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: Obama, Listen To Obama
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "As you can see in this video, Presidential candidate Barack Obama opposed exactly the kind of [Social Security] cuts that are being discussed now by the White House. Candidate Obama pointed out that John McCain had indicated he would cut retirement benefits, either by raising the retirement age or slowing down the cost of living (COLA) adjustments, and responded unequivocally. 'Let me be clear,' the Candidate said. 'I will not do either.' That statement is admirable for its clarity and forthrightness - so much so, in fact, that it bears repeating..."
Repeal Vote Set For Tomorrow
House floor debate on health reform repeal begins today, Dems prepare to defend. Politico: "House Democrats plan to share stories of people who have benefited from the legislation — and issue a warning that those people would be hurt if the law is repealed ... The Department of Health and Human Services is releasing a report today that shows the potential impact of repealing the ban on insurers’ denying customers over pre-existing conditions."
GOP trying to craft their own health care plan, haven't yet succeeded. LAT: "Previous Republican efforts at healthcare reform were projected to leave 52 million Americans uninsured in 2019 [and] Republican lawmakers have not indicated how they plan to expand coverage..."
Only 26% support complete repeal in latest AP poll.
Health insurance lobby not backing repeal. Politico: "America’s Health Insurance Plans lobbied against much of the health care overhaul when it was passed in Congress, but it is not supporting the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act ... The pharmaceutical industry, which spent months cutting deals with Democrats to protect its interests, has remained mum on Republican repeal efforts ... Staying neutral is helping the groups avoid angering lawmakers whose help they’ll need to make changes later."
GOP may try to strip new rules restraining profiteering by health insurers. Daily Kos' Joan McCarter: "This one in particular would do just what Rep. [Pete] Stark says it would--protect insurance company profits rather than patients."
Former Senate leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist team up to help states with health reform. Politico: "Daschle says the group will judge success on whether it can come up with constructive models to help guide the states through implementing the law, how the states receive the ideas and whether they help implementation move forward ... They’re going to start where there are seeds of cooperation but are likely to avoid the most divisive areas of the law."
Challenging Agenda For US-China Summit
White House lays out "challenges" for China's President Hu before today's visit. NYT: "David Rothkopf ... said: 'There’s been this well-orchestrated and clearly well thought-out campaign, over the past two weeks, involving the secretary of state, Treasury, defense and commerce making strong statements regarding currency, the trade imbalance, human rights and China’s military stance ... So you’re welcoming the leader of the most important rival power in the world into the capital, and the way you pave his entrance into the city is laid with these four big thorny issues.'"
Senate to push currency reform during Hu visit. USA Today: "Democratic senators such as Bob Casey of Pennsylvania say they will greet Hu by proposing legislation that would impose stiff penalties on countries such as China that manage their currency in a way that harms U.S. trade."
McClatchy suggests China isn't doing enough direct investment in U.S.: "China holds almost $1 trillion in U.S. government bonds, but it's made only modest investments in the nuts and bolts of the U.S. economy. China lags far behind its Asian and European competitors in direct investment in the U.S. ... China's state companies are shopping abroad, just not here. A Chinese silicon company is preparing to buy a Norwegian metals giant for $2.6 billion. State-owned PetroChina invested almost $2 billion last year in Canadian oil producers. Late last year the China Petrochemical Corp. took a big stake in Brazilian offshore oil exploration."
Energy company deals expected during Hu visit. The Hill: "[U.S. Energy Sec. Steven] Chu and the Chinese officials will also oversee the signings of commercial agreements between energy companies from the two nations ..."
Dean Baker rips Mark Wu NYT oped downplaying currency issue: "Economists generally believe that relative prices matter and the exchange rate is a major determinant of relative prices. (Do tariffs of 20 percent matter? The Chinese sure think so.) Mr. Wu's column gives us little reason to discard standard economics."
Nancy Folbre argues that globalization is weakening the American economic recovery, in NYT: "Large corporations are no less patriotic now than they were then. But their economic incentives have changed. Facing intensified international competition, they have little reason to care about the nationality of their workers, consumers or investors."
Fed has no plans to let up on stimulus. Bloomberg: "Federal Reserve policy makers, who see unemployment falling too slowly for their liking, are giving no indication that signs of an accelerating recovery will dissuade them from carrying out record monetary-stimulus plans."
