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: John Walsh Must Resign
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Of course, he's not that John Walsh, the America's Most Wanted guy. Unlike his namesake, this John Walsh doesn't seem to want to catch wrongdoers. Instead of pursuing criminals and exposing them to public scrutiny, Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh exposed his agency to public embarrassment by attempting to do the opposite ... He is 'back-dating' foreclosure fraud, claiming it only surfaced last September. That's either because he intended to mislead his audience, or because he lacks a fundamental understanding of the most urgent matter before his agency. He used slippery language to persuade some Senators that only a 'small number' of foreclosures were improper, was forced to concede it was a misleading statement, and then used the same language again. He either did that despite the fact that it misled people once before, or because it misled people once before."
Anger Rising At GOP Town Halls
House Budget Chair Paul Ryan faces angry constituents at Wisconsin town hall. The Hill: "Protesters chanted 'Ryan stop lying!' at the House Budget Committee chairman outside his event in Kenosha, Wis. and several members of the capacity crowd interrupted Ryan as he defended his budget plan ... Similar incidents have occurred at other Republican lawmakers' constituent meet-and-greet events in key states like Pennsylvania and Florida."
Swing district freshman Rep. Daniel Webster also faces "beyond tough" town hall crowd. CNN: "House Republicans back home for congressional recess have been getting some tough questions about plans to overhaul Medicare, but GOP freshman Daniel Webster's town hall meeting in Orlando, Florida, Tuesday was beyond tough - it turned into a chaotic scene. Webster used charts and graphs to try to explain the controversial House GOP budget he voted for, but he could barely be heard over angry yelling - mostly about the Medicare proposal."
GOP Rep. Allen West starts screening questions at his town tall reports HuffPost.
House Speaker Boehner tries to distance himself from House Republican budget. WSJ: "House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said he is 'not wedded' to Mr. Ryan’s plan to redo Medicare. 'Paul Ryan has an idea that’s certainly worth consideration,' Mr. Boehner said in an interview with ABC News. 'I’m for it. It’s our idea. It’s Paul [Ryan]’s idea. Now other people have other ideas. I’m not wedded to one single idea.'"
House budget gives President new opening with seniors, argues Politico: "'It finally gives us an argument to make with seniors… It’s a godsend,' said a Democratic operative allied with Obama who sees the issue as a way to make up lost ground with seniors in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Florida."
Mark Thoma rips House plan for Medicare vouchers in The Fiscal Times: "Our experience with HMOs in the 1990s shows that insurance companies are not very good at controlling health care costs within this type of a system ... More recent experience with the Medicare Advantage program where costs have risen instead of falling also shows that the private sector is not the silver bullet for cost control. Thus, it’s not the vouchers per se that are the problem; it’s the implicit reliance upon insurance companies to enforce cost control that comes with them."
The media isn't explaining what's in the House Republican budget, argues Dean Baker in The Guardian: "The vast majority of the additional burden that the CBO projected for retirees comes from the higher cost of private insurance compared with the government-run Medicare system. The additional cost as a result of adopting Ryan's privatised system is more than $30tn over Medicare's 75-year planning horizon."
Senate may vote on House GOP budget. HuffPost: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office confirmed reports on Tuesday that the Nevada Democrat is thinking of holding a vote on Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget. That would force moderate Republican senators to take an uncomfortable political stand."
Banks Push To Raise Debt Limit
Banks step up pressure on GOP to raise debt limit. Politico: "...lobbyists and bank officials were instead meeting privately with members over coffee to make the case that the debt limit should be separated from the debate on long-term deficit and debt reduction. There have been no threats thus far to remove financial support from members who refuse to support raising the limit, but the financial industry is making clear its stand on the matter."
Treasury makes contingency plans for debt limit stalemate. W. Post: "So far, the Treasury has nearly drained a $200 billion cash-management account at the Fed, providing a cushion of money to pay bills without new borrowing. Next, Geithner is likely to take a series of 'extraordinary actions,' such as suspending the issuance of special securities that help state and local governments manage their own finances."
