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: Jobs Numbers Are a Human Catastrophe
OurFuture.org's Isaiah Poole: "While the White House may breathe a sign of relief that the numbers were not lower, one fundamental reality does not change: The deficit reduction deal has moved the nation in the wrong direction ... The Economic Policy Institute on Thursday released a research report that concluded that the spending cuts in the deal will reduce GDP by $43 billion in 2012, lowering employment by roughly 323,000 jobs. Add the impact of failing to extend the payroll tax cut and emergency unemployment benefits beyond the end of 2011 and EPI calculates additional job losses of about 1.5 million ... [If we are] constrained by a deal that prematurely forces cuts in government discretionary spending, we are not going to be able to do what we must: Launch a set of immediate initiatives designed to lower unemployment now and get the economy moving."
Cuts In Government Weigh Down Jobs Numbers
Better than expected jobs report, but still treading water. W. Post: "Employers added 117,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, compared with a revised 46,000 in June and better than the 85,000 net new jobs that forecasters had expected ... The private sector did even better, adding 154,000 positions, but governments--particularly at the state and local level--slashed [jobs] ... The pace of job creation was roughly what is needed each month just to keep up with a growing population, not enough to push the jobless rate down ... The proportion of the population working actually fell to 58.1 percent, its lowest level since the early 1980s."
Campaign for America's Future lays out jobs agenda: "A major effort to rebuild America ... Generate green energy jobs ... buy America provisions in all government procurement ... Expand Americorps, create an Urban Corps to retrofit buildings, a Green Corps to repair parks and plant trees, a Service Corps to create jobs in non-profit organizations..."
Dean Baker explains what the Fed could do: "The Fed could do another round of quantitative easing, although this is likely to have a limited impact. It could also target a long-term interest rate, for example putting a 1.0 percent interest rate target on 5-year Treasury bonds. Alternatively, the Fed could ... target a higher rate of inflation, for example 4 percent. This would have the effect of reducing real interest rates. It would also lower the debt burden of homeowners..."
"GOP Senators Propose Plan To Slash 300,000 Government Jobs" reports ThinkProgress' Marie Diamond: "Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) introduced legislation this week that takes aim at federal workers, ostensibly to save $600 billion by cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs. Their bill would also freeze federal salaries and bonuses, eliminate 15 percent of contract workers, and slash the federal travel budget by an astonishing 75 percent ..."
Debt Deal Fallout
Mixed numbers in NYT/CBS poll: "...44 percent of those polled said the cuts in the debt-ceiling agreement did not go far enough, 29 percent said they were about right and only 15 percent said they went too far ... But by a ratio of more than two to one, Americans said that creating jobs should be a higher priority than spending cuts ... The president’s overall job approval rating remained relatively stable, with 48 percent approving ... Speaker John A. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, saw his disapproval rating shoot up 16 points since April: 57 percent of those polled now disapprove..."
Leader Pelosi hints at strategy to deal with Sept. 30 deadline to keep government open, reports ThinkProgress' Matt Yglesias: "[On] whether we’ll simply see the same kind of standoff again and again, starting with the expiration of appropriations at the end of September, [Pelosi said,] 'Suffice it to say—we won’t see a repetition.' ... When pressed she declined to get into specifics, arguing that to do so would undermine the efficacy of Democrats’ tactical options. But she posited that 'a default is a much more serious consequence than a government shutdown' ... Later, revisiting the subject she did specifically caution 'I don’t want you coming out of here and saying I’m going to shut down the government.' The clear implication, however, is that she does in fact expect Democrats to refuse to agree to further spending cuts even if refusal results in a shutdown."
Defense Sec. Panetta pushes back against further military cuts. NYT: "Mr. Panetta’s argument was that defense had given up enough — about $350 billion ... over 10 years — and that further cuts would have dire consequences ... 'You’ve got to, as the president’s made clear, if you’re going to look at those size deficits, you’ve got to look at the mandatory side of the budget, which is two-thirds of the federal budget. And you also have to look at revenues as part of that answer.'"
The top five ways to kickstart clean energy production after the debt limit deal, from ThinkProgress' Steven Lacey: "By giving a project owner a cash payment for 30% of equipment costs up front, it opened up the project finance market to a whole range of parties unable to previously fund projects with tax credits ... extend production tax credits. These are a core mechanism for investment certainty ... the Clean Energy Deployment Administration, also known as a Green Bank, that could back loans, provide insurance products and issue bonds to help arrange financial transactions between technology developers and financial institutions."
GOP prepares balanced budget amendment push. NYT: "Speaker John A. Boehner told members that the best thing they could do during the August recess was to sell their constituents on the idea that the amendment — which essentially stipulates that government cannot spend more than it takes in — is necessary and good."
FAA Gets Reprieve
Temporary solutions will reopen FAA, for now. NYT: "...the deal arranges rubber-stamp passage by the Senate on Friday of a bill that was approved by the House last month, extending the aviation agency’s operations through Sept. 16 ... the transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, told Congressional leaders that he has the authority to issue waivers for the communities affected by the cuts in rural air service contained in the House bill ... The agreement does not address differences over labor issues..."
But the fight isn't over. Daily Kos' Laura Clawson: "The problem is that Sept. 16 deadline, combined with continuing Republican intransigence. There is less than no reason to believe Republicans will relax their demand that in union representation elections, people who don't vote must be counted as having voted against the union."