Middle-class not feeling the recovery. Bloomberg: "'The heavy lifting is being done by the upper-income households,” said Michael Feroli ... chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. 'They’re the ones benefiting the most from the stock market rally, and they’re spending.' The uneven progress in household expenditures, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, helps explain why Fed policy makers likely will keep interest rates near zero and complete a second round of Treasury purchases."
President Announces Broad Reg Reform
President Obama writes WSJ oped announcing regulatory reform effort: "...I am signing an executive order [beginning] a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive ... we won't shy away from addressing obvious gaps: new safety rules for infant formula; procedures to stop preventable infections in hospitals; efforts to target chronic violators of workplace safety laws. But we are also making it our mission to root out regulations that conflict, that are not worth the cost, or that are just plain dumb ... our efforts over the past two years to modernize our regulations have led to smarter—and in some cases tougher—rules ... Yet according to current estimates of their economic impact, the benefits of these regulations exceed their costs by billions of dollars."
Economist's View's Mark Thoma apprehensive: "...if the administration is going to move in this direction, it had better be prepared to match the effort it is up against. If it doesn't -- if special interests succeed in swaying the process in their direction -- we"ll end up as far from the 'the right balance' as ever."
Energy industry lobbyists speculate Obama will cut deal to delay greenhouse gas rules. E&E News: "U.S. EPA is on track to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The first rules took effect Jan. 2, and more are due out over the next two years. But industry lobbyists maintain the Obama administration is looking to postpone regulations for utilities, refiners, manufacturers and other so-called stationary emission sources until after the 2012 election ... an agreement on regulation might pave the way for other energy legislation that President Obama has said he wants to steer through the divided Congress [such as] legislation mandating that electric utilities draw a percentage of their power from renewable or 'clean' energy sources ... Environmentalists, meanwhile, say the administration has shown no signs of abandoning its regulatory strategy."
FDIC Prepares To Tackle "Too Big To Fail"
W. Post explores FDIC's new power to seize and wind down "complex financial institutions": "In granting the new powers, Congress wanted to ensure that no financial firm is 'too big to fail,' though some lawmakers and academics argue that the legislation does not eliminate that problem entirely ... Should a large firm fail, the resolution process largely will resemble the process the FDIC relies on now when it seizes much smaller banks ... The law passed by Congress in July provides a framework, but regulators must fill out the details in a series of rules due out in coming months. A key element requires 'systemically important' firms ... to submit detailed plans for how they would be dismantled in the event of a crisis."
"Too big to fail" still a threat, argues Simon Johnson in Bloomberg oped: "Dodd-Frank supposedly gives any administration better tools but if you look closely at the details -- highlighted in the Treasury letter attached to the report -- you see most of the emphasis is on the resolution authority that allows the government to close financial institutions. But this doesn’t apply to our largest global banks..."
House To Vote On Draconian Budget Cut
Sen. Rand Paul prepares conservative dream budget. Politico: "...he’s about to unveil his own sweeping budget plan that would result in a $500 billion cut in just one year — about five times more than what the House GOP has promised to do ... [It] would target programs at virtually every federal agency, including the Defense Department, and would eliminate the Education Department." Baseline Scenario's James Kwak lists the budget busting votes backed by self-proclaimed "deficit hawks": "... the 2001 tax cut, the 2003 tax cut, the 2003 Medicare prescription drug benefit, the 2009 stimulus, and the 2010 tax cut ... current Democratic senators (including Sanders and Lieberman) had the opportunity to vote on $127 trillion of additional debt, and voted for $64 trillion, or 50 percent; current Republican senators had the opportunity to vote on $104 trillion of debt and voted for $70 trillion, or 67 percent ... the Republicans who will be railing against fiscal irresponsibility and threatening to block a raise in the debt limit are the irresponsible ones themselves who created the need to raise that debt limit." Enviros renew push for oil spill bill after commission report. The Hill: "It’s unclear whether Congress will be able pass the wide-ranging recommendations included in the commission’s report ... negotiations on a Senate oil spill bill fell apart last year over disagreements about liability." Progressive coalition plans to protest Koch brothers event. Alternet: "The Koch brothers are bringing their super-wealthy friends to the California desert to a private gathering to strategize how they will dominate American political life, and bring a hardcore right-wing government to power in the U.S. In response, on Sunday, January 30, thousands of activists and concerned people are expected to travel to Rancho Mirage, a wealthy enclave adjacent to Palm Springs, to say no to the Koch brothers' plan." President Obama up five points in both CNN poll and W. Post poll.Breakfast Sides