Dems See Opening To End Oil Subsidies
President presses Speaker on subsidies to Big Oil. The Hill: "...the president fired off a letter Tuesday calling on congressional leaders to 'take immediate action to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.' The missive, part of a coordinated response by Democratic leaders, came a day after Boehner broke with Republican orthodoxy by signaling he’d consider scrapping billions of dollars’ worth of tax breaks for oil companies ... Boehner spokesman Michael Steel sought to clarify the Speaker’s remarks, saying Boehner 'made clear in the interview that raising taxes was a nonstarter, and he’s told the president that.'"
House Min. Leader Pelosi calls for floor vote on ending oil subsidies, reports The Hill.
President says he is leaning on oil producing countries to increase production. AP: "'We are in a lot of conversations with the major oil producers like Saudi Arabia to let them know that it’s not going to be good for them if our economy is hobbled because of high oil prices,' Obama told a Detroit TV station."
Bernanke Gives Unprecedented Press Conference Today
...but don't expect much, says Slate's Annie Lowrey: "...expect nonanswers, for the most part: The new openness goes only so far. The Federal Reserve is planning on having Bernanke make only a brief opening statement, to avoid contradicting the FOMC report. He does plan to take questions from the crowd—unlike at his previous press conferences, when a moderator picked the queries. But he won't step off message. The central bank is preparing furiously for the meeting with reporters, so Bernanke can assiduously avoid rattling markets or making news."
Should Bernanke campaign for more fiscal stimulus, asks Time's Michael Grunwald: "...I suspect ... he’s skeptical additional monetary stimulus would help create many jobs ... [So] Mr. Chairman, if the Fed is done with monetary stimulus, do we need Congress to inject more fiscal stimulus? If so, why haven’t you pushed for it?"
NYT's David Leonhardt notes Bernanke has said the Fed could do more for jobs: "...Mr. Bernanke believes the Fed 'retains considerable power' to reduce unemployment faster, despite the fact that its benchmark interest rate is zero, as he’s said before. Yet he has been hesitant to use that power ... he has said that more aggressive action brings risks. And it does. Low interest rates have the potential to spark inflation, by enticing millions of households and businesses to borrow money and causing the economy to overheat. Higher inflation could, among other things, increase borrowing rates for the United States government and worsen the deficit. But it’s worth keeping in mind that just about every decision involves some risk. Simply stating that more aggressive action brings risks is not a good argument against that option."
Did Fed let big banks game the system during the bailout? HuffPost: "A newly-released study from the Congressional Research Service bolsters claims that the nation's largest banks profited off the Federal Reserve's financial crisis-era programs by borrowing cash for next to nothing, then lending it back to the federal government at substantially higher rates. The report reinforces long-held beliefs that the banking system in essence engaged in taxpayer-financed arbitrage..."
Breakfast Sides
President criticizes OH anti-labor law during Cleveland TV interview. AP: "He tells Romona Robinson of Cleveland’s WKYC-TV in a White House interview Tuesday public employees should not be blamed for a financial crisis they had nothing to do with and sacrifices should be shared in tough economic times."
CBPP pushes back on Pew report claiming shaky state pensions: "For most states, the Pew report uses the pension fund’s [annual report] for fiscal year 2009 ... But there have been changes since then, primarily for the better..."
Chamber of Commerce pledges to fight possible executive order forcing potential contractors to disclose campaign contributions. NYT: "The [Chamber's top] lobbyist, R. Bruce Josten, said in an interview that the powerful business bloc 'is not going to tolerate' what it saw as a 'backdoor attempt' by the White House to silence private-sector opponents by disclosing their political spending. 'We will fight it through all available means,' Mr. Josten said..."
Tea Party lawmakers ringing up special interest cash. USA Today: "More than two-thirds of the newly elected Republicans in the House Tea Party Caucus collected at least a third of their campaign contributions this year from political action committees and other political committees..."
Federal immigration officials shifting focus away from students. NYT: "Last Thursday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Dallas summoned [20-year old Olga] Zanella and told her she could remain in this country, under the agency’s supervision, if she stayed in school and out of trouble ... ICE officials in central Florida recently invited immigration lawyers to bring forward illegal immigrants facing deportation who did not have criminal records, offering provisional authorization for them to remain here and work legally ... But nationwide the administration’s deportations policy remains confused and erratically implemented, immigration lawyers said, with many students and immigrants without criminal records being deported."
