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 Visionary: 10 Things Martin Luther King, Jr. Taught Us About Today's Struggles

OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "A lot of people in the media are so afraid of offending anyone that they can't even tell the truth about the man whose memorial is being unveiled this weekend in Washington. Their coverage could give you the impression that the purpose of Martin Luther King, Jr's life was simply to make everybody in this country feel good about themselves. So once again we're presenting ten quotes that represent Dr. King as he truly was — the kind of brave and visionary leader we so badly need today.

Jobs and The Economy

Obama will name labor economist to White House job. [USA Today]: "President Barack Obama has chosen labor economist Alan Krueger for a top administration post as the White House scrambles for solutions to boost a fragile economy with the 2012 election looming. A White House official said Obama will nominate Krueger to head the White House Council of Economic Advisers. If confirmed by the Senate, he would replace Austan Goolsbee, who left the administration earlier this month. The decision completes a wholesale shake-up of the team that Obama brought with him to the White House over three years ago. Advisers Larry Summers, Christina Romer and Goolsbee have now all departed, and Obama continues to struggle with perceptions the economy is stuck in low gear on his watch."

Obama praises Georgia jobs training program [CNN Money]: "Instead of collecting a check while looking for work, Georgia has a program to give the unemployed on-the-job training. It has caught the eye of President Obama. The Georgia Works program allows those receiving unemployment insurance to be placed at a local company for up to eight weeks of training. Participants don't get paid, but they do get to keep their jobless benefits and receive a stipend of up to $240 for transportation and other expenses. Obama, who is looking for ways to help the unemployed, particularly those who have been out of work for months or years, has praised the program. He is expected to unveil his job creation proposal in September. The Wall Street Journal has reported could it contain a similar initiative."

Liz Rose says the government can and should help create jobs now: "Creating jobs isn't cheap or easy. Not for the private sector and not for the public sector. But Americans need jobs. We need to be able to work hard all day and provide for our families. While no solutions are easy, there are important steps that the government can and should take now to create jobs and improve the economy in the long run. Lawmakers need to start making the hard decisions to get the 25 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed back to work. Here are a few steps that President Barack Obama and Congress can take to create jobs now and in to the future."

Central bankers urge government to throw economic lifeline [Bloomberg]: Central bankers gathered at an annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this weekend had a message for political leaders: monetary policy alone can’t keep the global expansion going. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke urged adoption of 'good, proactive housing policies' to reverse the depressed U.S. real estate market and warned lawmakers to avoid steps that may hurt short-term growth. Ewald Nowotny of the European Central Bank Governing Council said euro-area governments should expand the powers of their regional bailout fund. 'Most of the economic policies that support robust economic growth in the long run are outside the province of the central bank,' Bernanke said at the annual conference of policy makers and economists, sponsored by the Kansas City Fed.

Matt Yglesias says the Fed can do more, but won't: "It’s important to distinguish this from the claim that the Fed can’t do more. They can. As Bernanke says, 'The Federal Reserve has a range of tools that could be used to provide additional monetary stimulus.' If he proves wrong on the downside and the economy risks slipping into deflation, he’ll pull the trigger on those tools. But he regards 9 percent unemployment and inflation 'at or below' a level 'a bit less' than 2 percent as a desirable outcome. He would of course welcome more rapid economic growth, but he’ll tolerate it if and only if it comes from supply-side reforms. Reappointing this guy should go down as President Obama’s biggest error."

Obama and 2012

Obama Faces Trouble With Key Voters Ahead Of 2012. [Huffington Post]: "Whites and women are a re-election problem for President Barack Obama. Younger voters and liberals, too, but to a lesser extent. All are important Democratic constituencies that helped him win the White House in 2008 and whose support he'll need to keep it next year. An analysis of Associated Press-GfK polls, including the latest survey released last week, shows that Obama has lost ground among all those groups since he took office. The review points to his vulnerabilities and probable leading targets of his campaign as he seeks to assemble a coalition diverse enough to help him win re-election in tough economic times."

