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: Bain's LABSCAM
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "In the annals of Mitt Romney's days at Bain Capital, one story seems to have escaped our collective memory. It involves Bain's acquisition of a New York City drug store chain during Mitt Romney's tenure there, and the hiring of a new President who would turn out to have pronounced criminal tendencies. When the story of Duane Reade's Anthony Cuti is put together with the better-known story of Bain's relationship a Medicare-defrauding lab testing company, it becomes a tale of two criminal CEOs - and of the Presidential candidate who was involved in choosing them both."
Ryan The Unserious
Krugman takes Ryan apart: "Mr. Ryan’s true constituency is the commentariat, which years ago decided that he was the Honest, Serious Conservative, whose proposals deserve respect even if you don’t like him. But he isn’t and they don’t. Ryanomics is and always has been a con game … What Mr. Ryan actually offers, then, are specific proposals that would sharply increase the deficit, plus an assertion that he has secret tax and spending plans that he refuses to share with us, but which will turn his overall plan into deficit reduction. If this sounds like a joke, that’s because it is."
But will Dems take advantage, asks HuffPost's Robert Kuttner: "…whether the Ryan selection truly backfires will depend on three big questions: Is the American public really capable of paying attention to big, consequential, complex issues? … will the Romney campaign's strategy of the Big Lie throw just enough smoke on the budget debate that the voters just throw up their hands … Will Obama stay the course and keep defending core, popular Democratic positions, despite the undertow of the Democratic deficit hawks…"
"A New Romney-Ryan Distortion on Medicare" finds TNR's Jonathan Cohn: "…they’ve seized on a new argument—that Obamacare will cause 15 percent of doctors and hospitals to become unprofitable. It’s yet more proof, they say, that Obama has 'raided' Medicare … the Republican claim begins with a real fact … An independent analysis of the Affordable Care Act suggested that some hospitals might not be able to adapt these reductions—and that, as a result, 15 percent would become unprofitable … plenty of smart and honest analysts take a different view … But some hospitals probably should become unprofitable, because they offer redundant services that drive up the cost of care."
Romney campaign keeps Medicare in spotlight, despite the risks. The Hill: "…the strategy carries enormous risks. First, Republicans have a history of attacking Medicare … Second, the cuts over which Republicans are attacking Obama were included in the GOP's 2013 budget authored by Ryan and endorsed by Romney … And third, Republicans have spent months trying to make November's elections a verdict on Obama's handling of an economy in which unemployment has hovered above 8 percent … some GOP strategists believe the president has managed to dodge criticism over his chief vulnerability."
Housing Weighs Down Obama
NYT chronicles the White House's difficulties resolving the housing crisis: "Mr. Obama insisted the government should help only 'responsible borrowers,' and his administration offered aid to fewer than half of those facing foreclosure … He decided to rely on mortgage companies to modify unaffordable loans rather than have the government take control by purchasing the loans … [He] responded slowly to warnings, including those in letters homeowners sent to Mr. Obama, that companies were not cooperating … In June 2011, Mr. Obama conceded that his administration had not done enough … The government has since enriched incentives for companies and found new ways to press them to take action. More people are getting help, and the housing market has finally begun to recover, leading some of the president’s allies to wonder what might have been."
Former Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Chair Phil Angelides calls for tougher line on banks, in SF Chron oped: "If someone robbed a 7-Eleven of $1,000 but could settle a few days later for $25 and no admission of guilt, would they do it again? … That means vigorous pursuit of criminal cases against individuals involved in wrongdoing … It means enforcement agencies eschewing weak settlements in civil cases and seeking remedies with teeth such as civil penalties, restitution and executives forfeiting their jobs. And, it means tougher financial fraud laws."
Breakfast Sides
Inflation hawks proved wrong. Bloomberg: "Two years ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke suggested he would embark on a second round of asset purchases, sparking criticism in the U.S. and abroad that he risked a rapid acceleration in prices. Since then, inflation has held near the Fed’s goal of 2 percent, and bond traders predict prices will accelerate at about that rate during the next five years."
FL is the middle of the battle for voting rights. W. Post: "In Miami, minority groups have sued the state over whether its plan to purge the voter lists of noncitizens might result in legitimate voters losing their rights. In Tampa, a similar lawsuit asks whether the state’s plan to purge the lists violated a different section of the federal law. In Tallahassee, judges in two courts considered a host of suits and countersuits, including one change that caused the League of Women Voters to suspend voter-registration efforts for fear of criminal penalties. And here in Duval County, where African Americans make up a larger portion of voters than in any of Florida’s other large counties, Elder Lee E. Harris has joined a lawsuit that would require the state to continue to allow early voting on the Sunday before the election."
