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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.

New Rules Needed So Senate Can Govern

W. Post reports some Senators exploring changes to filibuster rules: "... nascent efforts to curb the use of filibuster face resistance from Senate elders with long memories ... Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has not scheduled any debate on the issue."

Tapped's Scott Lemieux reminds it's more than just the filibuster: "Until Senate Democrats realize that the Republican minority is simply no longer willing to adhere to norms that allowed the institution to function despite its stupid rules, basic governance will be enormously difficult ... they need to do what they can to move the Senate toward majority rule."

NYT's Paul Krugman notes parliamentary gridlock is what sinks great nations: " In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting “I do not allow!” This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared ... Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison."

Slate's Jacob Weisberg doesn't blame the Senate, but the "childish, ignorant American public": "[T]he American public lives in Candyland, where government can tackle the big problems and get out of the way at the same time ... To change this story line, we need to stop blaming the rascals we elect to office and start looking to ourselves."

Matt Yglesias thinks Wiesberg missed the point -- Americans know what they want, and will tell you, if you ask them: "People like conditions in the country to be good, and they get upset when conditions are not good. Effective politicians deliver good outcomes, and effective political institutions create incentives for those with power to do their best to deliver good outcomes. Right now, the outcomes being delivered by the Obama administration are not that good. But the nature of our political institutions is that these outcomes don't represent the Obama administration's best effort to deliver good outcomes. Instead, you get a weird mishmash of administration ideas, opposition obstructionism, 'centrist' preening, liberal whining, etc., etc., etc."

Bipartisan Health Care Meet. Calling Their Bluff?

Obama announces Feb. 25 bipartisan health care summit on CBS, reiterates importance to fiscal soundness: "The biggest thing, the most important thing that we can do on deficits ... is to get a health reform package passed."

Time's Kate Pickert believes we are seeing "Obama's final health care push.": "Obama is betting that he will be able to persuasively debunk Republican ideas for health care reform. He's also betting that if the American people understand what's in Democratic proposals, many of those who oppose the legislation will decide to support it."

Ezra Klein lays out WH thinking: "...there's enormous anxiety over the public's belief that the bill is thick with noxious deals ... if the bill was so good, why wouldn't they let C-SPAN into the negotiations? The White House hopes this summit will be a clean break with that narrative ... Second ... this creates a next step for health-care reform ... by setting this summit, he's bought [congressional leaders] a few weeks to figure out how to hold a vote themselves."

Some nervousness among congressional Dems. NYT: "some Congressional staff members expressed concern that Mr. Obama’s meeting would simply prolong an already tortuous process."

WH brushes off GOP calls to completely scrap pending bills LAT: "...a White House official said, 'The Republicans are going to interpret this as we're starting over. We're not starting over. We're coming in with our plan. They're welcome to come in with whatever plan they'd like. But we're moving forward.'"

The Treatment's Jonathan Cohn sees the WH calling the GOP's bluff: "...Republicans have been complaining that Democrats locked them out of the process. And large swaths of the public seem to agree, even though the argument seems plainly untrue ... The public forum will give the GOP one more, high-profile opportunity to air their views--and, no less important, it will give the public a chance to see which approach to health care they really prefer."

HuffPost's Robert Kuttner is deeply skeptical: "... Obama seems wedded to the illusion that Republicans are actually interested in reasoning together -- as opposed to doing whatever they can to crush him. ... It may be ... this is all a cleverly designed plan to ... smoke out their petty obstructionism for all to see, and then lead as a tough partisan ... If this works, I will be the first to cheer. But I can't imagine this summit producing a breakthrough, either of legislative compromise or of effective shaming."

W. Post's E.J. Dionne reports there's a new House Dem rallying cry, "Finish The Kitchen": "Democrats can finish the kitchen. Or they can face the wrath of voters who will wonder why the contractors they sent to Washington left all the wires hanging and the plumbing disconnected and useless."

Snowstorm Buys Dems Time On Jobs Bill

Politico reports Senate jobs bill talks have not produced a bill yet: "Senate votes scheduled for Monday evening have been pushed back to Tuesday on account of the storm, but it seems unlikely that Democrats would have been ready to proceed Monday ... there was no agreement on a bill late Sunday afternoon ... Baucus and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the panel, have spent almost two weeks negotiating the relatively limited package of small-business aid, unemployment benefits and corporate tax credits ... lawmakers were tangling over how to pay for the legislation ... Republicans oppose using unspent [TARP] funds..."

Rep. Earl Blumenauer calls for more transit investment to create green jobs, in Politico oped: "While highway and transit investments account for just 4 percent of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, they have been responsible for 25 percent of the jobs created or saved. In fact, investments in public transportation created twice as many jobs per dollar as investments in highways."

Raleigh News & Observer chronicles the plight of long-term jobless as federal unemployment insurance will expire without a new extension: "The long-term jobless are blue- and white-collar workers. They come from all age groups, income levels and ethnicities ... That so many different people have been unable to find work for so long makes this recession unlike any other in decades. Such widespread long-term joblessness is slowing economic recovery. Personal income is down. Bankruptcies and foreclosures are up. But it will be years before the full extent of the damage is known."