Taegan Goddard Reports that more people want Obama to challenge Republicans: "A new Pew Research survey finds a 37% plurality thinks that President Obama 'should challenge the Republicans in Congress more often; 25% say Obama should go along with GOP leaders more frequently, while about the same percentage (26%) say he is handling the situation about right... In April, fewer (27%) said Obama should challenge GOP congressional leaders more often.' ...'Democrats, in particular, are now more likely to say Obama should challenge Republicans in Congress more often. Today, a majority of Democrats (57%) say Obama should challenge the GOP more frequently; in April, just 39% said this. And there is little difference among Democrats on this question. Liberal Democrats and their conservative and moderate counterparts are about equally likely to want to see Obama stand up more to Republicans (60%, 55% respectively).'"

David Atkins says Republicans are unpopular, but Democrats could blow their big opportunity: "Democrats have a lot to celebrate in this poll, to be fair. Like the Pew poll, the AP poll proves that the public is not so easily hoodwinked as many pessimists like myself often believe. Republicans are suffering somewhat in the arena of public opinion due to their tactics (though those tactics remain beneficial for them in the long run), and the public still remembers that George W. Bush and Republicans drove up the deficit and were primarily responsible for the economic crash. And these numbers suggest that Barack Obama will likely survive and win re-election despite the bad economy by simply being a superior choice to the alternative. But unless the White House and Congressional Democrats show more of a fighting spirit, this sort of approach will do lasting damage to the Party's reputation of fighting for the average American, and cause much of the Party's base to move to issue advocacy at best, or quit the Democratic Party entirely at worst. When 1 in 4 Democrats don't approve of the President's leadership, that's a pretty big revolt brewing."

Come On, Irene

Irene less than expected. [USA Today]: "Armageddon it wasn't. After dire warnings by weather forecasters and anxious local, state and federal officials who ordered massive coastal evacuations and told 65 million people in the storm's path to prepare for the worst, many along the East Coast were left wondering what the hype was all about."

Millions still grappling with Irene's devastation [CNN iReport]: "The torment from Irene isn't over as parts of the East Coast grappled Monday with still-dangerous flood waters, widespread power outages and stranded residents.

At least 21 deaths in nine states were blamed on Irene, which fizzled to a post-tropical cyclone and headed over eastern Canada on Monday. About 3 million customers were without power across the path traveled by Irene."

FEMA Praised By Governors For Storm Response Huffington Post: "Governors of both parties are praising the federal response to Hurricane Irene, giving a much-needed vote of confidence to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has been struggling to regain its good name after its response to Hurricane Katrina."

Ron Paul Addresses Hurricane Irene, Says 'There's No Magic About' FEMA. [Huffington Post]: "Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul told NBC News on Friday that 'there's no magic about' the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He said that he doesn't see the need for a federal response to Hurricane Irene as the powerful storm makes its way up the east cost. 'We should be like 1900, we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960,' said the Texas congressman in weighing in on the matter during a stop in New Hampshire. He regarded FEMA as a 'great contribution to deficit financing.'"

Rick Perry Update

Politico's Jonathan Martin asks, "Is Rick Perry dumb?": "Doubts about Perry’s intellect have hounded him since he was first elected as a state legislator nearly three decades ago. In Austin, he’s been derided as a right-place, right-time pol who looks the part but isn’t so deep – “Gov. Goodhair.” Now, with the chatter picking back up among his enemies and taking flight in elite Republican circles, the rap threatens to follow him to the national stage. 'He’s like Bush only without the brains,' cracked one former Republican governor who knows Perry, repeating a joke that has made the rounds. ...But conversations with both Perry admirers and critics reveal a more complicated assessment about the mind of a politician who has never lost an election—and ranks as the longest-serving governor in Texas history."

