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: Not Just Rhetoric, But The Economy
OurFuture.org's Terrance Heath: "Fiery rhetoric is intended to spark fires. But a spark that falls on bare ground quickly burns out. To start a fire, a spark needs fuel. It needs kindling ... The conditions created by the economic crisis have surrounded us with kindling."
Poor Targeted As States Grapple With Budget Crises
New conservative governors responding to massive budget gaps with tax increases on the poor, but more tax cuts for the wealthy. Wonk Room's Kevin Donohoe: "Just days after calling for unity and 'shared sacrifice' in their inaugural speeches, conservative governors ... have proposed new tax cuts for business and top-earners alongside cuts to critical expenditures for low-income working families and tax increases on the working poor."
Illinois passes broad tax increases and spending cuts to deal with budget crisis. NYT: "...the income tax rate would, at least temporarily, rise to 5 percent from its current rate of 3 percent ... The rate for corporate taxes would rise to 7 percent from its current rate of 4.8 percent ... the state’s spending growth would be limited from one year to the next over the next four years."
LAT's Tim Rutten calls Gov. Jerry Brown's budget "evenhaded pain": "... the budget Brown introduced Monday proposes $12.5 billion in cuts and $12 billion in tax extensions that will have to be approved by voters in a special election this spring ... about a 50% diminution in the health and welfare spending on which the neediest Californians depend offset by reductions in benefits popular with the business community."
Federal aid to states protecting health care safety net will soon run out. LAT: "Bolstered by billions of dollars in aid from Washington, states managed to hold their healthcare safety nets together last year ... with emergency federal aid scheduled to end this year, it is unclear how much longer financially strained states will be able to head off cutbacks ... Republican governors, many of whom have criticized the new healthcare law's dependence on Medicaid to guarantee all Americans coverage, are pushing the Obama administration for permission to cut their programs."
"10 States Fail to Act to Qualify for Long-Term Jobless Aid," reports AFL-CIO's Mike Hall: " There are currently 6.5 million workers jobless for six months or more. [But] as Mitchell Hirsch at UnemployedWorkers.org points out, 10 states that qualify for the federally funded program that provides an additional 13 or 20 weeks of benefits have yet to pass state legislation to accept the funds. The states are Arkansas, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.
GOP Attacks Individual Mandate, Business Not On Board
GOP Rep. Fred Upton suggests stand-alone vote repealing individual mandate may be forthcoming. HuffPost quotes: "We are going to come back and through hearings and through legislative initiatives we will look at things like the individual mandate. I'd bet that there will be a number of Democrats who vote against the Republicans on repealing [the entire law] but in fact will say you know what that plank on insisting upon the individual mandate to purchase insurance, we will vote to take that out too."
Chamber of Commerce claims to back health reform repeal, but also supports central provision of individual mandate. Wonk Room's Igor Volsky: "... the organization is split on the issue — politically interested in defeating a major Democratic accomplishment, but also encountering some push back from its own members (like health insurance companies) who argue that the law may not be the 'job killer' that Republicans claim."
GOPers call for more mental health services, while pushing repeal of health reform with more mental health services. Wonk Room's Volsky: "...some Republicans have argued that 22-year old assassin Jared Lee Loughner was more affected by his mental illness than the nation’s lax gun control laws or Washington’s divisive and often times violent political rhetoric ... [But in] President Obama’s health reform law — which all Republicans now want to repeal ... families and individuals will be able to enroll in insurance ... where private companies will have to offer mental health and substance use disorder services as part of the essential package of benefits."
Oil Spill Commission Calls Reform, With Or Without Congress
Oil spill commission rips reckless industry and lax regulation, calls for major reforms. GOP resists. NYT: "Republicans in Congress have blocked any new rules for offshore drilling and new spending for regulation and have not acted on proposals to raise the liability cap. There is little sign that these will be high priorities when lawmakers reconvene."
President explores action on drilling safety without Congress. The Hill: "Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), the commission co-chairman [said,] 'He asked his staff to analyze what those areas of executive action were and said that he would take those under his advisement as to which ones to move forward on,' Graham said, though he was hesitant to characterize the president's response to the commission's recommendations."
