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.
Simpson Apology Doesn't Stop Calls For His Removal
Alan Simpson apologizes to head of OWL, not to rest of America. Stays on debt commission. NYT: "..at the White House, Jennifer Psaki, the deputy communications director, said, 'Alan Simpson has apologized and while we regret and do not condone his comments, we accept his apology and he will continue to serve.'"
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pete DeFazio call for Simpson's firing reports HuffPost.
As does Paul Krugman: "When you have a commission dedicated to the common good, and the co-chair dismisses Social Security as a 'milk cow with 310 million tits,' you either have to get rid of him or admit that you’re completely, um, cowed by the right wing ... an apology won’t suffice. Simpson was completely in character here."
On MSNBC's Countdown, Social Security Works' Eric Kingson calls for Simpson's removal, and Social Security's removal from the commission's purview.
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow on Simpson's anti-SocSec bias: "...his apology doesn't erase Mr. Simpson's long pattern of hostility toward Social Security - a pattern which reflects his inability to be objective."
NYT's Matt Bai profiles liberal congressman supportive of some Social Security benefit cuts: "[Rep. Earl] Blumenauer .. says Democrats should remain open to changes in the benefit structure, including what is known as 'progressive price indexing.' ... more affluent Americans would have their benefits — at least when they first retire — pegged to the consumer price index, rather than to wages, which would have the effect of reducing payouts."
Dean Baker rips Matt Bai for misreporting Social Security's finances: "Matt Bai insist[s] that there is no alternative to cutting Social Security to deal with the federal debt. The piece includes the bizarre assertion that Treasury bonds are 'often referred to as i.o.u.’s.' This is of course absurd. The business pages of major newspapers are full of references to Treasury bonds all the time. The bonds are never referred to as 'i.o.u.'s.' The article then includes the bizarre assertion about government bonds that the only way for the government to make good on the bonds it has outstanding: 'is to issue mountains of new debt or to take the money from elsewhere in the federal budget, or perhaps impose significant tax increases — none of which seem like especially practical options for the long term.' Bai's opinion, it is radically at odds with perceptions in financial markets. These markets view it as almost inconceiable that the government will not honor its bonds, which is why the interest rate on long-term bonds is near its lowest level in the last 60 years."
WH May Push Infrastructure To Intensify Job Efforts
WH econ team exploring additional measures to boost jobs. NYT: "...said a White House statement afterward. 'The economic team provided an update on the next steps to keep the economy growing, including assistance to small businesses and the extension of tax cuts to the middle class.' The president also is considering an initiative that would match public and private investments in transportation infrastructure projects ... Yet when Congress returns from its summer break in September, all such efforts will hit a wall of Republican opposition."
Daily Kos' Meteor Blades counsels WH to lay out two-year strategy: "It should be a program emphasizing our acute emergency, of course. But it should also lay the foundation for resolving some of the chronic problems that helped generate the emergency ... new approaches to trade, industrial policy, off-shoring, wage stagnation and arbitrage, and regulation ... how to deal with people's needs for economic security in a world in which automation and other productivity-enhancing changes make the old job paradigm obsolete ... Such an economic program ought also to boast one big project, not just a flashy eye-catcher, but something practical, job-generating and an investment in the future. Replacing all our coal plants with clean-energy sources over a decade would be one possible choice..."
Weekly jobless claims fall after recent spike. Labor Dept.: "... the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 473,000, a decrease of 31,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 504,000. The 4-week moving average was 486,750, an increase of 3,250 from the previous week's revised average of 483,500."
Economist's View's Mark Thoma reports "jaws are dropping" at a Fed president's claim that low interest rates risk deflation: "I'm trying to understand why people at the Fed are so reluctant to do more to help the economy..."
"11 Very Reasonable Places Your Stimulus Dollars Went" highlighted by HuffPost's Dan Froomkin.
Former McCain econ adviser Mark Zandi slams House Min. Leader Boehner on stimulus. HuffPost: "[Zandi] said Boehner was 'just wrong' to call the $787 billion stimulus spending 'a failure.' If there was no stimulus at all, Zandi said, unemployment would be at around 11.5% rather than 9.5%."
Boehner's plan would increase deficit by nearly $4 trillion. HuffPost: "...the progressive think tank NDN estimates that the plans could exacerbate the deficit by roughly $3.7 trillion over the next ten years."
Elizabeth Warren Is A Good Egg
Opposition to Elizabeth Warren is no smarter than opposing regulations for safe eggs, notes W. Post's Harold Meyerson: "The problem with Warren, some argue, is that in her advocacy for consumers, she will not be sufficiently solicitous of the banking industry. She needs to also be concerned with ensuring the banks' profit margins, we're told -- just as the MMS was concerned with the well-being of the oil industry, and as the food-safety bureaucracy has at times looked out for agribusiness revenue while scanting its own mandate."
