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.
House Moves On Jobs, But Clashes With Prez
BREAKING: Private sector adds 83,000 jobs in June. Unemployment rate edges down to 9.5%.
NYT on disappointing jobs report: "...a dishearteningly low number that could add to the growing number of economists who warn that the economic recovery is stalling ... The economy needs to add about 130,000 to 150,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with new workers entering the market."
House adds $10B to help prevent teacher layoffs while passing war spending bill, but veto threat looms. Bloomberg: "Lawmakers voted 239-182 to back a plan the Obama administration threatened to veto yesterday because the state aid would be financed in part by cutting $800 million from one of the administration’s signature education initiatives ... 'I didn’t come here to be [Ed. Sec.] Arne Duncan’s congressman,” said [Appropriations Chair David] Obey ... 'Welcome to Washington and welcome to hard choices.'"
Politico suggests education reform cut won't last: "House Appropriations Committee Dave Obey (D-Wis.) took much of the money from charter school grants and the new 'Race to the Top' reform program—both big priorities for the president and his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan. And Obey’s own allies on the issue argue that the cut would be destructive and some adjustment will now be needed in negotiations with the Senate and White House."
$1B summer jobs program also included in war spending bill reports Politico: "...the Congressional Black Caucus won new spending for summer jobs and highway construction as well as a long-delayed payment on the settlement of black farmer claims against the Agriculture Department."
As is spending cut for 2011 budget. The Hill: "The 'budget enforcement resolution' Democrats are substituting for a traditional budget resolution sets discretionary spending for 2011 at $1.12 trillion, about $7 billion less than Obama’s proposal and $3 billion less than a Senate Democratic plan. It also sets a goal of cutting deficits to the point where revenues equal all spending except for interest payments on the debt. But unlike traditional budget resolutions, this year’s version doesn’t detail how Congress should reach that goal, leaving those tough decisions to Obama’s bipartisan fiscal commission."
Re. Jim McDermott lambastes deficit hysterics for blocking stimulative jobless aid. HuffPost quotes: "So the very people [on Wall St.] who took the money and were stabilized because we created deficits are now turning around and biting the hand that feeds them, that is, the taxpayers. It's unconscionable ... If you say that you can't feed people because you don't have the money right now, that is a real new precedent."
Right-wing launches economically illiterate attack on Speaker Pelosi. Media Matters: "Right-wing media figures are jumping on Nancy Pelosi's comment today that unemployment benefits are a 'job creator' ... (Representative comment from Doug Powers: Pelosi is "around the bend," "demonstrating lunacy") ... As we've repeatedly noted, economists, including Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf and McCain economic advisor Mark Zandi, have pointed out that increases in unemployment benefits are among the most effective forms of economic stimulus."
Governments lead in layoffs. NYT: "Government and nonprofit sectors announced 98,776 job cuts this year to date, compared with 34,987 by pharmaceutical companies, and 26,181 by the retail industry..."
NYT edit board tries to shame the Senate into aiding states: "How bad does it have to get before Congress notices? ... budget shortfalls have led 11 states to close enrollment in programs that provide drugs to people with H.I.V. and AIDS ... Spending cuts [by states] also mean layoffs ... could cost the economy up to 900,000 jobs..."
Drop in manufacturing suggests weak economic growth later this year. Bloomberg: "The data underscore concerns of Federal Reserve policy makers that financial-market turmoil sparked by Europe’s debt crisis threatens to inhibit a self-sustaining recovery in the U.S. ... Manufacturing in the U.S. expanded in June at the slowest pace this year as factories received fewer orders and demand from abroad cooled..."
Skills gap holds manufacturing back. NYT: "During the recession, domestic manufacturers appear to have accelerated the long-term move toward greater automation, laying off more of their lowest-skilled workers and replacing them with cheaper labor abroad. Now they are looking to hire people who can operate sophisticated computerized machinery, follow complex blueprints and demonstrate higher math proficiency than was previously required of the typical assembly line worker."
