Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security.
MORNING MESSAGE: Austerity Horrors
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "The fictional drug czar Al Pacino played in Scarface would love the list of cuts that Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee just proposed ... The Republicans even want to cut $330 million from the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, which isn't even an expense item. It's revenue. That's the fund that administers all the assets seized [by law enforcement.] What are they going to do with all that stuff: Give it back?"
Cruel GOP Cuts Not Cruel Enough For GOPers
Initial spending cut by GOP leadership rejected by GOP caucus, leadership may cave. CNN: "House Republican leaders under fire from fellow conservatives for backtracking on a promise to cut $100 billion in spending this year are suddenly trying to meet that goal, according to a senior House GOP aide ... Some of the highlights in that [initial] GOP spending cut list include: EPA, $1.6 billion; job training programs, $2 billion; community health centers, $1.3 billion; high-speed rail, $1 billion; family planning, $327 million; National Institutes of Health, $1 billion; NASA, $374 million; IRS, $593 million."
CQ adds: "[House Appropriations Chair Hal] Rogers huddled late Wednesday with his subcommittee chairmen to make plans to write a new bill — often called a continuing resolution — that would make sharper reductions to agency budgets. That measure is expected to be released Friday. According to an aide to one of the appropriators, they concluded they do not have enough votes for the spending bill as proposed, and they were concerned that with an open rule, it could become a free-for-all on the House floor."
Some GOP leaders trying to talk sense to caucus. NYT: "Rogers and other Republicans warned that doubling the cuts could have substantial consequences for federal agencies, resulting in layoffs and furloughs of federal law enforcement officers and air traffic controllers, steep cuts in education and medical research programs and major changes at the Food and Drug Administration."
CQ notes that GOPers are dancing to Heritage's tune: "... a group affiliated with the conservative Heritage Foundation, called Heritage Action, has said it will highlight floor action on the coming spending bill as a 'key vote.' A similar move by Heritage Action appears to have contributed to another GOP leadership setback Tuesday. A bill that would have extended expiring Trade Adjustment Assistance programs was withdrawn after the group threatened to designate it as a 'key vote,' which would mean a black mark on the record of any Republican who voted for it."
Shutdown threat looms. LAT: "Such cuts are unlikely to be approved by the Senate, creating a showdown as Congress faces a March 4 deadline to fund the federal government as the current spending plan expires."
Major fight brewing over transportation funding between parties. Stateline: "The clash comes at a critical moment. Congress once again is slated to draw up a multiyear surface transportation package. It promises to be a difficult chore. The main source of federal money for transportation projects—the gasoline tax—has not kept up with the demand from states that want to build or repair bridges and highways. This year, too, most of the federal stimulus money that has helped states maintain roads during the economic downturn will run out."
Daily Kos' Jed Lewison on what the GOP plan says about jobs: "... it only addresses the job situation insofaras they went through President Obama's budget line-by-line and axed every single jobs creation initiative that he's proposed." Conservative CPAC conference has not one session on jobs, reports AFL-CIO's Mike Hall.
More state budgets cuts means less education and health. Ezra Klein: "When you say states should cut spending dramatically, you're saying they should cut funding for education and health-care services dramatically. And they -- or at least 22 of the 31 states that have released their plans for 2012 -- are."
House Republicans may add provision to continuing resolution spending bill that would ban EPA action on climate. The Hill: "While plans to curb EPA’s power are also backed by some centrist Democrats, they face major hurdles in the Senate, where Democrats have a slim majority. But provisions attached to a must-pass spending bill nonetheless complicate things for climate advocates."
Bernanke explains economics to House Republicans, slowly. McClatchy: "Like a professor lecturing students, Bernanke explained that his efforts were temporary and wouldn't lead to the fearful scenario [Rep. Paul] Ryan painted ... He warned that catastrophic consequences could follow any failure to allow the federal government to keep borrowing later this year in order to pay its creditors ... Bernanke pushed back hardest against the idea that U.S. monetary policy somehow is driving up prices in China, Brazil and other emerging markets ... 'Monetary policy can't do anything about, say, for example, bad weather in Russia,' Bernanke said ..."
Matt Yglesias mocks House Dem Minority Whip Steny Hoyer for entertaining increase in the retirement age: "This idea has a kind of fake common sense quality to it. If I said, 'how about a modest cut in Social Security benefits for rich people paired with a much larger cut in benefits for the poor' almost nobody would find that tempting. But life expectancy is correlated with income and this is getting truer over time ... It’s very regressive and a healthy share of the fiscal benefit will be lost on the back end in terms of increased disability claims."
