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: Trade Deficit Keeps Draining Money From Our Economy
OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "Another month and another terrible trade deficit report. Why is it that DC elites who profess to care so much about deficits say so little about our worst deficit? The trade deficit drains money from our economy, lowers our wages and forces us into an ever-lower standard of living ... Here are a few suggested approaches that will help erase this trade deficit ... Manufacturing Policy and Strategy ... Currency Manipulation Legislation ... WTO Trade Complaints ... Change Tax Laws That Encourage Offshoring ... Democracy Protection Tariffs..."
House Passes Reverse Robin Hood Budget
Full House approves budget bill to take from poor and give to Pentagon. NYT: "Democrats were united in their opposition. Sixteen Republicans sided with the Democrats ... The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that more than 20 million children would face reduced food and nutrition support, almost 300,000 would be knocked off the federal school lunch program and at least 300,000 would lose access to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program."
House bill raises taxes ... on working poor. Slate's Matt Yglesias: "It's interesting that the child tax credit is considered fair game in this context. Instead of a 'no tax hikes' pledge it now seems to be 'no tax hikes except on low-income working parents.'"
"Are Republicans committing self-sabotage?" asks W. Post's Jonathan Bernstein: "... House Republicans prefer a cut-spending-only approach that is unpopular, and within that they are protecting relatively unpopular defense spending by slashing more-popular spending on social services ... Either House Republicans don’t believe the polling; or they want to excite their base supporters; or they believe their own spin that the public will reward them for trying to do something 'serious' about spending; or they want to give Members a vote on steep spending cuts before negotiations with Dems get serious. Whatever it is, all these votes will make for some devastating Dem attack ads in many House races this fall."
European Gridlock
Can Germany compromise with the new French government on economic growth? W. Post: "...expectations are low that any large-scale new remedies will come from the May 23 meeting in Brussels ... Instead, European leaders who will meet over dinner are expected to discuss measures such as boosting the lending capacity of the European Investment Bank, cracking down on tax evasion and improving financing for small businesses. Both Merkel and Hollande 'know they cannot have an open dispute, because that would kill the euro zone. So they are both willing to compromise somewhat. The question is how much,' said Sebastian Dullien, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations..."
Government Grows Manufacturing
Manufacturing is growing in America again, thanks to government policies. NYT: "...manufacturing’s contribution to the gross domestic product rose in 2011 to 12.2 percent from 11.7 percent in 2010 and 11 percent in 2009 ... The thread running through these decisions is an acknowledgment by management and labor that manufacturing needs a little help in the form of local, state and national subsidies for survival in a global economy in which Asian and European producers are routinely subsidized ..."
NYT's Paul Krugman slams conservative economists claiming a "structural" unemployment problem: "...job losses since the crisis began haven’t mainly been in industries that arguably got too big in the bubble years. Instead, the economy has bled jobs across the board ... Also, if the problem was that many workers have the wrong skills or are in the wrong place, you’d expect workers with the right skills in the right place to be getting big wage increases; in reality, there are very few winners in the work force ... All of this strongly suggests that we’re suffering not from the teething pains of some kind of structural transition that must gradually run its course but rather from an overall lack of sufficient demand — the kind of lack that could and should be cured quickly with government programs designed to boost spending."
JPMorgan's $2B Botch Boosts Volcker Rule
$2B JP Morgan loss bolster call for strong Volcker Rule. Bloomberg: "'The enormous loss JPMorgan announced today is just the latest evidence that what banks call "hedges" are often risky bets that so-called "too-big-to-fail" banks have no business making,” [Sen. Carl] Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said ... JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said that while the losses were 'self-inflicted,' they may not have run afoul of the rule and don’t weaken arguments against the proposal."
States siphoning off foreclosure fraud settlement money. ThinkProgress' Pat Garofalo: "Arizona recently became the latest state to pull such shenanigans, diverting $50 million of its share of the settlement to balance its state budget ... leaving homeowners to continue struggling on their own."
Breakfast Sides
Ag Dept. announces plan to help poor use food stamps at farmers' market. McClatchy: "Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan this week announced a $4 million grant for states to help implement wireless technology that will allow more farmers markets to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps ... Health experts say a lack of affordable healthy food in low-income communities is directly related to high levels of obesity."
NJ Gov. Chris Christie vetoes bill to implement federal health care reform. Politico: "...vetoed the Legislature’s bill that would have set up a health insurance exchange in the state ... Despite the veto, the state has received almost $9 million to study and plan for an exchange, an insurance marketplace that would let individuals and small businesses shop and compare health plans ... Christie’s veto signifies the tough spot Republican governors are in — they don’t like the health reform law, but if their states don’t set up exchanges, the Obama administration says the feds will set one up by 2014..."
