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.
Gulf Oil May Be Gushing In August
The best hope for stopping the flow of oil in the Gulf is two months away. AP:: "...BP PLC is readying another attempt as early as Wednesday, this one a cut-and-cap process to put a lid on the leaking wellhead so oil can be siphoned to the surface. But the best-case scenario of sealing the leak is two relief wells being drilled diagonally into the gushing well — tricky business that won't be ready until August."
Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for a repeal of "limited liability." AP:: "U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer says he will introduce a bill to repeal a law that could allow the owner of the oil drilling rig that sank in the Gulf of Mexico to limit its liability for the disaster to $27 million. Schumer called it 'outrageous' that the company could 'get away with paying mere pennies of the total cost of clean-up' of the massive oil spill in the Gulf. Schumer says he will introduce the legislation Tuesday."
President meets with oil spill commission co-chairs today. CNN: "The commission has six months to issue a report to Obama with recommendations on how to prevent future spills resulting from offshore drilling."
Many critics of "sand berm" plan touted by Louisiana officials. Time: "...the Obama Administration ... only late last week approved six berm sites. It will only commit to paying for one, however, as a sort of test to determine if more are worth erecting ... That federal reluctance has angered Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Plaquemines parish president Billy Nungesser, both Republicans, who are the two biggest sand-berm proponents ... Critics have accused Jindal and Nungesser of political grandstanding ... Environmentalists and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — as well as BP — fear even temporary berms could mess with natural tidal flows as well as the integrity of naturally existing barrier islands. There are also questions about how well they hold up in storms, and about the effects of the massive dredging of ocean-floor sand required to construct them."
It's time for President Obama to put BP under temporary receivership, says Robert Reich: "The Obama administration keeps saying BP is in charge because BP has the equipment and expertise necessary to do what's necessary. But under temporary receivership, BP would continue to have the equipment and expertise. The only difference: the firm would unambiguously be working in the public's interest."
Economist's View's Mark Thoma questions Reich proposal: "I'd prefer that the prospects of charges for damages, fines from the EPA, lawsuits from people whose livelihood depends upon the fisheries, and so on give BP an unambiguous incentive to stop the leak as soon as possible, that its life would be just as threatened as the life in the gulf is threatened if the leak is not plugged relatively soon."
BP now denying the existence of underwater oil plumes. Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard: "Several independent teams of scientists monitoring the impacts of the Gulf oil spill have found huge plumes of undersea oil extending miles from the spill site ... How has BP CEO Tony Hayward responded to these findings? Seems he's decided to go the denial route ... Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Monday sent a letter to BP America president Lamar McKay asking for more information about BP's plume denial."
BP isn't even taking responsibility for clean-up workers getting sick. Daily Kos' Jed Lewison: "...fishermen are now getting sick while cleaning up BP's spill. ... a possible culprit is exposure to dispersants or other chemicals used in the containment operation. BP, however, is having none of that. CEO Tony Hayward insists that the sickness couldn't possibly have anything to do with the oil spill. ...Food poisoning? Seriously? When was the last time you heard of somebody getting a nose bleed from food poisoning?"
Need more reasons not to trust BP? Here's six more, from Grist's Randy Rieland: "What astounds us and so many oil spill experts is the uselessness of BP's 583-page 'emergency-response strategy report.' It's larded with details on peripherals like which forms to fill out after using oil dispersants, but skimpy on ideas about how to actually stop a deepwater spill."
Conservative who criticize BP should be required to eat their words — specifically, 'Drill, Baby, Drill!' — first. HuffPost's Robert Creamer: ""Drill Baby Drill!" was not just intended to promote more offshore oil drilling. It was intended to mock Democratic concerns for the environmental impact of offshore drilling ... as stupid, 'tree-hugging,' anti-growth, 'elite' concerns ... Of course things haven't turned out that way. The victims of the BP oil disaster are the shrimpers and the oystermen — the people who own the mom and pop restaurants and coffee shops — the folks who drive their pickup trucks to a job in the tourist industry along the Mississippi coast."
TPMMucker's Rachel Slajda reports on the last time a blowout preventer failed in the Gulf of Mexico, 31 years ago. It's not reassuring.: "The Mexican company running the Ixtoc I rig attempted a slew of now-familiar remedies --- they pumped mud into the well, capped it with a metal 'sombrero,' shot lead balls into the well and drilled relief wells -- but it took 10 months to stop the leak even though the drilling was taking place just 160 feet below the surface. The Deepwater Horizon, which blew on April 20, was drilling 5,000 feet underwater."
