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: Rewriting Cantor's Cant On Jobs
OurFuture.org's Isaiah Poole: "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Monday unveiled what his office called a 'pro-growth economic plan.' If the speech only exemplified one of the basic definitions of 'cant'—'insincere or almost meaningless talk used merely from convention or habit'—that would be bad enough. But this speech was worse in its peddling of false propaganda in the service of a failed ideology. It badly needs a rewrite. So I've taken a few choice excerpts from the speech in an effort to take them from the level of cant to something closer to what Cantor said he was offering—an actual 'pro-growth economic plan.'"
Public Wants Budget Deal Putting Jobs First
CBS poll shows public wants budget compromise putting jobs first: "... about eight in 10 Americans would like to see both sides strike a compromise rather than let the federal government shut down ... More than nine in 10 Americans call the federal budget deficit a serious problem ... . However, just 7 percent named the deficit as the most important problem facing the country today ... Sixty-three percent said creating jobs is more important than cutting spending ..."
Newt Gingrich counsels House GOP to push harder for deep cuts. The Hill quotes: "I think they need to recognize that the country wants them to be more willing to take risks, and more willing to push change ... when people say to me boy, [the 1995 shutdown] was really politically expensive, my question is to who? Our base wanted somebody who was serious..."
Robert Reich debunks the "Republicans' Big Lies About Jobs": "After George W. Bush cut taxes on the rich, far fewer jobs were created than after Bill Clinton raised them in the 1990s ... American corporations don't need tax cuts. They're sitting on over $1.5 trillion of cash right now. ... Meager wages and benefits are reducing the spending power of tens of millions of American workers ... reasonable regulation is necessary to avoid everything from nuclear meltdowns to oil spills to mine disasters to food contamination."
Employment declining among new college graduates. New Deal 2.0's Mike Konczal: "... if young people with college degrees can’t survive in the post-recession era, nobody can. And this explodes the idea that education alone, instead of monetary and fiscal policy, is the way out of our current high unemployment rate."
GOP leaders to meet with Dems pushing legislation to help 99ers. HuffPost: "Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) introduced legislation earlier this year to provide 14 additional weeks of unemployment benefits ... Lee and Scott later announced they'd be open to finding budget cuts to offset the cost of the benefits ... Given that concession, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) have agreed to meet..."
Rep. Cantor embraces huge corporate tax giveaway in "growth" plan. Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo: "Potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R) earlier this month endorsed giving multinational corporations a huge tax break by allowing them to bring money they have stashed offshore back to the U.S. at a dramatically lower tax rate ... A group of multinational corporations have launched a quiet lobbying campaign ... they seem to have won another convert in House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) ..."
W. Post's Ezra Klein fears Rep. Cantor will succeed in doing the multinationals bidding: "There’s a lot of money riding on it, so there’s a lot of money behind it. 'The pro-holiday coalition has quietly assembled an all-star lobbying and communications team,' reports [Business Week.]"
Republicans consider cutting food stamps in 2012 budget. The Hill: "The [conservative Republican Study Committee] bill would set back overall welfare spending for most poverty programs to 2007 levels, plus inflation. The proposal includes food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid [and] the RSC proposal would create a tougher work requirement to receive food stamps."
Dems charge GOP budget cuts will raise gas prices. HuffPost: "[Dems] argued that Republicans should protect funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ... 'The CFTC serves as an important "cop on the beat," working to protect American consumers by cracking down on manipulation and other market abuses that can drive up oil prices,' the letter reads."
New GOP congresspeople suffering in polls. Democracy Corps: "A new survey by Democracy Corps in 50 of the most competitive battleground Congressional districts – nearly all of which gave a majority to Obama in the last presidential election – shows the new Republican majority very much in play in 2012 ... These incumbents, identified by name, have an average approval rating of 35 percent across the 50 districts..."
Health Reform Polls Stagnant
Health reform implementers try to race past repealers. W. Post: "...federal officials are working at a fevered pace, writing regulations, planning innovations for the delivery of care, and giving states grants and guidance. That complex work is 'even a little ahead' of expectations, said Urban Institute President Robert D. Reischauer, an authority on health-care policy. [But] Reischauer said, the future 'is very uncertain right now. . . . Today, I wouldn’t give much more than a 50-50 chance that all of the critical components of the Affordable Care Act will be alive and well . . . . Court decisions, defunding efforts or actual repeal of some major provisions could eviscerate the dreams of universal coverage and restrained cost growth.'"
Mitt Romney pledges a 50-state waiver on health reform law. Boston Globe: "'If I were president, on Day One I would issue an executive order paving the way for Obamacare waivers to all 50 states,' the would-be Republican presidential candidate said ... Romney presided over Massachusetts when, in 2006, it enacted the nation's first universal health care law. ... Last year, Obama signed a federal law modeled on the same principles ..."
