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: Merchants Of Danger
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "The ugly truth, here and in Japan, is this: Unless government regains the will and the ability to regulate private industry, more catastrophes are all but inevitable ... . In the wake of Japan's disaster, two highly visible American CEOs are playing walk-on roles in the crisis: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is reportedly getting ready to travel to Tokyo, and GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt is staying uncharacteristically out of the limelight. Dimon and Immelt, along with US politicians and their Japanese counterparts, are all part of a larger story - the story of what we're losing as government crumbles before the power of corporate influence."
GOP Rules Out Tax Increases For Bipartisan Deficit Deal
GOP leaders rule out any tax increases as part of a deficit reduction deal. The Hill: "...Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) have pledged to Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist they will not support any deficit reduction package that increases taxes."
Reducing the deficit without tax increases is an "absurdity" argues Daily Kos' Jed Lewison: "... there is very little willpower in our nation's capitol to admit this obvious fact. The latest example: a bipartisan letter from 32 Democrats and 32 Republicans ... he letter barely even mentions taxes, and even then, it uses a euphemism ... any serious policy to restore fiscal health would return to Clinton-era tax rates by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire ... we could also immediately adopt Jan Schakowsky's millionaire's tax proposal. Her plan would raise $89 billion for 2011 if adopted immediately, reducing the deficit by 50%"
Cantor Recycles Failed Conservatism For "Growth" Plan
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor proposes new "pro-growth" plan, with same old conservative policies. The Hill: "He proposed reducing the corporate tax rate 'to at least 25% ...' ... He also focused on limiting what he called the explosion in federal regulations that have come into effect since President Obama was inaugurated two years ago ... Cantor revealed that the House would soon vote on a 'bill that requires Congressional approval for any regulation with significant economic impact.'"
Cantor co-opts President Obama's rhetoric. W. Post: "Asked Monday about the choice of 'winning the future,' Cantor’s deputy chief of staff, John Murray responded, 'Does Obama own that? I don’t think so.'"
States Aren't That Broke
"Broke" Wisconsin state government has enough money to hire girlfriend of married Republican legislator. AFL-CIO's Mike Hall: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) says the Badger State is teetering on the brink of financial collapse, yet he finds a spare $150 million for corporate tax breaks and his top aides find a comfy job—with a $12,000 raise—for the girlfriend of one of his staunchest ally’s. Just goes to show you that when Walker and all the other governors who use state budgets as a pretext to push through harsh cuts and strip rights from teachers, nurses, firefighters, it’s not about economics. It’s all about politics."
Gov. Walker's anti-union agenda is a break from his state party's history, notes William Cronon in NYT oped: "When Gov. Gaylord A. Nelson, a Democrat, sought to extend collective bargaining rights to municipal workers in 1959, he did so in partnership with a Legislature in which one house was controlled by the Republicans. Both sides believed the normalization of labor-management relations would increase efficiency and avoid crippling strikes like those of the Milwaukee garbage collectors during the 1950s. Later, in 1967, when collective bargaining was extended to state workers for the same reasons, the reform was promoted by a Republican governor..."
"Governors’ Budgets Are Out, and They Aren’t Pretty" finds CBPP's Erica Williams: "...that many governors’ budgets rely entirely on program cuts rather than using every tool available, like bolstering revenues and tapping any available reserves. As a result, most governors are proposing to keep spending below pre-recession levels (see map), even though states have more kids to educate and more people who need health insurance."
Public Not Actually Opposed To Individual Mandate
Opposition to health insurance individual mandate fades with more facts, Kaiser poll finds. Tapped's Paul Waldman: "It would seem that substantial numbers of people who oppose the individual mandate believe that because of it, they're going to get dropped from their current employer-provided insurance, and have to go shop for some other insurance..."
States which actually want to solve health care problems receive federal funding. Stateline: "In late 2009, Kansas was in the midst of efforts to fix its crumbling Medicaid information technology. Then it got a gift. A few months later, the new federal health care law passed. Because Kansas was already dealing with the IT issue, it earned the title of 'early innovator' from the federal government, and was chosen as one of seven states to share $241 million in grant money ... Now it is only weeks away from hiring a contractor to design and build its health insurance exchange—far ahead of federal deadlines."
Baby Step Toward Clean Energy Bill
Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D) and Lisa Murkowski (I) formally solicit input on possible clean energy standard bill. The Hill: "The paper asks a series of questions, such as whether all utilities should be subject to the standard, how to define what constitutes 'clean' energy that meets the standard, what role efficiency might play, what the economic effects of the standard might be, and many others."
CA judge rules state can't implement cap-and-trade program until further analyzing other alternatives. SF Chronicle: "Conservatives have defeated national cap-and-trade proposals in Congress, but the California legal challenge comes from a different direction - grassroots 'environmental justice' groups that consider the plan too weak."
Power companies increasingly turn to natural gas. NYT: "Given the growing concerns about nuclear power and the constraints on carbon emissions, one bank, Société Générale, called natural gas the fuel of 'no choice.' ... Natural gas is not without problems. To unlock methane from hard shale rocks in the United States, energy companies use hydraulic fracturing, a method that has been criticized on the grounds of polluting water sources ... But energy policy must balance out these hazards with the concerns about nuclear power ..."
"Obama administration approves first post-spill deepwater exploration plan," reports The Hill: "The Interior Department approved Shell Offshore Inc.’s plan under beefed-up environmental reviews established after last year’s catastrophic spill. The approval comes amid constant attacks from Republicans and pro-drilling Democrats that allege Interior is placing too many restrictions on Gulf development."
Breakfast Sides
Fed has to open more books on bailout after Supreme Court move. NYT: "The Fed said it would release detailed information soon about its main emergency aid program, the so-called discount window, breaking a policy of confidentiality that dates to its founding in 1913 ... The disclosures could embarrass some of the nation’s largest banks, which are eager to focus public attention on their renewed profitability, by returning a spotlight to the extent of their dependence on federal aid during the crisis ... [An appeals court] verdict was appealed by the Clearing House Association, which represents 10 of the nation’s largest banks. The Supreme Court rejected that appeal Monday in a brief written order."
Homeland Security Dept. may propose worker ID system to deter hiring of undocumented. W. Post: "If workers had to use the verification systems in place to apply for a mortgage or a bank account, they would not only have to present a Social Security number to an employer, but also answer questions about their personal history and financial background to establish their identity."