Rick Perry became a millionaire while serving in office [McClatchy]: "Since his first race for office more than a quarter-century ago, Gov. Rick Perry has emphasized his roots as a rural farmer. Yet Perry's bank account no longer reflects those humble beginnings as his bottom line has soared in recent years, records show, thanks largely to a handful of real estate deals that critics allege were achieved through the presidential candidates' political connections. In just about every campaign Perry has run since 1989, allegations of his using his position for financial gain have come up. It's an issue that Perry long ago accepted would linger as long as he remains in the public eye."

Perry calls Social Security 'monstrous lie' [Houston Chronicle]: "Riding high in the polls, Gov. Rick Perry rode into Iowa on Saturday with tough talk on President Obama, the economy and foreign policy and a declaration that Social Security is not only a Ponzi scheme but a 'monstrous lie' for younger people... Asked by a woman in the crowd about Social Security being viewed as an entitlement program, Perry reiterated the suggestion in his anti-Washington book, Fed Up!, that the program amounts to a Ponzi scheme. 'It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie," Perry said. "It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them.'"

Breakfast Sides

Bachmann says God sends message through disasters. [USA Today]: "GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann suggested to a Florida audience that God is sending a message to politicians through natural disasters like Hurricane Irene. According to a report in the St. Petersburg Times, the Minnesota congresswoman said: 'I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending.'"

Pat Robertson: Crack In Washington Monument A Sign From God, Earthquake Signals Coming Of Christ [Huffington Post]: "Televangelist Pat Robertson suggested Wednesday that cracks in the Washington Monument caused by the August 23 earthquake could be a sign from God, and the natural disaster 'means that we’re closer to the coming of the Lord.' To explain the rare east coast quake, Robertson pointed to the Biblical prophecy of the end of the world, which claims there could be potential devastation from natural disasters leading up to Jesus' return to Earth. On his television show, 'The 700 Club,' Robertson said: 'I don't want to get weird on this, so please take it for what it's worth, but it seems to me the Washington Monument is a symbol of America's power. It has been the symbol of our great nation, we look at that monument and we say this is one nation under God. Now there's a crack in it.'"

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: Raising the Medicare Age: 8 Reasons It's the Worst Presidential "Bargain" Since 1854

OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "When it comes to the "Grand Bargain" they're pushing in Washington, the movie posters for The Fly said it best: Be afraid. Be very afraid. Other people are using our lives as bargaining chips. Whether it's the so-called Congressional "Super Committee" or the President's push for that grandé-sized deal, they want to look "grand" while we get stuck with the "bargain." The Capital's misplaced focus on austerity has led to plenty of bad ideas, but one of the worst is raising the Medicare retirement age to 67. It may be the most destructive deal to come out of Washington since the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. It's unfair, short-sighted, and will actually cost the economy more money than we're spending today. No Democratic President would accept an idea like that, right? Right? Be afraid. Be very afraid."

Obama Hints at Jobs Plan

Obama hints at bipartisan jobs plan [Politico]: "OBAMA HINTS AT PLAN while announcing nomination of Alan Krueger, Princeton labor expert, as chairman of Council of Economic Advisers (succeeding Austan Goolsbee), in Rose Garden remarks: 'Next week, I will be laying out a series of steps that Congress can take immediately to put more money in the pockets of working families and middle-class families, to make it easier for small businesses to hire people, to put construction crews to work rebuilding our nation’s roads and railways and airports, and all the other measures that can help to grow this economy. These are bipartisan ideas that ought to be the kind of proposals that everybody can get behind … So my hope and expectation is that we can put country before party and get something done … That’s what I'll be fighting for.'"

WaPo's Eugene Robinson says it time to get bold on jobs: "President Obama’s promised jobs plan needs to be unrealistic and unreasonable, at the very least. If he can crank it all the way up to unimaginable, that would be even better. This is a moment for the president to suppress his reflex for preemptive compromise. The unemployment crisis is so deep and self-perpetuating that only a big, surprising, over-the-top jobs initiative could have real impact. Boldness will serve the nation well — and, coincidentally, boost Obama’s reelection prospects. ...We know Obama can be rational, realistic and eminently reasonable. Right now, he needs to be anything but."

