Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security.
Jobless Aid Extension Expected To Pass Tuesday
Vote for jobless aid, without any other jobs provisions, will follow seating of new Senator. NYT: Carte Goodwin, a former legal adviser to Governor Joe Manchin III, is set to be sworn in at 2:15 p.m. Tuesday to replace the late Robert C. Byrd. A few minutes later, the new Senator Goodwin is expected to provide a needed vote to cut off debate on legislation that would provide added jobless pay through November for millions of Americans who have exhausted their standard benefits."
President Obama to slam filibustering GOPers today. McClatchy: "Obama plans a mid-morning statement in the White House Rose Garden ...[He] will tear into Republicans who supported such extensions of jobless benefits under Republican presidents but oppose them now. He’ll also draw the sharp contrast between Republican opposition to benefits for the unemployed with their support for tax cuts for wealthier Americans, a White House aide said."
GOP leaders can't explain increasing deficit by cutting taxes on wealthy, but not for helping the jobless. HuffPost's Arthur Delaney: "Fox's [Chris] Wallace said he understood the Republicans' argument that the unemployment benefits be 'paid for' -- but why not also "pay for" a reauthorization of the tax cuts, which will cost $678 billion? 'The reality is that as you study -- when President Kennedy cut marginal tax rates, when Ronald Reagan cut marginal tax rates, when President Bush imposed those tax cuts, they actually generated economic growth, they expand the economy, they expand tax revenue,' [Rep. Mike] Pence said..."
Dems ready to rip GOPers for explicitly embracing Bush record. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder: "What you'll be hearing from Dem campaign committees [today]: challenged over and over again today on an hour long panel on Meet the Press, NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions and NRSC Chairman John Cornyn struggle to name one policy difference from Bush. Said Sessions: 'We need to go back to the exact same agenda.'"
Jobless aid not an emergency, says leading GOP opponent. LAT: "This latest aid package has been scaled back, but it still goes too far for [Sen. Jim] Bunning ... '...they're still saying to us, "We think it's an emergency," and it isn't,' Bunning said..."
Dem Gov. Ed Rendell and GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe tout private sector investment to fund public infrastructure, in Politico oped: "we hope Congress can come together to pass a responsible highway bill that is paid for ... Instead of creating obstacles to private investment, as some in Congress are proposing, we must embrace the private sector to help leverage scarce federal and state dollars."
Job training programs need retooling to deal with severe recession. NYT: "Hundreds of thousands of Americans have enrolled in federally financed training programs in recent years, only to remain out of work. That has intensified skepticism about training as a cure for unemployment ... 'A lot of the training programs that we have in this country were designed for a kind of quick turnaround economy, as opposed to the entrenched structural challenges of today,' said Carl E. Van Horn, a labor economist ... [However, two] years after completing programs tied directly to the needs of local industries suffering shortages of skilled workers in the South Bronx, Boston and Milwaukee, graduates were earning 29 percent more than similar workers who did not receive training,"
Recession straining mental health services. Stateline: "For the first time in more than three decades, mental health funding is declining. ... Although no national numbers are available, hospital emergency rooms, juvenile courts, child welfare agencies, local jails and homeless shelters are reporting bulges in the number of mentally ill people who end up on their doorsteps after failing to get help elsewhere ... many states are closing psychiatric hospitals, eliminating 24-hour crisis centers and tightening eligibility for subsidized medications and services..."
Even prison labor is being cut back. USAToday: "Since 2008, thousands of inmates have lost their jobs as federal authorities shutter and scale back operations at prison recycling, furniture, cable and electronics assembly factories to try to make up $65 million in losses. The job cuts, prison officials say, mean a dramatic reduction in job training for inmates preparing for release, lost wages for prisoners to pay down child support and other court-ordered fines, and more tension in already overcrowded institutions."
WH spars with Treasury Inspector General over auto industry restructuring. The Hill: "'It is not at all clear that the greatly accelerated pace of the dealership closings during one of the most severe economic downturns in our nation's history was either necessary for the sake of the companies' economic survival or prudent for the sake of the nation's economic recovery,' the [IG] report concluded ... ' The administration's actions not only avoided a potentially catastrophic collapse and brought needed stability to the entire auto industry, but they also saved hundreds of thousands of American jobs and gave GM and Chrysler a chance to reemerge as viable, competitive American businesses,' [Asst. Treas. Sec. Herbert] Allison wrote."
