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: "So Be It" Economics
OurFuture.org's Terrance Heath: "...it's particularly maddening that Republican budget cuts will end up killing more jobs than were created during the Bush era. But it makes perfect sense to Boehner and the House Republicans, because most of the jobs they're so eager to slash out of existence aren't real jobs. At least, not in the conservative mind. It doesn't matter that you go to a workplace, perform a task or service, and earn a paycheck for that task or service ... because government jobs — and jobs created or subsidized by government — are not 'real jobs.'"
House Moves To Final Vote Today On Massive Cuts
Budget cutting mania stings Boehner, loses military pork project for home state. The Hill: "...lawmakers cut $450 million in funding for a second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, as Republican freshmen joined Democrats to eliminate a military program that the Pentagon has said is unnecessary."
Some GOPers break away from Tea Party on amendment votes. Politico: "...sixty-eight Republicans backed Democrats in defense of preserving at least reduced funding for legal aid to the poor ... 70 Republicans joined 158 Democrats on a 228-203 vote that restored $280 million for the Community Oriented Policing Services or COPS program, a favorite initiative of Vice President Joe Biden. And given the power of the firefighter lobby, the dike seemed to break when as many as 132 Republicans backed an amendment by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) to restore $510 million for Homeland Security grants for first responders."
Speaker Boehner appears to be suggesting to his shutdown-happy caucus that budget impasse would lead to more spending, not less. NYT: "Lack of a deal could lead to a series of short-term measures that keep federal spending at current levels, a prospect Mr. Boehner called 'not sufficient.' Another potential outcome is a spending impasse that would lead federal agencies to shut their doors, which Mr. Boehner said he did not favor."
More pressure to kill public broadcasting than ever before. McClatchy: "Newt Gingrich tried to 'zero out' [Corporation for Public Broadcasting] funding when he was House speaker in the mid-1990s, but that attempt was foiled, as was a 1997 effort when CPB supporters rolled literally rolled out Big Bird from 'Sesame Street' to illustrate their cause. ... But pressure on CPB appears greater this time, and it's not coming from Congress alone. In December, a bipartisan presidential debt commission also proposed eliminating public broadcasting funds Several Republican governors, fighting budget shortfalls, have proposed cutting state support for public broadcast outlets."
GOP amendment would force government to hire private contractors even it cost more. POGO: "[It] would force the Defense Department to continue to hire contractors even if savings can be realized by hiring a government employee."
House expected to pass amendment today to ban EPA from acting on climate, despite public opinion. The Hill: "[GOP Rep. Mike] Simpson attacked a 'preliminary analysis' the Obama administration is circulating that said the rider would create wide-spread industry uncertainty, delay the construction of new projects and result in job losses ... A poll commissioned by the American Lung Association shows that Americans are largely supportive of stricter air pollution standards, including new greenhouse gas rules."
GOP Rep. Paul Ryan inflates amount of spending in President's budget using "absurd standard" finds W. Post's Glenn Kessler: "...while in 2021 Obama proposes to spend $5.697 trillion, the [House Budget] committee would still be spending $3.729 trillion, for a difference of almost $2 trillion. Add up the difference for every year, over 10 years, and it amounts to nearly $8.7 trillion, which the committee calls 'new spending.' In other words, the committee assumed the president needs to freeze all spending, without adjustments for inflation or population growth, for 10 years. ... The only way Obama could hit those targets is to propose wiping out all discretionary spending (including Defense) or eliminating a major entitlement such as Medicare. So it is an absurd standard."
Senate Push For Deficit Deal
After WH meeting with Senate Dems, Majority Whip Dick Durbin suggests deficit reduction compromise in the works. The Hill: "Durbin said a deficit package, which could include entitlement reform, might be negotiated along with an increase in the debt ceiling and a 2011 bill to fund the government. 'It seems to me we’re building up to a negotiation that involves all of these parts,' said Durbin."
Senate Dem leaders accept President's five-year spending freeze. The Hill: "'It wasn’t an easy decision,' Schumer, vice chairman of the Democratic conference, said of the plan to adopt Obama’s freeze. 'Some members of our caucus want to go farther, but at a minimum we’re going to abide by this freeze.' ... Schumer faces pressure internally from Democrats facing tough re-election campaigns in 2012, such as Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who want to cut spending further than Obama." Dem pollster Geoff Garin urging Senate to embrace deficit reduction, reports Bloomberg.
Former deficit commission co-chairs publish oped demanding Social Security and Medicare cuts. The Hill: "[They] argue that no serious budget initiative can ignore dealing with Social Security and Medicare, and that Obama must lead a bipartisan effort to tackle the issue or things will just get worse."
