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: How To Fight Back Against The Shock Doctrine
OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "The elite rollout is clear. The gang of 12 produces a 'deal,' combining a hike in eligibility age for Medicare, a cut in Social Security by reducing the inflation adjustment, caps on Medicaid and increased revenues from LOWERING rates on the corporations and the rich, while limiting deductions that reach middle class families – on mortgages, employer based health care or retirement plans ... Don’t fall for it. Fight back. On August 9, Republican state senators in Wisconsin who sought to trample basic worker rights are facing recall elections. On August 10, the American Dream Movement, supported by Moveon.org, the Center for Community Change, and the Campaign for America’s Future and others, will sponsor events across the country. Citizens will be taking the new Contract for the American Dream to their legislators, and demanding action on jobs, not on cuts ... August must generate enough street heat to supplant the hysteria now coming to you wall to wall over the Mainstream media."
S&P Stokes New Round Of Deficit Hysteria
NYT suggests S&P downgrade heightens pressure on Congress to forge broader deficit reduction deal: "If Congress wants to satisfy the rating agencies ... it will need to lock in substantial deficit-reduction measures, without using the kind of budgetary gimmicks that sometimes appear to produce savings under accounting rules prescribed by Congress, several lawmakers said ...On the other hand, ... a bigger joint committee bill might make the alternative — automatic across-the-board cuts saving $1.2 trillion over 10 years — appear more attractive, lawmakers said."
Instead of judging government finances, credit agency execs should be "in prison" argues HuffPost's Robert Kuttner: "...these are the same people who brought us the crisis, by blessing junk sub-prime loans as AAA securities. And they did so because they were paid as consultants by the same financial scoundrels who created the securities."
Warren Buffet slams S&P. Bloomberg: "Standard & Poor’s, the rating company that downgraded the debt of the United States to AA+ from AAA for the first time, now finds itself assailed by investors led by billionaire Warren Buffett for making a political decision that has more to do with Tea Party politics than the financial stability of the U.S."
America has become unreliable, but that's the Republicans' fault, notes NYT's Paul Krugman: "... as the straight economics goes, America’s long-run fiscal problems shouldn’t be all that hard to fix. It’s true that an aging population and rising health care costs will, under current policies, push spending up faster than tax receipts. But the United States has far higher health costs than any other advanced country, and very low taxes by international standards. If we could move even part way toward international norms on both these fronts, our budget problems would be solved. So why can’t we do that? Because we have a powerful political movement in this country that screamed 'death panels' in the face of modest efforts to use Medicare funds more effectively, and preferred to risk financial catastrophe rather than agree to even a penny in additional revenues."
The New Yorker's James Surowiecki argues that businesses are being hurt by GOP obstruction: "There are those ... who would argue that Republicans are pushing for austerity ... it serves the interests of business and the wealthy. But it doesn’t serve those interests at all. Decades ago, America’s rich were a true rentier class. They got most of their income from bonds and lived off their investments, and their main priority was keeping inflation low, regardless of anything else that happened ... The rich of today, by contrast, get much more of their income from their jobs and from the stock market, which means that they do better when growth is strong. And, while companies have figured out how to make money even during steep downturns—during this very weak recovery, corporate profits have rebounded strongly—over-all corporate profits are below where they were in 2006."
Geithner to remain at Treasury through 2012. NYT: "...the White House pressed Mr. Geithner to stay, citing a need for stability in Mr. Obama’s economic team and a desire to avoid another confrontation with Senate Republicans, who have used the filibuster to delay or prevent votes on many of Mr. Obama’s nominees to important executive branch positions."
Wisconsin Recall Elections Tomorrow
Recall elections targeting GOP seats set for tomorrow. W. Post: "Democrats have targeted six Republican state senators for recall, while two of their own face recall fights ... to seize control, Democrats must win three GOP-held seats and lose none of their own. Most analysts consider Sen. Dan Kapanke (R) the most endangered ... Sen. Randy Hopper (R) also faces a tough race in a Democratic-leaning district. Sens. Luther Olsen and Alberta Darling, both Republicans, are vulnerable, too, and their races are likely to decide whether Democrats get to the majority on Tuesday. Observers on both sides acknowledge the possibility that Democrats could win the majority by a seat only to lose it again on Aug. 16, when Sen. Jim Holperin — one of the two Democrats targeted by Republicans — faces his recall election."
