continued for several years—until his parents decided to move them to Miami." (*** UPDATE *** BuzzFeed has clarified: "The cousins said Rubio's participation in the Mormon church continued for several years, until his parents decided to move them to Miami—though Conant said the family left the church before leaving Nevada.")

    In fact, Conant said, "He left the church when he was 11 or 12, he received his first communion in 1984 when he was 13, and they didn’t move back to Miami until the next year, in 1985."

    BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins writes:

    “The revelation adds a new dimension to Rubio's already-nuanced religious history—and could complicate his political future at a time when many Republicans see him as the odds-on favorite for the 2012 vice presidential nod. Vice presidential candidates are traditionally chosen to provide ethnic and religious balance to a ticket. Mitt Romney's Mormonism and Rubio's Catholic faith would already mean the first two members of minority traditions on a Republican ticket in American history. Rubio's Mormon roots could further complicate that calculation.”

    NBC Latino reports that a former Rubio campaign staffer said this should have no bearing on whether the Florida senator's picked as VP and that he is a "devout Catholic":

    “It should not affect it at all, that is totally unfair,” says Bertica Cabrera Morris, who ran Senator Rubio’s campaign in Central Florida and is a Senior Advisor to the Romney campaign, as well as a member of Romney’s Hispanic Steering Committee.

    “Marco is a devout Catholic,” Cabrera Morris adds. “The first thing he did when he was confirmed as a Senator was have a Mass,” she adds. “His whole life is about faith.”

    And Cabrera-Morris said:

    "His family attended the church for a few years.  He went with his family.”

    One of the cousins described Marco to BuzzFeed, though, as being “totally into it.”

    “Over the years, he and his cousins frequented LDS youth groups, attended church most Sundays—often walking to the chapel because his mother didn't know how to drive—and latched on to the mainstream Mormon culture that was easily accessible in LDS-heavy Nevada.

    “For example, when they were in elementary school, Rubio formed a singing group with Michelle and his sister that would put on performances for extended family. Their inspiration? The Osmonds, of course.”

    But all that changed when the family was going to move to Miami.

    “Rubio was just reaching high school age when his family relocated, and [cousin] Mo [Denis] speculates that their transition to an area with fewer Mormons likely took its toll.”

    A Rubio spokesmantold BuzzFeed “that Rubio never requested to have his name removed from the LDS Church's records, which means officially, the church is likely still counting him as a member.”

    And:

    “While Rubio continues to identify as a Conservative Roman Catholic, he frequently attends a non-denominational Baptist church with his family in Florida. As his notoriety increases, both communities have sought to lay claim to the rising political star, with little resistance from Rubio himself. In fact, the politician has cooperated for profiles in both the Catholic Advocate, and the Evangelical World Magazine—granting pitch-perfect interviews to each.”

    NBC Latino also talked to Ignacio García, a professor at Brigham Young University and a Latino Mormon. García said, NBC Latino writes, "it is not surprising that the Rubio family attended a Mormon church when they lived in Nevada."

    "Unless you are hiding under a rock,” García said, “a Latino family in Nevada would have been approached by Mormons, who are welcoming to Latinos, especially immigrants.”

    In fact, LDS Church leaders have told NBC News that Latinos are a growth area for the church and are more progressive on immigration policy than on other church policies, like abortion, for example.