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Angry Rich Dig In To Protect Their Tax Cut Windfalls

Treas. Sec. Geithner makes small biz pitch for letting Bush tax cuts expire on the wealthiest, in USA Today interview: "What everybody agrees on is, we should extend what we call the middle-class tax cuts. But they also go to about 97% of small businesses. And if we were to move and Congress were to act now on those fronts, that would provide a lot of certainty."

That other 3% are not even small businesses, unless you think George Soros is a small business. Bloomberg: "[Sen. Min. Leader Mitch McConnell] is basing his figure on a broad definition of the term ["small business"] that experts say includes authors, actors and athletes who employ few if any workers. It also encompasses businesses that many people wouldn’t consider small, such as Soros’s hedge-fund firm and major law partnerships."

While debate rages over the Bush tax cuts, no one is proposing extension of the Obama tax cuts. W. Post's E.J. Dionne: "The stimulus included not only the broad Making Work Pay tax cut that gave most families an $800 refundable tax credit but also the child tax credit and the earned-income tax credit, which were especially helpful to lower-income families. If the child tax credit isn't extended, 7.6 million children who get the benefit through their families would lose it entirely..."

Bloomberg's Al Hunt warns right-leaning Dems they are blowing the tax cut debate: "...in the House of Representatives, 31 Democrats wrote Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California a letter calling for some extension of all the so-called Bush tax cuts ... Ironically, 23 of those Democrats are 'blue dogs,' members of a coalition dedicated to reducing deficits. Extending the upper-income tax cuts would add more than $700 billion to the U.S. budget deficit over the next decade."

Robert Reich says the defining issue of this election is, "Who should get the tax cut — the rich or everyone else?": "Not a bad issue for Democrats to run on this fall, or in 2012. Republicans are hell bent on demanding an extension of the Bush tax cut for their patrons at the top, or else they'll pull the plug on tax cuts for the middle class. This is a gift for the Democrats. But before this can be a defining election issue in the midterms, Democrats have to bring it to a vote."

NYT's Paul Krugman lacerates the "angry rich": "...it has become common to hear vehement denials that people making $400,000 or $500,000 a year are rich. I mean, look at the expenses of people in that income class — the property taxes they have to pay on their expensive houses, the cost of sending their kids to elite private schools, and so on. Why, they can barely make ends meet ... The spectacle of high-income Americans, the world’s luckiest people, wallowing in self-pity and self-righteousness would be funny, except for one thing: they may well get their way. Never mind the $700 billion price tag for extending the high-end tax breaks: virtually all Republicans and some Democrats are rushing to the aid of the oppressed affluent."

After defending Wall St. bailout, billionaire investor Charles Munger tells Main St. "suck it up and cope." Bloomberg: "To another who asked whether the government should have bailed out homeowners instead of Wall Street, Munger said: 'You’ve got it exactly wrong.' 'There’s danger in just shoveling out money to people who say, ‘"My life is a little harder than it used to be," ... At a certain place you’ve got to say to the people, "Suck it in and cope, buddy."'"

RBC's Michael O'Hare exposes the emptiness of the whining from a extremely wealthy conservative U. of Chicago law professor: "...how does our third-of-a-million-a-year law prof/doctor couple and their three kids, barely scraping by already and falling before our eyes to the very bottom of the top 1% of US families by income, make out under Obama’s rapacious soak-the-rich commie attack on all that is holy and American and fine? ... His taxes will go down $3700..."

Conservatives Plot To Starve Health Care Reform

WSJ assesses GOP plans to defund health care reform and other Obama accomplishments: "House Republicans say a full repeal would pick up a few Democratic votes, but acknowledge the effort would fail in the Senate. Instead, they plan other means to chip away at it, by trying to choke off appropriations funding for key pieces ... their focus would including blocking funding to hire new Internal Revenue Service agents ... They also would consider barring spending for a new board that approves Medicare payment cuts as well as on research that compares the effectiveness of medical procedures. Other potential targets include funds to pay for a long-term care insurance program and money to help states set up insurance exchanges where consumers will be able to use tax credits beginning in 2014 ... Republicans would also bring to a vote measures that attack the law's least popular parts, including the requirement that most Americans carry health insurance and cuts to payments for privately run Medicare plans."

