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: Gang Of Six Devastates Social Security
OurFuture.org's Nancy Altman: "The Gang of Six framework contains very few specifics but one is glaring – the immediate cuts that would affect all 55 million Social Security beneficiaries by changing the way the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is calculated. Their plan would substitute the less accurate and less-generous chained consumer price index (CPI) for the current CPI in calculating the COLA. This breaks a promise made by many politicians to not cut the benefits of anyone over age 55 ... For a typical senior who retires at age 65, their Social Security benefits would be $1,000 less by the time they are 85—on a benefit of just $16,000 a year ... Adopting the chained CPI goes in the wrong direction. Most people who depend on Social Security devote a much larger share of their income to health care, and these costs are increasing at a much higher rate than other living costs. They need a more accurate formula that reflects these higher costs, which would result in a cost-of-living increase, not a cut."
Senate-House GOP Split Over Gang Plan
Senate GOP more supportive of Gang of Six proposal than House. Politico: "By late Wednesday, close to a third of the 47 Senate Republicans had signed a letter supportive of a fragile bipartisan plan that combines new revenues and major spending cuts akin to what Obama wants. But the House GOP showed no sign of relenting ..."
But neither Senate party leader has signed up. Bloomberg: "The two Senate leaders have focused on a fallback plan McConnell initiated that would grant Obama unilateral authority to raise the debt limit up to $2.5 trillion in three installments. The fallback plan has encountered its own problems with fiscally conservative House members. Still, Senate officials in both parties suggest it is increasingly likely that approach -- perhaps with some spending cuts added -- would become the vehicle to meet the Aug. 2 deadline ... Reid is open to incorporating it in debt-limit legislation 'by reference,' perhaps directing a later deficit-reduction vote or turning the matter over to a new joint committee, he said."
Conservative groups attack pro-Gang Republicans. Time: "Followers of NewsMax, the enterprising conservative website, woke up Wednesday morning to an e-mail with the subject heading: 'Urgent: GOP Senators Want $1 Trillion in Taxes, Help Us Stop Them.' ...Republican leaders are in disarray, simultaneously negotiating compromise agreements and declaring that no compromise is possible. In a matter of days, we will likely find out just how much power the GOP leadership has to direct its own party."
Republicans don't agree over proposed package of cuts. The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has signed off on [$1.5T in] cuts, according to Senate sources. He wants to attach the spending reductions — which have not been released publicly — to a legislative proposal unveiled last week by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) authorizing President Obama to raise the debt ceiling ... But House Republicans have other plans. They are considering pairing the $1.5 trillion in spending cuts with a [short in duration] $1.5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, according to Senate GOP sources. Or they could take a portion of those cuts and match it with an equal amount increase in the debt limit."
Progressive criticism of Gang intensifies. CNN: "'We are an anti-gang group,' quipped Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver, D-Missouri, at a news conference on Wednesday. 'We are trying to suppress the growth of gangs. We think that it is not healthy for Washington.' Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus held their news conference to discuss the impact of the debt talks on minority groups, particularly when it comes to possible cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid."
Patriotic Millionaires appeal to Speaker Boehner to tax them more: "Despite our willingness to provide additional support to the country financially to ensure its continued well being, despite the overwhelming support of the idea among the American public, despite the reality that millionaires like us are paying lower taxes now than at any time in the last 60 years, and despite the fact that the Bush tax cuts are the single, largest cause of the current federal deficit, you have repeatedly refused to consider this limited and reasonable step to address our country’s fiscal challenges. Now, as our country approaches a potentially catastrophic default of our financial obligations, we are writing to reiterate our demand."
Gang of Six plan would eliminate Affordable Care Act program to support long-term disability care. Politico: "The CLASS Act would establish a voluntary long-term disability insurance program that would pay disabled enrollees a cash benefit for assistance with basic daily living activities such as dressing, bathing and eating ... The insurance would be offered through the workplace, where employers who agree to participate would sign up their employees automatically ... CLASS Act critics argue [it] could not be sustained by premiums alone ... HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, while admitting that the law is flawed, also has said that she has the regulatory leeway to adjust eligibility requirements, premiums and benefits levels to make it work ... In fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that repealing the program would cost $86 billion over the next 10 years..."
Pentagon may take big budget hit in deal. W. Post: "The Pentagon is bracing for spending cuts far deeper than what it was expecting just a few weeks ago, including the possible elimination of an aircraft carrier group and other weapons program ... they are girding for the possibility that they will have to reduce projected spending by as much as $800 billion over the next 12 years ..."