The damage to the ocean may last for decades. Bloomberg: "Marine biologists are worried the oil will kill off fragile organisms, such as shrimp and fish larvae and plankton, a critical part of the offshore food chain ... Microbes in the sea that feed on oil seeping from the seabed are expected to consume most of the underwater oil from the leak, said Frank Muller-Karger, professor of biological oceanography at the University of South Florida ... Populations of oil-gorged microbes could expand rapidly, consuming oxygen needed by other sea life and creating 'dead zones.'"
HuffPost's Robert Kuttner chastises the President for missing a "teachable moment": "President Obama seems congenitally unable to rise to the occasion ... If ever there were a moment to make clear that our energy future cannot be left to the energy industry, and to rally the public on behalf of a long term shift away from carbon fuels to renewable sources, it is now. Will we ever have a better, more graphic villain than BP? Will we ever have the public more on our side? Will we ever have Republicans with dirtier hands?"
Summer Jobs Picture Not Pretty
Awful summer expected for youth employment. NYT: "State and local governments, traditionally among the biggest seasonal employers, are knee-deep in budget woes, and the stimulus money that helped cushion some government job programs last summer is running out. Private employers are also reluctant to hire until the economy shows more solid signs of recovery. So expect fewer lifeguards on duty at public beaches this summer in California, fewer workers at some Massachusetts state parks and camping grounds and taller grass outside state buildings in Kentucky ... On Friday, the House passed a measure that included the [$1.2B] summer jobs provision, though its future in the Senate this week is uncertain. The Northeastern researchers estimated that an additional $1 billion federal infusion would create some 300,000 job slots this summer, barely putting a dent in the demand for jobs."
Despite deficit hysteria, U.S. government bonds doing just fine. W. Post: "...there have been rumblings that the debt crisis that started in Greece and increasingly affects such other Western European countries as Spain and Ireland could eventually spread into a crisis of confidence in United States government debt. So far, the opposite has happened ... the European debt crisis, rather than make investors fear for the safety of their Treasury bonds, has instead led to an influx of money into the United States, driving rates down further ..."
Credit Agencies Face Financial Crisis Commission Tomorrow
NYT's Andrew Sorkin previews tomorrow's Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's hearing on credit agencies: "...here are a few questions the panel might ask ... given the obvious failures of Moody’s and its peers, why should the major ratings companies retain the competitive advantages bestowed upon them by the Securities and Exchange Commission? ... Defend your so-called issuer-pay model — the notion that issuers, rather investors, pay you for ratings..."
Some banks getting hit harder than others in Wall Street reform bill. Politico: "Wall Street banks such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs ... should avoid a body blow. That’s because the provision most potentially damaging to these firms — the forced spinoff of lucrative derivatives trading desks — is almost universally expected to be dropped or dramatically watered down ... Traditional banking giants — such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo — may take the biggest hit ... banks that focus on consumer lending and other “retail” activities are facing a big cut in fees they generate through the issuance of debit cards..."
W. Post reports on state governments joining banking industry to defeat new limits on credit card fees. Dean Baker counters: "The article implies that states could be forced to go back to issuing checks for benefits if they were not able to take advantage of electronic cards that the credit companies now issue for free since they can get back their costs by charging retailers high fees. This is of course absurd. If the credit card fees are limited then states may have to pay a somewhat higher cost to the credit card companies so that they can recoup the cost of issuing the cards, however this would almost certainly be far below the cost of writing checks."
GOP Planning To Run On Health Care Repeal
Republicans coalesce around "repeal" of health care reform law. The Hill: "Republicans last week doubled down on their promise to repeal the recently-enacted healthcare law by formally introducing a bill to repeal it and replace it with the GOP alternative, a far more modest approach to increasing the number of insured. Twenty Republicans co-sponsored the repeal-and-replace bill, including House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) ... even the law's most ardent supporters in leadership acknowledge that they have work to do to combat negative public perceptions of their reform effort..."
Conservatives looking to use Medicare chief nominee as excuse to re-fight health care. Politico: "The Republican campaign has grown so alarming to Democratic senators and health care activists that the White House is facing fresh demands to launch a more vigorous defense of [Donald] Berwick, who is considered an American pioneer in helping doctors and hospitals provide improved care at a lower cost."