Public opinion on health reform hasn't budged. CNN: " ... 37 percent of Americans support the measure, with 59 percent opposed. That's basically unchanged from last March ... about a quarter of the health care bill's opponents disliked the bill because it was not liberal enough ... Forty-three percent oppose it because it was too liberal."
More Midwest Backlash Against Conservatives
Michigan's new anti-union "financial martial law" bankrolled by billionaires. Mother Jones: "Since 2005, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has urged reforms to Michigan law giving more power and protection to emergency financial managers ... Between 2002 and 2009, the Mackinac Center's donors included the Charles G. Koch Foundation ... the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, established by the parents of Blackwater founder Erik Prince ... and the Walton Family Foundation tablished by Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton..."
Michigan Gov. Synder's approval plummets reports The Reaction.
States grapple with ideological fight over public pension accounting. WSJ: "Some public pension funds are finding themselves caught in a squeeze between actuaries worried about future benefit costs and local governments worried about immediate budgets strains ... Pension funds pay retirement benefits using a combination of investment income and contributions from employees and state and local governments. They use their assumed rate of a return as their "discount rate," which they use to calculate the present value of benefits they owe to retirees in the future. The lower the discount rate, the higher a pension fund's liabilities, possibly requiring higher contributions from local governments ... Joshua Rauh, a finance professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, has argued that public pensions should use a discount rate based on Treasury yields, which for long term bonds are currently about 4% ... Other economists say using a so-called risk-free rate would result in an overfunding of retirement systems because their often stock-heavy investments are likely to earn more than Treasurys. 'In effect, current taxpayers would be paying more so future taxpayers would pay less,' said Dean Baker..."
Nuclear Power Support Drops
Support for nuclear power takes a hit. CBS: "...50 percent of Americans disapprove of building new nuclear plants. That's an increase of 16 points since the question was last asked in 2008 ... [However,] 47 percent say the benefits of nuclear power outweigh the risks, compared to 38 percent who say they do not ... 62 percent say they would oppose the construction of a nuclear plant in their community."
"San Francisco mayor calls for city to go 100% renewable by 2020" reports Grist's Todd Woody.
Interior Dept. announces plan to sell coal reserves in Wyoming. AP: "The mining industry has anticipated the auction of the federal coal reserves ever since companies started applying for them in 2004. It blames the BLM, which is under Salazar's purview, for putting up unnecessary red tape and adding uncertainty to their business. The executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, Marion Loomis, applauded the news that the auctions would move ahead ... Salazar's announcement didn't sit well with environmentalists. The coal will provide 20 times more electricity than the Interior Department committed all last year to develop from renewable sources, said Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians."
Former congressman Bob Inglis argues there should be no contradiction between being conservative and accepting climate science. Green Grok quotes: "This too will pass. McCarthyism passed. Jim and Tammy Faye Baker were ultimately exposed, and I believe that’s what going to happen with a good number of these folks that are in the climate-denial business and making good business out of it temporarily."
Breakfast Sides
New education report shows teachers being unfairly scapegoated. Kansas City Star's Mary Sanchez: "All these assumptions and more are challenged by a new report prepared by McGraw-Hill Research Foundation ... In successful countries, teaching is held in much higher esteem as a profession than in the U.S. ... The U.S. spends more money per pupil than almost all countries studied but lavishes resources on the more economically advantaged schools ..."
Recent Supreme Court decisions tilt away from corporate power. LAT: "[Two new] decisions continue a trend of late in which the high court has confounded its critics by siding with workers and plaintiffs in business cases. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been on the winning side in only one case decided this year, while suffering five losses. ... But legal experts said it was too soon to suggest a true change in direction for the Supreme Court."
FDIC's Sheila Bair seeks to reassure community bankers of Wall St. reform. Reuters: "The FDIC board will lay out a proposal on March 29 on the so-called 'risk retention' rule. The proposal is required by last year's Dodd-Frank financial reform law. It will force loan securitizers to retain in their portfolios at least 5 percent of the value of loans, rather than shifting all of the risk to investors who buy the loans, unless the loans meet certain standards. One of those standards is expected to be a 20 percent down payment from borrowers. Small banks and some lawmakers have complained that 20 percent is too high a bar ... Bair said that community banks should not be affected by the rule because they retain many of the home loans they make, instead of selling them to investors."
House GOP readies Fannie & Freddie bills. The Hill: "Early next week, Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee will unveil at least six bills on Fannie and Freddie, the first step in a concerted effort to extricate the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) from their central role in mortgage services ... The ultimate objective is still to eliminate or privatize Fannie and Freddie..."
