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: Progressives Take Back Tax Day
OurFuture.org's Farbod Kadkhoda: "In honor of tax day, protesters met in front of the offices of the Norquist-founded Americans for Tax Reform to demand progressive tax reform ... Since Norquist began his crusade, the United States has seen widespread tax cuts while military spending has continued to grow. Self-identified 1 percenter and Columbia Business school professor Eric J. Schoenberg put the matter in perspective: 'It is impossible to create wealth without a good system of public schools to provide an educated work force; without soldiers, policeman and fireman to provide security; without a transportation infrastructure to provide access to a national market of customers."
Tax Day Tea Party Is Over
Tea Party loses its grip on Tax Day. HuffPost's Mark Engler: "This year, if you say 'Tax Day' and 'social movement,' the Tea Party isn't necessarily the first thing that comes to mind. And if you go looking for a protest, you'll likely find folks protesting against the tax evaders of the top 1 percent."
TNR's Alex MacGillis adds: "The anti-tax cries in 2009 came at a time of historically low tax rates, when the new liberal Democratic president was vowing to...not raise taxes one jot for families earning less than $250,000, and was in fact presiding over a stimulus package that was returning families up to $800 in the form of a payroll tax credit. And lo and behold, three years later, taxes have not budged ... [That] hasn’t left the doomsayers much to work with ... I’m inclined to give a lot of the credit to Willard Mitt Romney. Champions of raising taxes on the wealthy could not have asked for a better emblem of their cause..."
President threatens veto of House Republican business tax cut plan. AP: "In a written statement, the White House said Obama's top advisers would urge him to veto the bill if it reached his desk. The bill 'is not focused on cutting taxes for small businesses, but instead would provide tax cuts to the most fortunate. Under the bill's definition of income, many of the "small businesses" that would receive the largest breaks are law partners, consultants and other wealthy individuals and corporations with the largest profits.'"
GOP debating internally how far to go on tax cuts. Politico: "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and top House Republicans are pushing an ambitious summer tax agenda, including a series of politically charged votes on everything from expiring Bush income tax rates to capital gains, while laying out a timeline for broader tax reform ... [But] many conservatives believe the party should go for full-blown tax reform, which leaders think is unrealistic and risky."
Conrad Puts Simpson-Bowles In Play
Senate Budget Chair Kent Conrad to formally introduce Simpson-Bowles budget. CNN: "...he [will] present the plan as his opening bid at the committee's budget mark-up on Wednesday ... Even if the budget committee were to amend and pass a long-term debt reduction plan in the coming weeks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has already made clear he will not be bring any budget to the floor for a vote this year. The budget parameters for the 2013 fiscal year, which begins in October, were already laid down in the Budget Control Act deal worked out last summer..."
Conrad sees window for budget deal after Election Day. NYT: "..,Mr. Conrad and his allies said the move was one of several efforts to generate quiet bipartisan negotiations ahead of a lame-duck session of Congress this fall that could be one of the most momentous in years. On Jan. 1, the Bush-era tax cuts are set to expire, which would raise income tax rates on virtually every household; increase estate, dividend and capital gains tax rates; and shrink popular deductions like the child credit. More than $1 trillion in across-the-board spending cuts would also kick in..."
Young Women May Doom Republican Prospects
Romney support among young women practically nil. W. Post's Chris Cillizza: "...among women between the ages of 18-29, Obama is beating Romney by 45 points. Yes, 45 ... Republicans have to hope the yawning gender gap — particularly among young women — is temporary. If it’s not, it could mean big trouble not just for Romney but for Republican presidential nominees in four, eight or even twelve years time."
"Romney Lies" to justify his minimal release of personal tax returns, says ThinkProgress: "...Mitt Romney defends his decision to release only two years of tax returns — both filed after he decided to run for President — by claiming that 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry also released two years ... In fact, John Kerry released not two years of returns, but 20."
Obama Proposes Oil Speculation Crackdown
President proposes oil speculation crackdown. McClatchy: "Calling for 'more cops on the beat to monitor activity in energy markets,' Obama also proposed an increase in civil and criminal penalties for illegal energy market manipulation and other activities. As a means of discouraging speculation, he proposed having Congress require that Wall Street traders put more money aside to pay off the bets made on oil contracts. And he called for toughening financial penalties tenfold and imposing penalties for every day a violation occurs ..."
President threatens veto of new House transportation bill over Keystone pipeline. The Hill: "It would take permitting of the proposed Alberta-to-Texas pipeline away from the State Department and task the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with approving the project ... The statement issued Tuesday says the House bill wrongly demands approval of the project 'despite the fact that the pipeline route has yet to be identified and there is no complete assessment of its potential impacts...'"
Majority links extreme weather to climate change. NYT: "...a large majority of Americans believe that this year’s unusually warm winter, last year’s blistering summer and some other weather disasters were probably made worse by global warming. And by a 2-to-1 margin, the public says the weather has been getting worse ..."
Breakfast Sides
Austerity debate flares in Europe. NYT: "Even the traditionally hard-line International Monetary Fund called on Tuesday for stronger European nations to ease the fiscal brakes by stretching out budget cuts over a longer period. But if that message was intended foremost for Germany, it seemed destined to fall on deaf ears: with two state elections coming up next month, Chancellor Angela Merkel is unlikely to shift her position..."
Treasury nearing proposal for Fannie and Freddie reform. Bloomberg: "U.S. Treasury officials are leaning toward recommending that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be replaced with a government safety net for the mortgage finance system and continued federal backing for loans to lower-income homebuyers ... While some Republicans who initially called for immediate abolition of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now say they would accept a gradual wind-down, split party control of Congress stands in the way of resolving the matter in 2012."
