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: The Black Unemployment Epidemic
OurFuture.org's Terrance Heath: "When white America catches a cold, the saying goes, black America gets pneumonia. Or in this case, when white America has a recession, black America gets a depression ... the generation of African Americans getting hit with the huge loss of wealth or assets in this recession are the first generation to have achieved the relative wealth of middle class status, and whose children were the first generation to enjoy 'the head start of family assets.' ... We are only a generation removed, and we never really caught up. We are losing even a tenuous grasp on what middle class status has meant for white Americans."
Medicare Plan Puts GOP Seat At Risk
Medicare turns GOP congressional seat into nailbiter special election Tuesday. NYT: "Voters in the sprawling Buffalo-area district now call it the single most important issue in their decision on which candidate to support ... ]GOPer Jane] Corwin, a state legislator who early on embraced a budget plan by Representative Paul D. Ryan that would reshape Medicare, has tried to reassure anxious voters, stressing that the House-passed plan is not perfect and that she is open to changes."
GOP caught between base and middle, argues W. Post's Chris Cillizza: "If Gingrich’s experience is any indication, it’s now clear that, for many Republicans, criticizing what Ryan laid out — and the House approved — amounts to apostasy. But it’s equally clear that, outside of a Republican primary electorate, supporting the changes in Medicare that Ryan has proposed is politically perilous."
The GOP's own pollsters tried to warn them. Politico: "No matter how favorably pollsters with the Tarrance Group or other firms spun the bill in their pitch ... the Ryan budget’s approval rating barely budged above the high 30s or its disapproval below 50 percent, according to a Republican operative familiar with the presentation. The poll numbers on the plan were so toxic ... that staffers with the National Republican Congressional Committee warned leadership, 'You might not want to go there' in a series of tense pre-vote meetings."
GOP Sen. Scott Brown announces opposition to House GOP plan, in Politico: "Our country is on an unsustainable fiscal path. But I do not think it requires us to change Medicare as we know it. We can work inside of Medicare to make it more solvent."
Obama administration may not approve of Indiana Medicaid law defunding Planned Parenthood. NYT: "...the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provided this statement, cleared by the White House: 'Federal law prohibits federal Medicaid dollars from being spent on abortion services. Medicaid does not allow states to stop beneficiaries from getting care they need — like cancer screenings and preventive care — because their provider offers certain other services. We are reviewing this particular situation and situations in other states.' ... Without waiting for a decision from the federal government, Indiana has moved ahead."
Chamber Yet To Seriously Push Infrastructure
AFL-CIO-Chamber of Commerce alliance fails, so far, to move infrastructure spending. Politico: "When House and Senate leaders release their transportation spending plans this summer, business and labor officials don’t expect the number to come anywhere near Obama’s $550 billion investment ... there isn’t a transportation reauthorization bill for either group to lobby for or against. But even this early on, the road ahead looks tough ... House Transportation Committee member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said the Chamber has never put hard pressure on GOP lawmakers."
Rep. Jerry Nadler lays out principles for revitalizing infrastructure in Politico oped: "If we are to begin to properly fund critical transportation initiatives, we cannot continue to rely completely on the gas tax, which is producing insufficient revenue ... We will need some combination of increasing the gas tax, making that tax inflation-sensitive ... look into the feasibility of assessing a fee on shipping containers, taxing oil at the refinery head or even charging a fee on energy speculation."
President prepares to tout auto bailout success. Politico: "...the bulk of the bailout will wrap up six years ahead of schedule after forestalling a collapse many experts say could have cost millions of jobs and driven the nation into a longer, deeper and more painful recession ... Obama will begin making his case as both GM and Chrysler have emerged from bankruptcy as slimmed-down, profitable enterprises with more-popular vehicles"
Conservative states push cuts in jobless aid, despite historic low in taxes. AP: "....as a percentage of wages paid, unemployment insurance taxes are at historically low levels, less than 1 percent. When the unemployment insurance program began in 1938, the tax rate for unemployment insurance averaged about 2.7 percent of wages."