Banks still ain't lending. NYT: "Credit has been slower to return to prerecession levels than in any downturn over the last 40 years, with the exception of the 1990-91 recession, Elizabeth A. Duke, one of five sitting governors on the Fed’s board, said in a speech..."
NYT's Paul Krugman charges deficit hysterics with acting on "prejudices" not facts: "...what sounds like hardheaded realism actually rests on a foundation of fantasy, on the belief that invisible vigilantes will punish us if we’re bad and the confidence fairy will reward us if we’re good."
W. Post's Ezra Klein puts deficit hysterics on notice: if you're serious, let the Bush tax cuts expire: "If allowed to lapse, they'd improve the deficit outlook by about $4 trillion over the next 10 years ... imagine if Congress is able to extend the deficit-busting Bush tax cuts but not unemployment benefits ... This will be a test for any politician who claims to care about the deficit. If they're willing to let the tax cuts expire -- a tough decision, given the politics of taxes -- it's good evidence that they're serious about cutting the debt."
Cantwell Can Vote For Wall St. Reform
Wall St. reform closer to final passage after Sen. Cantwell persauded. ABC: "With Cantwell and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine backing the bill, and Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown re-thinking his opposition after the $19 billion bank tax was removed, the Senate now looks likely to pass the measure shortly after lawmakers return from their Independence Day recess on July 12 ... '...I will continue to push for even bolder action – including a return to the Glass-Steagall separation of commercial and investment banking – to reign in Wall Street, put an end to the concept of ‘too-big-to-fail.’ But this bill makes significant strides toward preventing the kind of financial meltdown that we saw in the fall of 2008,' she said."
Holding out helped. HuffPost: "'Cantwell's gambit of voting "no" on the Senate bill paid off in spades because they made her required changes in the conference committee in order to win her vote,' [research analyst Adam] White said. 'Because of her strong stand we now have an iron-clad clearing requirement which will make it impossible for Wall Street to avoid clearing their swaps.'"
OurFuture.org's Zach Carter rips Goldman Sachs for lying to the financial crisis commission: "In an effort to evade investigation, Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer David Viniar claimed that his company really just doesn’t know how to do basic book-keeping ... if it were true, every investor the world over would be pulling its money from Goldman as fast as possible ... 'We don’t have a derivatives business.' Viniar actually said that, and he said it to FCIC Commissioner Brooksley Born, one of the world’s most seasoned experts on derivatives. Her response, somewhat incredulous, was to point out that Goldman has well over $40 trillion worth of derivatives housed at its commercial bank. That’s a lot of money for a business that doesn’t exist."
Bingaman Signals Energy Bill Without Carbon Cap
On C-Span's "Newsmakers," Sen. Bingaman argues that "energy-only" bill worth doing if that's all that can pass, skeptical carbon cap could be inserted in lame duck House-Senate conference session, though says he is personally "ready" to back a carbon cap.
TNR's Brad Plumer notes emergence of Sen. Bingaman as climate point person represents lowering of ambitions: " Last week, Senate Democrats caucused together and ... seemed to rally around a strategy for binding a price on carbon to various Gulf-related bills and then daring the GOP to block the whole thing ... But lately, Bingaman's been insisting that it's 'difficult' to envision a cap on carbon pollution getting 60 votes. That's not the sort of thing you say when you're preparing for a showdown."
No climate legislation plan yet after President meets with Sen. Maj. Leader. Politico: "Some [enviro] activists are privately planning for failure. They doubt Obama and Reid can muster 60 votes for [a carbon cap] ... they expect the Senate next month to move forward on 'energy-only' legislation that would focus on a new national renewable electricity standard ... [But Sen. Sherrod] Brown ... said he’s not worried about the lack of details kicking around Capitol Hill ... 'A lot can happen in a week when there’s a deadline,' Brown said."
