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.
No Foreclosure Freeze
WH resists foreclosure moratorium, causing intra-party rift. NYT: "Administration officials argue in part that the problems that have emerged in recent weeks do not change the fact that lenders are seeking to foreclose on people who borrowed and then failed to repay. Most of the identified problems are best described as technicalities, not miscarriages of justice. Advocates for homeowners, however, say that the pattern of sloppiness allows and encourages more serious abuses. They point to a growing number of documented cases in which lenders mistakenly seized homes."
OurFuture.org's Zach Carter challenges President to back moratorium: "...banks and their lawyers are breaking the law to steal from borrowers facing financial hardship. This impropriety may create losses so big that megabanks are going to fail. Smart political leaders need to get out there right now and prove that they are backing American families, not Wall Street elites. A foreclosure moratorium is the first step, the second is a major new initiative to reduce mortgage debt to a level that borrowers can afford—that prevents foreclosures and keeps this mess from spiraling into a financial calamity."
Taxpayer-owned Fannie and Freddie could take big hit. W. Post: "...Fannie and Freddie have threatened to penalize thousands of lenders if they fail to rapidly fix the way they seize the homes of borrowers who missed their payments ... If these freezes turn into a prolonged delay, Fannie and Freddie would face 'billions' of dollars in losses, since the companies wouldn't be able to sell off properties that have fallen into foreclosure..."
W. Post reports Rep. Barney Frank prepared to push for affordable housing as part of Fannie/Freddie reform: "Now Frank has abandoned hope for Fannie and Freddie, saying they should be abolished. His new goals are to devise a housing finance system to replace Fannie and Freddie, preserve existing affordable housing and set up a trust fund to help pay for more."
40 state attorneys general expected to announce joint foreclosure fraud investigation. WSJ: "The attorneys' general immediate aim is to determine the scale of the document problems and correct them. But several of them have said that the investigation could force the lenders and servicers to agree to mass loan modifications or principal forgiveness schemes. Other possibilities include financial penalties or changes in mortgage servicing practices."
State attorneys general profiled in NYT as leading the fight against Wall Street: "Like recessionary scouts, they spot trouble, like a rapacious foreclosure-rescue operator, a predatory credit card company or a financial firm draining a pension fund. [Martha] Coakley secured millions of dollars in mortgage modifications from Countrywide Financial and reached a $102 million settlement with Morgan Stanley over its role in financing the subprime loans that fed the housing crash in Massachusetts ... last October, [Ohio's Richard Cordray] accused Bank of America officials of concealing critical facts in the acquisition of Merrill Lynch, even as that firm careened toward insolvency ... The lawsuit against Bank of America was the first of its kind..."
Citigroup drops foreclosure law firm under investigation, reports Bloomberg, but isn't stopping foreclosures.
Time Is Now For Infrastructure Jobs
Infrastructure report from Council of Economic Advisers' bolsters president's $50B plan. McClatchy: "The report said Obama's plan would create middle class jobs, primarily in construction, manufacturing and retail trade. The report also said for 9 in 10 Americans today, transportation costs eat up nearly 17 cents of every dollar of income. 'Nearly 1 in 5 construction workers is still unemployed and needs a job,' Obama said. 'And that makes absolutely no sense at a time when there's so much of America that needs rebuilding.'"
Salon's Joan Walsh knocks GOP for opposing infrastructure, and Obama for clinging to bipartisan hopes: "Republicans are rejecting infrastructure spending because they think it's good politics to do so right now, and the fact that such spending creates jobs as well as builds or modernizes crucial public projects doesn't seem to matter ... continuing to pretend Republicans want to do the right thing, in the face of massive evidence to the contrary, seems a little crazy to me."
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow chronicles the lip service many elected conservatives give to infrastructure while opposing the President's plan.
Treehugger laments the lack of transit in the plan: "The 4,000 miles of rail includes repairs to flagging tracks, freight rail, and some high speed transit lines. Obviously, it doesn't amount to much in the way of expanding rail transit ... But then again, anything carrying a hint of ambition at the moment is instantly deemed politically untenable: Republicans are already united in opposition to Obama's infrastructure plan, which really amounts to an entirely uncontroversial Highways & Construction Jobs Creation plan."
Ezra Klein notes infrastructure creates the best jobs to dig out of the hole we're in:: "Lots of stimulus programs can create jobs. But infrastructure investment creates the right jobs, for the right people, doing the right things -- and at the right time."
Public Employees Blamed For Working Then Retiring
Public pension funds face looming shortfalls, a new report estimates. W. Post: "The nation's largest municipal pension plans are carrying a total unfunded liability of $574 billion, which comes on top of as much as $3 trillion in unfunded pension promises made by the states, according to a report released Tuesday ... Philadelphia, for example, has assets on hand that can only pay pension promises through 2015, the report says. But that assertion is disputed by some Philadelphia pension officials. 'Unless someone has a crystal ball, they have no idea what the future holds in the markets,' said Bill Rubin, vice chairman of the city's $4.2 billion pension fund."
