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: Pension Envy
OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "As more and more of us fall further and further behind, corporate/conservative propagandists use resentment to drive anti-union feelings. They tell people to oppose unions, saying, 'Why should they have it so good?' The real question you should ask is, 'Why should we have it so bad?'"
Conservatives Embrace Bankruptcy To Break Unions
Conservative push to let states file for bankruptcy and break pension obligations to unionized employees. Naked Capitalism reacts: ..."the proponents are stressing that the purpose of the bill is to allow states to repudiate union pension funds. There is no mention of, say, getting out of bad swap contacts or renegotiations other creditor interests."
Stateline adds: "They might not have to actually declare bankruptcy to gain some negotiating leverage. In New York City in the 1970s, it was the threat of bankruptcy that forced unions that represented city employees ... to make concessions."
Failed union organizing vote annulled by NLRB after evidence of illegal union-busting. NYT: "In the settlement, [fast-food chain owner] Miklin [Enterprises] promised not to engage in any of those activities in the future and not to enforce rules more tightly against pro-union employees ... the company did not admit to violating the National Labor Relations Act, and the labor board said its approval of the settlement did not mean that the employer had violated the act. The settlement allows the Industrial Workers of the World to ask for another unionization vote within 18 months..."
GOP pressuring WH to embrace additional trade deals in order to win support for Korea agreement. CQ: " They also want the White House to send them a stalled trade deal with Panama, and they want to move a free-trade agreement with Colombia that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., put on ice in 2008 ... Organized labor has been firmly against the [Colombia] agreement due largely to violence against labor union officials in the South American country, so moving forward on the deal could provoke a major fight with Obama’s base ... The White House has shown no inclination to tie the three deals together, and the timeline on the Korea agreement is still under discussion."
GOP Sticks With "Job-Killing" Rhetoric On Health Reform
Health repeal expected to hit House floor next week. CQ: "Republicans dismissed a call by Maine Democrat Chellie Pingree to rename their bill to repeal the health care overhaul and accused her of trying to 'politicize' the weekend shooting of a fellow congresswoman, in a sign that politics as usual probably will resume on the issue after this week’s pause. Pingree ... urged the GOP to change the name of its repeal bill (HR 2), officially titled the 'Repeal the Job-Killing Health Care Act.'"
Supreme Court upholds broad interpretation of "commerce clause," undercutting legal attack on health reform. LAT: "By a 7-2 vote, the justices turned down a constitutional challenge to a 2002 law that makes it a federal crime for a felon to have body armor or a bulletproof vest. The majority's decision, rendered without comment, could make it more difficult for those challenging health insurance reform to win court orders overturning parts of the new law ... The appeal argued that the possession of a bulletproof vest had nothing to do with interstate commerce and, therefore, was beyond Congress' power."
AFL-CIO sharing stories of health reform's positive impact: "In Florida, Gloria’s daughter, like so many young people today, returned home from college 'with a BA degree and no job.' But her daughter does have health care coverage ... Pam in Ohio says the Affordable Care Act’s rule that prohibits health insurance companies from putting a lifetime cap on benefits or dropping coverage when people become sick, means her brother can receive care and treatment for his cancer ... One small business owner says the new law’s tax credits to help small business owners provide health insurance for their employees is working ..."
Wonk Room's Igor Volsky looks at Connecticut's possible pursuit of public option: "...a new report from a state board to the General Assembly argues that such an option could save Connecticut taxpayers up to $355 million in 2014 ... Connecticut could serve as a test case for the progressive public option talking points..."
Ezra Klein sees through Rep. Paul Ryan's deficit hawk posturing after health care votes: "In recent months, Ryan has refused to sign onto the fiscal commission's final report, voted for the tax deal that extended the Bush tax cuts (and some other tax cuts) at a cost of more than $800 billion to the deficit, and backed a series of new rules in the House that made it vastly easier to increase the deficit by cutting taxes and vastly harder to decrease it by raising them, and helped the GOP lift their own rules to try and repeal the health-care legislation without offsetting the increase that would mean for the deficit ... every Democrat who voted to cut Medicare by more than $500 billion and raise taxes by more than $400 billion in order to offset the cost of the health-care bill cast a tougher vote for fiscal responsibility than Ryan has. And Ryan, who voted for Medicare Part D without demanding that its spending be offset, has criticized them endlessly for it."
