MORNING MESSAGE: Think Bold On Jobs: A $1T Transportation Plan
OurFuture.org's Isaiah J. Poole: "One of the consequences of the federal spending sequester now in place is that $4 billion is being cut this year from transportation and infrastructure programs ... at a time when unemployment in the construction industry remains above 16 percent and hovers around 8 percent overall ... If Congress and the White House could muster the will, we could launch a $1 trillion multiyear transportation plan, and that’s just for starters ... Start with a Congressional Progressive Caucus proposal to spend $556 billion on highways and public transportation over six years ... Congress could use this as a reason to end fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks, adding $15 billion to the Treasury over the next five years, or try to revive the idea of levying some form of carbon tax, which would yield billions more ... Many major projects can be funded through an infrastructure bank. This fund would use federal dollars to support loans and loan guarantees for private entities willing to invest their capital in transportation projects."
Grand Bargain Resistance
WH push for "grand bargain" faces resistance from Republicans. NYT: "Mr. Obama has signaled a willingness to reduce cost-of-living increases for Social Security by using a less-generous measure of inflation. He has indicated openness to imposing means-testing on Medicare beneficiaries so that high-income retirees would pay more for their medical care, and he has put on the table $400 billion of cuts in Medicare over the next decade. Republicans say they are looking for more, including two elements they discussed with the White House during failed talks in 2011: raising the eligibility age for Medicare and cutting federal costs for Medicaid."
And Democrats. Politico: "One hundred and seven of the 200 House Democrats signed a letter to Obama threatening to vote 'against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security benefits — including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need.' ... A second letter ... simply states they pledge to vote against any proposal they see as a benefit cut. The letter has been signed by 25 other members of the Democratic Caucus."
Many tests for Obama's push this week. W. Post: "Obama is slated to meet with Congressional Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill ... [The new House GOP budget proposal] is likely to reignite the Democratic pushback against Ryan’s ideas that was ubiquitous in the 2012 campaign ... Senate Democrats are also set to release their budget blueprint, and a key question is will whether their pitch can be reconciled with the House GOP plan ... Finally, Senate Democrats will introduce their own continuing resolution to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year ... if [the two parties] can’t even do that, then, well, it goes without saying what it would suggest about the prospects of a longer term budget deal."
It's "The Grand Bargain We Don't Need" says HuffPost's Robert Kuttner: "It isn't Social Security and Medicare that are killing other social programs, but Republican refusal to support them. The ratio of public debt to GDP is roughly stable for the next decade. If we begin making cuts now, whether in Social Security and Medicare, or in other outlays, we will slow the recovery. That will only worsen the debt ratio over the long term, and at a depressed level of economic output."
NYT's Paul Krugman reminds, the deficit is declining. Rapidly: "...the deficit is falling more rapidly than it has for generations, it is already down to sustainable levels, and it is too small given the state of the economy ... Right now, a sustainable deficit would be around $460 billion. The actual deficit is bigger than that. But according to new estimates by the budget office, half of our current deficit reflects the effects of a still-depressed economy. The 'cyclically adjusted' deficit — what the deficit would be if we were near full employment — is only about $423 billion, which puts it in the sustainable range; next year the budget office expects that number to fall to just $172 billion. And that’s why budget office projections show the nation’s debt position more or less stable over the next decade."
Austerity Hits Domestic, Military Priorities
Senate version of bill to keep government open forced to choose between Dem priorities. Politico: "...President Barack Obama is expected to get little or none of the extra money for health care and Wall Street reforms that the administration has been seeking in a six-month stopgap spending bill coming to the Senate floor this week ... a statement of administration policy last week on the House bill ... never even hinted of using the president’s veto leverage. This ceded effective control to Republicans and led Democrats to turn their focus more to protecting long-standing priorities such as investments in transportation or programs like Head Start for low-income children."
Sequester giving Dems chance to reform military. NYT: "...there may be an opening to argue for deep reductions in programs long in President Obama’s sights, and long resisted by Congress. On the list are not only base closings but also an additional reduction in deployed nuclear weapons and stockpiles and a restructuring of the military medical insurance program ... Also being considered is yet another scaling back in next-generation warplanes ... inside the Pentagon, even some senior officers are saying that the reductions, if done smartly, could easily exceed those mandated by sequestration
GOP Can't Stop Hating ObamaCare
House Republican budget to be introduced this week will, yet again, propose repeal of ObamaCare. W. Post: "That push back is likely to complicate Obama’s efforts this week to advance a dialogue he reopened with Republicans last week on reaching a grand bargain on budget cuts and entitlement reform."
While pocketing the cuts. TPM: "'We end the raid and we apply those savings to Medicare to make Medicare more solvent and extend the solvency of the Medicare trust fund,' he said ... In other words, Ryan and Republican leaders started off opposing the ACA’s Medicare cuts, then turned around and twice passed budgets that kept them, then campaigned against those cuts in the 2012 election, and are now embracing them again."
Republican governors backing Medicaid expansion still have to persuade Republican legislators. NYT: "In the battle to get the Medicaid expansion being championed by [AZ] Gov. Jan Brewer approved by the state’s legislators, her closest advisers are hanging their hopes on the number eight. That is how many of the 17 Republicans in the State Senate they believe they can get on their side ... Committees are exploring other options in Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott faces increasing uncertainty over whether the expansion there will pass. In Ohio, Gov. John R. Kasich invoked dollars and God during his State of the State address, telling conservative legislators that the vulnerable should not be left behind."
Breakfast Sides
"Lawmakers Demand Docs Over ‘Too Big To Jail’ Banks," reports WSJ: " Two House Republicans with oversight over Wall Street said they are demanding documents from the Obama administration in the wake of Attorney General Eric Holder’s suggestion last week that some large banks may be too big to prosecute ... Among the records requested are records held by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a panel of most federal financial regulators that meets regularly to discuss oversight of Wall Street and threats to the financial system. The lawmakers requested that the documents be provided by March 22."
President wants "fast-track" trade authority to enact "highly ambitious" agenda. AP: "The administration hopes to complete talks by October on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would reduce duties on a wide range of goods and services in the world's most vibrant trading area ... In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced plans for a second deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which would link the United States and the European Union, the world's two largest economies. Departing U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk added to the agenda in January when he notified Congress of plans to start negotiations for a new trade agreement on international trade in services ... he has to work with lawmakers to restore a procedure called trade promotion authority [in which] Congress affirms that it will vote on any trade treaty without offering amendments..."
