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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.

Conservative Candidates Attack Minimum Wage

Several conservative Senate candidates want to lower the minimum wage ... some want it to be zero. ABC: "Alaska Republican Joe Miller’s argument ... that the federal government lacks the constitutional authority to impose a federal minimum wage was rejected by the Supreme Court back in 1941 ... Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican ... agrees that Congress can mandate a minimum wage, but he questions whether they should ... In Connecticut, the former WWE CEO, Linda McMahon, who is running for Senate, was quoted last week by a Connecticut paper as saying that she thinks people have benefited from the minimum wage, but maybe it ought to be lower than $7.25 ... 'I profess that minimum wage be eliminated and we operate on the laws of supply and demand just like we did before the depression,' ... said John Raese, the wealthy businessman who is running for Senate in West Virginia."

Rand Paul proposes slashing Medicaid. AP: "Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul says Medicaid has turned into 'intergenerational welfare,' saying coverage has spread beyond those truly in need ... About 800,000 people are covered under Medicaid in the state." EARLIER Medicaid prevented higher spike in uninsured during recession. CBPP: "Medicaid coverage for children grew by 3.5 percentage points to offset a 3.1 percentage point decline in employer coverage for children."

NYT's Bob Herbert unloads on House Min. Leader Boehner: "... I remember writing about that day back in the mid-’90s when this slick, chain-smoking, quintessential influence-peddler decided to play Santa Claus by handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists to fellow Congressional sleazes right on the floor of the House ... He has stopped funneling corporate money to his colleagues on the House floor. (It is now illegal.) But nothing else has changed, except that his already outsized influence-peddling has grown."

Conservatives plan to scrap slew of rules to protect public health and environment. Change.org's Jess Leber: "According to Think Progress, [Sen. Jim DeMint] said: 'So this idea that government has to do something is not a good idea. So I think the less we do, the better except maybe to dismantle some of the federal programs that are making it harder for America to be competitive.' ... If this Republican Party vision were to come true, it would obviously affect all federal departments, from the FDA to the Pentagon. But the agency most emasculated would be U.S. EPA, which by the nature of its expansive oversight task—to protect our health and our air, water and land, which otherwise polluters would destroy without recourse—tends to issue the most regulations of any federal agency."

NYT checks in on conservative candidates for governor promising to reject federal funds for high-speed rail: "Republicans running for governor in a handful of states could block, or significantly delay, one of President Obama’s signature initiatives..." EARLIER at OurFuture.org: "Can Conservatives Ride 'No Train' To Victory?"

Health Insurers Bet On GOP

Health insurers shift campaign cash to GOP in hopes of "scaling back" health reform law. LAT: "Since January, the nation's five largest insurers and the industry's Washington-based lobbying arm have given three times more money to Republican lawmakers and political action committees than to Democratic politicians and organizations. That is a marked change from 2009, when the industry largely split its political donations between the parties..."

W. Post's Eugene Robinson hits corporate campaign donors for secrecy: "The Republican grab for Congress is being funded by a pack of wolves masquerading as a herd of sheep ... There is no limit to the amount that an individual, corporation or trade association can give to American Crossroads -- but the group is not required to tell you who those deep-pockets donors might be."

Coalition forms to limit corporate influence. AP: "In a conference call Monday, New York City Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio announced the formation of the Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending ... In June, the House passed legislation that would have required such groups to disclose donor names and to personally approve of the content of their advertising, just as candidates are required to do. But the measure failed to advance in the Senate. DeBlasio said the coalition's mission would be to urge state and local officials to consider similar legislation, and for corporations to voluntarily refrain from campaign spending."

Obama Firm on Wealthy Paying Fair Share

Two of Obama's Republican economic advisers urge Obama to extend tax cuts for multimillionaires, Obama rebuts. WSJ: "When Harvard professor Martin Feldstein’s turn came to talk, he suggested continuing the current tax rates for two years for everybody, then ending them. He said that course would bolster demand at a time when the economy is weak, and also would reduce the long-term federal debt ... William Donaldson [said] confusion over future tax policy is adding to business uncertainty ... To Feldstein’s suggestion, the president said that if the government extends the breaks for higher earners for a year or two, it will be forced to keep extending them forever ... In response to Donaldson’s argument, Obama ... used a playground analogy ... Even if wealthy people don’t need a tax cut, 'we should give them a tax cut … because otherwise we’re going to take the ball and go home,' Obama said."

"Two other members of his board, Paul A. Volcker, the chairman, and Laura D’Andrea Tyson, backed [the President] up," reports NYT.

President puts corporate tax reform deal on the table again. WSJ: "President Obama voiced support on Monday for a broad rewrite of the corporate tax code, including a lower corporate tax rate. That is sure to be welcome news for many big companies that complain about what they perceive as an anti-business attitude at the White House. But Obama also suggested that a corporate rate cut should be paid for by closing tax 'loopholes' – a prospect that could prove unpopular with many companies..."

