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: Today's Big Idea To Get America Working: Revive American Manufacturing
OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "At the end of 2010, manufacturing was just 11.7 percent of the economy. (Meanwhile, the financial sector has grown from 19 percent of the economy in the mid-1980s to more than 40 percent today.) If we want to recharge the nation's job-creation machine, we must make manufacturing a larger segment of the economy... A bold jobs plan aims to boost American manufacturing by insisting that: International trade be on a truly level playing field... America adopt a national manufacturing/industrial/economic policy... Congress write into law a "Buy American" policy for government procurement... The administration execute a plan for capturing the lead in green energy."
Where The Jobs Are ... Going
Corporations don't want you to know where else they are creating jobs [Washington Post]: "Some of the country’s best-known multinational corporations closely guard a number they don’t want anyone to know: the breakdown between their jobs here and abroad. So secretive are these companies that they hand the figure over to government statisticians on the condition that officials will release only an aggregate number. The latest data show that multinationals cut 2.9 million jobs in the United States and added 2.4 million overseas between 2000 and 2009. Some of the same companies that do not report their jobs breakdown, including Apple and Pfizer, are pushing lawmakers to cut their tax bills in the name of job creation in the United States. But experts say that without details on which companies are contributing to job growth and which are not, policymakers risk flying blind as they try to jump-start the hiring of American workers."
Jeffrey Sachs says the business elite has "one foot out the door [Forbes]: "Columbia economist Jeffrey Sachs charged the 'top' (the business and financial elite of the U.S.) with being 'off in the world markets. They're off in the emerging economies. They're off making money elsewhere. They've left America, at least one foot out the door.' Sachs made his comments on Farred Zakaria's GPS program on CNN this morning. The program was run twice today in the US and twice more internationally. In a wide-ranging discussion about the US and European economic problems, Sachs also charged that 'the two parties (Republican and Democratic) protect the rich campaign contributors, protect the big businesses.' This outspoken opinion is becoming more of a generally accepted criticism of the status quo and is contributing to the low public support of Barack Obama just as the 2012 political campaign heats up."
U.S. companies are creating thousands of jobs...in China [CNN Money]: "These U.S. companies are creating thousands of new jobs in China, as they spread their products to the country's growing middle class... As China's middle class has grown, the world's largest beverage maker has been along for the ride. Coca-Cola bottles and packages its beverages close to its customer base, rather than exporting its products from continent to continent... The company invested $3 billion in building Chinese plants in the last three years alone, and the company just announced it will be investing another $4 billion by 2014... Mainland China is about to get its first major Disney resort... In April, Disney broke ground on the $4.4 billion project, which is bound to create thousands of jobs through the construction phase alone... P&G now employs about 8,000 people in China and is adding more."
Economy: Go Big Or Go Bust
E.J. Dionne says Obama's best chance with the economy is to go big, go long, and go global: "Going big means immediate action to boost the economy, even though this will increase the short-term deficit. His proposals to continue the payroll tax cut, extend unemployment insurance and enact patent reform are good, but they are not enough. ...Over the past week, big investors and business leaders have largely stopped talking about budget-balancing and started issuing panicky calls for the world's governments to step up to the challenge of avoiding a second recession by spending more money. They know that austerity is the wrong medicine right now. At the same time, Obama should put forward a plan of his own to close the long-term deficit....He should lay out exactly what he would do and abandon his practice of making preemptive concessions to his opponents."
Michael Winship explains how Washington could create jobs right now: "There are jobs to be had, jobs for the creating, even good ones, if Washington can just pull its head out of... the hole it's dug for itself. But just as a starting point of reference, for all the GOP denigration of TARP, actions by the Federal Reserve and the Obama stimulus, according to a recent report issued by the non-partisan policy group Demos, "It's important to remember that we dodged a far more lethal bullet. The Great Recession could have turned into another Great Depression. The fact that it did not is attributable to the federal government's forceful macroeconomic intervention in late 2008 and early 2009..." The report, "Back to Work: A Public Jobs Proposal for Economic Recovery," ...recommends an approach that "doesn't require us to wait for the economy to recover in order to put people back to work. It puts people back to work as a way of nourishing the recovery. It's a strategy for producing a job-led recovery rather than the jobless recovery we have been experiencing so far."
