Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security.
MORNING MESSAGE: Why We Have A Deficit
OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "Deficit theater is coming to DC tomorrow, with a well-funded 'Fiscal Summit." The plot summary is that we have Deficit Trouble - Right Here In River City! so to fix it we need to cut Social Security and Medicare and the things democracy does for We, the People -- while cutting taxes on the rich and their corporations to make us more 'business-friendly.' ... All of this deficit hysteria today - when just over ten years ago we had such a large a budget surplus that we were projected to pay off our entire debt in ... ten years! ... What happened under Bush? We cut taxes on the rich and doubled military spending. (And started wars.) And don't forget collapsing the economy, forcing people onto unemployment and food stamps. That is why we have a deficit."
Boehner To Announce New Hostage Plan At Fiscal Summit
Speaker Boehner to announce new debt limit threat at "Fiscal Summit." W. Post: "According to advance remarks provided to The Post, Boehner will insist that any increase in the debt limit be accompanied by spending 'cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase' — the same demand that pushed the Treasury to the brink of default during last summer’s debt-limit standoff. 'This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance,' Boehner plans to say at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation fiscal summit. 'If that means we have to do a series of stop-gap measures, so be it.'"
Dean Baker previews today's pro-austerity "Fiscal Summit": "At this event, many of the people most responsible for the current downturn come together to tell us why we should be worried about the deficit at a time when 25 million people are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work altogether and millions face the prospect of losing their homes."
CBPP compares the deficit impact of the Bush tax cuts versus Social Security: "The revenue loss over the next 75 years from making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent would be two times the entire Social Security shortfall over that period."
Romney's Bain
Republican leaders worry Romney can't defend Bain. Politico: "...what other Republicans are fretting about is ... beyond the slapdash efforts of a few flailing primary opponents, Romney’s Bain record hasn’t yet come under sustained attack in the 2012 race. When it has, Romney has defended himself in the broadest of terms, talking about the virtues of 'the free market' generally and saying he would not apologize for being successful in business."
Romney's response to Bain attack is "strange" says W. Post's Greg Sargent: "Byron York reports that the Romney campaign has settled on a line of pushback — compare what Romney did at Bain to what Obama did with the auto companies ... But when Romney invokes the auto bailout, all he does is remind us of an instance where his economic worldview broke down — where his philosophy compelled him to advocate for what likely would have been a disastrous course."
"Romney Campaign Massively Downgrades The Number Of Jobs It Claims He Created" reports ThinkProgress: "...one of his campaign’s early talking points was that he helped create 100,000 jobs during his tenure at Bain Capital ... This time, the campaign is asserting that Romney created a meager and vague 'thousands of jobs' ..."
Few Stand By JPMorgan Chase
Few defenders of JPMorgan Chase after $2B loss. Politico: "...major trade groups that represent the industry aren’t rushing to its defense, declining to comment ... No member of Congress has emerged as a vocal surrogate for the bank ... banking executives, including Dimon, are expected to have an uncomfortable shareholder meeting Tuesday in Tampa, Fla., when investors will vote on whether to approve senior level pay packages."
Calls rise for Dimon to resign from NY Fed. Bloomberg: "Having bankers on the boards of regional Fed banks 'is a problem, period,' said Sheila Bair, ... former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. 'Why the regional banks have members of the industry that they regulate on their boards is beyond me.' ... The GAO said in October that director representation as mandated by the Federal Reserve Act 'creates an appearance of conflict of interest.'"
President Obama says episode shows need for strong Wall Street reform. Bloomberg: "'JPMorgan is one of the best managed banks there is. Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we got and they still lost $2 billion and counting,' Obama said yesterday in an interview with the ABC program 'The View' scheduled for broadcast today. Obama questioned whether a weaker bank might have required government help in the same circumstances. 'That’s why Wall Street reform is so important,' he said."
"Nothing changed" at JPMorgan, says NYT's Joe Nocera: "...genuine hedging activity does not cost financial institutions billions of dollars in losses: their sole purpose is to protect against big losses. What causes giant losses are giant, unhedged bets, something we also learned in the fall of 2008. Thus, the final thing we know: At JPMorgan, nothing changed ... Which brings us, inevitably, to the Volcker Rule, that part of the financial reform law intended to prevent banks from doing what JPMorgan was doing: making risky bets for its own account."
Its "happening all over again" says former regulator Brooksley Born in HuffPost interview: "Born, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 1996 to 1999, was one of the earliest observers to warn about the dangers of unregulated derivatives. She was thwarted in her efforts to impose regulation in the late 90s despite the cautionary tale of LTCM, a hedge fund that needed a government bailout in 1998 after making risky bets on credit derivatives and government bonds ... Derivatives should be traded on exchanges, she said, so as to bring them out into the public eye. Currently, trading in many derivatives, including those bought by LTCM and JPMorgan, takes place behind closed doors. Born also advocated the creation of derivatives clearinghouses that could assess and manage the risk that financial parties are looking to take on."
Breakfast Sides
Common Cause sues Senate to end the filibuster. Politico: "Part of the reason it’s been so difficult to overhaul the filibuster is because it requires two-thirds of senators – or 67 votes – to make any changes to Senate rules. 'They are putting the Senate in a straitjacket,' said Stephen Spaulding, staff counsel for Common Cause. 'They cannot adopt their own rules, and that’s an issue we think the courts should settle.'"
New study shows people will to pay more for clean energy. The Hill: "The average American is willing to pay $162 per year in higher electricity costs if a 'clean energy standard' (CES) becomes law ..."
Federal judge rules against new NLRB union election rules. AP: "Judge James E. Boasberg of United States District Court said the board had lacked a quorum when it voted on the rules that expedite union representation elections. He did not address the merits of the rules and said the board could simply vote again ... Judge Boasberg found that the Republican, Brian Hayes, had not technically participated in a final vote on the rule. When the rule was sent to Mr. Hayes electronically, he never formally voted because he already had expressed his opposition to it at a public hearing. "
