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.
WH To Post Health Care Proposal Online Today, Setting Table For Summit
Before announcement of health care proposal, WH signals plan to limit rate hikes. NYT: "The legislation would call on the secretary of health and human services to work with state regulators to develop an annual review of rate increases, and if increases are deemed 'unjustified' the secretary or the state could block the increase, order the insurer to change it, or even issue a rebate to beneficiaries."
Republican leaders defend insurance companies' authority to jack up rates at will. W. Post: "'At first glance, this seems to be an admission from the Obama administration that their massive government takeover of health care will, despite their promises, increase health care premiums for millions of Americans,' said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). But it could prove tricky for Republicans: They must be careful not to be seen in an election year as siding with big insurance companies that are imposing drastic rate hikes on Main Street Americans."
Republicans complain about WH bringing actual detailed idea to summit. Politico: "House Minority Leader John Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel, said that 'it would be baldfaced hypocrisy to continue hammering out the latest partisan backroom deal while preparing for a "bipartisan" summit ... The White House's announcement of Obama's legislation Monday would serve as the template for a final bill, and barring any last-minute Republican conversions, Democrats would attempt to use a procedural tactic that only requires Democratic votes in the Senate to pass it."
Robert Reich debunks arguments against using simple majority strategy at HuffPost: "Why haven't the President and Senate Democrats pulled the reconciliation trigger before now? ... I've spent the last several weeks sounding out contacts on the Hill and in the White House to find an answer. Here are the theories. None of them justifies waiting any longer."
W. Post's E.J. Dionne explains GOP strategy: "Boehner knows what he's doing: He wants the Democrats to give up on health care because doing so would be the surest way to prove that they lack the guts and competence to govern. Republicans hate this summit because if it works, it will keep that from happening, and also because it calls many bluffs at once."
WH to post proposal online today in advance of Thursday summit. Will GOP? Politico: "White House officials have already begun urging Republicans to post their bills on line as well – a clever tactic by the White House, because Republicans ideas for reform were spread across several pieces of legislation, or fell far short of the Democrats’ goal of insuring 31 million uninsured Americans. The main House Republican proposal, for instance, would only cover 3 million more Americans."
Insurance tax compromise would benefit nonunion and union employees. W. Post: "At least 80 percent of the workers whose plans would be subject to the tax in 2019 would be in nonunion jobs, according to the [UC-Berkeley] analysis ... To mitigate its impact, the White House and union leaders last month negotiated revisions ... Congressional Republicans have attacked the deal as a carve-out for labor, but according to the analysis, the revisions would also benefit many nonunion workers. The authors, whose work was funded by the California Endowment and the liberal Institute for America's Future, estimate that the revisions would reduce the tax's revenue by $41 billion, of which 71 percent would accrue to nonunion workers."
Will New Reports Of GOP Stimulus Hypocrisy Shame Any To Support Jobs Bill?
"Republicans Voting Against Stimulus Then Asked Obama for Money, reports Bloomberg: "Alabama Republicans Jo Bonner and Robert Aderholt took to the U.S. House floor in July, denouncing the Obama administration’s stimulus plan ... 'Where are the jobs?' each of them asked. Over the next three months, Bonner and Aderholt tried at least five times to steer stimulus-funded transportation grants to Alabama on grounds that the projects would help create thousands of jobs. They joined more than 100 congressional Republicans and several Democrats who, after voting against the stimulus bill, wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood seeking money..."
Sen. Reid will try to move initial jobs bill today, without 60 votes in hand: "The chamber will vote on whether to proceed with a $15 billion measure that includes a one-year Social Security tax break for companies hiring new employees who have been out of work for at least 60 days ... As of Sunday, no Republicans had declared intentions to vote to proceed on the slimmer bill ... With Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) absent after receiving a diagnosis of cancer last week, his party will need to lure at least two Republicans..."
Politico looks at the interests of three possible GOP yes votes: Collins, Snowe and Brown.
At governors meeting, urgent calls for state aid. NYT: "...Mr. Reid’s bill does not include an extension of unemployment insurance benefits or health benefits for workers who have lost their jobs. Democratic governors said it was imperative for Congress to extend those benefits, as well as extra assistance provided to state Medicaid programs."
States tapping rainy day funds. Stateline: "Faced with historic revenue drops, states have tapped their rainy day funds in fiscal 2009 and 2010 at levels not seen since the 2001 recession to help close budget gaps totaling some $290 billion"
Economist's View's Mark Thoma echoes James Galbraith's call for job investments before deficit cuts: "Every day that goes by with unemployment higher than it needs to be means that people are struggling needlessly. People need jobs ... Congress ought to have the same urgency in dealing with the unemployment problem as it had when banks were in trouble ... But Congress doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry."