Black leaders turn up heat on Obama [Politico]: "If there’s anything close to a political certainty in 2012, it’s that Barack Obama will get more than 90 percent of the African-American vote. But that doesn’t mean every black Obama supporter will vote for him happily – nor does it guarantee that turnout will approach the stratospheric levels of 2008, even though Obama needs a huge showing from his base to offset the expected loss of swing voters in states like North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. With that in mind, prominent black leaders — fearing Obama is not only taking them for granted but avoiding them in public — have turned up the heat on the nation’s first African-American president, transforming all-in-the-family concerns into open criticism of the president at a time when they had hoped the completion of a monument to Martin Luther King Jr. near the National Mall would bring a moment of unity."

The Alan Krueger Lesson

Obama Says Krueger to Be Key Adviser on Spurring Growth [Businessweek]: "President Barack Obama said he’s nominating Alan Krueger, a labor economist who has advocated for a hiring tax credit for businesses and increased infrastructure spending, to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Obama said Krueger will play a central role in developing policies to spur faster economic growth. The president said he’ll announce a package of proposals next week to boost hiring. 'Our great ongoing challenge as a nation remains how to get this economy growing faster,' Obama said at the White House. 'Our challenge is to create a climate where more businesses can post job listings, where folks can find good work that relieves the financial burden they’re feeling, where families can regain a sense of economic security.'"

OurFuture.org's Isaiah J. Poole says good advice is one thing, but following it is another: "The appointment of economist Alan Krueger, who President Obama named to head the Council of Economic Advisers today, is getting generally favorable reviews from progressive economic commentators. For the unemployed, that means there would be a high-level voice in the administration calling attention to their concerns about the labor market if the Senate confirms his appointment. What isn't clear, though, is whether Krueger will be a voice for the kind of robust jobs policy that President Obama has so far been loathe to advocate—and if so, would President Obama follow Krueger's advice?"

Jared Bernstein praises President Obama's choice of Alan Krueger to head his council of economic advisors: "Alan Krueger is an excellent choice to head the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. He’s an expert on job markets and he has an excellent, empiricist’s understanding of what measures could move the needle on unemployment. It’s actually unusual for a labor economist to head the CEA but with unemployment stuck around 9%, it’s an inspired choice... Obviously, the larger question here is how hard policy makers will push for the implementation of solid ideas that could help get people back to work, and how far those ideas will get in air fractious political airspace. But that’s going to be less Alan’s bailiwick—I guarantee you he will be generating those ideas."

Hurricane Irene and the Case for Big Government

Costs Of Irene Add Up As FEMA Runs Out Of Cash [NPR]: "FEMA's role in a disaster is multilayered. It provides immediate assistance, helping victims pay for shelter and food and medical needs. Later on, it pays to rebuild schools, bridges and water treatment plants. For instance, FEMA is still paying for rebuilding related to Hurricane Katrina, which struck six years ago this week... All told, there have been 10 storms that cost at least a billion dollars each this year, if you include Irene's expected costs. And FEMA says its disaster relief fund is below the billion dollars it likes to keep on hand. So the administration will be forced to go to Congress for more aid, setting up a potential fight with House Republicans. In the past, emergency aid funds have been treated as, well, emergencies, and the money spent was added to the deficit. No more, says House Majority Leader Eric Cantor."

