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.
Republicans Resist Obama Biz Tax Cuts
Top House GOPer compares President Obama to a "carjacker" for proposing business tax cuts and infrastructure investment. The Hill: "'Offering $200 billion in narrowly targeted business tax cuts and new deficit spending while yoking taxpayers with a $3.8 trillion January tax hike is like a carjacker offering taxi fare before he rides off in your car,' [House GOP Conference Secretary John] Carter said in a statement Tuesday ... Democrats counter that GOP opposition to extending business tax cuts that they have previously supported reveals that Republicans are playing politics before the midterm elections."
"Sen. Alexander: The Bush Tax Cuts Are Free, But Obama’s Tax Cuts Cost Money" reports Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo: "[GOP Sen. Lamar] Alexander is saying that we have to wait and see 'if we have money' for $100 billion in research and development, but should be spending $830 billion on the very richest Americans without a second thought."
Tax experts concerned breaks for business investment can be gamed. Bloomberg: "That accelerated write-off, combined with existing deductions for loan interest, would create an opportunity that may prompt companies to borrow money for plants, machinery and equipment just to get the tax benefits, said Ed Kleinbard, a former staff director for Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation ... 'The combination of free deductibility of interest to make a marginal investment, combined with accelerated depreciation, would lead to negative tax rates on that new investment,' Kleinbard said."
In Cleveland speech today, President to reaffirm support for Bush tax cuts expiring on the wealthiest, on schedule. NYT: "President Obama on Wednesday will make clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year ... Mr. Obama will also make a case for the package of roughly $180 billion in expanded business tax cuts and infrastructure spending disclosed by the White House in bits and pieces over the past few days. He would offset the cost by closing other tax breaks for multinational corporations, oil and gas companies and others."
Business lobbies want it all: investment tax breaks and income tax cuts for the wealthiest. LAT: "...business trade groups see Obama's proposal as giving a modest boost to the economy, not as having the major effect that would come from removing the uncertainty about the Bush tax cuts."
Tax cut stance in opposition to former WH budget director Peter Orszag, notes Salon.com's Steve Kornacki.
TNR's Jonathan Chait calls Orszag tax cut extension plan "misguided": " The Republican game is all about making the Bush tax cuts for the rich permanent. So Republicans are only going to agree to a deal like this if it increases the likelihood that, after the two-year extension, the tax cuts for the rich will simply be extended again."
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow says no reason to be surprised by Orszag: "Many observers are expressing surprise at Orszag's position. They shouldn't. This is a deficit hawk's tax hike, consistent with a wide array of proposals designed to reduce the deficit at the expense of the middle class."
President plans to compare his economic vision with House Min. Leader John Boehner's. W. Post: "Administration officials hope to contrast Boehner's speech - which contained no new prescriptions for rebuilding the U.S. economy - with Obama's 'long-term vision for the future,' ... A six-year reauthorization of the federal transportation act that would refocus investments on high-speed rail, consolidate more than 100 funding streams and create an infrastructure bank ... An expansion and permanent extension of the research tax credit ... An expansion and extension of bonus depreciation for businesses that make major investments between Wednesday and December 2011..."
Infrastructure bank proposal may negate the need for a higher gas tax to fund a 6-year transportation bill. W. Post: "The concept of an infrastructure bank to provide loans and grants for transportation projects has been discussed for decades by federal policymakers. It would leverage private capital and, ideally, be created with sufficient insulation to protect it from pork-barrel spending by Congress."
Matt Yglesias explains the otherwise inexplicable enthusiasm of the economically aggrieved for austerity that would only add to their woes: "The underlying issue is the pretty general one that people’s intuitive understanding of economic growth is not very good ... People figure the money has to come from somewhere so if fiscal or monetary stimulus helps anyone, it can only be by hurting some other people or else by somehow stealing resources from the future. The reality is the reverse. Growing slower than we could in 2010 doesn’t help us grow faster in 2011 or 2012. Instead it semi-permanently reduces our ability to produce future goods and services."
China Not Budging On Currency
China lowers expectation for additional currency reform. NYT: "Top Chinese officials called Tuesday for quiet discussions instead of open friction with the United States ... American and Chinese officials have been trying to lay the groundwork for a state visit to the United States this winter by President Hu Jintao, and for the resumption of contacts between the two countries’ militaries ... But Chinese officials were quick to dash any hopes that a thaw in Chinese-American relations would lead to appreciation of China’s currency..."
