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: The "Let's Cut Taxes For Mitt Romney And His Heirs" Bill
OurFuture.org's Bill Scher: "Romney is the personification of who the Republican Party believes should be blessed with low taxes … The funny thing is: while Republicans love talking about 'job creators' and 'death taxes,' they don't seem very interested in using the perfect example of Mitt Romney to make their case. Why is that?"
Romney Claims To Not Know How Much He Has Paid In Taxes
Romney accidentally promises reporter he will "go back and look" at how much he has paid in taxes in past years, then backtracks. NY Mag: "In an interview with ABC News’ David Muir, Romney was unable to say whether he'd ever paid less than his 2010 rate of 13.9 percent, which is a lower rate than many middle-class Americans pay … 'I'm happy to go back and look but my view is I've paid all the taxes required by law,' said Romney … Muir jumped on Romney's offer to look up the figures … Romney reiterated that he hasn't looked at the rate he paid each year and added, 'I know that I pay a very substantial amount of taxes and every year since the beginning of my career so far as I can recall.' So we'll take that as a 'no'…"
Some House Dems may vote with Republicans on Bush tax cuts. The Hill: "Two House Democrats — Reps. Collin Peterson (Minn.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.) — said they would vote with Republicans to extend all the tax rates through 2013. A third, Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas), said he was leaning toward supporting a full extension as well … Several other Democrats told The Hill they were still weighing whether to support the GOP bill, including Reps. Gerry Connolly (Va.), Ron Barber (Ariz.) and Shelly Berkley (Nev.), a Senate candidate … One Republican who might vote against the party is Rep. Steve LaTourette (Ohio), a close ally of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) who led the push to pass a modified Simpson-Bowles deficit plan…"
Paul Ryan is the face of the GOP, argues New Yorker's Ryan Lizza: "To envisage what Republicans would do if they win in November, the person to understand is not necessarily Romney, who has been a policy cipher all his public life. The person to understand is Paul Ryan."
Corporate donors gather for Romney fundraiser. Bloomberg: "Among the 50 donors gathered around a U-shaped conference table for the event were meatpacking magnate John Miller, a close friend of Romney’s, oil investor L.E. Simmons, New York finance Chairman Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, hedge fund manager Paul Singer, and Detroit businessman John Rakolta. When [Sheldon] Adelson, 78, the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS), appeared on the hotel patio to get his photo taken in front of a scenic view of the old city, guards quickly drew the drapes to block him from view."
Harkin Report Exposes For-Profit Colleges
Sen. Harkin to release report slamming for-profit colleges. NYT quotes: "In this report, you will find overwhelming documentation of exorbitant tuition, aggressive recruiting practices, abysmal student outcomes, taxpayer dollars spent on marketing and pocketed as profit, and regulatory evasion and manipulation…"
VP Biden says GOP budgets prove they don't support education. Detroit Free Press quotes: "Don't tell me you value education and don't invest in it … Unlike our Republican friends, we don't see you [teachers] as the problem. We see you as the solution."
Libor Faces Lawsuit
Berkshire Bank sues Libor. WSJ: "The lawsuit effectively argues that the alleged manipulation short-changed lenders by helping borrowers pay less for mortgages and other loans."
Jeff Madrick won't let Sandy Weill off the hook for helping repeal Glass-Steagall, in NYT oped: "Now, Mr. Weill, the creator of what was once the largest financial conglomerate in the world, suggests that Citigroup and others should be broken up … But what was most eye-catching was Mr. Weill’s claim that the conglomerate model 'was right for that time.' Nothing could be further from the truth … Citigroup not only lent to Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing and raised money for them, its analysts also aggressively promoted these companies to individual investors and pension funds … almost until the moment they went bankrupt."
Breakfast Sides
Mitt Romney praises Israel's single-payer health care system at Jerusalem fundraiser. NYT quotes: "You spend eight percent of G.D.P. on health care. You’re a pretty healthy nation. We spend 18 percent of our G.D.P. on health care, 10 percentage points more … Our gap with Israel is 10 points of G.D.P. We have to find ways — not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to fund and manage our health care costs."
NYT's Paul Krugman not convinced Europe is ready to "do what it takes" to save the euro: "…policy makers would have to (a) do something to bring southern Europe’s borrowing costs down and (b) give Europe’s debtors the same kind of opportunity to export their way out of trouble that Germany received during the good years — that is, create a boom in Germany that mirrors the boom in southern Europe between 1999 and 2007. (And yes, that would mean a temporary rise in German inflation.) The trouble is that Europe’s policy makers seem reluctant to do (a) and completely unwilling to do (b)."
Koch-funded climate change skeptic changes mind. MSNBC: "Global warming not only is real, but 'humans are almost entirely the cause,' a self-described former climate change skeptic has declared. 'Call me a converted skeptic,' Richard A. Muller, University of California, Berkeley physics professor said…"
Fed considers interest rate cut. Bloomberg: "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may be taking another look at cutting the interest rate the Fed pays on bank reserves to bring down short-term borrowing costs … Policy makers meeting this week are looking for new monetary tools after the Fed lowered its benchmark interest rate to near zero in December 2008…"
Commerce Dept. proposes tariff on Chinese and Vietnamese wind towers. Politico: "The anti-dumping tariff [is] designed to counteract nations selling goods in the U.S. at below-market rates to snatch up more market share … Both tariffs are preliminary and open to modification — potentially up or down — before Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission finalize them later this year or in early 2013."
