Nation: President Obama sent Congress a $4 trillion budget that’s a challenge to the Republican majority to get up and do something to help the middle class. He wants to help the middle class pay for education, childcare, and job training to improve their lives and earning potential. It would be paid for with $1 trillion in new taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

The president would also ease the automatic spending cuts known as “the sequester.” Obama believes a surge in spending on everything from kids to bridges will finally return the economy to stability. But his budget doesn’t do much to reduce the national debt.

Republican leaders have declared the Obama budget dead on arrival, and it may be, but it puts pressure n the majority.

Nation: After passage of a weekend deadline, General Motors is now sifting through more than 4,000 claims of deaths and injuries caused by GM cars with faulty ignition switches. The number of death claims has grown to 455, although far fewer are expected to be verified.

With compensation lawyer Kenneth Feinberg running it … he was the man who handled claims for the government after the 9/11 attacks … the GM fund has already approved 128 claims, including 51 for deaths. The death claims will be paid no less that $1 million each.

ImmunoPoliticks: Presidential hopefuls Rand Paul and Chris Christie have entered the immunization debate on the side of political and parental freedom. In an interview Christie said, “It’s more important what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official. I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well.” This is the same Gov. Christie who quarantined a nurse on the outside chance that she had Ebola.

   His office has since issued a clarification recommending vaccination.

And standing up for statistical ignorance, Paul said, “I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.” Paul is a doctor who should know better, but both he and Christie are dancing to please a growing segment of anti-vaccine voters.

Weather: Extreme cold has settled into the country from the upper West all the way through Maine. Bismarck, ND, 9; Ann Arbor, 5; Buffalo, NY, 14; New York City, 18; Burlington, Vt., 2; Bangor, Me., 3.

Charged: Former rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight had his bail revoked and was charged yesterday with murder and attempted murder after a fatal hit and run in Los Angeles last week. Knight is accused of running over and killing one man with his pickup and injuring another after an argument.

XLIX: It was a nation of Monday-morning quarterbacks yesterday as debate raged about Seattle’s decision to pass rather than run just one yard for a Super Bowl victory. The outcome will fuel sports talk radio for years.

An estimated 114.4 million people watched New England’s last-moment win in Super Bowl 49 Sunday, making it the most-watched event in American television history. The event has set viewing records five times in the last six years.

The victory parade for the New England Patriots has been put off for a day while Boston digs out from a second major blizzard in a week.

Sidelined: Cleveland quarterback Johnny Manziel, who had a disastrous rookie season, has entered rehab for unspecified treatment. Spokesmen for the hard-partying Heisman Trophy winner known as Johnny Football say he wants to “figure out his value system.” The question being, is he going to play ball, or just play?

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