W. Post's Steven Pearlstein argues that the jobs crisis won't end until we solve the trade deficit: "... it will also be expensive, requiring sustained investment by government and industry, and internationally disruptive, requiring a much tougher line with trading partners that consistently tilt the playing field in their favor."
W. Post explores how US lost the advanced light bulb manufacturing industry to China: "Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China. Consisting of glass tubes twisted into a spiral, they require more hand labor, which is cheaper there. So though they were first developed by American engineers in the 1970s, none of the major brands make CFLs in the United States."
Reid Lays Out Plan For Climate Bill
Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid proposes incremental approach to climate legislation, starting with utilities. The Hill: "'I think we are looking to a time when we can get part of this done. We can’t get everything done at once ... We are not going to be able, as much as people want, to have a price on all carbon. But why don’t we step back. We had a really good thing going ... The utilities are really interested in doing this because they want the certainty.' ... Reid said Tuesday that he remains hopeful the Senate will complete work this year on a narrow energy bill that includes provisions to boost deployment of natural gas-powered trucks and rebates for home energy efficiency retrofits ... Reid also reiterated that a renewable electricity standard is also in play."
Grist's RL Miller warns of the "climate zombies" on the right: "Every GOP N.H. Senate candidate is a global warming denier ... The epidemic next appeared in New Mexico, where all three Republican candidates for Congress, and the GOP candidate for governor, denied the existence of man-made climate change ... Virtually all Republicans criticize what they call 'cap-and-tax' as too expensive, but how many actually deny the reality of climate change science? ... A lot. A real lot. Be afraid."
Energy Sec. Chu speaks in West Virginia today. Coal Tattoo: "...I’m especially interested in hearing what he has to say about the continued inaction on a more comprehensive energy and climate bill. And I’d like to ask him if he thinks the bill being promoted by Sen. Jay Rockefeller — which would pump money into [carbon capture of coal emission], but not cap carbon dioxide emissions — is enough to help get this technology perfected and deployed."
Rep. Raul Grijalva charges BP with blackmail over opposition to spill bill. Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard: "BP wants the federal government to meet its demand for continued access to oil and gas leases in the United States. If the oil giant can't keep drilling here, its promise to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster might go unfulfilled—or so the company claims ... Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) accused the company of 'openly blackmailing the American government.'"
Last week's Gulf oil platform fire doesn't change Interior's approach to drilling moratorium. The Hill: "'I don't think it changes the timeline,' said Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, ... The freeze is slated to end in late November, but Bromwich and White House officials have said it could end earlier if they’re confident that new requirements will ensure development can proceed safely."
Government scientists say oil plumes unlikely to create dead zones. McClatchy: "The amount of oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico near oil plumes created by the BP well blowout is 20 percent lower than normal, but not so low as to create dead zones where little life exists..."
Breakfast Sides
Health insurers plan rate hikes, and plan to blame health reform. WSJ: "Democrats front-loaded the legislation with early provisions they hoped would boost public support ... insurance companies began telling state regulators it is those very provisions that are forcing them to increase their rates ... The White House says insurers are using the law as an excuse to raise rates and predicts that state regulators will block some of the large increases."
New WH foreclosure program. AP: "Starting Tuesday, the Federal Housing Administration will permit lenders to give these borrowers refinanced loans backed by the government. The lenders will be required to forgive at least 10 percent of the original mortgage amount. Investors who have control over the mortgages as part of their large portfolios will select which borrowers are invited to participate."
Obama's stepped-up business audits of undocumented immigrant workers putting pressure on restaurant industry. NYT: "... until recently, immigration enforcement had been notoriously lax ... that is quickly changing, based on the rising number of investigations and the penalties being sought against restaurateurs ... If immigration laws are fully enforced in the restaurant business, [said one NY restauranteur] 'We’ll have to pay higher wages, more taxes and then we will have to charge more.' ... 'We don’t think a restaurant should exist if it doesn’t pay legal wages,' said Ted Smukler, public policy director of Interfaith Worker Justice..."
"For-Profit Colleges Step Up Lobbying Against New Rules" reports NYT: "For-profit colleges have increased their lobbying against proposed Education Department rules to cut off federal financial aid to programs whose students take on too much debt for training that provides little likelihood of leading to a well-paying job."
