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Sotomayor Expected To Join Supreme Court

Christy Hardin Smith lauds: "She grew up in the projects in the Bronx, lost her father at the age of nine, and was raised along with her brother (who is now a doctor) by her single mother. That's some life experience to bring to the table ... She was appointed to the bench originally by George H.W. Bush and is considered, even by conservatives who have been before her, as a moderate judge who is particularly well-versed in the law and well-prepared. That makes for good pushback on GOP antics, it's just a pity we have to think politics and not legal temperament."

Smith points to analysis from SCOTUS Blog's Tom Goldstein: "...The objective evidence is that Sotomayor is in fact extremely intelligent ... There is no question that Sonia Sotomayor would be on the left of this Supreme Court, just not the radical left ... There just isn’t any remotely persuasive evidence that Judge Sotomayor acts lawlessly or anything of the sort ... her easy confirmation seems assured."

Insurers Flinch From Negative Ad Campaign

Politico reports top WH health care adviser successfully pressured insurance company to scrap plans for ad attacking public plan option. Quotes HCAN's Jackie Schechner: “They got their hand caught in the cookie jar, and now they’re going to eat carrots for a little while but continue to buy cookies. I think you can’t trust them one bit. This was well on its way to being produced, and they got caught."

Health Care Blog's Matthew Holt rips AP: "The AP has a puff piece on the greatness of Karen Ignagni. Well greatness if greatness is defined as doing anything it takes to screw the nation on behalf of her organization’s members, all the while telling bold face lies about their activities."

Progressive Breakfast

"Accelerating health-care premiums and sharp revenue shortfalls due to the recession are forcing some small companies to choose between dropping health insurance or laying off workers ... Health-insurance premiums for single workers rose 74% for small businesses from 2001 to 2008 ... About 10% of small businesses are considering eliminating coverage over the next year ... That follows earlier declines in coverage, with just 38% of small businesses providing health insurance last year compared to 61% in 1993 ...": WSJ

Robert Reich takes sides in the employer benefit tax debate, on Salon.com: "...it appears that the President will need to tax employer provided health benefits in order to finance universal healthcare. Or at least the tax-free benefits now enjoyed by higher-income employees ... a sensible and politically feasible alternative is to limit tax-free employer-provided health benefits to workers whose incomes are under, say, $100,000 a year, and subject those with higher incomes to progressively higher taxes on them."

GM Bankruptcy Possible Soon

"Because of its size and scope, [a GM] bankruptcy would be the most complicated that any American company has gone through ... The G.M. filing ... is expected to occur by June 1 ... A reason that so many lawyers are needed is that the reorganization, as envisioned by the automaker with support from the federal government, is complex. The plan is to split G.M.’s good assets from the bad assets, with the idea that the part owning the good assets would be a viable company because it would not be burdened with the other businesses.": NYT

The Big Money's Matthew DeBord rips GM bondholders: "Everyone saw this coming and as a result has been calling Chapter 11 a forgone conclusion for weeks. This is a disgusting sort of phony brinksmanship that serves only one purpose: to put a gaggle of investors who assumed too much risk at the front of the line to get paid once GM goes to bankruptcy court."

"Wednesday is judgment day for Chrysler and hundreds of auto dealers, when their fate could be decided in bankruptcy court, but some experts think it's already a done deal. The federal judge in Chrysler LLC's Chapter 11 case could decide on May 27 whether the automaker can pull its choice assets - its best-performing factories and dealerships - out of bankruptcy and sell them to a newly-formed incarnation of itself, called Chrysler Group ... The strongest opposition comes from the auto dealers who resent being left behind.": CNN/Money.com

"The Canadian Auto Workers union ... ratified a cost-saving labor agreement with General Motors Corp. yesterday to protect jobs in a probable June 1 bankruptcy.": Bloomberg

NYT argues Europe should follow US lead, shut down auto plants and shed jobs.

