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: Wall St. Goon Squad Targets Warren
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "It was ironic that Rep. Patrick McHenry chose to attack Elizabeth Warren's integrity by claiming she was lying, of all things, since the attack on the CFPB has been nothing but a series of lies. McHenry's statement today promoted the GOP's biggest Big Lie, that the CFPB has unrestrained and excessive executive power. Actually the opposite is true: GOP cynics and complicit Wall Street Democrats worked to weaken the agency so much that it now has the bare minimum authority it needs to function ... Warren tells the truth, talks straight, and fights for the middle class. That makes her dangerous to those serving the interests of Wall Street firms who fear Warren and the CFPB because they'll interfere with some of their core business practices: Mortgage documents that are unreadable and contain secret traps for unwary consumers; credit card ripoffs and deceptions; and dishonest underwriting practices that threaten borrowers, investors, and the entire economy."
GOPers Lack "Basic Facts" In Face-Off With Warren
GOPers badger Warren repeatedly during House testimony. LAT: "The disputes started with allegations from subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that she had misled Congress about her role in federal and state negotiations with large mortgage servicers to resolve investigations into botched foreclosure paperwork ... Warren denied misleading lawmakers and said the agency was only providing advice ... Warren and Republicans clashed often over whether the consumer bureau would have too much power. And Republicans were frustrated with Warren's often lengthy answers. After unsuccessfully trying to get her to say whether she believed consumers had an obligation to educate themselves about financial products, a frustrated Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said, 'Mr. Chairman, I give up.'"
Warren tries to explain "basic facts" to obtuse GOPers. HuffPost: "Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) betrayed the first misunderstanding, quizzing Warren on why people getting hired at the CFPB earned better salaries than the average government employee. Warren eventually noted that federal financial regulators are usually paid better (but not very well compared to the people they regulate). Rep. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) mistakenly thought the CFPB was unique among financial regulators in having a leader with a five-year term and in not being subject to annual congressional appropriations -- neither of which is true."
Sign the petition supporting Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Republican Voters Reject Republican Medicare Plan
GOP Medicare plan sinks GOP candidate in GOP district. NYT: "The results set off elation among Democrats and soul-searching among Republicans, who questioned whether they should rethink their party’s commitment to the Medicare plan, which appears to have become a liability heading into the 2012 elections ... 'I have almost always voted the party line,' said Gloria Bolender, a Republican from Clarence who is caring for her 80-year-old mother. 'This is the second time in my life I’ve voted against my party.'"
"Shocking Dem win in NY House special election came down to just 1 word: Medicare": AP headline.
Salon's Steve Kornacki on the GOP's overreach: "In 2009 and 2010, most swing voters mainly saw the Tea Party as a movement opposed to Barack Obama’s policies. But now, with Republicans running the House (and numerous state houses across the country) and pushing the Tea Party’s agenda, swing voters have come to see it as an extreme ideological movement. And there’s no better representation of that extremism than the Medicare plan."
Parties Far Apart In Debt Limit Talks
VP Biden insists any deal include new revenues, set $1T mark for net savings. CNN quotes: "I made it clear today that revenues will have to be in the deal ... think we're in a position where we will be able to get well above a trillion dollars pretty quick in terms of what would be a down payment on the process..."
House to vote on debt limit increase bill, designed to lose. The Hill: "The move ... is designed to show President Obama and Senate Democrats that Congress will not unconditionally grant the government more borrowing authority ..."
In wake of series of natural disasters, House GOP tries to cut disaster aid. The Hill: "Appropriators reported the Homeland Security and military construction spending bills to the floor after beating back Democratic amendments to restore funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency ... Lawmakers also added $1 billion in funding to assist communities up and down the Mississippi River battered by tornadoes and floods, but the funding was offset with cuts to other programs ... With the cuts, FEMA state and local programs would be reduced by 55 percent compared to levels for fiscal 2011, and by 70 percent compared to fiscal 2010. "
State revenues ticking up, but big budget gaps remain. NYT: "...states collected 9.1 percent more in taxes from January through March than they did during the same period last year ... tax collections remain 3.1 percent lower than they were three years ago ... with higher expenses and the end of federal stimulus money mean that many states still find themselves forced to cut spending or raise taxes to balance their budgets."