Enviro groups prod WH to step up efforts to get at least a partial carbon cap. The Hill: "'I think it absolutely is doable and we can pass a bill with an enforceable carbon limit before the August recess,' Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) President Fred Krupp told reporters Thursday. 'The key to that, though, is that the president has to directly engage with his staff at a detailed level...' ... Aides to Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have been talking of late about a utility-only [carbon cap] approach ... 'I think utility-only is probably where we wind up as far as pricing carbon but I don’t know if there is the time and effort to put something together,' [Sen. Lindsey] Graham [said.]"
NRDC's Dan Lashof expresses some support for a partial carbon cap: "We should have no illusions that a stationary sources only approach will achieve the overall emission reductions we need. That's why this approach must be stationary sources first, not stationary sources only."
Grist debate on carbon cap vs. energy-only. Jesse Jenkins: "They can waste precious time assuring green supporters they haven't abandoned cap-and-trade, and meanwhile come up empty-handed ... or Democrats can come out of the huddle prepared to build off of Republican proposals [on] clean electricity, electrifying transportation, clean energy innovation, energy efficiency, and even accelerated coal plant retirement." David Roberts: "... if the Dems could wrangle the kind of energy bill Jesse describes, I would happily sacrifice the Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade system. [But] Congress cannot pass a bill that contains spending that isn't paid for. The notable feature of all the 'energy-only' ideas is that they cost lots of money. As it happens, there's a handy source of revenue to pay for all that stuff: a price on carbon."
Carbon sequestration investor Vinod Khosla argues against carbon cap in W. Post oped: "Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) has proposed requiring electricity providers to use a minimum percentage of energy from renewable sources. If this standard were modified to allow low-carbon electricity from any source, not just renewable, with carbon emissions that are 80 percent lower than coal, it could get support from nuclear, natural gas and even coal advocates."
Trumped-up "ClimateGate" conspiracy theory falls apart as key figure cleared of misconduct. Ecocentric's Bryan Walsh: "...the idea that those emails and a few errors within the IPCC's massive reports somehow represented an international scientific conspiracy—as more than a few websites argued—is simply untrue. And as [climate scientist Michael] Mann's exoneration and the Sunday Times [UK] retraction shows, it's the skeptics who seem to be pushing the facts too far, not the other way around."
Grist's Tom Philpott argues with the weak economy the need to invest in green jobs and reject austerity is especially urgent : "...every billion dollars spent on mass transit generates nearly 20,000 job-months [one person working for one month] ... Fiscal austerity now all but ensures further disaster down the road. It's time for environmentalists to stop being bored and flummoxed by economic policy and demand a green stimulus -- now."
Green For All declares this week "Dirty Energy Independence Week Of Action": "Our mission is to get thousands of people to take a stand in solidarity with the people of the Gulf Coast. For more than three months, they have been coping with the worst, most treacherous aspects of our dependence on dirty energy ... Standing together, we can take the greatest single step ever towards a clean, healthy, and prosperous future for our children and our planet: passing a comprehensive climate and energy bill."
"BP sued for burning endangered sea turtles alive" reports AFP: "The lawsuit — filed by AWI, the Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network, and Animal Legal Defense Fund — said BP was violating the Endangered Species Act and other laws with its 'controlled burns' in the Gulf of Mexico."
Health Care Implementation Praised
Voters warming up to health care reform. NYT: "President Obama gets high marks, even from some Republicans, for the way he has begun carrying out the new health care law in the 100 days since it was signed. And a new poll suggests a small increase in favorable views of the measure since May. But it remains unclear whether a substantial number of people will see tangible benefits before the November elections..."
TNR's Jonathan Cohn lauds new HealthCare.gov site: "...putting together and presenting this much material after just three months strikes me as impressive. And that's a positive sign about more than just health care reform. Sometimes government fails, as it did (spectacularly) with the oversight of offshore oil drilling. But sometimes government works really well."