Politico adds: "The commission outlined several areas where the administration could skip what would likely be a difficult and lengthy debate with [Congress] ... This includes levying a fee structure to companies who are looking to obtain drilling leases based on the cost of regulating those particular leases [and] requiring companies 'to convince the lease granter that they have the ability to respond to an accident and contain it and limit the damage that the accident may have caused.'"
Global temperature of 2010 will be released today. The Hill: "
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is slated to release the 2010 State of the Climate report Wednesday ... NOAA has already reported that the January-November period was the warmest yet."
Sen. John Kerry shifts focus to major investment in clean energy. The Hill: "He urged colleagues to invest the hundreds of billions to repair the nation’s decaying transportation infrastructure and build a renewable-energy technology sector ... Kerry noted that China invested an estimated $350 billion — or 9 percent of its gross domestic product — in infrastructure in 2009, and the European Union’s infrastructure bank financed $350 billion in projects between 2005 and 2009."
Senate may have the votes to handcuff EPA on climate rules. Politico: "At least 56 senators — just four short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster — will most likely support measures to hamstring climate rules, and an additional eight votes may be in play this Congress ... Administration officials have said President Barack Obama would veto a bill to strip EPA of its ability to regulate greenhouse gases. But while the president would almost certainly veto a stand-alone measure to limit EPA rules, it could get more complicated if the measure is attached as a rider to a major spending package. That could also increase the likelihood of a deal for a one- or two-year wait."
Shift Towards Challenging China
US shifting approach with China, finds W. Post: "The consensus about China formed during the Clinton administration, that as long as the United States was patient with China it would ultimately adopt Western political values and business practices, is 'crumbling,' said Daniel Rosen, a longtime China specialist ... What's replacing it is a new willingness to challenge China - in Congress, within the federal bureaucracy and in business circles ..."
NYT's David Leonhardt argues that China's trade barriers are a bigger problem than its currency, and pressure can help solve it: "...the United States is big enough — and important enough to Chinese companies — to exert some pressure. That is why the recent 'buy American' provisions in a couple of bills, small as they may be, are useful. The same goes for continued discussion of Congressional bills that would penalize China."
Goldman Report More "Window Dressing"
Goldman Sachs claims of internal reform dismissed as cosmetic. McClatchy: "Goldman Sachs is implementing dozens of internal changes aimed at restoring its reputation ... Goldman's report, perhaps not coincidentally, was timed two to three weeks before the expected release of reports on the financial crisis ... 'I think it's mostly just for show,' said Christopher Whalen, the managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics ... 'When you're accused of fraud, you have to respond.' Sylvain Raynes, a onetime Goldman employee and bond expert who's been a frequent critic ... called it 'largely window dressing [though] it's a sign of welcome contrition — that something needed to change.'"
WSJ sees Goldman Sachs shifting away from trading: "Goldman officials say forthcoming changes detailed in the report aren't punishment for traders. But an overhaul in how the company discloses financial results, starting with fourth-quarter figures due Jan. 19, will wind up slicing how much what the firm defines as trading contributes to Goldman's overall revenue."
Breakfast Sides
Tapped's Jamelle Bouie reminds that Social Security benefits are not exactly lavish: "This might not be obvious to Beltway observers -- who won't be dependent on Social Security benefits to survive in their golden years -- but even modest reductions could have the effect of plunging many seniors into poverty. The simple fact is that the American welfare state isn't particularly strong, and insofar that we need to account for its growth, there really should be a weight toward higher taxes, not benefit cuts."
Grist's Bonnie Azab Powell spots a startling interview by GOP Rep. Jack Kingston, pledging to starve funds for bipartisan food safety reform: "...Kingston blithely questions whether the FDA really needs any more power, and whether that's too much money for the agency to absorb efficiently. After all, private companies do a heckuva job policing their own products..."
New high-speed rail report from America 2050 highlights best regions for service. Treehugger: "'High-speed rail works in very specific conditions, primarily in corridors of approximately 100-600 miles in length where it can connect major employment centers and population hubs' ... Among the other interesting findings is that the ideal rail line may not be one that spans a thousand miles -- the 'most promising rail corridors for attracting ridership in the United States are in corridors of less than 150 miles.' These corridors, like LA-San Diego and New York - Philadelphia, have the additional benefit of acting as stepping stones for larger, multi-city rail lines."
President Obama's job approval up 6 points to 53% in AP poll.
