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.
MORNING MESSAGE: America's Next Failed Conservative Stimulus
OurFuture.org's Terrance Heath: "We know tax cuts are the least effective way to create jobs and stimulate economic growth, because the wealthy don't spend tax cuts. Yet, it now appears that we will jump into that same trap with both feet. ... By extending the worst economic policy of the Bush/conservative era — tax cuts for the wealthiest one to two percent — without even so much as discussing the kind of direct investment in job creation and economic growth needed for a recovery that would have meaning for millions of Americans whose fortunes rise and fall on Main Street, not Wall Street, we are setting America up for its next failed conservative stimulus."
Tax Cut Deal Poised For Passage
Senate squashes filibuster attempt on tax cut deal. NYT: "The Senate vote was 83 to 15, with 45 Democrats and 37 Republicans in favor. Opposed were nine Democrats, five Republicans and Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont. Many Democrats had initially reacted furiously to the plan, but the rage seems to have yielded to resignation. Even House Democrats who remain opposed to the deal say they expect it to be approved within days, though they are still weighing plans to force votes on proposals to impose a steeper federal tax on large estates."
House vote soon. The Hill: "...the package is expected to win final [Senate] passage easily, which ... would 'likely' happen on Wednesday ... Senate action will send the package to the House, where Democrats will hold a caucus meeting Tuesday to discuss how to proceed ... One option is to bring the package to the floor with language that would set the estate tax at its 2009 level: a 45-percent tax on individual inheritances over $3.5 million."
ABC/W. Post poll finds broad, if not deep, support for deal. W. Post: "A slender 11 percent of those surveyed support all four of the deal's primary provisions ... But the poll found that 69 percent of all Americans support the overall package. Large majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike favor the agreement, including 69 percent of liberal Democrats."
OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage notes opposition to "conservative stimulus" provisions: "Remarkably, Americans oppose cutting Social Security payroll taxes by two percentage points for all workers – 57% to 39%, with 39% strongly opposed ... The message is clear: Americans in large numbers do not want politicians messing with Social Security, even to cut the payroll tax ... Americans are sensibly skeptical about the effect that this conservative tax cut stimulus will have on the economy. Asked whether they thought it would help or hurt the economy, 43% said it would make no difference, as opposed to 36% who said it might help ... and 17% who said it might hurt."
Social Security advocates step up opposition to payroll tax cut. AP: "The government would borrow about $112 billion to make Social Security whole. Advocates and some lawmakers worry that relying on borrowed money to fund Social Security could eventually force it to compete with other federal programs for scarce dollars, leading to cuts."
Some GOPers Questioning Deal
Tea Party chafing at terms of the deal too. Time: "Tea Party leaders are frustrated at the restoration of the estate tax, the unemployment-benefits extension and the GOP's inability to garner more than a temporary tax-rate extension, which they claim won't provide enough business certainty to spark a round of fresh hiring. Just as some Democrats have criticized President Obama for folding too soon, their Tea Party counterparts questioned the timing of the agreement. 'The question I'm hearing from the grass roots is, "What's the big rush?"' says Ken Emanuelson, a member of the Dallas Tea Party..."
LAT adds: "Because of the 'Christmas tree' assortment of benefits, an increasingly vocal group of conservatives has publicly rejected the plan in recent days. Senate Republicans are seeking an amendment to require spending cuts elsewhere to pay for the $56 billion in jobless benefits."
Some House GOPers expected to vote against. Politico: "'This is a TARP and stimulus-type vote for Republicans, and it’s going to scare a lot of them off,' [said] Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)..."
Push To Add More Help For Clean Energy To Deal
Climate Progress' Dan Weiss urges House to add advanced energy manufacturing tax credit extension: "The bill extends a critical renewable electricity job creator, while ignoring a lapsed provision that would create clean tech manufacturing jobs ... adding at least $2.5 billion for the Advanced Energy Manufacturing tax credit program [would help] create tens of thousands of new jobs..."
Dem Sen. Dianne Feinstein offers amendment to partially extend advanced energy manufacturing tax credit, at the expense of ethnanol: "Her proposed amendment to the Senate tax package would use some of the savings [from cutting ethanol subsidies [to] add another $1 billion worth of credits ... The stimulus provided $2.3 billion in clean energy manufacturing credits, but demand quickly outstripped that cap, leaving many companies out in the cold ..."
Dem Sen. Mark Begich reaches out to GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham on energy. The Hill: "Begich, like other Alaska lawmakers, is heavily pro-oil and natural gas development ..."
Dem Sen. Jeff Bingaman may deal on "clean" energy standard. THe Hill: "[He] signaled Monday that he’s open to a 'clean' energy standard for utilities — a GOP-backed proposal that’s favorable to new nuclear plants and low-emissions coal projects ... [He] has long championed a renewable electricity standard that would require utilities to supply escalating amounts of power from sources like wind and solar ... [Now] he’d look at a wider standard that includes non-renewable forms of energy — but only if it doesn’t crowd out the renewables."
Conservative Activist Ruling Won't Stop Health Reform
Obama administration will stay the course on implementing health reform. NYT: "The business of writing and enforcing regulations will continue, as will plans to expand Medicaid and create competitive markets known as insurance exchanges in each state, administration officials said."
Attorney General and HHS Sec. defend the "individual responsibility provision" in W. Post oped: "The individual responsibility provision says that as participants in the health-care market, Americans should pay for insurance if they can afford it. That's important because when people who don't have insurance show up at emergency rooms, we don't deny them care. The costs of this uncompensated care - $43 billion in 2008 - are then passed on to doctors, hospitals, small businesses and Americans who have insurance. As two federal courts have already held, this unfair cost-shifting harms the marketplace ... We saw similar challenges to laws that created Social Security and established new civil rights protections. Those challenges ultimately failed, and so will this one."
