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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.

With Wall St. Reform Now Law, Eyes On Warren

After bill signing, Rep. John Larson lays out "10 Ways New Wall Street Reform Law Will Help You": "A new consumer bureau will ensure American consumers get the clear, accurate information they need to shop for mortgages, credit cards [and] student loans ... The financial incentives for subprime loans that encourage lenders to steer borrowers into more costly loans will be prohibited ... Businesses can't be charged extra for debit card 'swipe fees' [which] could save American small businesses billions of dollars each year..."

OurFuture.org's Zach Carter lays out "Five Key Fights After The Bill Is Signed": "Break Up The Banks ... Tax Wall Street Gambling ... End The Foreclosure Nightmare..."

Bankers fight to prevent Warren nomination to new consumer protection bureau, while Warren does lunch with top WH aide. WSJ: "Banking groups were urging key senators to oppose Ms. Warren, calling her an activist who would impose policies they argue would hurt the availability of credit ... Ms. Warren had a front-row place at the [bill signing] ceremony, and afterward lunched with White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. On Thursday, about a dozen Democratic legislators are holding a news conference to call for Ms. Warren to be nominated to head the agency."

Leading House GOPers attacks Warren. LAT: "When the House Financial Services Committee drafted its version of the legislation, it rejected an amendment by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) that appeared designed to prevent Warren from heading the agency ... Garrett said[,] 'Put somebody in there who has all but established that as her agenda, and you just amplify the magnitude in a negative manner that this agency can have on the economy.'"

OurFuture.org's Carter rips Ezra Klein for criticisms of Warren: "He's sympathetic to the charge that Warren is 'too dismissive of the benefits of financial innovation,' because, well, I don't know why. It's a baseless allegation being made by Warren's opponents without any evidence whatsoever ... Klein supports Warren to head the CFPB. He's just saying that an objection voiced by people who oppose her is not outrageous. The trouble is, the objection is, in fact, outrageous."

Warren joins Treasury Inspector General in criticizing WH mortgage modification plan. NYT "Only 390,000 homeowners have seen their mortgage terms permanently modified since the $50 billion program was announced in March 2009. That is a small fraction of the three to four million borrowers who were supposed to receive assistance ... Asked by Senator Max Baucus ... why the program was not working, Ms. Warren said: 'It’s too slow. It’s too small.'"

Forthcoming report expected to expose obscene bank bonuses during crisis. WSJ: "The U.S. pay czar is expected to issue a potentially embarrassing report as early as Friday ... [He] is urging these firms to adopt a provision that would limit their ability to pay out large sums during a crisis ... Mr. Feinberg's findings could provide grist for lawmakers who have been seeking to impose fees on banks in the wake of the financial crisis."

Big Jobs Agenda Not On Table

Jobless aid clears Senate ... and that's about it on jobs. Politico: "Nothing to match the $34 billion unemployment bill is near on the horizon. Smaller initiatives to help small business and cash-strapped states are still struggling to gain traction going into the August recess..."

Unemployed woman fully aware who is holding up her assistance. McClatchy: "A former business manager for an immigration law firm, [Rita] Martinez, 57, was laid off in May 2009. Since then, her weekly $357 unemployment insurance check has helped her keep the utilities paid, food on the table and gas in her Chevy truck. But after Congress failed to extend those benefits at the end of May, Martinez found herself without any income ... She blames Republicans in Congress for delaying passage of the benefits extension. 'I'm pretty angry at what they're doing,' she said of the recent filibuster. 'I've worked all my life. I don't sit around and do drugs. You think I want to survive on $357 per month? They don't get it.'"

Robert Reich argues policymakers should act as if we are on the verge of a double-dip recession: "Consumer confidence is down. Retail sales are down. Home sales are down. Permits for single-family starts are down. The average work week is down ... [The President] should make the whole upcoming mid-term election a national referendum on putting Americans back to work, and his jobs bill. ... But none of this is happening. The hawks and blue dogs are still commanding the attention ... the Fed chair continues to talk about pulling money out of the system and raising short-term rates as the economy improve."

GOP continues to hold up small biz lending measure. NYT: "...with some Democrats viewing the small-business bill as critical to their political prospects in November, Senate Republicans were not about to let it through easily, and have insisted on a chance to offer amendments. In a bid to save the bill, Democrats released a new version of it on Wednesday night without a $30 billion lending program. But Mr. Reid immediately introduced an amendment that would restore the fund, and he continued to block any Republican amendments ... If it is dropped, what would be left is a package of slightly more than $12 billion in tax breaks for small businesses..."

Bush Tax Cut Battle Brews

Senate Finance Cmte meets today without consensus on Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. CQ: "Because Democrats have a 13-10 majority on the committee, just two defections on any issue would give Republicans an opportunity to sway the tax bill in their direction ... A likely starting point for a Democratic bill ... would permanently extend the middle-class tax cuts, allow the cuts for top-income earners to expire and return the estate tax to 2009 parameters through 2011. Several Finance Committee members, however, are wary of allowing taxes to go up as the nation struggles to pull itself out of a deep recession..."