After NYT's David Brooks blames scuttled NY-NJ tunnel on the cost of public employee pensions, Dean Baker explains math to him: "It is likely the case that many state and local governments did not adequately budget for workers' pensions, but this is more an issue of failed accounting ... Brooks highlights an estimate that the amount of the average unfunded pension for all public sector workers is $87,000. This does not seem particularly large. If we assume an average retirement of 20 years, this comes to $4,350 per worker pension year. Since many public sector workers do not have Social Security this hardly seems an excessive amount on the workers' part."
Fed Expected To Act Next Month
Fed expected to act after another weak jobs report. Bloomberg: "A loss of 95,000 jobs in September reported by the Labor Department Oct. 8 will lead the Fed to act, New York-based Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs, said ... 'If we get through the next six-nine months, the growth pace is likely to pick up in the remainder of 2011,' Hatzius wrote..."
Time Stephen Gandel reviews what the new Nobel Prize-winning economists would do about unemployment: "Peter Diamond has argued that unemployment insurance is good and brings down long-term unemployment. It gives job searchers the time they need to find a job that they are happy with and can commit to ... [Christopher] Pissarides would like to see governments do more job training and other efforts that help young people find work .. I think all three economists would be for anything that could kick-start the housing market, be that foreclosure mitigation or more home buyer tax cuts or maybe the acceleration of the foreclosure process."
Truthout's Shamus Cooke worries we're losing public sector jobs: "A giant shift is happening, with living-wage jobs in the public sector being axed for low-paying, private sector jobs, with millions of unemployed to ensure that wages remain low; this is the basis of the corporate profit boom."
Everyone still loves US bonds. Bloomberg: "Japan is poised to pass China as the largest U.S. creditor for the first time since August 2008 as growing demand for U.S. government debt reduces borrowing costs for President Barack Obama as the deficit swells ... 'The U.S. still has the confidence of investors,' said Carl Lantz, the head of interest-rate strategy in New York at Credit Suisse Group AG ..."
No Increase In Social Security Payments
No cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients this year. AP: "The cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, are automatically set each year by an inflation measure that was adopted by Congress back in the 1970s. Based on inflation so far this year, the trustees who oversee Social Security project there will be no COLA for 2011 ... Social Security recipients got a one-time bonus payment of $250 in the spring of 2009 as part of the government's massive economic recovery package. President Barack Obama lobbied for another one last fall when it became clear seniors wouldn't get an increase in monthly benefit payments in 2010. Congress took up the issue, but a proposal by Sen. Bernie Sanders died when 12 Democrats and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut joined Senate Republicans to block it."
Even among right-leaning "likely voters," Social Security privatization and increase of the retirement age are rejected. Bloomberg: "Most likely voters are opposed or lukewarm to sacrifices often mentioned in debates on reducing the deficit. At least half said that among 12 ideas that are commonly broached, a third should be taken off the table. These include raising the age of eligibility for Medicare, privatizing Social Security and reducing federal funding for disease research. Nearly half of likely voters say the idea of cutting federal spending on roads, bridges and public transportation shouldn’t be considered, and there’s a comparable level of opposition to raising the age for Social Security benefits. On whether to renew tax-rate reductions enacted under President George W. Bush that are to expire at year’s end -- an issue that is dividing the parties -- likely voters are closer to Obama’s position."
Health Care Ties Tongues Of Conservative Challengers
Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate Ron Johnson having difficultly explaining how he'd "repeal" health care reform. Wonk Room's Igor Volsky: "He first embraced repeal and replace, but then backed away from immediate repeal, telling reporters that he supports provisions that would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions ... Under the GOP’s replacement Pledge in the House, however, individuals with pre-existing conditions who are currently uninsured could have a hard time finding affordable insurance since issuers would still be able to deny them coverage."
Colororado GOP Senate candidate admits party ads attacking Dems for cutting Medicare are "despicable." More Wonk Room: "During a recent debate with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) — where Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have run Medicare attack ads — Republican challenger Ken Buck distanced himself from the charge and conceded that the attacks were false..." EARLIER at OurFuture.org: "The Health Care Ad Wars: 'Cutting Medicare' = 'Reckless Spending'".
Politico reports some states are already undermining health reform implementation with more obstacles to come if conservatives win gubernatorial races.
Climate Party Beats Tea Party
Saturday's 350.org "Global Work Party" to protect the climate outshone the Tea Party, observes Change.org's Jess Leber: "There were some 7,347 events in 188 countries, and, as far as 350.org founder Bill McKibben could tell, it was the 'most widespread day of civic engagement on any issue ever in the planet's history.'"
Google to back major offshore wind project on Atlantic seaboard. NYT: "The 350-mile underwater spine, which could remove some critical obstacles to wind power development, has stirred excitement among investors, government officials and environmentalists ... Industry experts called the plan promising, but warned that as a first-of-a-kind effort, it was bound to face bureaucratic delays and could run into unforeseen challenges, from technology problems to cost overruns."
NYT sees possible ethanol angle behind secret campaign spending on conservative candidates: "[America's Future Fund] was started with seed money from at least one influential Iowa businessman: Bruce Rastetter, a co-founder and the chief executive of one of the nation’s larger ethanol companies, Hawkeye Energy Holdings ... Of the 14 'liberal' politicians singled out in a list it released last month, nearly every incumbent sits on a panel with a say over energy or agriculture policy ... Officials at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said they had been trying to figure out whether the fund had an eye on the coming deliberations over the next farm bill, with its implications for alternative energy."
