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: Alice In Medicareland
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "The rabbit hole's got nothing on this place. 'Let's save Social Security from a 25% cut in 27 years,' they told Alice, 'by cutting more than that, starting now.' The House Republican budget doesn't 'end Medicare,' they explained. It just, well, ends it. And vouchers aren't really vouchers. Even 'fact-checking' site Politifact joined in, chastising Democrats for saying Ryan's proposal would 'change the essential nature of Medicare.' That was right before they noted that it would 'end the aspect of Medicare that directly covers specific services, such as hospital coverage.' If you thought that the 'aspect of Medicare' that directly pays for hospital coverage was Medicare, then apparently you are a very silly person."
GOP Begins To Back Down
GOP flinches on dismantling Medicare. Politico: "Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) paid the heaviest price, stepping on his message even before White House talks had begun. But House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) also played a part by opining publicly that it’s now unlikely that any debt deal this summer will include the wholesale Medicare changes ... All this was news to the rank-and-file Republicans who had voted for the Ryan plan last month and felt political heat at home over the spring recess."
Rep. Ryan admits the GOP plan to privatize Medicare includes an individual mandate to buy insurance. Wonk Room's Igor Volsky: "During a town hall in Racine, Wisconsin on Friday, Ryan ... admitted that his plan includes a mandate ... 'Its mandate works no different than how the current Medicare law works today, which is you just select from a wide range of different plans. It literally would be like Medicare Advantage' ... All this tells us is that the mandate isn’t some horribly coercive policy aimed at usurping individual freedoms."
Speaker Boehner reportedly prepping GOP caucus to accept a debt limit compromise. TIme: "So while some Republicans say they’ll hold out for a balanced-budget amendment and comprehensive entitlement reform, the vast majority of Republicans are bracing for another bargain. 'Everyone realizes this has got to be done,' says a House GOP aide. 'The things we really want aren’t going to happen, at least right now. If all you ever do is pass things through the House, the status quo stays the same. Boehner’s shop has been pounding that into the rank and file.'"
Little sign of compromise in first Biden-led round of talks. Politico: "There’s no real road map for a deal, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner started off by putting a tax increase on the table — a nonstarter for Republicans ... If the 2015 deficit goal isn’t met, the president wants to trigger automatic budget adjustments that would establish average annual deficits of no more than 2.8 percent of the economy over the second half of the next decade. But Cantor said such a debt trigger is 'unworkable' and a 'tax trap,'..."
"U.S. tax burden at lowest level since '58" reports USA Today: "The total tax burden — for all federal, state and local taxes — dropped to 23.6% of income in the first quarter ... By contrast, individuals spent roughly 27% of income on taxes in the 1970s, 1980s and the 1990s — a rate that would mean $500 billion of extra taxes annually today..."
Steady, Yet Still Slow, Job Gains
Higher than expected gains in April job report. NYT: "The Department of Labor said Friday that 244,000 jobs were added in April after a gain of 221,000 jobs in March ... all of the increase came from private employers, which added another 268,000 jobs last month ... Governments, struggling to balance budgets as they deal with shrinking revenues and growing deficits, cut 24,000 jobs last month ... The uptick in the unemployment rate [to 9%) that came even as employers were adding jobs was an indication that more people were entering the work force as hopes for hiring increased ... while any job creation is a positive, last month’s growth was barely enough to absorb people entering the work force ..."
Unfounded fears are preventing action to create more jobs. NYT's Paul Krugman: "...a new issue ... has suddenly begun to loom large in opinion pieces and remarks on talk shows: fear of a disastrous plunge in the dollar ... the recent dollar slide is actually tiny compared with big drops in the past [which] were beneficial, because they helped U.S. manufacturing compete on world markets ... Should we spend modest sums on job creation? No way, say the deficit hawks, who threaten us with the purely hypothetical wrath of financial markets ... Should the Federal Reserve do more to promote expansion? No, say the inflation and dollar hawks, who have been wrong again and again..."
