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: New Civil Tone, Same Old Lies
OurFuture.org's Bill Scher: "We're not talking about a little white lie here, a little hyperbole there. The entire basis on the repeal argument is one massive lie after another. House Republicans may not have repeated past attempts to deem health reform 'socialism,' but they still called it a 'government takeover' – which Politifact.com christened the biggest lie of 2010 ... In my book, civility means showing respect. Lying at a lower volume doesn't clear the minimum threshold of respect."
Progressive Press Obama On Jobs Before SOTU
Progressive push to prioritize jobs over deficit reduction in State of the Union address. W. Post: "An activist group called the Campaign for America's Future and the liberal polling firm Democracy Corps released a survey Tuesday that they say illustrates that American voters care more about job creation than deficit reduction ... Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO coalition of major labor unions, will give a speech Wednesday in Washington criticizing what he calls a 'misguided and shortsighted' focus on the deficit ... The liberal groups are not attacking Obama by name, but they acknowledged privately that their moves are intended to push the White House away from focusing on the deficit in the speech."
NYT's David Leonhardt explores why job growth isn't following GDP growth, and what we can do about it: "The best way to put people back to work is to lift economic growth .... The risk this year is that they will start reducing the budget deficit immediately ... In Germany and Canada, some companies and workers have averted layoffs by agreeing to cut everyone’s hours and, thus, pay ... unions remain many workers’ best hope for some bargaining power."
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer suggests Medicare cuts are possible. Politico quotes: "It is our belief that you can – as was done in 1983 on Social Security – and as we are committed to doing, we can adjust Medicare provisions, and we can adjust those in the future, and perhaps we can make some adjustments for present recipients ... I’m not going to specifically adopt any particular proposal of the [Simpson/Bowles] commission ... Some will have greater support than others.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer argues that deficit shouldn't stop increasing investment in infrastructure. Streetsblog: "Schumer didn’t reveal what he’ll be fighting for when the Senate eventually takes up the new federal transportation bill. But New York’s senior senator did offer one clue as to his priorities. Schumer opened his remarks by arguing that concerns about the deficit shouldn’t get in the way of new transportation spending ... adding that New York built the George Washington Bridge, Triborough Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel and LaGuardia Airport during the Great Depression."
Dean Baker criticizes Center for American Progress proposal to cut Social Security benefits: "This is the way in the CAP plan for cutting Social Security benefits is progressive. It would lead to substantial reductions in Social Security benefits for people who earned an average of $60,000 or $70,000 during their working lifetimes. While such people earned more than most workers, such salaries don’t quite put them on a par with Bill Gates."
Repeal Push Fizzles With Public
Yet another poll shows Americans don't want health reform repealed. W. Post: "Some 45 percent of those polled support the law, and 50 percent oppose it ... Those who do not support the law are split about evenly between advocating for its complete repeal (33 percent), a partial repeal (35 percent) and a wait-and-see approach (30 percent)."
Low-key House debate over health reform repeal bill. LAT: "...they were divided but restrained ...The House GOP is expected to pass the repeal easily by week's end, although it is not likely to advance in the Senate."
Top GOPer "Can’t Explain How GOP Would Cover 129 Million Americans With Pre-Existing Conditions" reports Wonk Room's Igor Volsky.
TNR's Jonathan Bernstein on the GOP's inability to argue the CBO cost estimates honestly: "... it’s impossible to have a sensible debate about these issues if one side is going to play with its own set of numbers, instead of accepting neutral accounting. "
Anthony Schlaff defends individual mandate for expanding "freedom" in Christian Science Monitor oped: "... anyone who drives in a city knows how necessary traffic lights are. In fact, they increase our freedom of movement ... Who has greater freedom: Those unrestricted by traffic lights who sit for hours in a traffic jam, or those who obey the law, and get where they want to go? ... The only way to have a system that guarantees necessary care for those in need – to give us the freedom to live our lives without that fear – is to make sure everyone is included in the system."
China Faces Frustrated US Businesses
Multinationals to press China on mercantilism. NYT: "A series of trade restrictions imposed by the Chinese government within China, including administrative controls, requirements to transfer sophisticated technology, state subsidies to favored domestic companies and so-called indigenous laws meant to favor homegrown businesses, have angered many American manufacturing and high-tech companies..."
China looks to play up investment in the U.S.. LAT: "Thanks to a relative handful of Chinese investments in U.S. companies there and in other parts of the Midwest, Beijing can argue that it is helping to bring economic renewal to a region long plagued by decline ... It won't be easy. Outside of purchases of U.S. bonds, China invested an estimated $6.2 billion in U.S.-based companies ... That's a blip compared with the projected $275-billion trade surplus China enjoyed with this country."
US-China energy deals announced. WSJ: "Alcoa and China Power Investment Corp. said they would collaborate on a broad range of aluminum and energy projects, both inside and outside China, which led to $7.5 billion in investments ... American Electric Power Co., a Columbus, Ohio, utility, said it would team with China Huaneng, China's largest power-generation company, to evaluate carbon-capturing technology ... GE Energy announced a joint venture with China's Shenhua Group Corp. to sell clean-coal technologies."
