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 Gang Of Six's Raw Deal
OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "This isn’t a New Deal or a Fair Deal; it’s a Raw Deal – one that every citizen concerned about rebuilding the middle class should oppose. It would add to unemployment in the short term, increase Gilded Age inequality, leave seniors more vulnerable, and shackle any possibility of rebuilding America. It puts the burden of deficit reduction on the elderly, the poor and the vulnerable, endangers jobs and growth, and lards even more tax breaks on the rich ... It is worth comparing the outlines of the Gang of Six plan with sensible principles for deficit reduction..."
Majority Wants Shared Sacrifice
Public rejects GOP anti-tax stance. W. Post: "Majorities of Americans see both President Obama and congressional Republicans as not willing enough to compromise in their budget negotiations, but the public views the GOP leaders as particularly intransigent, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. There is also growing dissatisfaction among Republicans with the hard-line stance of their congressional representatives: Fifty-eight percent say their leaders are not doing enough to strike a deal ... A majority view the president as more committed to protecting the interests of the middle class and small businesses, while large majorities see Republicans as defending the economic interests of big corporations and Wall Street financial institutions."
Shared sacrifice beats GOP cuts-only positions in NBC/WSJ poll: "...nearly six in 10 favor President Barack Obama’s proposal to lower the federal deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years by cutting federal spending, raising tax revenue from the wealthy and reducing some Medicare spending. By comparison, only about a third of respondents prefer the House Republican proposal to reduce the deficit by $2.5 trillion over 10 years through cutting spending alone and not raising additional revenues."
Gang Plan May Shape Debt Deal
Gang of Six outline could shape debt limit deal. Politico: "The willingness of the group to accept sizable new revenues as part of deficit reduction is exactly the breakthrough the president has been seeking ... But given the little time left before Aug. 2, it seems a two-track approach is more likely ... One option for Boehner could be a hybrid approach that authorized the required $2.4 trillion debt ceiling increase in increments contingent on achieving the promised savings and deficit reduction. The speaker could potentially be attracted by the outline of the Gang’s plan — giving assignments to legislative committees to act."
More from Time's Jay Newton-Small: "If Obama and Boehner were to announce a deal on Wednesday, bill-writers worked around the clock and not a single Senator objected, something might squeak through by Aug. 2 ... [But as] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell draft a Plan B for raising the debt ceiling, some of the Gang’s ideas will likely be included, Reid told reporters on Tuesday. That bill would pass a short-term extension with $1 trillion plus in cuts and form a bipartisan, bicameral commission to find another $1 trillion plus in savings by the middle of next year. If the commission were to fail to find the savings, the fallback would be a politically embarrassing vote for Democrats along the lines of what McConnell has suggested. The Gang’s work gives the commission a head start on potential areas of agreement."
House Maj. Leader Cantor knocks revenue raisers in Gang plan. The Hill quotes: "I am concerned with the Gang of Six’s revenue target, the plan fails to significantly address the largest drivers of America’s debt, and it is unclear how the goals of tax and entitlement reforms would be enforced."
Wealthy GOP donors tell Cantor, raise our taxes! Politico: "A few wealthy donors have called Cantor to tell him they wouldn’t mind if their taxes are raised. During two closed meetings this week — one with vote-counting lawmakers, and another with the entire conference — Cantor told colleagues that some well-heeled givers have told them they’re willing to pay more taxes. Cantor, according to an aide, has responded that House Republicans aren’t standing up for the wealthy, but rather for the middle class, who want to see their taxes stay low."
House passes radical budget caps, but DOA in Senate. HuffPost: "Both parties know the bill has next to no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, and President Barack Obama has already threatened a veto. But Republicans have pushed for a recorded vote on it ahead of the 2012 elections."
"Amend Constitution to balance budgets? No, experts say" reports McClatchy: "...experts left, right and center warn that however appealing the idea may sound, it's highly impractical in reality. And it would make economic crises such as the one in 2008 much worse by tying the government's hands when intervention is needed most. Five Nobel Prize-winning economists joined forces Tuesday to send a letter to congressional leaders warning against adopting a balanced-budget amendment."
NYT's David Leonhardt presses President to push for more stimulus as part of debt limit deal: "One option would be an immediate extension of the payroll tax cut, which is set to expire on Jan. 1, to give consumers and businesses more confidence. ... Perhaps the most intriguing idea is a 2010 proposal from Mr. Obama to give a $5,000 tax credit for each net new worker that a business hires ..."
House freshmen rail against spending, except for their own districts. NYT: "They have pushed for dozens of projects in their districts, including military programs opposed by the president, replenishing beach sand lost to erosion, a $700 million bridge in Minnesota and a harbor dredging project in Charleston, S.C. ... nearly two dozen freshmen have sought money for projects that could ultimately cost billions of dollars, while calling for less spending and banning pork projects."
Breakfast Sides
Corporate profits are up, because wages are down, notes W. Post's Harold Meyerson: "Don’t take my word for it — take that of Michael Cembalest, the chief investment officer of J.P. Morgan Chase [who said] that 'US labor compensation is now at a 50-year low relative to both company sales and US GDP.' ... Cembalest cites high unemployment and the addition of 2 billion Asians to the world’s labor force since 1980 ... but his list is hardly exhaustive. Surely the fact that the great majority of American employers no longer have to sit down and hammer out collective bargaining contracts with their workers has contributed to the increase in profits at wages’ expense."
Treas. Sec. Geithner defends Wall St. reform in WSJ oped: "All financial crises are caused by too much leverage, and by reducing leverage, we have taken the most important step toward diminishing the risk of future crises. We have forced the largest financial institutions to take less risk and to hold much stronger financial cushions against the commitments they make. Our banking regulators have reached global agreement on new capital standards that require the world's largest financial firms to hold roughly three times more capital relative to risk than before the crisis. And for the first time, we have the ability to extend these types of limits on risk-taking to firms that may not call themselves banks but could still pose catastrophic risk to the economy were they to fail ... I will recommend that the president veto any legislation passed by Congress that would undermine these vital financial protections."
House GOP introduces bill to undercut NLRB authority. HuffPost: " Called the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act, the bill would prohibit the labor board from ordering any company to 'close, relocate, or transfer employment under any circumstance,' severely weakening the board's ability to enforce labor law ... The bill is scheduled for a vote on Thursday."
California asks feds to approve a 10% Medicaid cut. The Hill: "The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) — and, by extension, the White House — must choose between helping a first-term Democratic governor who has been a leader on healthcare reform and signing off on a policy that advocates say would be devastating to people with disabilities. CMS also has to weigh the potential fallout from the decision, since giving California carte blanche to make Medicaid cuts could open the floodgates for other states to make similar requests."
Affordable Care Act may lead to free contraception after key panel recommendation. LAT: "The law directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to seek input from clinicians and other authorities about which additional services should be covered for women. That prompted the report Tuesday from the Institute of Medicine [which] urged coverage for 'the full range of Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling.' ... close to half of all pregnancies [are] unplanned in the U.S. ... Mothers with unwanted pregnancies are less likely to receive prenatal care and more likely to engage in unsafe behaviors such as drinking and smoking..."