Laurence Lewis at DKos says that government is not the problem but should be the solution:"The Republicans want us to believe that government is the problem. The Democrats can make the case that particularly in times of crisis, government is the solution. This is about framing. It's about theories of economics and it's about theories of government. And Democrats are failing even to attempt to defend what has been traditional Democratic framing. They are failing even to attempt to defend what the evidence clearly proves... And if he fails to put forward a comprehensive plan and fight for it, Americans won't know who is to blame. Republicans are counting on it. They cannot win the political and economic arguments. They can only hope that there is no argument to win. For too long now, there has been no argument made by the Democrats."
Tom Campbell, at the Los Angeles Times, explains how the federal government could boost hiring: "[H]ere is how it could work. ...The federal government could agree to provide for 50% of a new employee's salary if an employer adds a job and gives it to someone who's been out of work six months or more. With more than 6 million people who've been unemployed that long, businesses would have a large hiring pool... This would be costly, of course. If every one of the qualified employees was hired and received the average private sector wage ...the price tag would be $175 billion a year. But to put the numbers in context, the stimulus bill cost $787 billion."
Austerity Agenda Fail
Digby says Democrats' austerity cheerleading isn't going to get rid of the real uncertainty that's dragging the economy down: "Who, exactly, do the Democrats hope to have vote for them in the next election? For the moment, billionaires only get one vote. Supposedly, the nation's corporate CEOs are all holding on to their huge profits because they are 'uncertain' about the economy. But the real problem is that all these budget slashers are making average Americans uncertain, worried about whether or not they're going to have jobs and health care and social security. I think you can forgive people for feeling a little insecure when everyone in public life is calling for more sacrifice and 'skin in the game' and constantly saying 'everything's on the table.' You'd be a fool not to hang on to every penny you have in a world that seems to be ever more dystopian. They are making the wrong argument."
Robert Reich says that Austerity is ushering in a global recession: "Not only is the United States slouching toward a double dip, but so is Europe. New data out today show even Europe’s strongest core economies – Germany, France, and the Netherlands – slowing to a crawl. We’re on the cusp of a global recession. Policy makers be warned: Austerity is the wrong medicine. We all know about the weaknesses in Europe’s 'periphery' – Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. But the drop in Europe’s core is dizzying. ...And as the United States economy sputters, exports to America have been slowing. But chalk up a big part of Europe’s slowdown to the politics and economics of austerity. Europe – including Britain – have turned John Maynard Keynes on his head. They’ve been cutting public spending just when they should be spending more to counteract slowing private spending. The United States has been moving in the same bizarre direction."
"Black Tea" Backlash?
Patricia Murphy, at the Daily Beast, writes that Obama could face a "black backlash," tea party style: "With a stinging budget defeat behind them and unemployment in the black community soaring to 16 percent, members of the Congressional Black Caucus say they’re done waiting for Barack Obama to fight their battles for them. Instead, the 43 African-American lawmakers say they’re taking matters into their own hands and will carry the fight to Tea Party Republicans, whom they blame for Obama’s latest lurch to the right. 'The Tea Party discovered something. That is if they organize, if they talk loud enough, if they threaten, if they register to vote and elect a few people, they can take over the Congress of the United States,' said Rep. Maxine Waters. 'They called our bluff and we blinked. We should have made them walk the plank.'"
Rep. Elijah Cummings says Obama need to fight harder for African Americans [HuffPo]: "Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), responding to the high unemployment rates in the black community, said that African-Americans feel President Barack Obama 'needs to fight, and fight harder.' 'We are totally frustrated, and people need to know that the president feels their pain,' Cummings, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, told CNN's Candy Crowley on 'State of the Union' Sunday. 'Almost every African-American person I spoke to said he needs to fight, and fight harder,' Cummings said."
Pushing Perry
A Bank of America executive's promise to Rick Perry has gone viral [McClatchy]: "A Bank of America executive gained attention in the blogosphere last week for a comment he made to Texas Gov. Rick Perry at a breakfast in New Hampshire. After the candidate's speech at the Politics & Eggs forum, Jim Mahoney, the bank's policy director, approached Perry and said: "We'll help you out." The video clip went viral. Bank spokesman Larry Di Rita said the bank, based in Charlotte, N.C., routinely engages in policy discussions with elected officials and policy makers from both parties and at all levels of government. Mahoney's remark referred to comments in Perry's speech about economic and job growth."
