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: Not Needed: An Accountant In Chief
OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "With his Wednesday address to the nation, President Barack Obama enters the lists in the debate over the nation’s deficits. He would be wise to not simply show Americans how we can balance our books but also lay out a strategy for rebuilding our future ... the argument about Medicare is a metaphor for the choice our country faces. We can cater to powerful lobbies and entrenched interests, accept rising costs of a broken system — and seek to balance our books by breaking the promise of guaranteed care for the most vulnerable. Or we can push forward on reform, create a system that gets costs under control and is affordable for all ... we can return to the old economy, accept the decline of the middle class and struggle to balance our books by slashing services and investments. Or we can have the confidence to build a new foundation for our economy..."
President Details Deficit Reduction Plan Today
W. Post previews what the President will propose today: "The White House said Obama’s afternoon speech will lay out four steps to controlling spending without undermining the economy – keeping domestic spending low, finding new cuts in the defense budget, reducing health-care costs and boosting tax revenues. Obama will also invoke elements of his 2012 budget and borrow from recommendations made by the bipartisan fiscal commission, a White House official said. He will say reductions in health-care spending should be accompanied by an effort to improve Medicare and Medicaid."
Time's Michael Crowley speculates: "Don't be surprised if Obama doesn't propose much more [on health care] than malpractice reform and possibly opens the door to some new [Medicare] means-testing for the wealthy ... back in January the White House was reportedly ruling out raising the [Social Security[ retirement age, and it would be surprising to see a dramatic change tomorrow. Obama's language suggests he's more interested in increasing the program's funding, possibly by collecting more in payroll taxes from the wealthy."
NYT rounds up proposals to cut Medicare costs that are under consideration: "Increase the age of eligibility for Medicare to 67 ... Charge co-payments for home health care services ...Require beneficiaries to pay higher premiums. ... Pay a lump sum to doctors and hospitals for all services in a course of treatment or an episode of care ... Reduce Medicare payments to health care providers in parts of the country where spending per beneficiary is much higher than the national average ... Require drug companies to provide additional discounts, or rebates, to Medicare for brand-name drugs bought by low-income beneficiaries..."
AP reminds that Republicans are trying to slash Medicare after accusing Dems of slashing Medicare: " In a postelection reversal, House Republicans are supporting nearly $450 billion in Medicare cuts that they criticized vigorously last fall ... some of the Republican criticism last year was couched in terms of diverting Medicare savings into another program. But much was not, in particular the television commercials..."
Top Dem on House Budget Cmte gives President cover on Simpson-Bowles. TPM: "'I think that the Bowles-Simpson blueprint provides enough running room for the President,' [Rep. Chris] Van Hollen said..."
W. Post's Ezra Klein reports that Simpson-Bowles will not be focus of today's speech: "The White House is telling me that Wednesday’s speech will not [be] 'primarily an embrace of Simpson-Bowles' and 'this will make more sense tomorrow.'"
Speaker Boehner rejects any tax increases for deficit reduction. TPM quotes: "...if the President begins the discussion by saying we must increase taxes on the American people -- as his budget does -- my response will be clear: tax increases are unacceptable and are a nonstarter."
Senate Budget Chair won't wait forever on "Gang Of Six." Politico: "The North Dakota Democrat is threatening to move forward with his own Senate 2012 budget proposal in early May, adding new pressure on the bipartisan group of moderate senators to strike a deal ..."
Eric Alterman charges President with ignoring progressive ideas: "For instance the Fairness in Taxation Act introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, would raise marginal income tax rates to 45 percent for married couples earning over a million bucks a year ... Or Obama might take another route, which would be to do away with the $106,900 threshold for Social Security taxes, and thereby in one stroke, save the system before focusing on finding a fix for Medicare and Medicaid."
Robert Reich urges President to expand Medicare, not cut it: "...what’s the answer? For starters, allow anyone at any age to join Medicare. Medicare’s administrative costs are in the range of 3 percent. That’s well below the 5 to 10 percent costs borne by large companies that self-insure ... In addition, allow Medicare – and its poor cousin Medicaid – to use their huge bargaining leverage to negotiate lower rates with hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies."
MoneyWatch's Mark Thoma warns against cutting too soon: "Short-run budget cuts — even cuts that help us address the long-run budget problem — work against an already highly sluggish recovery ... Ideally the president will propose a set of policies that would become effective down the road when the economy can handle it better..."
TNR's Jonathan Chait argues Obama can cut a better deal in 2013: "... if Obama refuses to accept another extension of the Bush tax cuts on income over $250,000, then Republicans will kill the entire Bush tax cuts for him. That would change the entire course of the budget debate. Restoring Clinton-era revenue levels won't be a huge concession wrested from Republicans at the cost of horrible social policy, it will be a fait accompli. If Obama wants to make another deficit deal after that, maybe reforming the tax code in the process, he can knock himself out. And making a deal coming off a win is likely to find the GOP is a more chastened -- or, at least, less insanely triumphal -- mood."
Republicans Waver On Republican Budget
Some Republicans waffling before vote on House GOP budget. Politico: "...a significant number of Republicans realize that embracing the Ryan plan may be one of the most treacherous votes of the year ... more than a dozen offices either pointed to week-old nonstatements expressing vague support for the plan or refused to indicate whether the member planned to support it on the floor ... only 22 Republicans can vote no if the bill is to pass."
Paul Krugman sums up the House GOP budget: "...the plan has five points — except that only two of those points are real, while the other three are fake. The real points are: 1. Savage cuts in programs that help the needy ... 2. Huge tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy ... The fake points are: 3. 'Base broadening' that makes those tax cuts revenue neutral. Ryan has refused to name a single tax preference that he would, in fact, be willing to get rid of ... 4. Unspecified cuts in spending outside Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that would shrink the government — including defense! — back to 1920s levels. 5. Replacing Medicare with vouchers that would leave most seniors unable to afford insurance."
More Details Emerge On 2011 Budget Deal
2011 budget deal deeply cuts high-speed rail funding. NYT: "...the agreement will not only eliminate financing for high-speed rail this year, but will also take back some of the money that Congress approved for it last year ... The cuts will not bring the rail program to a halt, as there is still unspent rail money that can be used on new projects. But they leave the future of high-speed rail in the United States unclear ..."
Blog For Clean Air laments hits to environmental protection: "EPA, state cleanup, climate programs take big hit in budget deal. The budget deal 'savages' money to states..."
House Majority Leader predicts few GOP defections on budget deal. The Hill: "While GOP officials declined to estimate how many House Republicans will vote no, they are optimistic the figure will be far lower than 54, the number of GOP members who broke ranks on an earlier stopgap spending bill. "
Dems Criticize Foreclosure Fraud Settlement
House Dems push back against proposed terms of foreclosure fraud settlement. NYT: "Fourteen mortgage servicers have signed consent orders with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other regulators, promising to improve their processing systems and to treat delinquent borrowers better ... the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform formally asked regulators on Tuesday to put them off ... House Democratic members plan to introduce legislation on Wednesday that offers what they say is a better fix ... require lenders to evaluate homeowners for modifications before initiating foreclosure, create an appeals process for those who are denied modifications, place limits on foreclosure-related fees and require servicers to prove they have the legal right to foreclose."
Uncertainty over who will run Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. WSJ: "The White House has unsuccessfully reached out to possible nominees, including Democratic former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Democratic former Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman and attorneys general from Iowa, Illinois and Massachusetts ... Among those under consideration for the post include Democratic former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Federal Reserve Board member Sarah Bloom Raskin ... the bigger challenge appears to be huge support for [Elizabeth] Warren, whom many don't want to upstage."
