Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security.
Warren To Get Interim Appointment. Or Not.
WH considering "interim" appointment for Elizabeth Warren that would not require Senate confirmation. NYT: "Two people who have been briefed on the appointment process, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisal, said the White House was exploring ways to have Ms. Warren effectively run the bureau without having to endure a confirmation battle..."
HuffPost notes interim doesn't necessarily mean temporary: "Obama could also name Warren as the permanent director following an interim appointment, which would give the Senate an opportunity to debate her selection."
Another anonymous WH spokesperson denies reports of interim appointment. Politico: "A little-noticed provision of the Wall Street reform law's language would allow the Treasury Department to name an interim director of the CFPA until a permanent director is confirmed ... But a White House spokesman strongly denied that Obama would use the provision to circumvent a confirmation vote on Warren. 'It's nothing,' the White House spokesman said. 'The president will have more to say about that agency soon.'"
Next Step On Bush Tax Cuts Unknown
Both parties split on Bush tax cut extensions. The Hill: "Some Republicans grumbled that Boehner was giving Obama’s tax plan momentum at a time when Democrats are running away from it ... Sen. Joe Lieberman, a self-described Independent Democrat, issued a statement Monday expressing strong support for extending the Bush tax cuts ... Democratic Sens. Jim Webb (Va.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Evan Bayh (Ind.) and Kent Conrad (N.D.) have also expressed support for extending tax relief for families earning over $250,000 ... Republicans allied with the party establishment sought to downplay the controversy, while groups that have backed conservative GOP candidates blasted Boehner’s judgment."
Top GOPers don't back Boehner's flinch, keep backing more tax cuts for multimillionaires. W. Post: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday in a speech on the Senate floor ... 'I'm introducing legislation today that ensures that no one in this country will pay higher income taxes next year than they are right now.' McConnell's bill would permanently reduce the estate tax, as well as codify Bush-era reductions in income tax rates and the alternative-minimum tax - an addition that would push the total cost of the package to well more than $4 trillion by 2020. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) echoed that view, vowing in a statement to 'do everything in my power to stop President Obama...'"
TPMDC's Christina Bellantoni reports there may not even be a vote before Election Day: "...top leadership aides are disagreeing on whether there will even be a vote and conservative Democrats are attempting to pressure Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to put them in a tough spot before the midterms ... [Although,] many top Democrats want to force a vote [and call Boehner's] bluff on whether he'd support extending tax cuts for the middle class only ... [Other leadership aides] said it was easier to just let Boehner squirm instead of holding a vote."
DailyKos' Joan McCarter points out that, as far as the GOP is concerned, everybody is "rich": "Interesting revelation from Sen. David Vitter, that "virtually everybody" is rich. 'I hate to tell you, by Washington's definitions that [Melancon]'s using, virtually everybody in this audience is the wealthy.' That definition is $250K in annual income. As Beutler pointed out in the original TPM story, 'the average household income in Louisiana was $43,635 in 2008.'"
Baseline Scenario's James Kwak reports on a new book finding Congress more attune to the wealthy since the 1970s: "[P]ublic opinion on issues such as inequality has not shifted over the past thirty years; most people still think society is too unequal and that taxes should be used to reduce inequality. What has shifted is that Congressmen are now much more receptive to the opinions of the rich, and there is actually a negative correlation between their positions and the preferences of their poor constituents ... That shift occurred in the 1970s because businesses and the super-rich began a process of political organization in the early 1970s that enabled them to pool their wealth and contacts to achieve dominant political influence..."
IMF Says, Jobs First
IMF warns nations not to ignore persistent unemployment. NYT: "...with hundreds of millions of people unemployed worldwide, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the I.M.F., said the financial crisis 'won’t be over until unemployment significantly decreases.' Mr. Strauss-Kahn urged governments to start factoring back-to-work policies into their overall equation for stoking growth ... failure to halt persistent high joblessness could fan social tensions in several countries and restrain growth over time."
House Maj. Leader Steny Hoyer pushes continued support for manufacturing in Politico oped: "This week, Democrats are set to bring to the House floor two bills ensuring the Homeland Security Department and the legislative branch buy American-made products whenever possible. For the remainder of this Congress, Democrats will continue to bring to the floor bills that boost manufacturing. We hope that Republicans will join us in supporting them."