President's Budget To Cut Heating Aid For Poor
National Journal reports LIHEAP to face cuts in President's budget proposal: "Pointing to the increasing number of Americans who made use of the grants last year, advocates say that LIHEAP is already underfunded. The American Gas Association predicts that 3 million Americans eligible for the program won't be able to receive it unless LIHEAP funding stays at its current level ... Critics say that the program is poorly administered and that, contrary to intentions, it’s become a subsidy for energy companies, most of whom are prohibited by law from turning off services to delinquent bill-payers during weather emergencies. About 10 percent of LIHEAP funds are transferred to 'weatherization' programs, according to a government study."
Sen. Kerry urges President to reconsider. HuffPost quotes: "We simply cannot afford to cut LIHEAP funding during one of the most brutal winters in history."
TNR's Jonathan Cohn laments: "...Obama has also proposed to freeze non-defense, discretionary domestic spending for five years. The trouble with that idea, as some of us have argued, is that it commits the administration to cuts like this ... nobody seriously claims that it's possible to reduce LIHEAP funding without reducing its reach. The program has its share of fraud and waste, but, unless I'm missing something, it's not nearly enough to justify this big a cut. Remember: Energy prices may be lower than they were in 2008, but the economy is in worse shape, too."
GOP Blocks Help For Displaced Workers In Order To Create More Displaced Workers
Republicans continue holding up aid to displaced workers until Obama embraces trade agreements for Panama and Colombia. W. Post: "The long-standing Trade Adjustment Assistance program was broadened in 2009 in response to the recession, but the expanded benefits are due to expire Saturday unless Congress acts ... [U.S. Trade Representative Ron] Kirk made clear that the administration will not move on the Panama and Colombia agreements without first revising them..."
Common ground on trade and education emphasized in WH-GOP meeting. W. Post: "Republicans have said they will support a free-trade agreement with South Korea that the Obama administration negotiated at the end of last year. And the president and congressional Republicans have in the past backed education proposals that emphasize increased accountability for schools whose students persistently get low scores on standardized tests."
Issa Embraces Deregulation
GOP Rep. Darrell Issa's oversight committee staff regurgitates corporate lobby complaints in advance of hearing. W. Post: "'There is some evidence that regulations affecting the financial services industry may limit the job creation and growth capabilities of the U.S., reducing economic growth by as much as 4 percent,' the report says ... it highlights the benefits of hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking,' a process by which natural gas deposits are extracted. Some communities have protested that the process can contaminate drinking water ... the report expresses concern about potential regulation of the ash created when coal is burned to create electricity..."
Robert Reich accuses Republicans of basic stupidity: "We could have millions more jobs tomorrow if we eviscerated all health and safety regulations and allowed our air to turn yellow and our rivers and lakes to become fetid stinkholes. But that would be dumb."
EPA chief warns House that preventing action on climate could also worsen other air pollution. The Hill: "[Lisa] Jackson said ... 'I respectfully ask the members of this committee to keep in mind that EPA’s implementation of the Clean Air Act saves millions of American children and adults from the debilitating and expensive illnesses that occur when smokestacks and tailpipes release unrestricted amounts of harmful pollution into the air we breathe,' she said. But Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) stressed ... asked Jackson if she could confirm that the legislation does not target those other pollutants, but the EPA administrator said ... 'I am concerned that there needs to be an analysis to make sure there are not unintended consequences,' Jackson said."
Bush's EPA chief actually drafted a plan to cut carbon emissions. NRDC's David Doniger: "The very Obama administration actions that Upton, Inhofe, and company are set on vilifying were proposed by the Bush EPA and approved by the Bush Cabinet."
Consumers Push Back Against Privatizing Mortgages
Small banks and consumer groups alarmed at direction of Fannie/Freddie reform. W. Post: "Some business groups, such as small banks and credit unions, are worried that the demise of Fannie and Freddie would allow large financial firms to dominate the mortgage market. Realtors and home builders are reluctant to part with the federal subsidy for housing provided by Fannie and Freddie. Consumer groups are wary of eliminating the firms because of the role they play in helping lower- and moderate-income homebuyers get access to mortgages."
New evidence Wall Street CEOs knew what they were doing. Baseline Scenario's Simon Johnson: "One view of executives at our largest banks in the run-up to the crisis of 2008 is that they were hapless fools ... The alternative view is that these people were more knaves than fools ... New evidence in favor of the second interpretation has just become available, thanks to the efforts of Sanjai Bhagat and Brian Bolton ...The key finding is that CEOs were '30 times more likely to be involved in a sell trade compared to an open market buy trade' of their own bank’s stock and 'The dollar value of sales of stock by bank CEOs of their own bank’s stock is about 100 times the dollar value of open market buys.' If the CEOs had really believed in what their banks were doing, they would have wanted to hold this stock – or even buy more."