John Heilman explains how Obama might help Perry: "It’s no secret that the White House would prefer to run next fall against the likes of Perry (or, perish the thought, Bachmann) than Romney, the easier to paint Obama’s opponent as unacceptably outré and even scary. Less appreciated is how significant a player Obama’s reelection team—along with its allied outside groups—may be in the Republican primaries. By spending millions of dollars on anti-Romney ads and pointing out the similarities of his Massachusetts health-care plan to Obamacare at every opportunity, they may be able to function effectively as a pro-Perry 'super pac'—and one with greater resources and media reach than anything Perry and his allies can muster. The irony here would be rich, for sure, and the effect bordering on perverse. But don’t kid yourself: The possibility of things playing out just this way is one of many nightmares that keep Romney’s advisers awake at night."
FT's Clive Crook says Rick Perry's popularity is the product of his unelectable appeal: " At his best, moreover, he is a brilliant politician. His speech announcing his candidacy included a line as masterful as his attack on the Fed was dumb. “I’ll work every day to make Washington DC as inconsequential in your life as I can.” Compare that with Mr Obama’s irretrievably broken promise to change Washington by bringing the parties together. Voters in the US are close to despair about the federal government’s dysfunction. They do not believe Washington can be mended. If possible, they would like it ploughed under. Mr Perry perfectly expresses this sentiment. Then, surely, Mr Perry is far from unelectable, despite his hard-right opinions and loose lips? Persuading independents, as he must, will be hard. I doubt he can do it. Arresting as the parallel may seem, Mr Perry cannot be Ronald Reagan to Mr Obama’s Jimmy Carter."
The GOP may never get its "dream candidate" [NY Times]: "Now that Texas Governor Rick Perry has thrown his hat in -- and become a favorite -- chances are growing slimmer that another contender will jump in and make a splash. With state-by-state nominating contests starting early next year, it will be very difficult for a newcomer to raise the money and set up a campaign apparatus to defeat other Republican candidates who have been in the race for months. And, barring a major stumble by leading contenders Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann and Perry, most analysts expect a leader will emerge in the field not far into 2012. 'Between Romney, Perry and Bachmann, they have a lot of the current buzz and the current spectrum of the electable Republican Party covered,' said Nathan Gonzales, deputy editor of the independent Rothenberg Political Report. 'If there were a perfect candidate, they would have been in the race already,' he said."
Breakfast Sides
Obama announces the beginning of the end of Gadhafi's regime: "Tonight, the momentum against the Qadhafi regime has reached a tipping point. Tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant. The Qadhafi regime is showing signs of collapsing. The people of Libya are showing that the universal pursuit of dignity and freedom is far stronger than the iron fist of a dictator. The surest way for the bloodshed to end is simple: Moammar Qadhafi and his regime need to recognize that their rule has come to an end. Qadhafi needs to acknowledge the reality that he no longer controls Libya. He needs to relinquish power once and for all."
The Fed lent banks another $1.2 trillion [Politico]: "The Federal Reserve lent Wall Street firms a staggering $1.2 trillion dollars in a previously unrevealed bank bailout that dwarfs the size of TARP, reports Bloomberg News. The $1.2 trillion -which Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke lent to banks and other firms to prevent the economy from collapsing - is roughly equivalent to the amount that U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million underwater mortgages, Bloomberg said. Bloomberg News received the information through Freedom of Information Act requests, litigation and an act of Congress. The $1.2 trillion figure is the compilation of the balance for seven programs instituted by the Fed... The largest borrower was Morgan Stanley, which received as much as $107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of America $91.4 billion. By comparison, TARP, a $700 billion bank bailout fund that was passed by Congress in late 2008, gave $45 billion each to Citigroup and Bank of America, and only $10 billion to Morgan Stanley."
The New York Times says that the president should help homeowners in trouble: "Tens of millions of Americans are being crushed by the overhang of mortgage debt. And Congress and the White House have yet to figure out that the economy will not recover until housing recovers — and that won’t happen without a robust effort to curb foreclosures by modifying troubled mortgage loans. Instead of pushing the banks to do what is needed, the Obama administration has basically urged them to do their best to help, mainly by reducing interest rates for troubled borrowers. The banks haven’t done nearly enough. In many instances, they can make more from fees and charges on defaulted loans than on modifications... President Obama is reportedly planning to include housing relief measures in his new jobs plan. Unless the plan includes strong support for principal reductions and easier refinancings, it will not get at the root of the problem: too much mortgage debt and too little relief."