High-risk proprietary trading can still occur under Wall St. reform, reports NYT: "When Congress passed a new financial regulation bill last month, it sought to prevent federally insured banks from making speculative bets using their own money ... [But] many such bets ... are done on behalf of clients. So, the banks say, they will continue to be allowable despite the new restrictions ... 'You can use client activity as a cover for basically anything you are doing,' said Janet Tavakoli..."
Solar Boost In California
CA approves first large-scale thermal solar plant, more to come thanks to government policies. NYT: "Developers and regulators have been racing to license solar power plants and begin construction before the end of the year, when federal incentives for such renewable energy projects expire. California’s three investor-owned utilities also face a deadline to obtain 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by the end of 2010."
Solar power CEO Tom Rooney explains to conservatives their virulent opposition to clean energy is not conservative. Cleantech Blog: "Let's start with a recent editorial from the home of 'free markets and free people,' the Wall Street Journal. Photovoltaic solar energy, quoth the mavens, is a 'speculative and immature technology that costs far more than ordinary power.' ... I have no idea what the WSJ means by the words 'ordinary power.' But, after spending some time with Milton Friedman ... I did learn about costs ... fossil fuels receive $550 billion in subsidies a year -- 12 times what alternatives such as wind and solar get..."
Obama administration splits with enviros on global warming lawsuit. Warming Law: "The case at issue is American Electric Power (AEP) v. Connecticut, in which a coalition, led by the State of Connecticut, turned its frustration with Washington’s failure to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions into a common-law nuisance action against several of the nation’s largest electric utilities ... The Second Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the environmental coalition, and said they could proceed with a lawsuit ... the [Solicitor General] filed a brief [arguing] that the [Supreme] Court should reverse the Second Circuit’s decision ... the Obama Administration argues that the EPA’s newly finalized regulations on greenhouse gases have displaced common-law 'nuisance' claims ... This 'prudential standing' argument could, in the hands of the Roberts Court, lead to states and local governments, property owners, and other affected individuals having no recourse except appealing to the elected branches."
"Oil industry's answers frustrate federal panel" reports LAT: "...three BP officials with intimate knowledge of events leading up to the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig have declined to testify before a joint Coast Guard and Interior Department panel ... two invoked their constitutional right not to produce testimony that could incriminate themselves ... [Coast Guard Capt. Hung] Nguyen asked [BP VP Harry] Thierens about safety lessons learned from a near-blowout of a BP well in 1999 and two events in 2005: the near-sinking of the BP oil platform Thunder Horse in the gulf and the BP refinery explosion in Texas City, Texas, that killed 15 people. Thierens said he wasn't aware of the near-blowout and could not list lessons learned from the 2005 incidents."
"Obama Endorsed Offshore Drilling Without Asking His Own Oceans Agency" reports Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard: "...the [oil spill] commission held its first hearing in Washington, DC, and repeatedly returned to the question of who, exactly, endorsed the drilling expansion in the first place. Among the witnesses were Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Nancy Sutley, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality ... The answer from both Sutley and Lubchenco about whether they'd been asked to give their opinion on the plan: Nope."
"The Nuclear Industry Needs A Cap On Carbon To Survive" argues Wonk Room's Richard W. Caperton: "Putting a cap on carbon, however, would make coal-fired power more expensive than nuclear power, making it much more likely that an investment in a nuclear reactor will make money."
Right-Wing Billionaires Fund Tea Party To Tip Election
Koch-founded, lobbyist-run FreedomWorks training and funding Tea Party activists to campaign for Republicans. NYT: "Through its political action committee, FreedomWorks plans to spend $10 million ... it will steer money from FreedomWorks donors — the tax code protects their anonymity — to local Tea Parties ... FreedomWorks is urging Tea Party groups to work for any Republican..."
W. Post's E.J. Dionne questions if GOP voters are making a mistake by nominating candidates even farther to the right: "... the Republican lurch right has unleashed new energy in the party and helps explain why most polls show its supporters more enthusiastic than Democrats about this year's elections. The Democrats' chances of holding down their losses in November depend heavily on whether they can generate a backlash against an increasingly immoderate GOP."
The health care "repeal" message is failing to get traction, observes Wonk Room's Igor Volsky: " State lawmakers are having a great deal of difficulty in passing legislation to invalidate different parts of the measure, Republicans can’t convince their entire caucus to sign the various repeal petitions."
