fresh voices from the front lines of change

Democracy

Health

Climate

Housing

Education

Rural

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.

Can Obama Find Common Ground On Climate Today?

Obama needs to get specific about what he wants in a climate bill. Or not. Politico: "...many up-close observers said, the president needs to spell out what he wants in a legislative package [else] he risks losing control of [the] debate ... [But many Republicans] are itching to cry foul if he gets too specific now about carbon caps and therefore signals an unwillingness to budge."

WSJ suggests WH interested in partial carbon cap, covering the utility industry only: "One Democrat close to the White House said the administration would likely favor this approach as the best option that can win sufficient Senate support ... But the plan hasn't been publicly embraced by any of the key congressional players in the energy debate ... Some utilities support the idea of a cap for the power sector, partly to forestall what could be more onerous regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. Utilities that invested in coal alternatives—such as Texas wind energy farms—also could benefit if the bill creates new incentives for using wind-generated power. But a utilities-only cap wouldn't affect oil consumption, making it difficult to explain how the policy relates to the oil spill that is providing the political momentum for action this year."

Sen. Bingaman, after dismissing prospects for any carbon cap, tells The Hill he's drafting one for utilities: "Bingaman said Monday that he is working on a plan that has 'some significant differences' from the utility portion of a much broader climate bill crafted by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) ... he has not decided whether to introduce his evolving emissions plan."

Six GOPers will be there, but not Sen. Lindsey Graham. The Hill: "Graham cited conflicting hearings with Gen. David Petraeus ... and Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan."

Wonk Room's Brad Johnson lists the 20 Senate "climate peacocks": "Like 'deficit peacocks' who pretend to be hawkish on budgets but refuse any real solution, these 'climate peacocks' claim to care about science, energy reform, and the environment, but have yet to find solutions to the threat of climate change. Reid is now calling the bluff of these twenty 'responsible' senators, who will be proven to be fossil-fueled hypocrites if they fail to support policies that bring the swift reduction of carbon pollution that science demands."

Grist's Jon Ryhn knocks down the "can't-do spirit" of anti-high speed rail, anti-wind "centrists" like Michael Lind:: "Lind argues that because we don’t currently have high-speed rail and a significant percentage of our electricity generated from wind power, it won’t ever happen. What would he have said in 1900? There were 4,000 cars made that year, and 6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. Now we have about 250 million cars and 4,000 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. In the 1950s and 1960s, we spent over $400 billion in current dollars to construct ... the Interstate Highway System. The U.S. High-Speed Rail Association estimates that it would cost about $600 billion to build a 17,000 mile system in 20 years."

President Plots Immigration Strategy Today

President meets with Hispanic Caucus today, after developing strategy with immigration reformers yesterday. AP: "President Barack Obama is enlisting activists and labor leaders in a push for comprehensive immigration legislation that will showcase Republican opposition and include a speech by the president .. Latino leaders say they will work in coming months to pressure Republicans to give way and support an immigration bill — and make opponents pay at the ballot box if they don't."

Politico says expectations of passing a bill are low: "Key Hispanic lawmakers such as Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) have already concluded there isn’t the political will in Congress to tackle immigration legislation ... The challenge for Hill Democrats and the Obama administration will be to leverage all these moving parts and keep the grass-roots immigration reform base motivated while the cause for immigration reform moves farther onto the back burner."

Latina Lista sounds a grassroots alarm to redouble reform efforts: "Rep. Gutierrez has been one of the hardest working Latino leaders when it comes to pushing Obama not to give up on immigration reform ... when he says the fight is over for the time being then everyone should take notice and do one thing -- pitch in! ... If there is any hope for immigration reform to be addressed in Congress in a humane way, without an overboard number of punitive measures amended to it, it's in this legislature."

"Moderate" GOPers Waver On Wall St. Reform

Formerly supportive GOPers now on the fence. Bloomberg: "Reservations yesterday from Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe came after Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown had expressed unhappiness with the fee, which House-Senate negotiators added to the package during the final day of talks to offset an almost-$19 billion funding shortfall. 'There’s much I like in the bill, but I do not like the new $19 billion tax that was slipped in the wee hours of the morning,' Collins said. Neither Collins nor Snowe made a firm statement about how she would vote ... Snowe told reporters yesterday she has concerns with the fee proposal 'because it emerged during the course of the conference,' and wasn’t in either House or Senate versions of the legislation."

Rep. Frank challenges waverers to find another source of revenue. CQ quotes: "My question to them is, do they want to add to the deficit and if not, is there another way to pay for it? ... If it’s not an assessment on the financial industry, how else do you get more revenue?”