Politico notes the defunding strategy is not so simple: "Key parts of the bill, like new Medicaid entitlements, would require free-standing legislation, not merely routine changes during the appropriations process ... Without a Republican in the White House and comfortable majorities in Congress, the GOP effort to block funding may, in the end, amount to little more than a low-level, yet persistent, annoyance for Obama."

Republicans don't know what they'd do next if they repealed the health care reform law. AP: "Some have proposed changes to workplace coverage, even turning Medicare into a voucher plan. Many prefer small steps that tiptoe around political land mines. Others want a clean start ... A GOP bill rejected by the Democratic-led House last year is the closest thing to a starting point ... It wouldn't solve the nation's long-term cost and coverage problems."

President Holds Econ Town Hall

President Obama holds economic town hall on CNBC at 12 PM ET today.

NYT reports on the plight of the middle-aged unemployed: "...there are not enough jobs being created for the population as a whole, much less for those in the twilight of their careers. Of the 14.9 million unemployed, more than 2.2 million are 55 or older. Nearly half of them have been unemployed six months or longer ... unemployment rate in the group — 7.3 percent — is at a record ... the poverty rate among those 55 to 64 increased to 9.4 percent in 2009, from 8.6 percent in 2007.

Economist's View's Mark Thoma on the implications for Social Security: "What does this say about plans to increase the age at which Social Security recipients can retire with full benefits ... what will we do when there's a recession and large numbers of the elderly but not yet retired cannot find jobs no matter how hard they try?"

New report from Roosevelt Institute's Mike Konczal and Arjun Jayadev shows unemployment numbers understate job crisis: "Starting in January 2009 it is more likely an unemployed person will drop out of the labor force instead of finding a job. More people are leaving unemployment by simply leaving the formal labor force rather than ending up with a new job ... Going back to 1967 this simply hasn’t happened consistently before."

Alaska GOP senate Candidate Joe Miller repeats claim that unemployment benefits are unconstitutional. HuffPost: "...Miller had trouble explaining how he would help the 43.6 million Americans in poverty, even as host Chris Wallace repeatedly pressed him for more than conservative talking points."

Fed meets Tuesday, no new action expected. NYT: "..., the Federal Reserve is likely to spend its policy meeting on Tuesday weighing the merits of additional steps to stimulate the economy, while deferring some major decisions until later this year ... Continued 'fiscal gridlock' — an inability to reach agreement on how to handle the impending expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts — would put pressure on the Fed to act..."

Fed board is split, notes Bloomberg: "Some Fed policy makers have voiced doubts about how much the central bank can do to spur growth and lower unemployment ... Bernanke has said the Fed does have the ability to aid the economy, if that’s what’s needed."

Attacks Spread Against Enviro Standards

WSJ sees pushback against proposed EPA smog standard: " The EPA says [the tougher smog standard] could save as many as 12,000 lives a year and save the U.S. as much as $100 billion annually in 2020 by reducing spending on health problems ... The EPA's proposal has the support of the American Lung Association and the American Medical Association ... A group of senators led by Republican George Voinovich of Ohio and Democrat Evan Bayh of Indiana recently urged Ms. Jackson in a letter to reconsider the proposal ... Some Democrats facing difficult election races this November are also raising concerns..."

Conservatives proposes scrapping Bush-era law phasing out inefficient light bulbs. CQ: "[Rep. Michael] Burgess joined fellow Republicans Joe L. Barton of Texas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee ... in introducing the Better Use of Light Bulbs Act ... the light bulb issue is drawing growing attention as the 2014 date for retiring the incandescent bulb approaches."

NYT checks in on the California ballot initiative fight to kill carbon cap law: "Oil companies and allies have donated more than $8 million to back the proposition, including more than $4 million from the Texas oil refiner Valero Energy, and $1 million from the Koch family, who has backed the Tea Party movement inside the Republican Party. Opponents of the new measure are close behind, with big donors including venture capitalists and technology members of the Packard family of the technology giant Hewlett-Packard."

Sen. Sherrod Brown worried China subsidies are undermining US stimulus efforts in clean energy. The Hill: "'As much as we have done, what we have done is operate within the confines of World Trade Organization rules,' he said on Platts Energy Week. 'The Chinese haven’t. They haven’t because of currency [manipulation], they haven’t because of other direct subsidies in clean energy.' ... Brown is among several senators backing the United Steelworkers’ push for the U.S. to bring a WTO case against China over its energy trade practices. "

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