More people live over decaying gas pipes. AP: "Utilities have been under pressure for years to better inspect and replace aging gas pipes -- many of them laid years before sprawling communities were erected around them -- that now are at risk of leaking or erupting ... Critics say the regulatory system is ripe for problems because the government largely leaves it up to the companies to do inspections, and utilities are reluctant to spend the money necessary to properly fix and replace decrepit pipelines."
Truthout's Nadia Prupis writes of a new study that shows CEO salaries increase with layoffs: "Executives of the top 50 job-cutting firms in the US earned 42 percent more than their peers in 2009, according to a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). As the country's economy continues to struggle, and American workers earn less in weekly wages than they did in the 1970s (adjusted for inflation), executive salaries have remained substantially, disproportionately high. According to the IPS study, 'Executive Excess 2010: CEO Pay and the Great Recession,' after adjusting for inflation, the average CEO pay in 2009 is more than four times its average from the 1980s and approximately eight times what it was throughout the mid-20th century. 'Our findings illustrate the great unfairness of the Great Recession," said Sarah Anderson, lead author of the IPS study."
Banking World Assesses New Global Standards
FT's David Scharfstein and Jeremy Stein argue against the long delay for banks implementing international capital requirements: "...this approach is risky, especially if banks feel pressure to demonstrate to the market they can get their figures in order well before the official deadline. If so, extending the deadline will do little to reduce the incentive to cut lending. Even on a best-case scenario banks will be less stable during the phase-in period too. A better approach would see regulators push those banks who are falling well short of the overall target to make the adjustment more quickly. Rather than simply granting a long phase-in period, the regulator would encourage these banks to raise fresh capital – perhaps by forbidding dividend payments or limiting executive compensation until they did so."
"New Bank Regulations Would Bless Lehman's Risk-Taking" argues OurFuture.org's Zach Carter: "...why are so many smart people (Mike Konczal, Felix Salmon, Ezra Klein) saying good things about Basel III? Well, the new Basel capital standards are indeed a step forward—but that says more about how pathetic the current capital standards are than about how great the new rules are."
NYT reports international bank regulators not done: "... regulators needed to deal with the problem known as moral hazard, in which large institutions are tempted to take on too much risk because their executives believe that governments will always bail them out."
AIG seeking end to bailout aid. WSJ: "Under the plan, which could commence as early as the first half of 2011, the Treasury Department is likely to convert $49 billion in AIG preferred shares it holds into common shares, a move that could bring the government's ownership stake in AIG to above 90%, from 79.8% currently, the people familiar said. The common shares would then be gradually sold off to private investors, a move that would reduce U.S. ownership and potentially earn the government a profit if the shares rise in value."
Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith rips proposed AIG deal: "Notice another sleight of hand at work. All the restructurings have succeeded in lowering the benchmark for success ... IG won’t provide anything resembling either proper compensation ..."
Young Guns Want To Shoot Social Security
Dems linking conservative House candidates to "Young Guns" book backing Rep. Paul Ryan's Social Security privatization plan. The Hill: "By the end of August, more than 50 Republicans had attained Young Gun status, which is a program set up by the NRCC to tout the committee’s leading candidates ... Democrats intend to single out Ryan’s controversial “Roadmap for America’s Future” that is included in Chapter Six of the "Young Guns" book..."
Dean Baker slams possible WH debt commission proposal to mask Social Security benefit cuts with higher benefits for poor: "...he geniuses on the commission want to pay for this benefit increase by cutting the benefits of the 'affluent' elderly. The problem with this plan is that there are very few genuinely affluent elderly and their benefits are not much higher than the benefits of normal people ... In order to get any substantial sum of money to increase benefits for low-income elderly and to eliminate the long-term projected shortfall, it will be necessary to cut benefits for people who earned $35,000 -$40,000 a year during their working lifetime."
Renewed Senate Push To Kneecap EPA On Climate
Anti-EPA senators may seek temporary ban on carbon regs in upcoming appropriations bill. The Hill: "[Sen. Lisa] Murkowski has draft language in progress that would not allow EPA to spend any funds for one year on regulating greenhouse gas emissions ... If she does not attend the EPA markup [on Thursday], Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) will likely offer an amendment in her place, sources said. Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) may offer one as well ... three Democrats who voted for her [earlier] proposal – Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.), Ben Nelson (Neb) and Mark Pryor (Ark.) – are also members of the Appropriations Committee ... committee Democrats Tim Johnson (S.D.) and Byron Dorgan (N.D.), are co-sponsors of Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) bill that would delay EPA rules governing stationary industrial emitters for two years ... Obama would veto any attempt to delay EPA regulations."
