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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: Jobs Report No Reason For Austerity

OurFuture.org's Isaiah Poole: "...once again the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress would be well advised to resist the urge to crow too much. Further, they dare not suggest that the economy has reached the point that we can now turn to deficit reduction and austerity. The yardstick that should be used for measuring how the economy is doing on producing jobs is what it would take to get the employment rate to 5 percent, where it was at the beginning of 2008 and the dawn of the financial crash. A 'jobs calculator' developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta shows that the economy would have to produce an average of about 400,000 a month in order to lower unemployment to 5 percent by the end of 2014."

Boehner Retreats On Transportation Jobs Bill

Speaker Boehner gives up on passing more conservative version on transportation bill. The Hill: [Boehner told reporters,] 'we’re going to continue to have conversations with our members about a longer-term approach ... But at this point in time, the plan is to bring up the Senate bill — or something like it.' ... Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced a deal on Wednesday night on amendments to be considered to the Senate bill. That agreement could clear approval of the legislation, possibly by next week."

Transportation debacle adds to Boehner's "losing streak." Politico: "Just in the past two weeks, nearly 100 Republicans said they’d vote against two different versions of Boehner’s signature highway bill ... House Republicans have twice handed President Barack Obama victory by passing his payroll tax holiday ... Then there was the supercommittee debacle last fall. Boehner opposed the creation of the elite bicameral panel ... Hundreds of billions are now being cut from military spending, which is chafing hawkish House Republicans ... Ask Boehner when his last win was and he doesn’t have an answer."

Attempt to force approval of Keystone pipeline in transportation bill defeated in Senate. GOP vows to persist. The Hill: "The Senate Republicans who authored the Keystone provision told reporters they are working with House GOP leadership to ensure that a measure fast-tracking approval of the project is ultimately attached to the highway bill."

House GOP divided whether to break last year's debt limit deal with more austere budget. W. Post: "While that move might impress tea party voters, it would put them at odds with Democrats and even Republicans in the Senate, who are eager to get through the summer and fall without another nasty spending fight that could shut down the government five weeks before voters head to the polls ... GOP sources said [House Budget Cmte Chair Paul] Ryan is leading the charge for lower spending, and many in the party are worried. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) told reporters Wednesday that he is 'uncomfortable' lowering the budget caps for next year."

House passes small small business bill. NYT: "The jobs legislation is narrowly tailored, even though it is being praised by all sides as a big help to the economy. The centerpiece would delay some Securities and Exchange Commission regulations that were passed as a response to the recession and would create a category of 'emerging growth companies' that would lower the costs of initial public offerings for smaller firms. Another measure would abolish an S.E.C. rule that prohibits small companies from advertising for investors, a ban that dates to 1982. The bill would also lift restrictions on 'crowd funding,' which would let entrepreneurs raise capital from large pools of small investors. And the JOBS Act would increase the number of shareholders permitted to invest in a community bank to 2,000, from 500."

Republicans Work To Worsen Poverty

Republicans are becoming an anti-education party, argues NYT's Paul Krugman: "...this new hostility to education is shared by the social conservative and economic conservative wings of the Republican coalition, now embodied in the persons of Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney ... Mr. Santorum made headlines by declaring that President Obama wants to expand college enrollment because colleges are 'indoctrination mills' that destroy religious faith. But Mr. Romney’s response to a high school senior worried about college costs is arguably even more significant..."

TX Gov. Rick Perry pledges to cut off Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood, even if it means being cut off by the federal government: "Gov. Rick Perry said at a news conference on Thursday that the state would use its own money to operate the program if Washington stops financing it ... The Medicaid Women’s Health Program, which serves 130,000 women, receives $35 million in federal financing every year and hands it out to many clinics ... None of the clinics are allowed to perform abortions. But Planned Parenthood provides the procedure elsewhere in the state ..."

Republicans don't reach out to former Republican congressional aide Douglas Mackinnon, who grew up in poverty: "As some in the Republican party, like Mitt Romney, struggled to find answers to questions about enormous wealth and the day-to-day fight to survive with next-to-nothing, I wondered if someone from the political class might reach out to me. The answer is no. In promoting my memoir, I’ve been on a number of television and radio programs, which have been broadcast across the nation. Not one elected official has gotten in touch with me to ask if I might want to discuss poverty, my experience and possible solutions ... In the past, when I wrote a column on, say, the space program, or immigration, I heard from certain politicians. But on poverty, never."

Food stamps still work. ThinkProgress' Pat Garofalo: "Food stamps have been key to alleviating poverty during the Great Recession. In 2010, the program kept more than 5 million Americans from falling below the poverty line. Plus, as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted today, food stamps reduced the number of children living in extreme poverty — defined as less than $2 per day, before government aid — by half in 2011."

Breakfast Sides

Bank of America reaches deal to offer principal reductions. NYT: "The cuts for homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth could total more than $100,000 each under the deal with the government ... Bank of America hopes it will be able to reduce what it owes in penalties under the settlement by up to $850 million ..."

WH organizes major effort to win health reform Supreme Court case. NYT: "...White House officials summoned dozens of leaders of nonprofit organizations that strongly back the health law to help them coordinate plans for a prayer vigil, press conferences and other events outside the court when justices hear arguments for three days beginning March 26 ... they appear to have decided that they cannot risk allowing the court proceedings to unfold without making sure that backers of the sweeping overhaul will be prominent and outspoken ... Levi Russell, a spokesman for [the Koch-funded] Americans for Prosperity, said buses would bring people to rally against the health law from Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia, among other states."

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