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: We Need An Independent, Non-Party Movement
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "First House Republicans proposed thirty two billion dollars in cuts. The President offered six and a half billion. The House passed a bill cutting sixty billion. Then the Tea Party and demanded one hundred billion. Now we're told that everybody has agreed to a 'compromise' number: thirty-three billion dollars. That's just one billion more than the Republicans in Congress originally demanded. Way to negotiate, Democrats! That's why we need an independent movement that will fight for the public's best interests."
New Ad Exposes Rep. Cantor Plan: Social Security "Cannot Exist"
Campaign for America's Future releases ad to air in House Majority Leader's district playing tape of his statement that Social Security "cannot exist if we want America to be what we want America to be."
Rep. Jan Schakowsky slams Cantor attempt to disavow comments. The Hill: "Schakowsky continued to press a liberal attack on comments Cantor made this week that Social Security 'cannot exist' in the future. Cantor’s office has said he misspoke. Asked about this, Schakowsky said 'it might be some sort of Freudian slip where Cantor revealed what he really thinks.'"
216K New Jobs In March
216,000 new jobs in March. Bloomberg: "Record exports and gains in business and consumer spending are prompting companies like Chrysler Group LLC and Kohl’s Corp. (KSS) to boost staff, helping the U.S. weather the highest energy prices in more than two years. The improving economy encouraged Federal Reserve policy makers last month to signal they were unlikely to extend bond purchases beyond June."
More economic hurdles loom. NYT: "...a surge in energy and food prices, with the possibility of disruptions in oil production in the Middle East continuing to weigh on the financial markets. State and local governments have also been shedding jobs as they grapple with budget woes."
Statement from CAF's Roger Hickey, "We Need To Create More Jobs": "...even if jobs continue to grow each month by 216,000 new jobs. It will still take years to replace the jobs lost in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Today’s numbers might get economists excited, but if you are an American without a job, they won’t put food on the table."
The Republican plan is to "liquidate labor" says NYT's Paul Krugman: "Here’s the [GOP] report’s explanation of how layoffs would create jobs: 'A smaller government work force increases the available supply of educated, skilled workers for private firms, thus lowering labor costs.' [In other words,] by increasing unemployment ... we can drive down wages, which would encourage hiring. There is, if you think about it, an immediate logical problem here: Republicans are saying that job destruction leads to lower wages, which leads to job creation. But won’t this job creation lead to higher wages, which leads to job destruction, which leads to ...?"
Presidential jobs adviser, and GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt under fire. W. Post: "First, a nuclear plant in Japan using GE technology was at risk of melting down. Then, a news report raised questions about why GE paid no federal taxes last ... Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn, said: 'The fact that Immelt holds a high-profile administration position is shameful'"
Florida may pass harshest cut to jobless aid in the country. NYT: " Like the law signed in Michigan on Monday, the measure [passed by the FL House] would reduce the number of weeks the unemployed could collect benefits from the standard 26 weeks to 20. [Then it] takes it one step further by tying benefits to the unemployment rate. If the rate falls, so do the number of weeks of benefits."
New coal plants don't deliver many new jobs. NYT: "The analysis looked at the six largest new coal-fired power plants to come online between 2005 and 2009 ... only a little over half, or 56 percent of every 1,000 jobs projected, appeared to be actually created as a result of the coal plants’ coming online. And in four of the six counties, the projects delivered on just over a quarter of the jobs projected."
OH Gov. tries to kill another federally funded transportation project, the Cincinnati streetcar. Stateline: "Cincinnati officials had hoped to break ground this spring. Now, that plan is in doubt. Ohio Governor John Kasich wants to block $52 million — one-third of the construction cost — that had been designated for the project. If Kasich succeeds, [it] would be the third time since he won election in November that he has blocked federal money for public transportation in Ohio."
UAW gains members. NYT: "[The union] gained members last year for the first time since 2005 ... membership grew 6 percent ... General Motors, Ford and the Chrysler Group each created thousands of jobs last year ... [The UAW also has been] organizing employees of casinos and other businesses outside of manufacturing."
Boehner Says "No Agreement" Yet
"No agreement" yet says Speaker Boehner. Time's Alex Altman: "An overwhelming majority of Americans want House Republicans and Senate Democrats to strike a deal that keeps the government's lights on. But any pact Boehner can broker risks running afoul of the movement that helped propel his party to power ... Pressed about the prospect of a rebellion, [Boehner] said he was 'not very interested' in splitting with his Tea Party wing. If he wants to keep the government open, he may have to."
Tea Party losing influence in GOP during budget debate, suggests McClatchy: "Congressional leaders are inching closer to a deal ... and pretty much ignoring the spending-cut absolutists of the tea party ... Tea party activists had hoped to send a loud message ... at a long-scheduled Capitol Hill rally ... Instead, only a few hundred people showed up ..."