W. Post's E.J. Dionne says conservatives play deficit hawks for "chumps.": "When conservatives blow up our fiscal position with their tax cuts, the deficit hawks are silent ... when it's the progressives' turn in power, the deficit hawks become ferocious. They denounce liberals if they do not move immediately to address the shortfall left by conservatives ... By saying they will never, ever, ever raise taxes, conservatives intimidate moderates into making concession after concession."
HuffPost's Dan Froomkin laments the end of Keynesian economics in Washington: "Nothing has happened to suddenly put Keynesian economic theory in doubt. There is still an entirely plausible argument to be made that government spending cuts are absolutely the last thing this economy needs. So why has the conventional wisdom done a 180? The answer is that politics has trumped economics."
W. Post raises alarm about interest on the debt: "Starting in 2014, net interest payments will surpass the amount spent on education, transportation, energy and all other discretionary programs outside defense. In 2018, they will outstrip Medicare spending." Dean Baker calls for calm: "[W. Post] makes no effort to place the budget deficits in any sort of historical context and includes scary sounding assertions with no real meaning, such as: 'The borrowing the United States did over the past decade ... is coming due this decade.' ... Bonds are coming due every month of every year. There is nothing 'coming due' this decade that does not come due every decade."
Robert Reich explains how increasing the payroll tax cap strengthens Social Security: "Back in 1983, the ceiling was set so the Social Security payroll tax would hit 90 percent of all wages covered by Social Security ... Today, though, the Social Security payroll tax hits only about 84 percent of total income. It went from 90 percent to 84 percent because a larger and larger portion of total income has gone to the top ... If we want to go back to 90 percent, the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security tax would need to be raised to $180,000. Presto. Social Security’s long-term (beyond 26 years from now) problem would be solved. So there’s no reason even to consider reducing Social Security benefits or raising the age of eligibility."
Medicare In GOP Sights
House Budget Chair Paul Ryan insists party will go after Medicare and Medicaid in this year's budget. Politico: "The top House budget writer vowed this week to craft a blueprint for the nation’s fiscal future that proposes significant reforms to Medicare and Medicaid — but not necessarily to Social Security ... Ryan’s roadmap would convert Medicare from the current defined-benefit structure to one of defined contributions that the federal government would make directly to the health plan of the beneficiary’s choice while also establishing a means test ... [But] he says he can’t just impose his ideas on the Republican Conference." More Politico: "Republicans seem to have settled on, at least as a talking points, instituting block grants to states for Medicaid ... Outside of that, it’s open season for suggestions on how the GOP might handle righting the wayward ship of entitlements."
HHS chief rejects Ryan Medicare privatization plan as too costly. Wonk Room's Igor Volsky: "...seniors who try to purchase individual coverage with vouchers would have limited leverage against large insurers. People in the individual market 'are often penalized,' she said. 'They pay 18 to 20 percent more than those who are in large employer pools. One of the reason for the health exchanges is to help pull people into pools so they have some purchasing power."
HHS grants temporary waivers to four states allowing health plans with limited benefits. NYT: "Under the law and rules issued by the administration, health plans this year must generally provide at least $750,000 in coverage for essential benefits like hospital care, doctors’ services and prescription drugs. In states granted the waivers, many health plans with much lower annual limits on coverage may continue to operate ... Representative Henry A. Waxman of California ... said the limited-benefit plans were clearly inadequate. But he said the waivers would allow 'a smooth transition between now and 2014,' when insurers and employers will be forbidden to impose limits on the dollar value of benefits."
HHS concludes it doesn't have power to stop Arizona from denying 250,000 access to Medicaid. W. Post: "...a provision in the new health-care law bar[s] states from tightening their eligibility standards for the program ... because the provision does not apply to Arizona's somewhat unusual circumstances ... childless adults are covered through a 'demonstration waiver' that permits the state to run Medicaid as a managed care system ... the health-care law's Medicaid eligibility freeze applies only while these agreements are still in effect. For most states, that means 2014 and beyond. But Arizona's agreement expires Sept. 30."
Chief Justice Roberts will uphold President Obama's health reform law, argues Wonk Room's Ian Millhiser: "Roberts is also perfectly aware of the fact that radical states rights doctrines cut both ways, and many of the same tenther arguments that would kill progressives’ ability to fix the U.S. health system would also cut back on Roberts and other conservatives’ power to give corporations broad immunity from state law."