Air controller fatigue due to budget cuts. W. Post: "Young air traffic controllers who make up almost a third of the workforce have had to work two or three jobs to compensate for a 30 percent wage cut imposed during the Bush administration, the head of their union told a Senate committee Tuesday ... NATCA spokesman Doug Church said entry-level wages were cut to about $30,000 in some parts of the country in 2006. He said some local controllers began waiting tables at the Leesburg Applebee’s near Dulles International Airport."
House bill to cut jobless aid would reneg on last year's tax cut deal. Wonk Room's Danielle Lazarowitz: "... because it would cut the unemployment benefits that were a key part of the tax deal, this legislation amounts to House Republicans breaking their word ..."
Romney Tries To Take Credit For Auto Turnaround
Chrysler pays back taxpayers six years ahead of schedule. Time's Bill Saporito: "If there is any remaining doubt that the much debated government bailout bought time enough for the U.S. auto industry to regroup, this should end it ... Governments worldwide support their auto industries, not the least of which because they are critical to employment and technology development ... Detroit neither continued nor compounded its mistakes because the government installed new management in GM and Chrysler that refused to repeat them. Quality rose. The new stuff coming of Detroit today is globally competitive."
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney tries to take credit for the auto industry recovery. NYT: "The Democratic National Committee on Tuesday released a YouTube video highlighting a 2008 opinion article by Mitt Romney in The New York Times titled 'Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.' ... A Romney spokesman said on Tuesday that the president’s plan was modeled after one Mr. Romney advocated in 2008 ... Democratic officials noted that Chrysler and General Motors received the federal aid only after they entered bankruptcy — not before, as Mr. Romney’s spokesman asserted. And they said the bankruptcy’s success depended on the federal money."'
Feds Charge Oil Speculators
Federal government formally charges speculators with manipulating oil markets. McClatchy: "In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, CFTC attorneys alleged that a group made up of oil speculators Parnon Energy Inc., Arcadia Petroleum Ltd. and Arcadia Energy (Suisse) S.A. unlawfully manipulated trading of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The civil charges are for alleged manipulation during the first four months of 2008, when crude oil was on its way up to the all-time high of $147 a barrel. The CFTC complaint alleges that the three companies and two executives conspired — during a period of relatively tight oil supplies — to amass big quantities of oil for next-month physical delivery. They were dominating and controlling supply, even though they were not commercial users of oil."
GOP keeps trying to blame EPA for gas prices. Wonk Room's Kristen Bartoloni: "The GOP’s 42-page report furthers the party’s Oil Above All agenda, repeating conspiratorial claims that the Obama administration is 'intentionally' driving up gas prices ... experts agree it’s 'not credible' to blame the administration for the increase in prices. Oil production is at its highest level since 2003 and gas prices are still high."
House GOP, Interior spar over existing oil leases. The Hill: "Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) ... argued that oil companies have not produced on the land because it does not have adequate oil supplies. 'If you offer them crap, you get crap and that is just the way it is' ... [Interior's David] Hayes said that much of the land is 'prime oil and gas territory.' The administration is developing a fee structure that would put pressure on oil and gas companies to develop their leases, a policy known as 'use it, or lose it.'"
President Obama calls for all new federal vehicles to run on alternative fuel by 2015. The Hill: "The plan is part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to cut oil imports by one-third by 2025..."
Breakfast Sides
Unions now organizing non-union low-paid and unemployed workers to strengthen clout. W. Post's Harold Meyerson: "...many of labor’s most thoughtful leaders now consider the Democrats’ inability to enact EFCA a death sentence for the American labor movement ... ranks have been so reduced that it now must recruit people to a non-union, essentially non-dues-paying organization to amass the political clout that its own diminished ranks can no longer deliver. Since labor law now effectively precludes workplace representation, unions are turning to representing workers anywhere and in any capacity they can.
State AGs pressure banks on foreclosure fraud settlement. WSJ: "State attorneys general told five of the nation's largest banks on Tuesday they face a potential liability of at least $17 billion in civil lawsuits if a settlement isn't reached ... the numbers floated Tuesday indicate that the two sides are still far apart on the size of the penalty."
