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: TheMiddleClass.org on Ryan Budget: Thumbs Way Down
OurFuture.org's Isaiah Poole: "The House GOP budget catastrophically weakens the safety nets that seniors and other economically vulnerable people depend on for their basic needs, and it does the same to the stepping stones that millions of people depend upon to aid their climb up the economic ladder. At the same time, it would lock in lower tax rates for the wealthiest individuals and corporations, and would take insufficient steps toward ending billions in tax giveaways to corporations and the super-rich."
Hours Away From Shutdown
"There's no deal yet" says House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, this AM.
"I expect an answer in the morning," said President Obama last night.
Republicans still demanding cut-off to family planning organizations and ban on EPA from cutting carbon. NYT: "The policy disputes involved a handful of provisions. One would greatly limit financing for Planned Parenthood and other family-planning providers, in the United States and overseas, and prevent the District of Columbia from using its tax dollars to help poor women pay for abortions. Also at issue were measures that would restrict the regulatory powers of the Environmental Protection Agency ... by preventing the agency from enforcing significant portions of the Clean Air Act and regulating carbon emissions. The parties continued to spar over spending levels as well."
No deal with right-wing policy riders, says Sen. Chuck Schumer. The Hill quotes: "“Unless they back off those riders it’s going to be impossible, pretty much, to prevent a shutdown."
House passes separate anti-EPA bill, already rejected by Senate reports The Hill.
House GOP passes another stopgap bill with more controversial cuts, in hopes of shifting blame. CNN: "...The measure, which passed 247-181 in a largely party-line vote, funds the Pentagon for the remainder of the current fiscal year. It would also slash federal spending by another $12 billion and includes so-called 'policy riders' that stipulate political and ideological restrictions, such as no government funding for Planned Parenthood. However, Reid declared the short-term extension a 'nonstarter,' and the White House promised a veto..."
Shutdown could hobble already shaky housing market. Politico: "A shutdown of just a few days would cause some inconvenience and delay to FHA mortgage applicants looking to close on a new house — as well as private lenders unsure of whether to approve loans that normally need to be endorsed by the federal government. But experts say a longer delay could profoundly upset the recovering housing market — spoiling time-sensitive mortgage deals and affecting the confidence of the markets."
Shutdown would impact more than 800,000 public sector employees. NYT: "Among the people anxiously waiting to hear if Congress can reach a budget deal are front desk clerks at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, manufacturing executives whose companies supply goods to federal agencies, bank loan officers who make mortgages guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration and Wall Street analysts who depend on a steady flow of government data ... When the government shut down for 20 days in late 1995, the nation’s economic growth was slowed by as much as a full percentage point in that quarter [though the] effect was temporary..."
House GOP Budget Makes No Sense
NYT's Paul Krugman eviscerates House GOP budget: "... the Ryan proposal trumpets the results of an economic projection from the Heritage Foundation [which] has large tax cuts actually increasing revenue by almost $600 billion over the next 10 years ... the proposal calls for spending on items other than Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — but including defense — to fall from 12 percent of G.D.P. last year to 6 percent of G.D.P. in 2022, and just 3.5 percent of G.D.P. in the long run. That last number is less than we currently spend on defense alone ... the House plan assumes that we can cut health-care spending as a percentage of G.D.P. despite an aging population and rising health care costs. The only way that can happen is if those vouchers are worth much less than the cost of health insurance."
Matthew Yglesias on what Rep. Ryan needs Heritage's cooked numbers: "...he’s an Ayn Rand fanatic who believes that any effort, whether public or private, to help the poor is immoral. But it’s difficult to sell that as a political agenda! So instead his argument is that we should do it for the macroeconomic benefits. What benefits? Well, the benefits the Heritage Foundation is pretending the plan will have."
Dean Baker slams David Brooks' fact-challenged defense of Ryan: "He also tries to pass off to NYT readers nonsense from his Tea Party friends: 'The president’s health reform plan relies on a centralized board of technocrats to restrict choices. The Ryan plan relies on a premium support model that would allow individuals to exercise greater control over what sorts of procedures they would not be covered for.' ... if President Obama's plan is viewed as creating death panels, then Mr. Ryan's plan gives seniors a choice of death panels and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, we pay trillions more for this choice."
New poll shows public supports what's in health reform law. Wonk Room's Igor Volsky: " The topline finding is that 72 percent of American adults believe that the system needs a major overhaul, but the majority are also asking for change that will soon be implemented..."
Dem Split Over Debit Card Fees
Dem split on bill to delay imposition of debit card fee cap. The Hill: "K Street sources say Schumer (D-N.Y.) will support legislation sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) that would delay regulations curbing the fees that banks may charge on debit cards. Tester’s bill has strong backing from banking interests in New York. Tester’s bill would weaken legislation strongly backed by Durbin (D-Ill.) [which] passed last year as part of a Wall Street reform bill."
Banks have no case against limiting debit card swipe fees. NDN's Robert Shapiro: "The bipartisan debt and credit card reforms passed last year put the first real limits on how much the card networks and the large banks that issue nearly all cards can charge merchants when a consumer pays with a debit card [which] ould save the average American household some $230 per-year ... When Australia did much the same to cover both credit and debit cards, swipe fees there fell to 0.50 percent — and the system continued to work fine. The new rules are nearly ready to be issued here, and that’s what the banks and credit card networks are working so hard to stop"