Wall St. starting to get twitchy. NYT: "In the Treasury market, investors are starting to sell, fearing that the government will not make good on some interest payments that will be due next month. And complex financial instruments that will pay out if the United States defaults have become twice as expensive to buy as they were at the start of the year. Analysts say the signs of panic are small for now."
But not too twitchy, says The Hill: "...traders remain supremely confident there will be a deal, despite some signs to the contrary."
Some say Wall St. isn't twitchy enough. USA Today: "Elected officials may need to be shocked into action ... that's the same scenario that played out on Sept. 29, 2008, when the House defeated a $700-billion bailout of the financial system. After the stock market tanked, the House passed the bailout. Wall Street complacency could explain why a deal hasn't been hammered out already..."
Grover Norquist anti-tax pledge doesn't apply to letting the Bush tax cuts expire on schedule. TNR's Jonathan Chait: "'Not continuing a tax cut is not technically a tax increase' [said Norquist.] ... It's pretty strange, isn't it? Apparently Norquist interprets his pledge in some ultra-literal way that precludes it, in the case, from fulfilling its primary purpose. On the other hand, a plan to pass a one-dollar tax hike while cutting federal spending in half would violate the pledge."
CFPB Open For Business
CFPB opens up, with director unconfirmed. LAT: "The first step starts Thursday as the agency's consumer response center for credit card problems begins operations. The center will integrate phone and online complaints and will expand its reach to other products, including mortgages and student loans ... The agency's first major initiative, already underway, is to merge two complicated mortgage disclosure forms that lenders must give home buyers into a single, easier-to-understand form ... It is still without a Senate-confirmed director — and therefore, under the law, unable to use all the power that Congress granted it."
Ohio Republicans like Cordray, oppose him anyway. Politico: "Ohio Republicans who know Richard Cordray, President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the new Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, say he’s a low-key, smart, friendly and reasonable Democrat who works and plays well with the right and is the sort of candidate who’d normally cruise to Senate confirmation. They also say these aren’t normal circumstances and that Cordray will have anything but a smooth ride when — or if — the Senate takes up his nomination later this year..."
President pledges to protect CFPB in interview on WBNS-TV in Ohio: "...what we've had is a situation where some in the financial industry have been sending lobbyists and lawyers up to Capitol Hill spending millions of dollars to try to water down this agency. We're not going to let it be watered down because it was actually some of these abuses, for example in the sub-prime lending market, that helped create the financial crisis that led to the massive recession that we suffered and we don't want to go through that again and every American should know that they've got somebody standing behind them, protecting them from the kinds of financial abuse that we've seen in the past."
Wells Fargo pays record Fed fine for mortgage fraud, but bottom line unscathed. HuffPost: "Perhaps more than 10,000 Wells Fargo borrowers were inappropriately steered into more expensive subprime mortgages or had their loan documents falsified by bank personnel, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. The bank, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, agreed to pay $85 million to settle civil charges. On Tuesday, the company announced that it turned a $3.9 billion profit last quarter."
MurdochGate May Tie To ClimateGate
Keith Olbermann and Joe Romm explore the possibility that the News Corp. phone hacking scandal is linked to the failed right-wing attempt to manufacture "ClimateGate": "As the corporations and lobbyists who sought to feed the myth that there is no man-made climate change disseminated, exploited and deliberately misinterpreted the stolen e-mails -- and used Fox News and other Murdoch enterprises as their principle venues -- the victims, the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, decided they'd better hire a public relations pro to help them fight back. They hired… Neil Wallis. The Murdoch editor who had supervised electronic hacking at 'The News Of The World,' but then went to work for Scotland Yard, but then spied on the Scotland Yard hacking investigation for Murdoch's men, but then tried to suppress media coverage of the Scotland Yard hacking investigation ... If any of the others among the 'Hacked Twelve Thousand' turn out to be scientists at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, Rupert Murdoch may be in a lot bigger trouble than he is, even tonight."
Auto industry launched campaign against higher fuel efficiency standards. ThinkProgress' Stephen Lacey: "The auto industry is starting a media blitz this week designed to fight new fuel economy standards that research groups say will create over a half million jobs, save consumers $150 billion and are supported by three quarters of Americans."
American Dream Movement Takes Off
American Dream movement outpacing Tea Party. Van Jones: "Our house meetings are about double the number of house meetings that launched the tea party movement. They had only 800 such meetings on April 15, 2009. And we reached our number without any help from FOX TV or the Koch Brother$!"
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