MORNING MESSAGE: How Bank Of America Silenced A Whole Town
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Today was a very good day for Brian Moynihan, the Bank of America CEO whose 2011 compensation package was approved today. As they were preparing to formally approve his lavish remuneration, I stood outside in a line of shareholders with a letter naming me the official representative for an investor who owns 82,000 BofA shares. Around me were about forty investors, each of whom was about to contribute in some small way to Mr. Moynihan's payday. But our little band of investors were haughtily dismissed by bank executives after waiting, some for hours, in the wilting Carolina heat.
President Backs Gay Marriage
President embraces equal marriage rights, in ABC interview: "President Obama has abandoned his longstanding opposition to same-sex marriage but says the decision on whether or not to legalize the unions should be left up to individual states, which are 'arriving at different conclusions at different times.' ... 'This debate is taking place at a local level,' he said. 'And I think the whole country is evolving and changing. And, you know, one of the things that I'd like to see is that a conversation continue in a respectful way.'"
AmericaBlog says President's statement more than symbolic: "...this is major news and these aren't 'just words.' When the President of the United States makes a statement about an issue this big, the words have impact. They can impact court cases around the country, and just as importantly, people's attitudes."
American Prospect's E.J. Graff marvels at the personal impact: "There's something very deep about having your government declare you a stranger to its laws, defining your love as outside all respectable recognition. For my president to stand up and say that I should belong fully to my nation, that my wife and I should be considered as fully married as my brother and his wife—well, it reopens and washes out some very deeply incised sense of exclusion, a scar inflicted when, at age 15, I first panicked at the realization that I might be queer."
Romney doesn't budge. W. Post quotes: "I believe that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman ... this is a very tender and sensitive topic, as are many social issues."
"The real risk is for Romney" says TNR's Noam Scheiber: "...Romney now faces enormous pressure to amplify his position. Conservatives will ask about it constantly. They will insist on highlighting it in the party platform and at this summer’s convention. Rote box-checking of the sort he’s practiced so far will no longer suffice. "
House To Back Reverse Robin Hood Plan
Full House prepares to break budget deal, take from poor and give to Pentagon. USA Today: "The House of Representatives is on track to approve a bill Thursday that would cut the deficit by $300 billion over 10 years in an effort to head off dramatic defense spending cuts scheduled to take effect in January. The bill is likely to pass on the strength of Republican votes over strenuous Democratic opposition because it includes significant cuts to social programs such as Medicaid and food stamps but no new taxes."
Some conservatives grouse. The Hill: "Several conservatives who opposed the 2011 debt-limit hike say they will likely support the legislation Thursday, but they first delivered a bitter message to their party’s leadership: We told you so ... conservatives say the move to replace the defense cuts affirms their warnings last year that the promised spending cuts would never materialize."
CFPB Goes After Mortgage Fees
CFPB to crack down on abusive mortgage fees. NYT: "Bureau officials said that the rules, which were released Wednesday ahead of formal introduction this summer, would ban mortgage companies from charging origination fees that vary with the amount of the loan. Those fees are sometimes referred to as origination points and are disclosed in a blizzard of documents and fees that most home buyers face at closing. But they can easily be confused with the upfront discount points that borrowers often pay to secure a lower interest rate."
"House Kills Measure to Fully Fund Mortgage Fraud Task Force" reports The Nation: "...when put up for a voice vote, the Waters amendment failed in the Republican-dominated chamber. Her case wasn’t helped when Representative Chaka Fattah, also a member of the progressive caucus, spoke in opposition to the amendment, citing concerns about the loss of NASA funding. This appropriations bill will pass the House without the $55 million the administration has requested for the RMBS working group, but it doesn’t mean the money won’t come—Senate or conference appointees might still insert it."
Breakfast Sides
California and Quebec forge cap-and-trade market. NYT: "It is the first cross-border carbon trading system created since 2005, when the European Union introduced such a trading network to help it meet emissions limits set by the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that went into effect that year. For advocates of market-based systems, the linking of the two systems is a significant step forward. But the move, involving just one state and one province, underscores the incremental and scattershot way that governments are generally adopting regulations to slow climate change."
Newly proposed health reform rule boosts bay for preventative care doctors. W. Post: "The increase, effective in 2013 and 2014, brings primary care fees for Medicaid, which covers indigent patients, in line with those for Medicare ... The pay raise is one of several attempts in the law to address a fundamental challenge in U.S. health-care: Because primary care doctors focus on preventive care, they offer the best hope of curbing the nation’s health spending. Yet they are paid far less than specialists, contributing to a shortage of primary care doctors..."
Postal Service to cut hours instead of close post offices. W. Post: "...the Postal Service’s new strategy would take effect over two years and save $500 million in labor costs, up from an estimated $200 million that the closures of 3,700 post offices would have saved. The Postal Service plans to offer early retirement incentives to 21,000 postmasters; about 13,000 are now eligible for retirement ... Rural offices will be staffed by part-time workers who make far less than postmasters. The new structure will employ a combination of part-time career employees and hourly contract staff. Most will receive reduced benefits or none. By avoiding closures, the plan protects the jobs of most postmasters who choose to stay."
Much more to do to help students than prevent a Stafford loan rate hike, argues Mark Kantrowitz and Lynn O’Shaughnessy in NYT oped: "Congress has starved the Pell grant program, an educational lifeline for low-income families ... why [do] the interest rates on other federal college loans remain so high even though interest rates are at historic lows ... Neither private nor federal college loans can be discharged in bankruptcy, unlike nearly every other type of debt ... We aren’t seeing proposals for bold new investments in postsecondary education, nor ways to reduce the rising cost of college and the suffocating indebtedness of graduates."