Austerity Fail
Austerity is a proven failure in Europe, argues NYT's Paul Krugman: "Nobody bought into the doctrine of expansionary austerity more thoroughly than Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank ... the bank began preaching austerity as a universal economic elixir that should be imposed immediately everywhere ...[Yet] the confidence fairy hasn’t shown up. Europe’s troubled debtor nations are, as we should have expected, suffering further economic decline thanks to those austerity programs, and confidence is plunging instead of rising."
House Maj. Leader Steny Hoyer delivers budget speech today at the Bipartisan Policy Center, reports Roll Call: "...the Maryland Democrat plans to call for upholding entitlement programs, cutting spending on domestic and defense programs, and enacting a trigger for automatic spending cuts and revenue raisers aimed at reducing the deficit. On the revenue side, he will propose broadening the tax base, closing tax loopholes and simplifying the income tax code."
On his way out, Defense Sec. Gates argues against too many military spending cuts. NYT: "[He] said Sunday that budget pressures must not limit Pentagon spending such that the military is unable to defend American interests in an unpredictable world. Most notable for Mr. Gates — a longtime advocate for diplomacy and development, along with military power, to protect American global interests — was his reminder of the long-term requirement for the United States to sustain an armed force superior to any adversary."
Federal Reserve debating when, not if, to wind down stimulus. Bloomberg: "Central bankers are starting to debate how and when to tighten policy after buying $2.3 trillion of assets to bring the economy out of the recession. ... 'This is one of those really critical turning points in monetary policy where it’s pretty clear the next move is toward tightness, and the whole question is timing,' [former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Alfred] Broaddus said."
Fiscally-distressed states can't provide medicine for HIV victims.W. Post: "... more than 8,300 people — a record number — are on waiting lists in 13 states to get antiretrovirals and other drugs used to treat HIV and AIDS or the side effect ... that number probably understates the need, say advocates, who note that many states have simply eliminated waiting lists or reduced eligibility."
Koch-Style Politics Goes Down Under
Koch brothers disciple fomenting right-wing backlash to carbon tax in Australia. NYT: "...Tim Andrews, an organizer of the anti-tax coalition and co-founder of conservative Internet portal Menzies House ... denies that his previous employers have in any way funded the Australian movement, he admits to having adopted some of their tactics."
"The Right's Top 5 EPA Conspiracy Theories" explained by Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard.
Chicago begins preparing for climate change. NYT: ". Public alleyways are being repaved with materials that are permeable to water. The white oak, the state tree of Illinois, has been banned from city planting lists, and swamp oaks and sweet gum trees from the South have been given new priority. Thermal radar is being used to map the city’s hottest spots, which are then targets for pavement removal and the addition of vegetation to roofs. And air-conditioners are being considered for all 750 public schools ... Chicago is often called the Second City, but it is way out in front of most in terms of adaptation."
Breakfast Sides
Glut of bank-owned foreclosed homes dragging down housing market. NYT: "... economists project that it would take about three years for lenders to sell their backlog of foreclosed homes. As a result, home values nationally could fall 5 percent by the end of 2011, according to Moody’s, and rise only modestly over the following year. Regions that were hardest hit by the housing collapse and recession could take even longer to recover — dealing yet another blow to a still-struggling economy."
Dean Baker challenges NYT premise: "...the decline in house prices is not new [and] is actually entirely consistent with house prices moving back toward their long-term trend in which they have just tracked the overall rate of inflation."
Hero pilot C.B. Sullenberger campaigns to stop House GOP bill that would undermine FAA safety regulations. Politico: "In nine short paragraphs, it changes the way the FAA makes regulations, including requiring an analysis on how proposed rules could affect the economy and private markets. If that amendment, sponsored by Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), becomes law, the implications could be more catastrophic than the risks Sullenberger took when he crash-landed his hobbled airplane, he warned. New airline safety regulations will be harder to issue, including a series of recently passed rules that prevent exhausted pilots from getting in the cockpit..."