FL Gov Deals Setback To High-Speed Rail
Gov. Rick Scott opts to maintain 12% state unemployment rate, kills federally funded rail project. NYT: "In the most significant blow yet to the Obama administration’s vision of a national high-speed rail network, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida on Wednesday rejected plans for a high-speed link between Tampa and Orlando, in the process turning down more than $2 billion in federal money. Mr. Scott is the third newly elected Republican governor to turn down a portion of the administration’s national rail system..."
Gov. Scott failed to acknowledge project would not have cost the state anything. The Transport Politic: "The project’s construction would have required $280 million in state aid to be completed, but projections had indicated that the line would cover its own operating costs."
Taxpayers would not have had to pick up cost overruns either. Robert Cruickshank: "Nowhere is it acknowledged that private companies had promised to pay the cost overruns."
OurFuture.org's Bill Scher on the conservative love of killing jobs: "He is not closing any state budget gap. He is not saving Florida taxpayers money. He is only failing to create more Florida taxpayers ... Conservative Republican leaders this year still haven't proposed one idea to create one job. But they've quickly become experts at destroying jobs."
White House will simply reallocate Florida funds to other state rail projects reports HuffPost.
Gov. Scott based on his decision on a libertarian Reason Foundation study notes Pushing Rope: "All you need to know about the libertarian think tank is that Drew Carey is on the Board of Trustees. David H. Koch is another member of Reason's board and the think tank's main source of revenue..."
Senate Dems Propose Clean Energy Agenda
Senate Dems roll out clean energy agenda. The Hill: "Energy items in the proposal include a 'Clean Energy Deployment Administration' — also known as a “green bank” — that would offer various financing tools to help shepherd advanced energy technologies into commercialization ... extending tax credits that were in the stimulus law for manufacturing 'clean energy' equipment such as wind turbines and solar panels; further extending a grant program for constructing renewable electricity projects in the U.S.; various energy-efficiency measures; and continued spending on development of a 'smart' power grid, among other provisions."
President backs "America's Great Outdoors" initiative, fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Time's Bryan Walsh: "For decades, Congress has taken the money that was meant for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and spent it somewhere else. With Republicans already calling out the White House for what they say is a bias against fossil fuels in favor of renewable power, it's going to be an uphill budget battle to get more money from oil and gas—even for conservation."
Ground-breaking report finds increase in severe rains and snowstorms likely caused by human-created climate change. NYT: "In the first major paper of its kind, the researchers used elaborate computer programs that simulate the climate to analyze whether the rise in severe rainstorms, heavy snowfalls and similar events could be explained by natural variability in the atmosphere. They found that it could not, and that the increase made sense only when the computers factored in the effects of greenhouse gases released by human activities like the burning of fossil fuels ... The paper covers climate trends from 1951 to 1999 and therefore does not include any analysis of last year’s extreme precipitation ... the paper is likely to bolster a growing sense among climate scientists that events like the 2010 floods will become more common."
Breakfast Sides
Wisconsinites storm state capitol to protest attempt to strip public workers of bargaining rights and slash their benefits. NYT: "Madison schools were closed on Wednesday after many employees called in sick to help lobby. Thousands of teachers, state workers and students filled a square around the Capitol, chanting 'kill the bill' and waving signs (some likening Mr. Walker to a dictator and demanding his recall)."
"Why Isn't Wall Street In Jail?" asks Matt Taibbi: "...the justice system not only sucks at punishing financial criminals, it has actually evolved into a highly effective mechanism for protecting financial criminals. This institutional reality has absolutely nothing to do with politics or ideology — it takes place no matter who's in office or which party's in power. To understand how the machinery functions, you have to start back at least a decade ago, as case after case of financial malfeasance was pursued too slowly or not at all, fumbled by a government bureaucracy that too often is on a first-name basis with its targets"
Bank lobby still fighting new law limiting debit card swipe fees: "...in a hearing Thursday before a House subcommittee, they plan to ask Congress to delay implementing the new system or repeal it altogether ... persuading the Fed to increase its cap by a few cents to account for security and fraud costs may be as much as banks can hope for. The Fed has said it is still considering the issue and may develop a separate proposal to address it."
Federal agencies update the cost of lives for cost-benefit analyses, angering corporate lobbies. NYT: "Several independent experts ... said that the increases were long overdue, noting that some agencies had been using the same values for more than a decade without adjusting for inflation ... But some industry representatives said assigning a value to life was inherently subjective, and that the recent changes were driven by the administration’s pursuit of its regulatory agenda rather than scientific considerations."