Does The AIG Math Add Up?

NYT's Andrew Sorkin defends A.I.G. rescue: "... taxpayers have extended loans through the Federal Reserve and Treasury to the tune of about $130 billion ... about $30 billion ... of that total include assets that are owned in large part by the Federal Reserve through its Maiden Lane funds ... In the next several months, A.I.G.’s sale of its Alico unit to MetLife will be completed ... A.I.G. is planning an initial public offering of its A.I.A. unit ... The cash components of those sales, he said, could generate a total of $22 billion ... the Fed will receive another $4.2 billion from A.I.G.’s sale of its Japan-based life insurance unit ... A.I.G is going to pay down the Fed’s remaining $20 billion stake in two special-purpose vehicles ... If all of that works — and if you’re still with me — A.I.G. will be left owing us, the taxpayers, about $49 billion ...Treasury is going to exchange its preferred shares for common shares, expanding the total number of shares of the company and diluting the current investor base. Treasury will own 1.6 billion shares, or 92 percent of the company. At A.I.G.’s share price on Monday, the government’s stake would be worth about $62 billion, a $13 billion profit."

Reuters' Felix Salmon challenges Sorkin's math: "It seems to me that before the exchange, the government will have $49 billion in debt, as well as an 80% stake in a company valued at $26 billion. So call it $49 billion in debt and $21 billion in equity, for a total of $70 billion. After the exchange, Treasury will own nothing but equity — and that equity is forecast to be worth only $62 billion. You can call that a $13 billion profit if you like. But you can equally well think of it as an $8 billion loss."

Dean Baker adds: "Sorkin apparently assumes his readers do not understand that below market loans and guarantees have enormous value. Of course if the government had made the same commitments to the owner of a corner hot-dog stand as it did to AIG, this person would be as rich as Bill Gates right now. Mr. Sorkin could then write a column about how the loans and guarantees didn't cost the government anything (since the hot-dog stand owner had repaid them)..."

International financial regulators worry momentum is slowing for coordinated market reform: "There is increasing tension over currency rates and a growing expectation that the world's major financial centers each will impose substantially different rules on financial firms..."

Foreclosure Fraud Scandal May Worsen Housing Market

W. Post looks at the market implications of the foreclose fraud scandal: "The recent moratoriums have made life easier for people such as Michael Gaier, a Philadelphia lawyer who has taken on 130 clients hoping to fight their foreclosures. Before, he said, judges churning through foreclosure cases tended 'to roll their eyes, because they've heard every story in the book,' he said. But now, 'I don't have to convince them on my own. I don't have to start from scratch,' ... The collective decisions of judges across the country could turn a foreclosure slowdown into a far larger mess if they determine that homes were wrongly seized and resold by lenders ... That possibility already is driving away potential buyers of bank-owned properties who don't want to get caught in legal battles ..."

HuffPost's Arthur Delaney compares foreclose fraud scandal to housing bubble: "The bogus loans and bad foreclosure paperwork are both the result of Wall Street's massive appetite for mortgages during the housing bubble, experts say, as banks repackaged mortgages as asset-backed securities and sold them to investors. As mortgages repeatedly changed hands, servicers in many instances lost track of who owned them. In states where foreclosures need a court's approval, servicers now find themselves unable to prove they have a legal right to foreclose."

President Looks To Community Colleges To Boost Employment

President seeks partnerships between community colleges and employers. USA Today: "On Monday, he announced an initiative through which companies, labor unions and two-year colleges in 50 states would collaborate to improve job training and workforce development. Today, he is scheduled to address business leaders, educators, and others at a White House summit aimed at better aligning learning with workforce goals."

News N Economics' Rebecca Wilder says focusing on retraining is off the mark: "The White House has coined this program Skills for America's Future. The complication is, that lack of skills is not the problem for the 66% of the labor force aged 25 years and over without a bachelor's degree. The problem is the lack of jobs."

Fewer families can save for college. W. Post: "The study, which was conducted by Gallup, found that the percentage of families who planned to make little or no contribution to tuition increased, while the percentage who expected to cover more than half of expenses decreased. The trends were particularly pronounced in Hispanic families, where the number who thought they could only pay a little jumped from 12 percent to 35 percent. In addition, the percentage of families who said the reason they are not socking away money for college is that they cannot afford it rose from 62 percent last year to 68 percent this year."

George Soros makes the case for more stimulus in FT oped: "Admittedly, consumption cannot be sustained indefinitely by running up the national debt ... The obvious solution is to distinguish between investments and current consumption, and increase the former while reducing the latter ... This can be done in several ways, but the Obama administration’s stated goal of halving the budget deficit by 2013 while the economy is operating far below capacity is not one of them. Investing in infrastructure and education makes more sense. So does engineering a moderate rate of inflation by depreciating the dollar against the renminbi."