Time Ticks To Craft Climate Bill
Decision week for Sen. Harry Reid and the climate protection/clean energy jobs bill. CQ: "The effort got a boost [on Friday] when all 12 freshman Democratic senators called for the inclusion of carbon pricing in the energy bill ... They are now trying to broker an agreement between electric utilities and major environmental groups on a cap covering emissions from power plants. Those talks have stumbled over the familiar dispute about the distribution of emission allowances, as well as new demands by utilities for exemptions from EPA regulations on traditional pollutants..."
Politico on the message war for a climate bill: "That means no longer referring to climate legislation by any one particular author ... It’s also about playing up the patriotism angle, including the prospect of losing out to the Chinese on development of clean energy technologies. And then [Drew] Westen urged [Senate Democrats] to go for the political jugular by associating Democrats with new ideas for clean fuels while labeling GOP opponents as 'trying to go backward with dirty fuels.' ... Many Republicans said they aren’t buying the rhetorical shift, and they say they will pound away on the bill as a new tax increase..."
BP, federal government not in agreement over temporary capping of broken Gulf well. AP: "...BP PLC capped the nearly mile-deep well Thursday and wants to keep it that way. The government's plan, however, is to eventually pipe oil to the surface, which would ease pressure on the fragile well but would require up to three more days of oil spilling into the Gulf ... The concern all along ... was a leak elsewhere in the wellbore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix."
Ecocentric's Bryan Walsh notes the implications of the BP-govt dispute: "While [retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad] Allen does have the final say what's being done to the well, it's still BP engineers who are running the show minute by minute, and the admiral is dependent on BP for the immediate information he needs to make those decisions ... BP's stock price jumped 4% on Friday on news that the oil was no longer flowing into the Gulf—it's not hard to see why they might want to push the limit on containment and keep that well shut ... It's Allen's job to check that impulse and make decisions for the national interest..."
President to announce new ocean policy today, which could curb coastal drilling. LAT: "The recommendations embrace a controversial practice called marine spatial planning, a zoning process of sorts that seeks to manage waters in the way some cities manage factories and strip malls ... The recommendations do not include curbs on recreational fishing. But the mere prospect of marine spatial planning has drawn skepticism from ocean users. Oil and gas officials are concerned too. They have repeatedly urged the administration not to adopt any planning process that could restrict offshore drilling."
Climate Progress reminds us that the Recovery Act saved 2.5 to 3.6 million jobs, many in clean energy: "...the loan guarantees, grants, and clean energy investments made under the Recovery Act - matched by billions of dollars in private investment - are successfully creating jobs today and growing clean energy industries of tomorrow."
Pressure Builds To Pick Warren As Wall St. Watchdog
HuffPost's Robert Kuttner warns WH of "missed opportunity" if Elizabeth Warren is passed over: "A reform package that should have been a clear winner politically has turned out to be a political draw because too many voters believe that the Administration has favored Wall Street over Main Street. The best possible antidote to that perception would be the appointment of Warren..."
HuffPost's John Talbott charges Treas. Sec. with ulterior motive to stop Warren: " I believe Geithner sees the appointment of Elizabeth Warren as a threat to the very scheme he has utilized to date to hide bank losses, thus keeping the banks solvent and out of bankruptcy court and their existing management teams employed and well-paid."
Breakfast Sides
Dems still have not decided how to handle the Jan.1 expiration of the Bush tax cuts. CQ: "[Some] worry that tax increases would discourage hiring [which is] driving Republicans to support extending all the tax cuts, and some Democrats may be tempted to join them, at least temporarily ... The other major issue framing the debate is the federal budget deficit, which would tend to lead lawmakers toward allowing tax cuts to expire ... Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said Congress should move one bill that addresses the middle-class tax cuts, the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax — and do it before the election ... Others, meanwhile, will want to delay tough votes until a lame-duck session."
Daily Kos' Susan Gardner debunks the lie that Social Security has an unsustainable worker-to-beneficiary ratio: "Social Security really wasn't set up by a bunch of simps. They actually noticed that medicine was improving, that it was a trend to be factored into long-term assumptions about the viability of the program and taken into account when figuring worker-to-beneficiary ratios."
Some conservative evangelicals are backing the President on immigration reform. NYT: "Several evangelical leaders said they were convinced that Hispanics are the key to growth not only for the evangelical movement, but also for the social conservative movement."