NYT summarizes the conflicting constitutional interpretations: "On Monday, [Judge Henry Hudson] formalized [the conservative activist] view. 'This broad definition of the economic activity subject to Congressional regulation lacks logical limitation and is unsupported by Commerce Clause jurisprudence,' he wrote. Only two weeks earlier, Judge Norman K. Moon of Federal District Court in nearby Lynchburg, Va., found precisely the opposite. 'Far from "inactivity,"' wrote Judge Moon, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, 'by choosing to forgo insurance, plaintiffs are making an economic decision to try to pay for health care services later, out of pocket, rather than now, through the purchase of insurance.'"
It looks like legislating from the bench. It tastes like legislating from the bench. W. Post's E.J. Dionne: "...Judge Henry E. Hudson, a Bush appointee, has just 'amended' the health-care law by striking down the provision requiring individuals to buy health insurance. That sure sounds like 'legislating from the bench' to me. Aren't the elected branches of government owed a lot of deference by the courts in enacting social policy?
Leading law professor and health care expert Timothy Jost actually reads Constitution. Wonk Room: "Jost contended that 'the commerce clause nowhere contains the word activity.' 'Judge Hudson’s entire decision turns on his conclusion that Congress can only regulate economic activity,' he explained, noting that 'what the commerce clause really turns on is economic decisions'..."
W. Post's Ezra Klein notes positive aspects to the ruling: "Hudson ruled against the government, but he didn't stop it ... He refused the plaintiff's request for an injunction against the legislation's continued implementation ... he refused to overrule anything but the individual mandate itself ... there are a variety of ways to restructure the individual mandate such that it doesn't penalize anyone for deciding not to do something."
NYT's Sheryl Stolberg decrees conservative activist ruling more important than prior rulings upholding precedent: "Judge Henry E. Hudson’s decision leaves the White House playing defense for the foreseeable future on an issue it once thought would secure Mr. Obama’s legacy. It provides another rallying point for conservatives as they make the case that government is overreaching and must be reined in."
TNR's Jonathan Chait says it's not about Judge Hudson, but Justice Kennedy: "...the mere fact that one Republican judge, Henry Hudson, has agreed with the party does not mean that all five Republican justices on the Supreme Court -- one of whom, Anthony Kennedy, does not always tow the party line -- will do so..."
Vermont may go single-payer. Stateline: "...the nation’s 49th most populous state is deploying some of the world’s leading experts to redesign its health care system. Their report is due early next year, after which Vermont will decide whether to become America’s first single-payer state ... [Gov.-elect Peter] Shumlin and many of the Democrats who run the legislature think single-payer can save money in a couple of ways..."
Jobs On Agenda For CEO Summit
President to press CEOs to pick up hiring. LAT: "He'll make the case Wednesday, when top executives from companies including Google Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. will meet with Obama at the White House ... The Federal Reserve estimates that U.S. companies are sitting on nearly $2 trillion in cash. Spending some of that on hiring could make a dent in the unemployment rate, now at 9.8%."
Outgoing WH aide Larry Summers calls for more infrastructure investment. W. Post: "... he avoided using the word 'stimulus' but said that less consumer spending would hobble the economy for years. He said the decrease, however, could be offset in part by the public sector. 'A substantial, sustained effort to rebuild America should be at the top of Washington's priority list next year,' ..."
GOP attacks on Fed may constrain Bernanke. Bloomberg: "Criticism from Congress strengthens the hand of internal skeptics, including Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher and Charles Plosser of Philadelphia, who next month will gain votes on the policy making Federal Open Market Committee..."
NYT explores impact of business tax breaks in deal: "Many economists are skeptical of the tax breaks’ potential to stoke the economy in any meaningful way. Businesses are sitting on more than a trillion in cash, but are reluctant to invest because of lagging demand, a problem that tax incentives are not devised to address ... But the Obama administration says it believes that the measure will help the economy gather strength and the recovery grow more robust."
Breakfast Sides
Congressional watchdog panel slams Treasury's foreclosure efforts. W. Post: "The government's Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, is on pace to prevent 700,000 to 800,000 foreclosures - a significant figure, but far fewer than the 3 million to 4 million struggling homeowners Treasury officials originally hoped to help ... Treasury's efforts to encourage more servicers to modify loans by offering them payments have fallen short, the panel said, 'in part because servicers were not required to participate.' ... Tim Massad, Treasury's acting assistant secretary for financial stability, called the report's criticisms 'somewhat unfair' ... Massad said that the standards put in place by Treasury have set a model for the private industry, where the number of modifications far outpaces those completed through HAMP."
GOP Rep. Steve King lays out anti-immigrant agenda. NYT: "... his priority as chairman would be to pass a bill he introduced last year that would also require the Internal Revenue Service to share information with the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration about the immigration status of workers ... he also hoped to conduct a review of the Obama administration’s spending on border enforcement, and perhaps seek new construction of physical fence barriers to stop illegal border-crossers."
The American Prospect's Paul Waldman urges Obama to take on tax reform: "...what Democrats need is an entirely different tax debate, one that isn't about whether we should raise or cut taxes but whether we can reform our tax system in ways that work to (nearly) everyone's benefit ... Democrats would go a long way toward achieving fairness if they insist on this simple principle: All income should be treated the same ..."