TNR's Jonathan Cohn argues the WH emphasis on preventing fraud and waste limited impact of the stimulus: "Of the nearly 200,000 prime and sub contracts that the Recovery Act awarded, just 293 led to 'consequential investigations' of fraud. That’s ... two-tenths of a percent. Given the amount of money we’re talking here, that’s astonishingly clean, even by private sector standards ... But efficiency isn't the Recovery Act's primary purpose. Reviving the economy is. And that's required spending a vast amount of money very quickly--a goal that, inevitably, is at odds with spending the money carefully."

Do We Want A Currency War?

What the world needs now, says Matt Yglesias, is a little currency war: "If I was to write down in order the list of stimulative policies that I’d like to see, a series of competitive devaluations achieved through unsterilized foreign exchange interventions would be pretty far down the list. It would be chaotic, is needlessly complicated compared to printing money and handing people the money, and is still missing the element of explicit targeting that we really need. But it’s better than nothing."

Paul Krugman doesn't think Matt Yglesias' argument on currency war works: "...the whole point of the liquidity trap literature is that such conventional open-market operations have no effect — they just swap one zero-rate asset, monetary base, for another, short-term government debt. So the currency interventions accomplish nothing"

OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson argues the war is here: "...it has been going on for some time. It's up to China to end it."

Newsweek's Joseph Kurlantzick explains how China overplayed its hand: "Just as Chinese leaders increasingly lecture Western officials in public about the breakdowns of free-market capitalism, so too the Chinese have become more willing to make public demands from other Asian countries. ...But all this toughness is coming at a cost: an Asia-wide backlash that could cost Beijing a decade’s worth of accumulated good will."

Bernanke Pushes Spending Cap, Higher Retirement Age

Fed chief Ben Bernanke pushes Congress to set binding limits on spending. Bloomberg: "'Well-designed rules can help promote improved fiscal performance,' Bernanke said yesterday in a speech in Providence, Rhode Island. A rule 'could provide an important signal to the public that the Congress is serious about achieving long-term fiscal sustainability, which itself would be good for confidence,' he said."

Calculated Risk says Bernanke should stop discussing fiscal policy, especially on Social Security: "This is an issue that 1) is outside of Bernanke's area of responsibility, 2) he has promised not to discuss, and 3) he has zero credibility on. Enough said."

Mark Thoma urges Bernanke to limit his fiscal remarks: "...Bernanke should explain the choices the Fed would face under various fiscal scenarios, and how the Fed would be likely to react ... But he shouldn't recommend one budget path over the other except as it affects monetary policy choices ... Why politicize the Fed unnecessarily by talking using examples such as changing the retirement age for Social Security -- people might wonder why you didn't choose to mention, say, raising the income cap instead..."

"Sleazy Xenophobia In Pursuit of Social Security Cuts" finds Dean Baker: "The tying of the budget deficit to U.S. foreign borrowing, and specifically borrowing from China, turns economic logic on its head. The United States is borrowing from abroad because it has a trade deficit, or more precisely it has a trade deficit because it is borrowing from abroad ... there is no reason to believe that lower budget deficits would cause China and other countries to end their export-driven growth strategies."

Fixing Blame For Stalled Climate Bill

Grist's David Roberts reacts to New Yorker investigation of climate bill's demise, points finger at Senate supermajority rules: "The Senate is dysfunctional and corrupt ... other people keep harping on the green movement and cap-and-trade and John Kerry and Obama. When liberals turn on each other because of failure in the Senate, the Senate wins. The Senate is not the real world! It's a corrupt, unrepresentative, archaic institution run according to perverse rules, populated with incurious, egotistical, ignorant, wealthy old white men. Nothing good or decent survives there."

TNR's Brad Plumer criticizes WH legislative strategy on climate, praises regulatory strategy: " There was a strange reluctance by Obama to even try to make the public case that a) global warming is an enormous problem and b) tackling it will be a lot easier than we think, and will bring associated benefits like cleaner air. Now, in its defense, the Obama administration has taken what unilateral steps it can on energy and climate: The EPA has been drawing up greenhouse-gas regulations and setting sweeping new fuel-economy standards, while the stimulus bill had billions of dollars for clean energy projects. There's still a good case that those EPA regulations could be more impactful than commonly thought..."

"Anti-Climate TV Ads Hits California, Loaded with Lies" reports Treehugger.

Al Gore presses business community to ramp up lobbying for a carbon cap. Ecocentric's Bryan Walsh: "He pointed to ... how the shift from a print-focused media to the primacy of television, with its all-powerful 30-second campaign spots, made politicians more beholden to moneyed interests who could keep their campaign coffers well fed ... 'This is all the more reason why the business community that sees what needs to be done has to be more vocal,' he said in his speech. 'Otherwise it's the voice of those who want to preserve the right to pollute that will prevail.'"

Solar power coming back to the White House. AP: "[The President] plans to install solar panels atop the White House's living quarters. The solar panels are to be installed by spring 2011, and will heat water for the first family and supply some electricity."

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