Schools facing budget crisis and stimulus funds run out. NYT: "With state and local tax revenues still in decline, the end of the federal money will leave big holes in education budgets from Massachusetts and Florida to California and Washington..."

Jon Taplin, at TPMCafe, suggests Tea Party-fueled anger can be solved with jobs: "Unless we start reimagining America After Empire — a country where the serious work of rebuilding a broken infrastructure can be funded from the reductions in a cold war based military budget — the potential of a more violent right wing movement will exist."

Wall Street Shifting Money To Republicans

NYT reports Wall Street pulling Dem contributions in hopes of killing reform. GOP actively soliciting Wall Street: "... this year Chase’s political action committee is sending the Democrats a pointed message. While it has contributed to some individual Democrats and state organizations, it has rebuffed solicitations from the national Democratic House and Senate campaign committees. Instead, it gave $30,000 to their Republican counterparts ... 'If the president doesn’t become a little more balanced and centrist in his approach, then he will likely lose that support,' said Kelly S. King ... a board member of the Financial Services Roundtable, which lobbies for the biggest banks ... Senator John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he visited New York about twice a month to try to tap into Wall Street’s 'buyers’ remorse.' ..."

President Walking Fine Line On Trade

NYT's John Harwood cites right-wing Chamber of Commerce to argue Obama hurts jobs by delaying trade agreements: "...Mr. Obama has been willing to wait on asking Congress to approve pending trade deals ... [That] undercuts Mr. Obama’s top priority: reducing the nation’s 9.7 percent unemployment rate ... Chamber officials calculated that failure to implement those agreements would cost the economy 383,400 jobs."

The Hill claims WH is looking to push trade deals: "The Obama administration is reaching out to business-friendly Democrats to win support for free-trade policies that divide the party ... [Rep. Adam] Smith said he believes the Panama deal could be approved this year by Congress, but he described the Colombia and South Korean deals as harder sells."

Dean Baker slaps W. Post edit board for misrepresenting pending trade deals: "It refers to these deals as 'free trade' agreements even though an important part of both deals involves increasing protectionist barriers in the form of patent and copyright protection. This increased protection will raise costs and lead to increased economic distortions. The Post has a long history of making things up to promote trade agreements."

Social Security Hysteria Redux

USA Today runs false alarm on recession's impact to Social Security: "Social Security's annual surplus nearly evaporated in 2009 for the first time in 25 years as the recession led hundreds of thousands of workers to retire or claim disability."

Last year, Dean Baker debunked such claims: "Under the law, Social Security benefits are paid out of its trust fund. This trust fund has accumulated a surplus of almost $2.5 trillion. The lower projected surpluses for the next few years will have some impact (if the projections prove correct) on the date at which the fund is projected to be depleted, but the projected depletion date will almost certainly be beyond 2040, even after CBO adjusts its numbers for the downturn."

Climate Roundup

Center for Public Integrity follows the money of who is backing legislation to prevent EPA from regulating greenhouse gases: "The same onslaught of lobbyists and lawyers that helped dim prospects for climate legislation in this Congress (representing about 1,170 businesses and interest groups by the fourth quarter of 2009 ) is now engaged in an energetic, multi-front offensive to delay or block any attempt by the Obama administration to enact an alternative through regulation."

Bipartisan push for coastal drilling in Virginia in Sec. Salazar's lap. LAT: "The bipartisan drive to open the Virginia coast to drilling puts the Obama administration in a tough position. On one hand, President Obama has said that he is open to limited coastal drilling as part of a broader energy compromise ... On the other hand, the drilling proposal has raised concerns from NASA and from environmentalists ... Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to decide about the lease sale soon."

Salazar will decide on Cape Wind by April. W. Post: "The venture stands as a critical test of whether the Obama administration, which views investing in renewable energy as key to reviving the economy and combating climate change, can launch the clean-energy revolution it has promised voters.

Politico profiles swing-district Dems that voted for carbon cap: "Colorado Rep. Betsy Markey ... will be a test case for whether the new, 'green' energy sector can politically outmuscle more traditional energy concerns. Wind turbines are built and operated in her district, as are oil wells."

Sen. Scott Brown a question mark on environmental issues reports Politico.

Palin Cheats To Pass Tea Party Test

Tea Party kicked off with Tom Tancredo's segregation-touting speech. The Guardian: " ... he invoked the segregationist methods of the southern states, saying that Obama had been elected because 'we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country'. Southern segregationist states used to prevent black people having the vote by setting them restrictively difficult qualification tests..."

In the Palm of Her Hand? Oliver Willis rips Palin for using crib notes during Tea Party Q&A: "Yeah, the teleprompter stuff was already dumb (I'd like to see some conservative pols handle an unscripted session like Obama did with the House GOP), but after seeing dear Sarah read off her hand at the teabag convention, that talking point should die."

Washington Monthly's Steve Benen finds Palin's preparedness a little scary: "It doesn't exactly scream 'presidential material.' ... that she wrote notes at all suggests Palin was aware of the questions in advance ... think about what that tells us about her readiness — Sarah Palin was afraid questions from Tea Party activists might be too difficult."

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