Mother Jones' Andy Kroll offers a race-by-race breakdown: "Publicly, Wisconsin Democrats are oozing confidence ... in private, representatives of left-leaning groups are biting their nails ... These officials ... strongly believe Democrats will claim at least two seats. Three races are too close to call, and they're writing off another as all but impossible..."
Debt Limit Deal Imperils Jobs Agenda
Debt limit deal spending caps threaten jobs agenda. The Hill: "The law does not itemize the cuts, instead leaving those decisions to appropriators. But the size of reductions makes it inevitable they will impact a long list of discretionary programs, including those related to environmental protection, food safety, education and infrastructure. That's bad news for liberal Democrats, who are pushing this month for a robust, long-term reauthorization of federal highway, transit and aviation programs – items Congress will take up when lawmakers return to Washington in September."
Trade deals and patent reform, sold as jobs legislation, expected to pass Congress soon. AP: "... both the trade and patent measures enjoy bipartisan support from lawmakers eager to show they can make a difference in improving the feeble job market."
"Labor ramps up effort to stop trade deals" reports The Hill: "The AFL-CIO will hold more than 450 events across the country this month where the deals will be discussed, and it has started a petition 'urging politicians to bring the same urgency to the jobs crisis that they brought to the politically manufactured crisis over the deficit,' Trumka said."
Congressional Black Caucus kicks off summer jobs campaign. W. Post: "...as the CBC launches its most public and coordinated jobs campaign so far, the president is notably absent from the lineup. Instead, the White House has dispatched Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan, who is white, to the event and announced that Obama will embark on his own jobs tour that will take place in the middle of the CBC’s campaign ... In addition to Ohio, the CBC rally will target swing states Florida and Michigan as well as Democratic strongholds in Georgia and California ... several federal agencies are participating in the job fairs, which will include more than 200 companies with 10,000 available jobs ... 'What the president is doing is not the same as what we’re doing . . . We have real jobs to give real people who are unemployed,' said caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.)"
Breakfast SIdes
AIG to sue Bank of America over mortgage crisis. NYT: "The suit seeks to recover more than $10 billion in losses on $28 billion of investments, in possibly the largest mortgage-security-related action filed by a single investor. It claims that Bank of America and its Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial units misrepresented the quality of the mortgages placed in securities and sold to investors, according to three people with knowledge of the complaint."
Former SEC Chair Arthur Leavitt urges Congress not to defund the enforcement agency, in NYT oped: "The S.E.C., which was founded during the Depression to protect Main Street investors, has been charged with implementing the 2,300-page Dodd-Frank financial reform law but has not been given the resources to do the work necessary. For 2012, the S.E.C. asked for an increase of $222 million in its budget; it is slated to receive no increase at all. Those in Congress who complain that the S.E.C. is behind schedule on Dodd-Frank and wonder why need only look at the budgets they approve."
Ed Dept. avert "No Child Left Behind" train-wreck, exerts executive authority to issue waivers. NYT: "[Sec. Arne Duncan] is waiving the law’s proficiency requirements for states that have adopted their own testing and accountability programs and are making other strides toward better schools ... Conservatives said it could inflame relations with Republicans in the House who want to reduce, not expand, the federal footprint in education. But Mr. Duncan and White House officials described their plan as offering crucial relief to state and local educators ... About 38,000 of the nation’s 100,000 public schools fell short of their test-score targets under the federal law last year, and Mr. Duncan has predicted that number would rise to 80,000 this year ... said Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers. 'Many states feel that we need major changes in the law, because it’s identifying such an outlandish number of schools that it’s losing credibility,'..."