Democracy Now touts reports that some Americans are selling their food stamps to survive: "A new investigation from ColorLines Magazine, supported by the Nation Institute's Investigative Fund, shows that some poor families are forced to sell their food stamps on the black market for cash in order to survive this prolonged recession."
Possible Debt Commission Names Leak
Bloomberg reports on possible WH picks for debt commission: "U.S. President Barack Obama is considering Honeywell International Inc. chief executive officer David Cote ... former Federal Reserve vice chairman Alice Rivlin and Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union..."
NYT's Paul Krugman knocks GOP for stoking deficit hysteria, then hesitating on deficit commission: "...Republicans insist that the deficit must be eliminated, but they’re not willing either to raise taxes or to support cuts in any major government programs. And they’re not willing to participate in serious bipartisan discussions, either, because that might force them to explain their plan — and there isn’t any plan, except to regain power."
Debt Moralism Will Doom Recovery. Will Hutton, writing for The Guardian, summing up Britain's own deficit hysteria in a way that applies to the U.S., says: "Debt moralism seems like common sense, but only if you put economics to one side. Three key linked economic arguments offer a different context to view the necessary growth of public debt and thus morality. ...The task is twofold: to find a way of attacking the structural deficit while sustaining and lifting growth. We need to try to protect public investment rather than halve it as existing plans do. And we need to create a national innovation ecosystem to support growth."
Matthew Yglesias mocks conservatives urging default on the national debt: "Bruce Bartlett reports that Glenn Reynolds has hit upon the idea that conservatives should push for a default on the national debt, on the theory that this would raise the future borrowing costs of the federal government in a way that makes future deficit spending impossible. This is truly a case of one of those ideas that's so wrongheaded you don't know where to begin...."
Clean Energy Booming ... Or Stalling
WSJ optmistically reports clean energy industry expects a big 2010 thanks for government support: "Existing programs to support clean energy, combined with the prospect that Congress will pass an energy and jobs bill, have many analysts projecting a banner 2010 ... the Obama administration's budget calls for a jump in federal loan guarantees for new energy projects. And Congress is considering, as a means to create jobs, legislation to establish renewable-energy targets decades into the future. That has renewable firms champing at the bit."
LAT pessimistically reports clean energy projects are stalling due to inaction in Congress: "With President Obama's energy and climate proposals bottled up in Congress, business leaders say they cannot tell what direction government policy will take on a variety of issues, including new energy taxes, tougher emissions standards for factories and vehicles, and guaranteed markets for start-up wind and solar power plants. That has companies reluctant to pull the trigger on green-energy investments that could create employment and combat climate change."
Energy Sec. Chu calls for higher renewable energy standards than Congress is considering. The Hill: "Chu ... said that renewables are already on a path to eventually supply 15-17 percent of the nation’s power on the strength of funding in the big 2009 stimulus law. That increase would render the RES under consideration on Capitol Hill moot. An RES approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year sets a 15 percent renewable target by 2021, but roughly a fourth of that could be met through energy efficiency measures ... [He] told reporters that a 20 percent renewable standard by 2020 would be preferable [and] that he’s open to a standard that allows sources beyond renewables."
Ron Paul Wins In CPAC Shocker
Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll. For what it's worth, and it's not worth much, he beat out even Sarah Palin: Christian Science Monitor's Jimmy Orr: "The straw poll doesn't have a great batting average. How did Romney celebrate his victory at CPAC last year? By promptly dropping out of the presidential race."
Daily Kos' Jed Lewison on the discomfort conservative leaders may be feeling after Paul's victory: "...in early 2008, Fox made the Unfair & Unbalanced decision to ban Ron Paul from a GOP presidential debate. But now, just two years later, their network is leading media mouthpiece for the tea party movement spawned by Paul ... Though Beck today is the leading teabagger on the teabagger's leading network, in 2007 he expressed concern that some Ron Paul supporters were fomenting domestic terrorism. And now he's keynoting a conference that just tapped Paul as their top pick for 2012."
Huckabee hates on CPAC. Politico: "'CPAC has becoming increasingly more libertarian and less Republican over the last years, one of the reasons I didn't go this year,' Huckabee said in an interview with Fox News ... 'Because of the way that it solicits sponsors, it's almost becomes a pay-for-play,' he said."