Deficit hysteric Sen. Kent Conrad supports waiving pay-as-you-go rules to extend Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest without offsetting revenue. Reuters: "'The general rule of thumb would be you'd not want to do tax changes, tax increases ... until the recovery is on more solid ground,' ... the North Dakota Democrat ... said he thinks waiving so-called pay-go rules to extend the upper income rates should be considered. 'Pay-go is not just a line in the sand,' he said. 'There is a reason that you have a pay-go waiver, which requires 60 votes.'"

Senate rejects attempt to permanently repeal estate tax. WSJ: "The estate tax came a step closer to being revived ... The amendment failed by a wide margin of 39-59. The vote was almost entirely on party lines, although two Democrats – Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska – joined Republicans..."

Richard Trumka and Robert Rubin join forces to support reinstatement of the estate tax. AFL-CIO's Mike Hall: "During a telephone press conference sponsored today by United for a Fair Economy (UFE), Trumka said: 'Today, the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, the suspension of the estate tax and other policies favoring the super-rich are key contributors to our nation’s budget deficits...' Rubin said the revenue generated by an estate tax could be used for public investments that would create 'a rapid spend out' to boost job creation."

The estate tax has a much bigger impact on the budget than jobless aid. TNR's Alexander Hart: "...repealing the estate tax would cost more than $500 billion over 10 years."

Senate Dems Meet Today On Energy Bill

Reid to convene Senate Dems again to determine energy bill strategy. CQ: "Senior lawmakers acknowledged Wednesday that a full legislative calendar could push the energy debate to the fall ... A Reid spokesman said in an e-mail that no decision had been made ..."

Liberal senators urge Reid to include carbon cap in energy bill. The Hill: "The push by the 12 senators to keep emissions limits in play comes amid a flurry of meetings on Capitol Hill on the eve of a Senate Democratic caucus meeting Thursday to try to determine the path forward on energy and possibly climate legislation this year." Other senators push for a tougher renewable electricity standard.

TNR's Brad Plumer argues the coal companies' resistance to a carbon cap is killing them: " For a long time, coal was the cheapest energy source because the industry was allowed to offload so many of its hidden costs onto the public—asthma-causing air pollution, shoddy safety regulations, coal debris dumped in Appalachian streams... But as the government starts regulating these side effects more closely, it will become clear that coal isn't actually all that cheap. Meanwhile, natural gas prices are falling and prices for renewables are tumbling. Fewer and fewer utilities want to keep plunking money down on coal ... [Carbon capture] simply won't take off unless there's a price on carbon or some sort of restriction on greenhouse gases."

Confidential survey before Gulf gusher showed that Transocean employees were nervous about safety of Deepwater Horizon. NYT: "...many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems."

Deficit Commission Double Team

Deficit commission attacked from left and right. The Hill: "Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the organization led by conservative activist Grover Norquist, is reminding the six Republican lawmakers on the fiscal commission of their pledge not to raise taxes ... On the left, unions and senior groups see the fiscal commission as a threat to entitlement programs ... The coalition’s message to lawmakers is, 'Don’t cut benefits — focus on other ways to reduce the deficit,' said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future..."

128 Dems renew push for public health insurance option, to cut costs and reduce deficit. LAT: "[Rep. Lynn] Woolsey and her allies, including Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont), are armed with a new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Democrats say the CBO projects that the public option could save the government $68 billion between 2014 and 2020."

Speaker Boehner?

What would a Speaker Boehner do? TIme's Jay Newton-Small: "He'd embrace $1.3 trillion in cuts laid out in Paul Ryan's Road Map ... he'd immediately repeal health care reform ... He'd move to halt any carbon cap and trade measures..."

"Boehner Cites Not Knowing Whether Three Of His Brothers Have Found Jobs As Evidence Of 'Empathy'" headlines HuffPost.

Netroots Nation 2010 Kicks Off

Progressive Breakfast is being served from Las Vegas today and tomorrow as progressive netroots activists convene for Netroots Nation. Many of the sessions will be live-streamed at http://www.netrootsnation.org/streaming. Follow #NN10 on Twitter. Notable panels today include:

9 AM PT - Healthcare Reform with David Welch, Andrew McGuire, Levana Layendecker and Melinda Gibson

10:30 AM PT - The 2010 Elections: Channeling the Power of Jobs, Populism and the Angry Voter with OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson, Mark Mellman, Scott Paul and Annabel Park

3 PM PT - Obama’s Social Security "Death Panel": Engaging Activists to Defeat the Drive to Cut Critical Social Programs with OurFuture.org's Robert L. Borosage, Nancy Altman, Eric Kingson, Digby and Laura Clawson

4:30 PM PT - Curbing Wall Street: The Next Stage with OurFuture.org's Robert L. Borosage, Mike Konczal, Gerald Taylor and Mary Bottari

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