The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day.
Kennedy Inspiring Action On Health Reform, While Conservatives Politicize
The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel calls on Democrats to rally behind Kennedy's ultimate cause: "Kennedy's final fight was for quality, affordable healthcare for all. As recently as July, he called that fight 'the cause of my life.' In the coming months, President Obama and a Democratic Congress will determine whether that cause is realized."
Sen. Robert Byrd calls for health care legislation to be named after Sen. Ted Kennedy, on HuffPost.
TPMDC reports Rep. Dingell would happily share the title. "House leaders had planned to ceremoniously name health care reform legislation after him. With the news of Ted Kennedy's death, though, he says that's an accolade he'd be happy to share."
Atrios warns of conservative politicization of Kennedy's passing: "The Republicans are going to try to throw a Wellstone hissy fit over Kennedy's death, and all of the bobbleheads and Villagers will declare that it's unseemly to talk about what a dead person cared about at their funeral. Time to put on the hipwaders. It's going to get messy."
Politico's Ben Smith rounds up conservative reaction: "Conservatives on Kennedy: 'A Wellstone memorial on steroids'"
Democrats reject Sen. Hatch's odd implication that Kennedy would not have passed his own bill. NYT: "In a recent interview, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said Mr. Kennedy was 'the only Democrat who could really move all the Democrats’ special interests into coming along' with a bipartisan approach. Mr. Hatch said that in his absence, Mr. Kennedy’s staff members had written a 'one-sided, partisan bill,' approved by the health committee on July 15. But Democrats say Mr. Kennedy had been deeply involved in putting together the legislation, had been consulted regularly on even the fine points and had been elated when the health committee approved its measure."
McCain, after praising Kennedy on health care earlier in the day, pushes death panel smear on Fox News: "They know what's happening in other countries, where basically there is a rationing of health care particularly when people reach a certain age ... it's the example of government-run health care in other countries."
The Treatment's Jonathan Cohn rebuts attempt to define Kennedy's legacy as only about bipartisanship: "this notion that Kennedy's liberal reputation somehow belied his pragmatism--a notion already gaining traction in the media, which has turned non-partisan accommodation into a fetish-- misses the point. Kennedy compromised on means, not ends. He would negotiate because it helped achieve his broader goals--signing on to NCLB, whatever its cookie-cutter standards, because it would send money to schools in poor, underfunded districts; embracing the Medicare drug benefit because, however poorly designed, it'd save senior citizens from having to choose between medicine and food."
MyDD's Jonathan Singer reports results from new AARP poll backing public option: "A new survey commissioned by the AARP asks respondents to what degree they support or oppose '[s]tarting a new federal health insurance plan that individuals could purchase if they can't afford private plans offered to them' -- a public option, in other words .... 79 percent favor/18 percent oppose"
NYT's Kristof backs public option after interviewing insurance industry whistleblower Wendell Potter.
Mediaite's Jeffrey Feldman calls attention to woman's cry for help at Sen. Tom Coburn health care town hall: "In what may turn out to be the cruelest irony of the year, the death of Senator Edward Kennedy may have papered over a CNN video clip poised to change the dynamic of the national healthcare debate: footage of a desperate woman crying 'We need help!' because she lost health insurance after her husband suffered a brain injury ... Coburn’s reaction to the pleas for help is what makes the clip so arresting."
Baucus Caucus member Sen. Enzi brags he's blocking reform. TPMDC quotes: "If I hadn't been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care."
McClatchy reports on Blue Dog ties to health care special interests: "...more than half the $1.1 million in campaign contributions the Democratic Party's Blue Dog Coalition received came from the pharmaceutical, health care and health insurance industries..."
Right-wing religious groups from new coalition to stop reform. Religion News Service: "Members of the newly formed Freedom Federation, comprised of some of the largest conservative religious groups in the country, say they oppose taxpayer-supported abortion, rationed health care for the elderly and government control of personal health decisions."
Politifact finds Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite using taxpayer-funded mail to spread misinformation about health care.
Grilling Bernanke
Robert Borosage in HuffPost poses six questions for the Fed chairman's confirmation hearing: "What do you know now that you didn't know then? ... Why shovel trillions into the banks and finance houses and ask nothing of them for the American people? ... If you are going to spend our money, why can't we see the books? ... If you don't know where you are going, you are likely to end up in the wrong place ... Why should we reward failure with more authority? ... What has the Fed learned from Japan's mistakes?"
