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: The Deluded Budget Debate
OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "...before the backroom gang of six senators emerges to put a bipartisan stamp on the Beltway’s current misconceptions, let’s review why the voters are making the most sense ... The major cause of the current deficits is the recession, not a spending spree ... The major solution to the deficits is recovery, not spending cuts ... Health care costs drive long-term deficits, not entitlements ..."
Jobs Summit Upends Beltway Obsession With Austerity
Jobs summit hosted by Campaign for America's Future challenges conventional wisdom putting austerity before jobs. HuffPost's Dan Froomkin: "Among those solutions [proposed]: A new WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps; an honest-to-God Industrial policy; maybe an infrastructure bank like the one proposed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ... What's needed now, said Roger Hickey, one of the event's organizers, is a robust, job-creating agenda that progressive candidates can run on in 2012 -- an agenda that shows that 'we're not just asking people to have patience and cross their fingers and hope the economy gets better.'"
AFL-CIO President dubs Gov. Scott Walker "Mobilizer of the Year" at summit. National Journal: "AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has two words for Scott Walker: 'Thank You.' The Wisconsin governor’s plan to restrict collective-bargaining rights for government employees, which unexpectedly passed Wednesday night in the state Senate, has energized the labor movement in a way not seen in a generation, Trumka said."
Congressional Progressive Caucus announces "Jobs and Economic Justice Tour." OurFuture.org's Isaiah Poole: "The tour is designed to promote an alternative to the 'so be it' agenda of congressional conservatives and their corporate backers that [Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Keith] Ellison says is attacking the fundamental underpinnings of the middle class — and ultimately the principles of American democracy."
GOP Refuses To Budge On Budget
House GOP proposing another stopgap measure to keep government open, with more cuts. The Hill: "Republicans have not revealed the precise cuts in the new short-term continuing resolution, but Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said the GOP is looking at earmarks."
Speaker Boehner refusing to offer any concessions. The Hill: "...Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on House Republicans to budge from their demand for a total of $61 billion in cuts, since Senate Democrats have moved several times to the GOP position ... Boehner refused to 'negotiate with myself' over the amount of cuts that would be acceptable to House Republicans. He shot down an idea floated in the Senate to widen current funding debate to include entitlement spending."
Shutdown's impact on retirees and disabled detailed by House Dems: "As many as 400,000 people nationwide would not have their retirement, survivors, and Medicare applications processed this year, resulting in a large backlog of unprocessed retirement and survivor claims for the first time in SSA history; As many as 290,000 people nationwide would not have their initial disability benefit applications processed, which means disabled workers, who already wait months for their applications to be processed, will wait an average of 30 days longer."
Robert Reich argues President is following wrong strategy in budget debate: "...many in the Obama White House have concluded that the president should follow Clinton’s campaign script — distancing himself from congressional Democrats, embracing further deficit reduction ... [But the] 1991-1992 recession was relatively mild as recessions go ... President Obama won’t be as fortunate ... he must convince Americans that public spending during the next few years is necessary to get the economy moving, reduce the long-term debt as a portion of the total economy, and get jobs back."
Republicans face backlash for cutting Head Start. NYT: "Among programs chosen by Republicans for large cuts, Head Start is perhaps the most visible and popular. During town hall meetings during the last Congressional recess, many voters across the country, some carrying their children, pleaded for the program. Editorial boards have zeroed in on cuts to Head Start as draconian."
Senate Budget Cmte Chair Kent Conrad presses Pentagon for real cuts. The Hill: "...he then criticized Defense Secretary Robert Gates for taking that freed-up money 'and putting it elsewhere' within the Pentagon’s budget. 'That’s not a change ... Can’t DOD come up with savings that are net savings?' ... he warned the Pentagon would have to accept more cuts soon."
Much more budget battle to come this year. Politico: "The divisive spending cut debate this week is blending into a high-stakes debt-limit vote in the next month or two, which will transition into a spring-long Fiscal 2012 budget resolution debate, which will give way to a summer of talk over how to slash and cut a dozen appropriations bills."
House Budget Chair Paul Ryan planning big Medicare cuts. AP: "... the Wisconsin lawmaker and chairman of the House Budget Committee said the House Republicans' budget proposal for the 2012 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 will propose fundamental changes to Medicare and Medicaid ... Ryan offered no specifics, saying details are still being hashed out.
"GOP Efforts To Defund Health Law Will Increase Federal Spending" reports CBO. Wonk Room's Igor Volsky: "CBO explains that eliminating discretionary funding in 2011 would delay or postpone the completion of regulatory processes for ongoing programs, new programs, and reduce 'compliance with changes to the tax code.' Consequently, the agency would not seek to recoup Medicare overpayments ... or benefit from all of the savings of delivery reforms ... The IRS would also be prevented from administering tax credits and taxes, resulting in 'some underpayment ...'"