Two million federal workers anxious about disruption from shutdown. W. Post: "Parents fret over whether the day-care center at headquarters will stay open. (Yes.) Employees who have planned business trips want to know how — and whether — they’ll get home. (It depends.) ... And everywhere workers wonder whether they will be paid. (There’s no guarantee.)"
House conservatives indicate they won't back compromise. NYT: "'That’s pretty small,' said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, referring to the $33 billion spending reduction that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Wednesday evening was the target generally agreed to ... At a two hour-plus Tea Party rally outside the Capitol, some members, raising their fists to the chants of 'Cut it or shut it,' suggested they would stand firm."
Huge coalition of 139 groups demands right-wing policy riders be scrubbed from any budget deal. HuffPost: "The letter [is] signed by, among others, prominent organizations from the progressive, labor, health, and environmental advocacy worlds..."
Enviros nervous WH won't protect EPA in budget deal. The Hill: "The White House reaffirmed its opposition Thursday to accepting in a spending package provisions that block fiscal year 2011 funding for implementing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules. But activists want a really, really strong statement from the White House ... White House press secretary Jay Carney said Thursday that spending bills are not the place for 'contentious ideological or politicized issues that honestly will derail the process.' But he stopped short of a veto threat ..."
Coal state Sen. Jay Rockefeller predicts no anti-EPA amendment will pass the Senate as part of small biz bill. The Hill: "A Republican proposal to permanently block Environmental Protection Agency climate regulations has no chance of being signed into law, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said ... Rockefeller suggested his bill [for a temporary ban] may not be able to garner the 60 votes .... He said his bill had broad Republican support until lawmakers rallied around the [permanent ban.]"
Senate GOP caucus unites around constitutional amendment for radical austerity. CNN: "The amendment would require a balanced budget, a two-thirds majority to raise taxes, and three-fifths to increase the debt limit. Additionally, the proposal would limit government spending to 18% of GDP, which is below the average of 21 percent over the last 41 years..."
GOP Plans $1T Cut To Medicaid
GOP budget to slash health care for the poor by $1T. Politico: "House Republicans are planning to cut roughly $1 trillion over 10 years from Medicaid ... as part of their fiscal 2012 budget, which they will unveil early next month ... It’s not clear whether [House Budget Chair Paul] Ryan envisions pursuing his prescription for Medicaid [block grants] or a different formula for restructuring the program."
Likely presidential candidate Newt Gingrich appears to concede Medicaid block grant would lead to less people receiving health insurance. Wonk Room's Igor Volsky: "Gingrich was asked by CNN reporter Peter Hamby how he would respond to criticism that block grants would lead states to 'throw people off the books.' The former speaker conceded that some would, saying 'I think different states will do different things.'"
House budget cuts to HIV programs show that the era of "compassionate conservatism" is over. TNR's Jonathan Cohn: "Even if compassionate conservatism was mostly hype, it said something about Bush, his allies, and their supporters that they thought the hype was worth creating. Today, by contrast, Republican leaders are perfectly content to walk away from these programs and many others without so much as acknowledging the consequences, let alone addressing them."
HHS proposes new Medicare savings. USA Today: "Affordable care organizations could save Medicare $960 million over the next three years ... Under the proposed system, which would begin in 2012, hospitals and other medical facilities serving more than 5,000 Medicare patients could form teams of primary care doctors, nurse practitioners and specialists to coordinate a patient's care. The patient would still be able to choose his or her own doctor, and the system is voluntary."
Medicare proposal major component of reform plan to cut deficit. Politico: "The new program, which starts in 2012, is a centerpiece of the experiments in the law that focus on 'bending the cost curve' ... While news releases from industry groups poured in with reaction to the ACO regulation — a majority of them cautiously optimistic — most legislators were quiet."
Fed Quietly Helped Foreign Banks During Crisis
"Foreign Banks Tapped Fed’s Secret Lifeline Most at Crisis Peak" reports Bloomberg: "U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s two-year fight to shield crisis-squeezed banks from the stigma of revealing their public loans protected a lender to local governments in Belgium, a Japanese fishing-cooperative financier and a company part-owned by the Central Bank of Libya."
More digging through Fed data needed, says Naked Capitalism: "The central bank quite deliberately responded to the request by providing the information in the most disaggregated, difficult to work with form imaginable."
First Recall Petition Filed In Wisconsin
Wisconsin Dems have enough signatures for their first recall petition. Politico: "Recall organizer Pat Scheller told the La Crosse Tribune that volunteers have collected more than the 15,588 signatures needed to trigger a recall and will file the petition in Madison on Friday."
"Walker’s Attacks on Workers Creates Surge of Interest in Unions" reports AFL-CIO's James Parks.
Cops and firefighters turning on GOP. Politico: "It’s a political shift that could have significant repercussions, and not just because these right-leaning union members vote for Republicans in sizable numbers. Angry cops and firefighters make for bad PR ..."
