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: Democrats' Plan Makes Jobs In America
OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "Congressional Democrats yesterday unveiled the Make It In America plan for the 112th Congress. This is a set of specific, detailed, targeted bills that clearly create jobs and restore our economic competitiveness, beginning with a national strategy for manufacturing. This is very different from the vague, sloganeering, lobbyist-written plan offered by Senate Republicans.
WH Begins Talks Today For Debt Limit Deal
Biden-led debt limit talks begin today, with little common ground. The Hill: "Rather than focusing on making specific spending cuts or tax increases now, the talks are shaping up to be about how to require such choices down the road ... [GOP Sen. Jon] Kyl said the White House trigger option was 'the worst possible outcome' because it opens the door to automatic tax increases. [Dem Sen. Max] Baucus argued the Corker-McCaskill proposal is flawed because ... it would hurt seniors and the disabled by cutting Medicare and Medicaid. If these programs are exempted, however, discretionary spending cuts would be far too large to be acceptable."
HuffPost speculates on possible deal: "... lawmakers would include legislative language in the bill that called for caps on government spending in over the next one or two years. The level at which that cap would be set is unclear and is likely to be a major fault line during discussions. In addition, lawmakers will include a debt failsafe 'trigger' that would kick in once those caps expire. Such a policy -- which would require that the ratio of debt-to-GDP be reduced to a certain level if Congress cannot stabilize it by the end of the decade -- could take several forms. Democrats, however, will insist that revenue raisers or adjustments to the tax code be part of the deal."
Spending cap would destabilize economy, CBPP tells Congress: "Imposing an arbitrary limit on federal spending would risk tipping faltering economies into recession, make recessions deeper, and make recovery from a recession more difficult. Spending for some important federal programs — including unemployment insurance, food stamps, and Social Security — [presently] increases automatically during a recession, when the need for assistance grows."
Republicans stand up for wealthy taxpayers. Wonk Room quotes Sen. Chuck Grassley: "I get sick and tired of the demagoguery that goes on in Washington about taxing higher-income people."
Republicans may not push Ryan Medicare plan. W. Post: "Senior Republicans conceded Wednesday that a deal is unlikely on a contentious plan to overhaul Medicare and offered to open budget talks with the White House by focusing on areas where both parties can agree, such as cutting farm subsidies."
GOP Sen. Mike Lee may force vote on linking balanced budget amendment to debt limit increase. Politico: "A tea party-backed senator is trying to put his GOP colleagues in a tough spot, forcing them to choose between opposing a debt limit hike or look soft on spending ... Other Republicans and moderate Democrats have said they’ll vote to raise the debt limit if Congress passes legislation that would cap spending levels ... But Lee has argued that these spending caps can simply be amended by a majority vote."
Former Reagan WH economist Martin Feldstein calls for scaling back tax expenditures, instead of raising income tax rates, in NYT oped: "...cap the tax reduction that each taxpayer could get from tax expenditures to 2 percent of his adjusted gross income. What’s the result? Taxpayers with incomes of $25,000 to $50,000 would pay about $1,000 more in taxes; those with incomes of more than $500,000 might pay $40,000 more."
Dean Baker questions Feldstein's numbers: "Let's put the average income in the $25k-50k group at $38,000. The promised $1,000 tax increase for these folks is about 2.6 percent of their income. The average income for people earning over $500,000 is around $1.7 million. The $40,000 Feldstein expects to get from this group comes to 2.3 percent of their income ... insofar as this tax reform proposal is progressive, it is very trivially progressive."
CNN poll shows public turning against Republican budget: "Half of the people questioned in the poll say they prefer Obama's approach to the budget over the proposals from congressional Republicans, with 42% saying they prefer the GOP approach. 'That's a switch from March, a when a plurality favored the Republicans,' says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland."
New Pew poll shows big support for President's deficit reduction approach, less for President. TNR's Jonathan Chait: "The general Obama position is that we need to reduce the deficit through a combination of spending cuts and higher taxes. That's popular ... The Republican approach -- 'we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem' -- is wildly unpopular. But the public does not give Obama any credit for supporting its view..."
Vote Today On Ending Big Oil Subsidies
House floor vote expected today to end Big Oil subsidies. HuffPost: "On Thursday, when the House holds a vote on expanding domestic drilling, Democrats plan to force a vote on a measure that would repeal Section 199 of the domestic manufacturing tax credit for the five largest oil companies ... That bill, called the Big Oil Welfare Repeal Act, would generate $12.8 billion in the next 10 years ... Although it is nearly certain to fail in the House, Democrats hope to use the vote to present some Republicans as hypocrites if they vote to continue the subsidies."
Dueling Senate ethanol bills: "A bipartisan group of farm-state senators floated plans Wednesday to slowly phase out ethanol tax subsidies, a measure that surfaced a day after a separate bipartisan coalition introduced new plans to kill the incentives almost immediately."
House banking committee approves delay in new regs curtailing financial speculation. HuffPost: "With gas prices approaching record highs and soaring food prices fueling global unrest, Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee passed a plan Wednesday to delay regulation on financial speculation, including in the food and oil markets."
Breakfast Sides
Trade pact package heading to Congress. AP: "Progress on a free trade deal with Colombia has cleared the way for the White House to seek Congressional approval of a package of trade agreements that includes pacts with South Korea and Panama, as Republicans have demanded. Obama administration officials said Wednesday that they expected technical discussions about the agreements to begin Thursday with Capitol Hill aides, the first step in the approval process."
Simon Johnson pushes Elizabeth Warren to head CFPB: "...a public hearing on her case represents our best opportunity to experience a modern version of the Pecora Hearings ... Elizabeth Warren’s confirmation hearing would become a defining moment for thinking about finance in America. And reform would win."
"Republicans Introduce Bill To Ration Health Care To The Poor" reports Wonk Room's Igor Volsky: "...Congressional Republicans unveiled a bill that would allow states to cut their Medicaid rolls without losing any additional funds from the federal government ... Republicans can cut Medicaid all they want, but people in their states will still become sick and need health care. They will either die early because care was rationed or receive uncompensated care that will be compensated by private insured payers."