Pressure on Sen. Cantwell to flip from "no" to "yes." CQ: "Cantwell’s representatives said she had not yet taken a position on the conference report. If the duo [of Sens. Cantwell and Russ Feingold] holds firm, [Rep.] Barney Frank, D-Mass., said it would bolster the GOP. 'Ironically, you’re empowering more conservative Republicans by putting more power in their hand to weaken the bill,' Frank said." Feingold a firm "No," reports NYT.

Volcker Rule implementation may be slooooow. Bloomberg: "Rules curbing banks’ investments in their own funds would take effect 15 months to two years after a law is passed, according to the bill. Banks would have two years to comply, with the potential for three one-year extensions after that. They could seek another five years for 'illiquid' funds such as private equity or real estate ... Giving banks until 2022 to fully implement the so-called Volcker rule is an accommodation for Wall Street..."

Do Conservatives Hate The Troops? The Teachers? The Jobless? All Of The Above?

Leading House GOPers threaten to block war spending bill if any domestic spending, including aid to prevent teacher layoffs, is included. Politico: "California Republicans Jerry Lewis, the top Republican on the Appropriations committee, and Buck McKeon, the top Republican on Armed Services ... are calling for a [bill] with no non-defense spending projects ... they may oppose any legislative maneuvering that would split the bill into two parts: one part that deals with funding the war and another with unrelated spending..."

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse chastises conservatives who are blocking jobless aid, in Politico oped: "Senate Republicans have argued in recent days that if we cut off people’s unemployment insurance, they will be motivated to get back to work ... The unemployed Rhode Islanders whom I’ve heard from desperately want to get back to work, but jobs just aren’t there. They don’t need any additional motivation — they need jobs."

NYT's Bob Herbert laments the lack of a major jobs campaign: "It would take an extraordinary exercise in leadership to rally the country behind a full-bore jobs-creation campaign — nothing short of large-scale nation-building on the home front. Maybe that’s impossible in the current environment. But that’s what the country needs."

Yes, There Is A Debate Over Deficits

News outlet actually recognizes there is a debate whether or not to pursue deficit reduction now. McClatchy: "World leaders headed home Monday from a weekend summit with a huge question mark hanging over their work: Will their pledge to curb deficit spending help or hurt the global economy? The International Monetary Fund cheered the promise ... Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on Monday called the summit's goals a mistake and warned that policy blunders could plunge the world into a depression."

Why should we trust the IMF's calls for austerity? Dean Baker: "While the IMF can scream about the need for austerity today, it couldn't be bothered to say much about the bubbles that got us here. The IMF's track record gives us reason not only to question the institution's competence but also its motivations."

Jared Bernstein, economic adviser to VP Biden, argues that deficit spending now does not damage deficit reduction later, in FT oped: "Spending that gets into the system, acting to offset a collapse in private demand, and then scaling back as the private sector comes back online, has only a minor impact on longer-term debt ... nothing to the growth in the debt-to-GDP ratio for the rest of the decade ... [Some] members of Congress believe that, since the worst is over, now is the time to hand the growth baton back to the private sector. This is the same mistake made in the late 1930s, when it threw the country back into depression."

Jill Richardson reports in Alternet how the austerity agenda is harming child nutrition: "...both [pending child nutrition bills] fell far short of the amount requested by child nutrition advocates ... an austerity budget (and unhealthy food) now will result in massive increases in spending in the future when a generation of children raised on unhealthy food becomes a generation of unhealthy adults with costly, chronic illnesses. Some say they don't want to pass the deficit onto their children. But what child, when they are diagnosed with diabetes at age 25, would say 'Thank you for balancing the budget by saving money on my school meals'?"

Defense Sec. formally announces plan to save $100B. CNN: "[Sec. Gates] has said he would put the savings back into personnel, military units and future war-fighting capabilities."

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder on how defense contractors are responding to the Pentagon's waste-cutting initiative: "...warfighting capability will be considered alongside long-term affordability. The major defense contractors are going to say nice things about this policy, but behind the scenes, they are furiously trying to figure out how many jobs per congressional district could theoretically be lost if the acquisitions process is reformed."

Yes, There Are Conservative Judicial Activists

Conservative judicial activism in spotlight during Kagan hearings. Wonk Room's Ian Millhiser: "Beyond [the] stirring rejection of conservative smears on Justice Marshall, the Committee’s progressives came armed with actual examples of right-wing judicial activism. Progressives like Sens. Durbin, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Al Franken (D-MN) each focused on cases where the Roberts Court placed a conservative agenda ahead of the law."

Pin It on Pinterest

Spread The Word!

Share this post with your networks.