Gubernatorial races will make big impact on state-level carbon caps. Grist: " Thirty-eight states have climate action plans in place or in process. Thirty-six states have standards or goals for use of renewable and alternative energy. Thirty-two states are involved to some extent with regional greenhouse-gas initiatives. The outcome of the 37 governors' races this year will have a huge impact..."
Ad push for renewable energy standard. The Hill: "The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) will begin airing 30-second TV spots in Washington, D.C., cable markets Tuesday touting proposals that would require many utilities to supply escalating amounts of power from renewable sources in coming years."
Cutting carbon emission will save money on health costs. NYT: "Health advocates said Monday that adopting more ambitious targets for cutting greenhouse gases could save health programs up to 30.5 billion euros ($38.7 billion) in expenditures each year in the European Union ... as greenhouse gases fall, so do other pollutants that set off respiratory diseases..."
GOP Rep. Paul Ryan stands up for oil and gas subsidies. Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo: "Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) derided cutting these subsidies as 'ridiculous economics,' ... I would submit that the only thing 'ridiculous' about this situation is that the federal government gives tax subsidies to one of the most mature, profitable industries in the country."
Teamsters President James Hoffa calls on Obama administration to challenge China's alleged illegal clean energy subsidies: "The steelworkers say the Chinese government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidized loans and cheap land deals ... China also breaks the rules by severely restricting the export of rare earth materials essential for renewable-energy technology. That forces foreign clean-energy manufacturers to move to China in order to get access to the rare earth. Once there, China illegally requires foreign manufacturers to transfer their technology to Chinese partners. That means research and development paid for by U.S. taxpayers ends up in China, creating Chinese jobs ... The U.S. government should bring this case before the World Trade Organization."
Energy Sec. Chu lauds public investment in advanced battery technology: "Instead of watching a technology be discovered here and then shipped overseas, we fought to keep it here. And we are winning. In the weeks ahead, more American battery manufacturing plants will be coming online thanks in large part to the Recovery Act, which funded a healthy competition among 9 battery makers, 11 battery suppliers and 10 component makers. These new factories are already driving down battery costs faster than anyone thought – which means more car sales, more jobs, and less dependence on foreign oil."
Stateline explores how Wisconsin GOPers are fighting high-speed rail: "Residents of the Milwaukee area can get to Madison cheaper and faster by taking a car than by riding the train, [gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker] argues ... Cari Anne Renlund, of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, says Walker is missing the point. 'This is not commuter rail; this is intercity rail,' she says. 'This is to connect the folks in Madison with people in St. Louis.' ... it’s more appropriate to compare train ridership numbers with that of airports."
Japan offers CA Gov. Schwarzenegger loan to build high-speed rail system. Bloomberg: "Japan is offering a loan to California, which faces a $19.1 billion deficit, to help companies including East Japan Railway compete with Chinese, South Korean and European rivals."
No Rationing
Medicare chief rejects rationing in first major speech. AP: "[Donald] Berwick broke his silence Monday, telling an audience of health insurance industry representatives that pushing back against unsustainable costs cannot and should not involve 'withholding from us, or our neighbors, any care that helps' or 'harming one hair on anyone's head.' ... Berwick told the insurers that he has three objectives: better care for individuals; better care for groups of people, such as diabetics or the poor; and reducing per-capita costs by eliminating waste and duplication."
WH backs plan to scale back tax compliance provision in health reform law, but Senate divided. LAT: "[HHS Sec. Kathleen] Sebelius and [Treas. Sec. Tim] Geithner endorsed [Dem. Sen Bill] Nelson's proposal, which would exempt businesses with fewer than 25 employee and all transactions worth less than $5,000 [instead of $600.] ... They also criticized [GOP Sen. Mike] Johanns' proposal, which would eliminate the reporting requirement altogether in part by tapping a fund in the healthcare law designed to pay for new efforts to prevent chronic diseases. Neither Nelson's proposal nor Johanns' is expected to garner enough votes Tuesday..."
