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.
Pressure Builds For Bolder Action On Jobs
State of job growth likely more important than health care in November congressional elections. NYT's John Harwood: "Virginia, with three Democratic House seats at risk, shed 32,600 jobs; Pennsylvania, with five Democratic seats in jeopardy, lost 16,000. In Ohio, where five more seats are on the line, unemployment rose to 10.9 percent — above the 9.7 percent national rate."
Calculated Risk warns of overhyping upcoming Friday jobs report: "...a headline number of 200,000 net payroll jobs might be considered weak! The March report will be distorted by two factors: 1) any bounce back from the snow storms in February, and 2) the decennial Census hiring that picked up sharply in March. These are real payroll jobs, but the Census hiring is temporary ... "
NYT suggests stock market rise is getting ahead of the real economy: "Judging from stock prices alone, one would think the economy was poised for a roaring comeback. But the federal government plans to unplug the economic life-support programs that stimulated production, kept interest rates low and placed a thick cushion under the real estate market. Some analysts see ample reason for caution in equities, with many economists, including those at the Federal Reserve, forecasting tepid growth in the near term."
LAT sees support growing in Washington for expanding LA region's transit system. "The Obama administration and influential members of Congress are exploring ways to aid the car-clogged city with a federal loan, economic stimulus funds or other assistance so it can build 12 transit lines in 10 years instead of 30 ... [Mayor] Villaraigosa recently said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority faced a gap of up to $8.8 billion..."
Beat The Press's Dean Baker slaps W. Post's Fred Hiatt for using "xenophobia" to push budget austerity: "...as every econ 101 student knows, budget deficits do not determine the indebtedness of the U.S. to foreigners, the trade deficit does ... The Post has actually been a supporter of the 'strong dollar' policy that has given the U.S. high trade deficits..."
Pressure Needed To Avert Weak Financial Reform
NYT's Paul Krugman casts doubt on GOP willingness to compromise on financial reform: " The key question is how many senators believe that they can get away with claiming that war is peace, slavery is freedom, and regulating big banks is doing those big banks a favor."
HuffPost's Robert Kuttner puts the onus on Dems to pressure GOP on financial reform: "...the real problem is not the Republicans--but whether Democrats will be tough enough. They have far more political room to force the Republicans to take a difficult vote..."
Insurers Waste No Time Trying To Ignore Rules, Hurt Children
Already, insurers are trying to skirt new regulations. NYT: "...insurance companies are already arguing that, at least for now, they do not have to provide one of the benefits that the president calls a centerpiece of the law: coverage for certain children with pre-existing conditions ... Congressional Democrats were furious when they learned that some insurers disagreed with their interpretation of the law ... A White House spokesman said the administration planned to issue regulations setting forth its view that 'the term ‘"pre-existing’" applies to both a child’s access to a plan and his or her benefits once he or she is in a plan.' But lawyers said the rules could be challenged in court if they went beyond the law or were inconsistent with it."
The New Yorker's Atul Gawande lays out the battles ahead for health care reform: "[Conservatives] will try to strip out the critical but less straightforwardly appealing elements of reform—the requirement that larger employers provide health benefits and that uncovered individuals buy at least a basic policy; the subsidies to make sure that they can afford those policies; the significant new taxes on household incomes over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ... Opponents may also exploit the administrative difficulties of creating state insurance exchanges..."
President's widely praised choice for Medicare chief may face contentious Senate hearing after enactment of law. Bloomberg: "Republicans may put a hold on the nomination and press [Donald] Berwick on how he’ll implement the new law ... Rich Umbdenstock, chief executive officer of the American Hospital Association [said] that Berwick has 'led a movement' through his work at the institute to 'engage hospitals, doctors, nurses and other health-care providers in the continuous quest to provide better, safer care.'"
National Journal's Ron Brownstein, finds Democrats biggest challenge is the most white Americans believe health care reform will mostly help the poor and uninsured, not people like them: "These trends frame perhaps the Democrats' greatest political challenge today: convincing economically squeezed white voters that Washington understands their distress. On health care, that means emphasizing the bill's provisions that will most quickly benefit those with coverage, led by insurance reform ... and more prescription drug help for seniors."
Digby thinks Brownstein is missing the point — that it's about the teabaggers thinking the government is handing out favors to people they deem inferior to themselves: "They would rather do without health insurance themselves than have the same benefit going to black and brown people ... Emphasizing certain policy prescriptions in the health care bill isn't going to change that."
Booman reads Brownstein and casts the challenge as the low-education white vote: "The most important finding in the recent polling is that whites who have no college education are the most skeptical about health care reform even though they are the main beneficiaries ... a lot of low-income whites are now eligible for Medicaid, but think Medicaid is something blacks and immigrants receive. In other words, they might benefit, but they'll resent the help they get."
GOP Hissy Fit Over 15 Obama Recess Appointments
Reality-Based Community's Mark Kleiman scoffs at GOP threats following WH action to circumvent protracted delays on appointments: "From Monday’s NYT: 'A leading Republican predicted Sunday that President Obama’s appointment of 15 officials while sidestepping Senate confirmation would make it more difficult to get bipartisan support for future legislation.' Ummm … a probability of zero can’t get smaller."
Washington Monthly's Steve Benen highlights nonsensical example of conservative obstruction: "[Alan] Bersin was nominated for the post seven months ago. In the midst of Senate delays, three former Customs and Border Protection commissioners said the failure to confirm a new agency chief is a 'national security concern.' And yet, an up-or-down vote on Bersin's nomination was nowhere in sight ... We're talking about an overwhelmingly qualified nominee, who enjoyed bipartisan support..."
Collins Throws Elbow To Kerry Crew On Climate
GOP Sen. Susan Collins challenges Kerry-Lieberman-Graham climate effort, pushes own "cap-and-dividend" bill. The Hill: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Friday that lawmakers should consider attaching the climate change bill she co-sponsored with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to separate energy legislation on the Senate floor."
Harvard's Robert Stavins argues that "cap-and-trade" is not uniquely politically problematic: "...any climate policy approach — if it was meaningful in its objectives and had any chance of being enacted — would have become the prime target of political skepticism and scorn."