"Just when many state governments are weeks away from the start of another budget year, a new crisis has emerged that threatens their finances: the closing of nearly 2,000 automobile dealerships ... Consider that a fifth of California’s sales tax revenue is from new and used car sales.": Stateline.org

Carbon Cap Is Not Complicated

W. Post explores pros and cons of carbon cap approach in House energy bill, calls Heritage hacks "experts,": "Because so much about this system is untested or unknown, experts disagree about how much cost will be passed on from utilities and oil refineries to average families. The EPA thinks it will fall between $98 and $140 per year, causing barely a stutter in the U.S. economy as a whole. The Union of Concerned Scientists thinks the system will actually make money for families, since more efficient technologies will save on energy costs. But the conservative Heritage Foundation thinks it will cost big: $4,300 per family in a few decades."

Grist's David Roberts warns against emerging "complex" meme: "Lots of people have taken to exaggerating the complexity and opacity of the bill based primarily on its page length (one wonders how many have read it, or even a summary). Waxman-Markey does a great many things (thus the many pages), but most of them are described fairly clearly and constitute reasonable evolution of existing regulatory authority. This isn’t to say there aren’t complexities—important questions remain to be answered about coal plant performance standards and EPA authority, for example—but the bill is not the impenetrable Rube Goldberg mechanism so many in the press caricature."

Politico reports on rural state Dems threatening obstruction over separate ethanol ruling: "...EPA released a draft decision ruling that 'indirect land use' issues must be considered when calculating the carbon footprint of corn-based ethanol ... [Rep. Colin] Peterson and the 26 Democrats on his [agriculture] committee say they will vote against climate change legislation passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week unless it better addresses several concerns raised by farmers, including reversing the EPA decision."

W. Post on proposal to pay poorer countries to prevent carbon emitting development: "Beneath the tropical jungles of northeastern Ecuador lies a vast pool of oil, representing one-fifth of the small Andean country's petroleum reserves and potentially billions of dollars in revenue. Directly above that pool, the Yasuni National Park is home to a diversity of wildlife that is among the richest on the planet, Ecuadoran and U.S. biologists say. Faced with these two treasures, Ecuador is pursuing an unusual plan to reap the oil profits without actually drilling for oil. The idea envisions wealthy countries effectively paying Ecuador to leave its oil -- and the carbon dioxide that would result from using it -- in the ground. Environmentalists hail the proposal as a potentially precedent-setting approach to conservation in developing countries."

Chiefs of some of the world's largest companies are urging global leaders to cut a strong deal this December to curb [greenhouse gas] pollution, saying they need certainty on emissions targets to be able to make long-term investment decisions.": WSJ

Stimulus Check

FT reports WH getting corporate & Canadian pushback on "Buy American" stimulus provision: "[The stimulus bill was] amended at the last minute as the White House urged that it not contravene existing trade agreements. Some businesses and officials say that amendment is proving virtually meaningless in practice More than a third of the stimulus money is being disbursed by states and local authorities, which are not party to free trade accords such as the North American Free Trade Agreement ... The US Chamber of Commerce last week wrote to President Barack Obama asking him to use 'specific regulatory guidance' and the 'bully pulpit of the presidency' to instruct state and local officials to act in line with free trade agreements in the same way the federal government does."

"Some $4 billion from President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan that was budgeted to renovate public housing will be spent to create so-called 'green jobs' by making the dwellings more energy efficient. Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan was making the announcement Tuesday in Denver at a meeting of Obama's Middle Class Task Force. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, another task force member, also will announce that $500 million from the stimulus is becoming available to train workers for these jobs. That sum includes $50 million for communities battered by job losses and restructuring in the auto industry.": AP

Grim Future or Beaver Cleaver Dream?

"Americans may have to get used to unemployment greater than 8 percent for the first time since 1983 and an economy that won’t grow much beyond 2 percent ... The U.S. financial crisis and recession have produced lasting shifts in consumer spending and savings reminiscent of the 1950s that may crimp profits and productivity said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc. [but the] coming decade may, in some ways, remind people of those years during President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration, Rosenberg said. 'Life wasn’t so bad for the Cleavers ... They weren’t up to their eyeballs in debt and they weren’t a three-car family with a 5,000-square-foot McMansion.'": Bloomberg

Terrance Heath contributed to the making of this Breakfast

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