What Spill? House Approves "Drill Baby Drill" Bill
House passes bill expanding oil drilling. AP: "In a 266-149 vote that included 33 Democrats in its majority, the House approved a bill that would force the federal government to conduct three lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one off the Virginia coast within a year ... None of the three measures [in the GOP's overall oil drilling package] is likely to pass the Senate..."
And blocks up-or-down vote on ending Big Oil subsidies. The Hill: "...Democrats tried to force a vote on a bill authored by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) to repeal the Section 199 domestic manufacturing tax deduction for the largest oil companies. But Republicans rejected the effort, approving a procedural motion that allowed lawmakers to begin consideration of the [main] bill and prevented Democrats from bringing up the tax break repeal legislation."
Sponsors Of Oil-Drilling Expansion Bill Received $8.8 Million In Industry Contributions" reports HuffPost.
Climate change may be already contributing to the food price spike. Time's Bryan Walsh: "A new study published in Science ... found that the warming of the planet over the last few decades have already led to a measurable reduction in crop yields for major staple grains ... That adds about 6% to the cost of wheat and corn, and with temperatures expected to continue warming, the effect will only grow ..."
GOP Will Block Any CFPB Nominee
GOP senators threaten to block any nomination to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. WSJ: "Republican senators effectively blocked President Barack Obama's ability to nominate a director for the new consumer financial-protection agency, saying they won't confirm anyone for the post—regardless of party affiliation—unless the agency is restructured. The move makes it likely Mr. Obama will resort to a so-called recess appointment..."
Disagreement among regulators on which financial institutions deserve more stringent regulation under new law. WSJ: "... Mark Van Der Weide, a senior associate director at the Federal Reserve, stressed the need for regulators to retain discretion in the process and warned: 'Don't expect perfectly clear numerical guidelines from us.' ... [FDIC's Sheila] Bair said she wanted the council to set a simple, asset-size threshold for nonbank financial firms, above which those firms would have to share additional information with regulators before a final decision was made ..."
Sen. Carl Levin and former Sen. Ted Kaufman slap SEC for delays in preventing "flash crashes," in NYT oped: "It’s been 20 years since Congress gave it the authority to require large-volume traders to make more detailed disclosures; 18 months since the commission’s chairman, Mary L. Schapiro, said it would use that authority; 13 months since the agency proposed a rule to do so; and three months since the advisory committee recommended proceeding with 'urgency' on the audit trail."
JPMorgan Chase subpoenaed by SEC regarding mortgage fraud. Bloomberg: "'We’re really starting to finally get into evidence that suggests blatant fraud,' said Isaac Gradman, a San Francisco- based litigation consultant..."
Banks Illegally Foreclosed On Dozens Of Military Borrowers reports HuffPost.
Breakfast Sides
Conservative lawmakers threaten White House and attack NLRB for pursuing Boeing union-busting case. McClatchy: "Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. ... vowed to block the president's picks for the National Labor Relations Board ... Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., whose district would be home to the new [non-union] Dreamliner factory, sent Obama a letter signed by 38 GOP House members demanding that he fire NLRB acting general counsel Lafe Solomon ... Scott and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., plan to introduce legislation next week to prohibit the use of federal funds by the NLRB to pursue any complaint against Boeing ... Solomon said he won't withdraw his April 20 complaint..."
Little hint of change from China on currency in advance of talks next week. AP: "Currency policy is a 'sovereign right' but Beijing is ready to 'intensify communications' with Washington, said a deputy Chinese finance minister, Zhu Guangyao, at a news conference. Zhu gave no indication Beijing might speed up the yuan's rise, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a speech this week is too slow."
Appellate court to hear arguments in constitutional challenge to health reform law. USA Today: "Competing arguments from the Obama administration and its challengers ... will now play out before the highest court to date — one that brings the case closer to its likely destination, the U.S. Supreme Court. ... Names of the three panel judges hearing the case will not be revealed until Tuesday morning ..."