DE Gov. Jack Markell says businesses aren't focuses on tax cuts, in W. Post oped: "... what I hear most from business leaders is that they want the government to continue to improve our schools, reduce the time it takes to issue permits and licenses, enhance our transportation infrastructure, protect our arts community, strengthen linkages between our institutions of higher education and local companies, and be responsive."
Passage Of Wisconsin Law Only The Beginning
Wisconsin law may fuel both sides on the debate over public workers. Chicago Tribune: "The vote is expected to intensify bitter fights in capitols from Idaho to Indiana, emboldening other budget-cutting Republican governors to press ahead with anti-union legislation. But it also is likely to galvanize unions and their Democratic allies. Since Republican senators in Wisconsin approved the bill Wednesday night, the state's Democratic Party took in more than $300,000."
Six Wisconsin Republicans targeted for recalls. HuffPost: "...three were considered top tier “gets:” Sen. Randy Hopper (District 18) who won his last election by 184 votes, Sen. Alberta Darling (District 8) who won her last election with 51 percent of the vote, and Sen. Dan Kapanke (District 32) who also won his last election with 51 percent of the vote, in a district where President Obama won 61 percent of the vote in 2008. The other three lawmakers on the list were Sen. Robert Cowles (District 2), Sheila Harsdorf (District 10), and Luther Olsen (District 14) ... the prevailing fear within the labor community was that without a sufficient punishment, other Republican officials in different states would follow suit."
Unions aren't driving public pension shortfalls, reports NYT: "Despite the arguments of some Republican governors and popular perception, the places with the most unionized work forces are not necessarily the ones with the most generous pensions, according to a new study ... The idea that public pensions may cost more than expected angers many union officials. They say economists like Mr. Rauh are trying to frighten workers, or build resentment among taxpayers so that public pension funds will be scrapped and replaced with something less generous."
The cost of public sector workers has gone down over the last 20 years. Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo: "...public employee costs have fallen as a percentage of state budgets ... As the Roosevelt’s Institute’s Mike Konczal found, the housing bubble and negative home equity are better predictors of a state’s budget problems than public sector union membership."
Presidential Presser On Energy Prices
President Obama holds a press conference at 11:15 AM ET to address gas price increases reports CNN.
President not expected to tap emergency oil reserves, reports WSJ.
House subcommittee approves bill to ban EPA from cutting carbon emissions, reports NYT: "...the administration’s challenge is to protect the regulatory authority it does have to act on greenhouse gases by stopping the Republican anti-E.P.A. steamroller. 'I think the votes are there to uphold a presidential veto, if it comes to that,' [Sen. Jeff] Bingaman said. 'But I’m not certain.'"
Congressional Republicans try to scrap ban on inefficient light bulbs. AP: "Despite some GOP claims to the contrary, the 2007 law does not ban traditional incandescent light bulbs. Instead it requires new bulbs to use 25 to 30 percent less energy beginning in 2012 ... A February poll by USA Today found that nearly three out of four Americans have purchased energy-efficient light bulbs and 84 percent said they were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with them."
Lighting standards have long fueled innovation, not restricted choice, notes Roger Pielke in NYT oped: "...in 1901, the United States became the last major economic power to establish an agency to set technological standards. The result was a boom in product innovation in all aspects of life during the 20th century. Today we can go to our hardware store and choose from hundreds of light bulbs that all conform to government-mandated quality and performance standards ... Without similar requirements to manufacture more technologically advanced products, American companies risk seeing the overseas markets for their products shrink while innovative goods from other countries flood the domestic market."
GOP Sen. Rand Paul blames government official for his faulty toilets. ABC quotes: "Frankly, my toilets don’t work in my house. And I blame you and people like you who want to tell me what I can install in my house."
House Pushes End Of Mortgage Aid
House votes to end foreclosure assistance. W. Post: "The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bob Dold (R-Ill.), would end the FHA's short-refinance program ... The program has used only $50 million of the more than $8 billion that has been set aside for it, leading to criticism from Republicans that it ought to be terminated and the money used to pay down the federal deficit ... A second foreclosure-assistance measure, H.R. 836, would end the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Emergency Homeowners' Relief Program, an initiative that was created in 1975 but had remained unfinanced until the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act reauthorized it last summer. A vote on that bill is expected on Friday."
Internal Fed review finds no wrongful foreclosures, consumers groups challenge methodology. HuffPost: "The Fed's findings seem to support claims from the banking industry, which has admitted to sloppy practices but has maintained that the homeowners whose homes have been repossessed were substantially behind on their payments ... [Kristen] Keefe, who represents troubled borrowers, argued that the definition [of wrongful foreclosure] should be expanded to include foreclosures in which the wrong party brought the foreclosure action or cases that involve significant errors in foreclosure documents, like an inflated past-due amount, for example. Other consumer advocates at Thursday's public meeting appeared to agree."
