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 Mortgage Crisis Dwarfs Almost Everything
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "By the time you read this, there will have been approximately 8,500 foreclosure actions in this country, more than one thousand every hour during the working day. By the time you read this, homes in the United States will have lost more than $13 million dollars in value. During a 24-hour day, this figure comes out to more than $500,000 an hour. By the time you read this, homeowners will have paid $750 million in mortgage payments for non-existent housing value- that is, the amount on their mortgages that disappeared when the bubble burst - according to our estimate. By the time you read this, the nation's bankers will have earned nearly $400 million, of which $56 million will be bonus money."
Major Cuts May Avert Shutdown
Tentative agreement for $33B in spending cuts for 2011 to avert shutdown. The Hill: "The $33 billion would be close to the cuts first proposed by House GOP leaders, who moved to $61 billion in proposed cuts under pressure from freshmen in their conference. Policy language defunding the new healthcare law and Planned Parenthood, which conservatives have insisted should be in a final deal, remains a sticking point."
"If approved, the deal would be the largest single-year budget cut in U.S. history," notes W. Post.
WH tries to box Boehner in. Politico: "'We’re working off the same number now,' Biden said ... 'Obviously, the difference in composition of that number' ... Biden’s high-profile comments could complicate life for Boehner, who will have a tough time selling the proposal to his caucus and already faces a tea party rally—demanding more cuts—on Thursday ... the speaker reserved the right to demand more reductions, depending on the fate of funding limitations and policy riders ..."
Both sides trying to protect certain priorities. Politico: "There was already resistance from the House side about any more cuts from its Defense figure. At the same time, the administration is pursuing its own added requests for an estimated $1 billion in presidential priorities such as Obama’s 'Race to the Top' education reforms and science spending."
Unknown if Tea Party will go along. NYT: "Top lawmakers and aides said they could not predict whether the bulk of House Republicans could be persuaded by the House speaker, John A. Boehner, and his chief lieutenants to back a compromise, which would no doubt be attacked by conservatives who do not want the party to give any ground. 'The big question is whether Boehner will split the conference,' said Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho and a veteran member of the Appropriations Committee."
House Majority Leader Cantor tries to shift blame for shutdown with utterly ridiculous bill. W. Post's Dana Milbank: "Majority Leader Eric Cantor, announcing this 'Prevention of Government Shutdown Act,' told reporters that if the Senate 'does not act, H.R. 1' — that’s the $61 billion of cuts favored by Republican freshmen — 'becomes the law of the land.' Just like that! After several questions about this proposal, Cantor admitted that for his scheme to work, the Senate would first have to agree to surrender its constitutional authority. This seems unlikely."
Refusing to raise the debt limit and causing default is unconstitutional, argues Thomas Geoghegan in Politico oped: "...Article I, Section 10, prohibits states from impairing the obligation of contracts. Nowhere in Article I does it give Congress the power to do what is forbidden to the states. Congress has never had the power to set a debt ceiling or trigger a default to get out of paying its debts. If there is even the slightest question, the 14th Amendment denies anyone — including Congress — the power to default on the debt or ruin the credit of the United States."
House Looks To Whack Medicare In 2012 Budget
House GOP 2012 budget will hit Medicare, but avoid Social Security. The Hill: "It will not back specific benefit cuts to Social Security or suggest raising the retirement age, sources said. Instead, it will lay out the problems with the program and suggest authorizing committees tackle the specifics ... [Budget Chair Paul] Ryan’s budget will propose that the federal share of Medicaid be converted into a block grant. ... On Medicare, the budget will propose a modified version of what has become known as the Ryan-Rivlin voucher proposal [in which] citizens who turn 65 in 2021 or later would not enroll in the current Medicare program but instead would receive a voucher to buy private health insurance."
Time's Kate Pickert suggests President's health reform law aids part of Ryan's Medicare plan: "In the past, a major problem with kicking 65- and 66-year-olds out of Medicare – i.e. raising the retirement age – was that they could never buy insurance on the open market. It would be way too expensive, if not completely unavailable. But ... beginning in 2014, no private insurer will be able to refuse coverage to anyone and they won't be able to set premiums based on risk."
House GOPers accuse AARP of profiting off of health reform. W. Post: "Two GOP members of the House Ways and Means Committee released a report Wednesday alleging that the nation’s largest seniors group stands to gain financially from the Affordable Care Act, because the law could result in greater demand for supplemental Medicare policies that carry the AARP stamp of approval ... , the Ways and Means health and oversight subcommittees have scheduled a joint hearing Friday to grill AARP officials about the organization’s financial ventures ... AARP President Lee Hammond said Wednesday that the organization 'fully rejects' the Republican allegations."
Dean Baker exposes sleight-of-hand by Social Security opponents in FT oped: "...any number of valuable social programmes disliked by the right – be they benefits for veterans, support for early years education, or foreign aid – could be lumped together with Medicare and Medicaid, to show that the growth in cost of the three programmes combined is also out of control."