W. Post Steven Pearlstein says it's time to match China on industrial policy: " China can force its companies to act collaboratively to achieve the country's strategic economic objectives ... Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of industrial policy. But when competing against countries that practice it skillfully and aggressively, we may have no choice but to respond in kind."
What's Next For Obama Reg Reform?
Details on President's reg reform effort still to come. HuffPost: "The full impact of the review ... will only become clear when the Office of Management and Budget issues its guidance, which will be issued to federal agencies within the next few months ... The review will exempt some federal agencies independent of the White House and will not impact health care reform and financial regulatory reform, the administration's two biggest achievements."
EPA insists reg reform won't undermine new greenhouse gas rules. The Hill: "'EPA is confident that our recent and upcoming steps to address GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act comfortably pass muster under the sensible standards the president has laid out,' an EPA official told The Hill..."
U.S. Chamber of Commerce praises executive order, pushes Congress to do more. W. Post: "...Obama laid out a regulatory strategy that aims to walk the fine line between protecting public health and safety and freeing business to pursue profits ... Thomas J. Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the move was a positive first step, but he added ... 'Congress should reclaim some of the authority it has delegated to the agencies and implement effective checks and balances on agency power ... repealing or replacing outdated or ineffective regulations...'"
Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard criticizes President for implicitly accepting conservative frames on regulations: "All this talk about getting rid of 'dumb' rules certainly makes it sound as if there are a lot of them to go after ... Tuesday's announcement also feeds the idea that these agencies have enough excess resources to not only continue to fulfill their current obligations, but to now also go back and revisit each and every rule that they've already promulgated."
Oil state Dem Rep. Gene Green to be ranking member of energy subcommittee. Politico: "He said he gave Waxman assurances he wouldn't embrace the Republicans' bid to strip EPA of its broad environmental authorities, though he would support a two-year freeze on climate regulations."
Fuzzy First Steps For Wall St. Reform
First set of proposals from new regulatory council to implement financial reform. NYT: "Among its actions, the council laid out a set of 10 steps to adopt the Volcker rule ... including provisions that would allow banks to hedge trading positions used in market-making activities that serve clients ... the council released recommendations ... aimed at preventing already large financial companies from becoming 'too big to fail.' Specifically, the proposed rules would prohibit mergers or acquisitions that would result in any company’s liabilities — customer’s deposits and money the bank has borrowed — exceeding 10 percent of the financial industry’s total liabilities."
Proposals still lack details, says WSJ: "The council acknowledged it is difficult to distinguish between prohibited proprietary trading and a permitted activity, such as market-making, hedging or some other trade done on behalf of a bank's client. Sorting out this 'grey area' will be the key focus for the individual agencies..."
W. Post sympathetic to the regulators: "The overriding theme of the three documents is that reining in risk-taking in the financial sector will not be simple. 'I think it was a recognition that this is going to be really hard,' said Lawrence Kaplan, a banking lawyer at Paul Hastings, referring to the Volcker Rule. 'There's a recognition that this is not a black-and-white rule and that it will be really challenging to monitor and enforce.'"
Proposal could allow big banks to get bigger, argues HuffPost's Shahien Nasiripour: "...the report ... calculates the formula in such a way that it leaves the largest U.S. lenders with plenty of room to grow. For example, JPMorgan Chase, the nation's second-biggest bank by assets, can merge with U.S. Bancorp, the 10th-biggest lender, and still fall comfortably under the limit. 'I said the banks won ... It just tells you what the Treasury wants, and what they're telling you is they're going to cook it to let these banks expand.'"
Housing regulators propose changes to stem foreclosures. W. Post: "Recognizing that private firms and government programs have had difficulty carrying out a large number of modifications to mortgages to avoid foreclosures, the FHFA said it would consider several approaches to how banks should manage home loans. Studies have shown that foreclosure is often more profitable for a company, known as a mortgage servicer, that collects the monthly payments on mortgages and passes them on to investors who own the mortgages ... the FHFA said that it would consider a new compensation structure for servicers whereby they would receive fees for restructuring mortgages to avoid foreclosures."
Rift Forming On Right Regarding Debt Ceiling
LIkely presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty argues that refusing to raise debt ceiling would be good for the economy. Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo: "...failing to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner may make paying off the debt — and therefore grappling with the country’s long-term structural deficit — far more expensive ... That Pawlenty thinks this would be a good outcome — and is advocating Congress flirt with it unless President Obama accede to gutting entitlements — shows how irresponsible mainstream Republicans are when it comes to the nation’s finances."
TNR's Brad Plumer sees the congressional GOP leadership less excited about engineering default on the debt: "At a briefing with reporters this afternoon, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor tried to lower the temperature a bit ... When another reporter asked if the House would realistically prevent the debt ceiling from being raised, Cantor backed off even further ... Couple that with what House budget chair Paul Ryan said the other day: 'Will the debt ceiling be raised? Does it have to be raised? Yes.'"
