MORNING MESSAGE: Tell Your Senators. Defend Social Security & Medicare. Support These Amendments.
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "As early as today, two Senate budget amendments could affect the future of everybody reading these words – presuming we live long enough to reach our retirement years ... The Sanders-Harkin-Hirono Amendment would prevent the government from cutting Social Security benefits, an idea which both sides in the 'Grand Bargain' negotiations seem to like far too much for comfort. The Stabenow Amendment would ban the privatization of the Medicare system through the Ryan/Republican 'voucher' scheme. These amendments would protect everyone’s financial and physical health during our senior years..."
Senate Budget To Collide With House
"Senate Democrats on Track to Pass Budget" reports AP: "Democrats controlling the Senate appear on track to pass their first budget in four years, promising a second, almost $1 trillion round of tax increases on top of more than $600 billion in higher taxes on the wealthy enacted in January ... [It] would be coupled with a net $875 billion in spending cuts, generated by modest cuts to federal health care programs, domestic agencies and the Pentagon and reduced government borrowing costs ... Senators braced for dozens of votes during a marathon session expected on Friday, with pessimists in the Capitol predicting a final vote on the Democratic plan in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday."
What comes next is "hazy." Politico: "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he has not had any conversations with Senate leaders about a budget conference committee, where Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) could hash out their vastly different views for America ... Republicans are caught between yearning to move beyond budgetary skirmishes and being wholly consumed by them. When Congress returns from its spring break, lawmakers will begin to wrestle with raising the debt limit, an issue that is expected to come up sometime between May and July."
"Welcome to Sequestration Nation" says W. Post's Greg Sargent: "For all the obsessing and chortling over White House tours, it really is true — as others have pointed out — that the sequester cuts are beginning to take hold around the country. There are examples like this one from Sam Stein, in which a Head Start program in Arkansas is closing its doors 13 days in advance, as well as many other examples culled from newscasts around the country earlier this week."
Long-time GOP food stamp advocate now proposes cuts. McClatchy: "Once hailed as the savior of food stamps, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts has introduced a bill to cut $36 billion from the federal aid program over 10 years ... Roberts acknowledges that his bill would cut benefits to some people, but he said some of the measures put in place in recent years to allow more people to receive food stamps ought to be rolled back ... Stacy Dean [of] Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ... called it disheartening ... 'it’s a sledgehammer solution to what I think is a hammer and nail problem,' Dean said."
Robert Reich explains "Why Democrats Shouldn't Put Social Security and Medicare on the Table": "Putting these two programs 'on the table' is also tantamount to accepting the most insidious and dishonest of all Republican claims: That for too long most Americans have been living beyond their means; that we are rapidly approaching a day of reckoning ... The truth is the opposite: That for three decades the means of most Americans have been stagnant even though the overall economy has more than doubled in size; that because almost all the gains from growth have gone to the top, most Americans haven't been able to save enough for retirement ..."
"Economists See No Crisis With U.S. Debt" reports Bloomberg: "...economists across the political spectrum dispute the best-known study of the subject, by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, which found that nations with debt loads greater than 90 percent of their economies grow more slowly. Three years after a government spending surge in response to the recession drove the U.S. past that red line -- the nation’s $16.7 trillion total debt is now 106 percent of the $15.8 trillion economy -- key indicators reflect gathering strength. Businesses have increased spending by 27 percent since the end of 2009. The annual rate of new home construction jumped about 60 percent. Employers have created almost 6 million jobs. And with borrowing costs near record lows, the cost of paying off the debt is lower now than in the year Ronald Reagan left the White House, as a percentage of the economy."
Immigration Compromise 90% Done
Sen. Chuck Schumer says negotiators are "very close" to an immigration deal. Politico: "'About 90 percent of the issues, including the path to citizenship, are settled,' Schumer said ... there have been some snags especially as the group tries to hammer out details of how to handle visas for low-skilled workers and the future flow of immigrants ... But optimism was growing Thursday that labor and business were moving closer to a deal on the low-skill worker issue ..."
Republicans try to blame unions if deal derails. NY Mag: "While both parties believe its necessary to pass immigration reform this time around, some Republicans have already started publicly blaming unions for blocking the deal, just in case the effort fails."
Deal may give "more weight to potential job skills and less weight to family connections" reports McClatchy.
Banking System "Unreformed"
"The Cyprus mess shows just how unreformed the world banking system remains," says NYT's Paul Krugman: "...consider the incredible fact that tax havens like Cyprus, the Cayman Islands, and many more are still operating pretty much the same way that they did before the global financial crisis. Everyone has seen the damage that runaway bankers can inflict, yet much of the world’s financial business is still routed through jurisdictions that let bankers sidestep even the mild regulations we’ve put in place."
Politico explains "Why Washington won’t break up the banks — yet": "The White House has no desire to reopen any part of Dodd-Frank and believes too-big-to-fail will soon be a closed chapter. To admit otherwise would be a huge political walk-back. Some Republicans have warmed to the idea of bank breakups, but they’re nowhere close to agreement on how to do them."
Breakfast Sides
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel "targeted 61 school buildings for closing" reports Chicago Tribune: "Prodded by Emanuel, officials have been working for months to downsize the facility footprint of the district, which they say faces a $1 billion projected deficit next year ... But for many parents and children, Thursday's announcement means only that they're being displaced from familiar neighborhood schools and will face in some cases longer — and scarier — walks to class over busy streets that crisscross competing gang territories."
Improved wind tax credit boosts industry. NYT: "The rush to development is in large part because of Congress. Lawmakers had allowed a popular incentive, known as the production tax credit, to lapse at the end of last year, but then renewed it in January. They also changed the requirement so that projects only have to be under construction by the end of the year to qualify, rather than fully operational, as had traditionally been the case."
New research finds government listens to top 1% more than bottom 99%, Profs. Benjamin I. Page and Larry M. Bartels write in LAT oped: "Our initial results suggest the wealthy have very different ideas than other Americans on a variety of policy issues. If their influence is far greater than that of ordinary people, what does that mean for American democracy?"