Senate Dems consider pushing tax increases on wealthy for 2012 budget. The Hill: "Democrats want to take the offensive and propose higher tax rates for millionaires, companies that move factories overseas and wealthy people who make charitable contributions. "
Major Bailout Disclosure Today
Fed to make major bailout disclosure today. Bloomberg: "Today, the Fed is set to disclose which banks borrowed from its discount window during the darkest moments of the 2008-09 financial crisis. This unprecedented view of the emergency loans the Fed extended to hundreds of banks is the result of a March 21 Supreme Court decision that left intact lower court rulings ... Banks have been free to use it without publicly revealing the fact since the Fed’s 1913 birth."
Treasury touts TARP profit, as IG criticizes "too-big-to-fail" impact. NYT: "... Treasury officials laid claim to an eventual $23.6 billion gain for taxpayers on the entire rescue program, despite doubts from skeptics about just how Washington crunched the numbers ... Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the bailout program, greeted the lower cost estimates as 'good news,' but warned that the 'most significant legacy may be the exacerbation of the problems posed by "too big to fail," particularly given the manner in which Treasury executed the bailout.'"
Bumps in road to foreclosure fraud settlement. NYT: "Several Republican attorney generals are accusing their colleagues of overreaching in their attempt to bring the banks under control, while at least one Democrat, Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, has expressed concern that any deal would immunize the banks from future legal action ... Lengthy negotiations work to the banks’ advantage, critics say ..."
NYT edit board rips Fed for fattening up the banks: "The Federal Reserve recently gave the all-clear for several banks to increase dividends and expand share buybacks ... The dividend-boosting banks that were too big to fail before the crisis are even bigger now ... When it comes to redress and reward, bank shareholders should be at the back of the line, behind taxpayers who stand behind too-big-to-fail banks and behind homeowners who are bearing the brunt of a housing debacle for which banks bear considerable responsibility."
SEC seeks compromise on exec pay standards. W. Post: "The five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission gave their preliminary endorsement Wednesday to a proposal that would ostensibly require executive pay to be set by independent members of corporate boards. But the SEC proposed leaving details to another group of rulemakers, the stock exchanges ... J. Robert Brown Jr., a professor at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law who specializes in corporate governance, said the SEC passed up an opportunity to draft standards that would protect investors."
WH aides reach out to U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wall St. reform: "[Gene] Sperling and [Elizabeth] Warren stressed areas where the administration and business could cooperate. Sperling said the administration is open to improving regulations being put in place as a result of the Dodd-Frank legislation passed last year to overhaul financial oversight. He did not name a particular regulation."
Ohio Latest To Strip Civil Servant Rights
Anti-union bill squeaks through OH legislature. NYT: "The bill would bar public employees from striking and would prohibit binding arbitration for police officers and firefighters. It would allow bargaining over wages, but not health coverage and pensions and would allow public-employee unions to bargain only when the public employer chose to do so. Numerous unions and Democrats were vowing to sponsor a statewide referendum, probably this November, to overturn the legislation."
WH threatens to veto House measure to weaken ability for rail and airline workers to organize reports HuffPost.
Obama Takes "All Of The Above" Energy Tack
Obama pushes "all of the above" energy independence plan. USA Today: "Obama said the nation must: Tap into the nation's large reserves of natural gas ... Increase reliance on renewable biofuels made from ethanol, switch grass, wood chips and biomass ... Decrease reliance on oil by making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient ... Continue investing in high-speed rail and mass transit ... He also made a plug for nuclear energy — as long as it's safe."
Energy plan a step backwards argues Time's Bryan Walsh: "Like so much else in the President's energy plan, the [Clean Energy Standard] is defining down—from a strategy based around capping greenhouse gas emissions and explicitly supporting renewable energy, to something that looks more like 'anything but coal.'"
Climate Progress' Joe Romm scoffs at pledge to cut oil imports by one-third: "Obama calls for a one-third cut in oil imports by 2025 from 2008 levels of 11.1 million barrels a day. But the EIA reports that net imports for have averaged 9.0 MBD for the first two months of 2011 ... We only need to hit 7.4 to achieve Obama’s goal!"
Vote on anti-EPA amendment delayed in Senate. The Hill: "...it remained unclear Wednesday exactly which order the amendments would come up in and whether there would be votes on three Democratic alternative amendments that would limit EPA’s climate authority."
Tea Party Carries Corporate Water
Tea Party fronting for corporate agenda. NYT: "...a Tea Party group in the United States, the Institute for Liberty, has vigorously defended the freedom of a giant Indonesian paper company to sell its wares to Americans without paying tariffs ... it is in keeping with a succession of pro-business campaigns — promoting commercial space flight, palm oil imports and genetically modified alfalfa — that have occupied the Institute for Liberty’s recent agenda."
Sen. John Kerry and U.S. Chamber of Commerce president pen joint Politico oped supporting infrastructure bank: "The answer is to remove the politics, recognize the reality of the U.S. deficit and acknowledge that the private sector, not the federal government, is the chief economic engine. An American infrastructure bank would then be able to access private capital and revitalize and expand networks that connect us to each other and the world, as well as to the resources essential for business and everyday life."
Economist Alan Krueger argues employment-population ratio more important than jobless rate: "...the employment-to-population rate has hardly budged since reaching a low of 58.2 percent in December 2009 ... Even in the expansion from 2002 to 2007 the share of the population employed never reached the peak of 64.7 percent it attained before the March-November 2001 recession ... we weren’t creating enough jobs long before the recession that began in December 2007."