Fed keeping emergency loan info private. Bloomberg: "The Federal Reserve argued yesterday that identifying the financial institutions that benefited from its emergency loans would harm the companies and render the central bank’s planned appeal of a court ruling moot. "
Public pension plan fixes in works. NYT: "...the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, heard impassioned testimony on Wednesday on the need to make public pension numbers more straightforward, more closely mirroring the pension accounting for corporations. But proponents of an overhaul were countered at every step by state officials and others who testified that broad changes were unnecessary and would disrupt budgets by introducing market volatility. ... Questions posed by the board members suggested they were leaning toward making narrow changes in the existing rules, like shortening amortization schedules or reducing the number of actuarial methods that plans may use. They did not seem eager to grapple with the question of which discount rate to use to measure public pension obligations — the biggest issue in the minds of critics of the current rules."
China's Climate Moves
TNR's Brad Plumer weighs impact of China's climate actions: "Okay, let's start with the good news: Regardless of what you've heard from grumbling senators here in the United States, the Chinese government is taking global warming seriously. China Daily reports that the country may soon put in place binding rules to regulate its greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a still-circulating draft resolution. Various stage agencies, meanwhile, have been gaming out scenarios in which the country's emissions peak in the next decade or two and then decline. We'll see what comes of all this brainstorming, but these gestures sure beat total intransigence. But now the not-so-good news. As it turns out, even the most aggressive carbon-cutting scenarios envisioned by China could fall short of what many scientists are saying is needed to avoid climate havoc."
Climate Progress reports new willingness from China to sign global treaty: "‘China will sign’ global treaty if U.S. passes climate bill, E.U. leader says"
Developing countries unhappy with draft G-20 proposals. ClimateWire: "Wealthy nations intend to rely heavily on the carbon markets to help raise the billions of dollars that developing countries will need to fight climate change, draft G20 documents obtained by ClimateWire show. The three papers, written in advance of a meeting next month of world finance ministers in Pittsburgh, do not pledge a specific dollar amount or even estimate how much poorer nations will need. They also offer no specific proposals for the best way to raise funds, even as the authors dive headlong into politically charged international waters over which institutions should govern the flow of money ... the drafts have raised hackles in India and other developing countries."
Some enviro groups join to strengthen climate bill in Senate. CQ: "A coalition of groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Center for Biological Diversity made their push in an Aug. 26 letter to Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. ... The groups said the bill should limit greenhouse gas emissions at levels 'consistent with the available science' in order to halt global warming ... The environmentalists also criticized the bill’s provisions known as 'offsets'..."
New EPA CO2 finding will pressure Senate to act. CQ: "The White House is expected to use a strategically timed announcement to pressure lawmakers to pass climate change legislation, which was postponed by the health care overhaul debate in Congress. The Environmental Protection Agency in the coming weeks is expected to declare carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to be dangerous pollutants, congressional aides and experts said. The EPA finding would trigger a requirement that the federal government regulate the ubiquitous emissions under the Clean Air Act (PL 101-549) — even without new legislation. The blunt instrument of EPA regulation is a nightmare scenario for lawmakers and major industries..."
Details of fuel-efficiency rules coming soon. WSJ: "It looks like the Obama administration is on the road to unveiling its proposed automobile fuel-economy standards for model years 2012 through 2016 ... President Barack Obama announced in May that his administration would require the nation’s auto makers to boost the fuel economy of the new vehicle fleet to 35.5 mpg by 2016 ... auto makers want to see the regulations’ fine print, particularly now that the U.S government is a part owner of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC. The administration’s CO2 proposal may also motivate some undecided senators to support a comprehensive climate-change bill."
Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck continue war on WH green jobs adviser Van Jones: "He's an anti-American guy, we think."
Kansas releases first stimulus funds for home weatherization. Wichita Eagle: "Bernice Jones made history Tuesday when her house on East Second Street became the first in Kansas to be weatherized using federal stimulus funds. Workers were installing a furnace, central air-conditioning unit and refrigerator in her 1920s-era bungalow Tuesday as she ushered in the Kansas governor and other state and city officials ... Thousands of low-income families in Kansas are eligible for up to $6,500 in services such as insulation, water heaters and refrigerators. The money can also include lighting retrofits and furnace repairs or replacement. There is no cost to the homeowner."
Cash-for-Clunkers data released. NYT: "...participants in the clunkers program bought 690,000 new vehicles. About $2.9 billion of the program’s $3 billion was distributed in government vouchers ... Detroit’s three automakers — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — accounted for 38.6 percent of the vehicles sold. That figure is substantially less than the 45 percent combined market share that the Detroit companies posted in the first seven months of the year ... About 84 percent of the clunkers traded in were trucks, and 59 percent of the vehicles purchased were cars ... The average fuel economy of the vehicles turned in was just under 16 miles per gallon, compared with an average of almost 25 miles per gallon for vehicles bought..."