State Fiscal Squeeze Hits Lone Star & Golden State
End of robust federal aid squeezing states. Stateline: "Federal funds support state programs to pay for highways, K-12 education, health care for people with low incomes, and many other programs. Even before the stimulus program began, federal dollars accounted for about 30 percent of state revenue. It’s these funds that are likely to become a prime target if Congress is serious about pinching pennies."
Texas budget gap more double what governor estimated Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo: "Not only did Perry severely underestimate the depth of his state’s budget woes, but he has also spent the last few years lecturing Washington D.C. on its supposed fiscal improprieties, giving speech after speech in which he held up Texas as the economic model for the nation to follow ... there’s practically nothing left in the state’s budget to cut besides education and health care spending (while Texas already has some of the lowest per-pupil spending rates and the highest number of those without health insurance)."
CA Gov. Jerry Brown proposes "painful" budget. NYT: "...the steepest cuts affect the most vulnerable in the state, including a $1.7 billion cut to Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for poor families and disabled people; a $1.5 billion reduction in its welfare-to-work program; and $750 million cut from the agency that provides services to those with developmental disabilities. The state’s higher education system — including the highly regarded University of California — would lose $1.4 billion."
Goldman Gives A Little
Under fire, Goldman Sachs tries a little transparency. WSJ: "In a 63-page report set to be released Tuesday, Goldman says that for the first time in its 142-year-history, it will start disclosing how much revenue comes from the firm's own trading and investing ... But the 39 changes set to be adopted by Goldman don't include an overhaul of its operations or management, as some of the company's harshest critics demanded."
SEC investigating charges of favoritism towards Citigroup. Bloomberg: "The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s internal watchdog is reviewing an allegation that Robert Khuzami, the agency’s top enforcement official, gave preferential treatment to Citigroup Inc. executives in the agency’s $75 million settlement with the firm in July. Inspector General H. David Kotz opened the probe after a request from U.S. Senator Charles Grassley..."
Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo explores why GOP Rep. Darrell Issa wants to investigate the White House anti-foreclosure efforts: "... in July, he advocated ending HAMP entirely, and leaving troubled homeowners to try and obtain substantively worse private loan modifications."
Foreclosure judges punishing bank lawyers for false paperwork. NYT: "In numerous opinions, judges have accused lawyers of processing shoddy or even fabricated paperwork in foreclosure actions when representing the banks ... the courts in New York State, along with Florida, have begun requiring that lawyers in foreclosure cases vouch for the accuracy of the documents they present, which prompted a protest from the New York bar. The requirement, which is being considered by courts in other states, could open lawyers to disciplinary actions that could harm or even end careers."
Oil Spill Commission Releases Recommendations Today
Oil spill commission releases final report today. The Hill: "Look for greens to cast the report ... as proof that the oil industry remains unsafe ... And the oil industry is preparing to argue that there is no reason to further delay offshore drilling because it is already instituting many of the report's recommendations."
Report calls for higher liability, no Arctic drilling. Politico: "... the commission will say that no new major Arctic drilling should occur until the federal government and industry can prove that drilling can be done in a way that is safe to the ecosystem ... It will also recommend an unspecified increase in the $75 million liability limit for oil companies ..."
Grist's David Roberts calls the GOP bluff on EPA regulations: "Among the options congressional Republicans are said to be mulling in their war on the Environmental Protection Agency is the Congressional Review Act ... It says that within 60 days of a regulation being passed by the executive branch, a majority in both houses of Congress can vote to nullify it ... Why is CRA the dog that never barks? Because once the Resolution of Disapproval passes Congress it goes to the president, who presumably will veto it immediately ... The right knows the CRA can't actually block EPA ... They're just trying to bully EPA into backing down. It's a purely political play."