Steve Benen writes of Eric-Cantor's no-disaster-relief-without-cuts demand: "I’m well aware of the political norms that say it’s wrong to question the motives of those you disagree with. We’re not supposed to make disagreements personal, and we’re not supposed to accuse officials of being bad people. I’ll bite my tongue, then, and just say that the Republican approach to disaster relief is morally reprehensible. ... House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) appeared on Fox News this morning to confirm what he and his office have been saying all along: Republicans won’t allow emergency aid in the wake of Hurricane Irene unless Democrats meet GOP demands: dollar-for-dollar spending cuts elsewhere. In the interview, the dimwitted Majority Leader tried to make this sound like common sense — instead of an unprecedented move. Remember, no modern Congress, regardless of which party was in the majority, has ever demanded offsets in response to American natural disaster, not even Tom DeLay’s."

Slate's David Weigel takes on the question of where the government will get the money to pay cover Hurricane Irene's damage: "Offsets? Really? For a natural disaster? Yes, really... What will be cut in order to pay for Irene? Sorry, we don't know. If FEMA asks for a supplemental funding bill, we'll have that fight. Coburn's still in the Senate, there's no shortage of projects he thinks we can cut, and some cuts can be so back-loaded that they don't touch infrastructure funding. 'Anything could be cut,' says Coburn's communications director, John Hart. 'We've identified $9 trillion in cuts. Part of the Oklahoma City bombing disaster money was offset in the 1990s.' And if we're lucky, this will be a sideshow. The debt deal that voters so adore created a literal rainy day fund, which would be filled up annually with enough cash to pay for disasters, based on an average of what the last 10 years of disasters ended up costing. Yes: Congress actually passed this. So let's adjust our outrage-o-meters. Cuts-for-aid is the new normal."

WaPo's Dana Milbank writes of Hurricane Irene and the benefits of big government: "Don’t expect anybody to throw a tea party, but Big Government finally got one right. On Monday, six years to the day after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans and obliterated the notion of a competent federal government, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate offered an anecdote that showed just how different things were with Hurricane Irene. ...Such successes might provide an antidote to the souring of the public’s confidence in government. By coincidence, a Gallup poll released Monday showed that only 17 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the federal government, a new low. More likely, however, Americans won’t have long to savor this new competence in government. NOAA has already been hit with budget cuts that will diminish its ability to track storms, and FEMA, like much of the federal government, will lose about a third of its funding over the next decade if Tea Party Republicans have their way."

Federal Aid Sought By Local Republicans In Disaster's Wake [Huffington Post]: "The GOP’s philosophy has been to push government more towards the state and local level, but the wake of Hurricane Irene is leaving many seeking a role for the federal government. Hurricane Irene left a path of destruction from Virginia to New England, causing what is expected to be billions of dollars in damage."

2012 Race Takes Shape

In 2012, Deepak Chopra writes, the issue won't just be the economy: "Whereas the presidential prospects for the Republicans looked dim a few months ago, now we are told that the party is energized, thinks it can beat Obama, and only needs a stand-up candidate. With the recession nowhere near a robust turn-around, the president looks vulnerable to any serious challenge. So the conventional wisdom holds. I doubt it. The pundits have left leadership out of the equation, and specifically, they've ignored what a leader needs to do. Anger on the left is calling for Obama to pull a Gary Cooper in High Noon and run the bad guys out of town by standing up to them. But real leaders aren't sheriffs, and the right wing doesn't see itself as bad guys. From the beginning of his administration, facing very tough times ahead, Obama has seen, quite rightly, that a leader fulfills the needs of his followers. There are three needs that serve as the foundation of a healthy society, as they do for a healthy individual."

Anna Marie Cox — the blogger formerly known as Wonkette — explains why Mitt Romney will fail: "First, if outspoken outliers such as Perry and Bachmann (and even McCain, in his own way) continue to do well in the modern Republican party, there is no longer a 'next in line' theory of nominations. And, specifically to Romney, there's this: voters' familiarity with his name has failed to make him especially loved: of the announced presidential candidates, Romney has the highest name recognition but lowest "positive intensity" score, as tracked by Gallup. Mitt Romney belongs to a select group of politicians that fails to excite the emotions of the population either direction. (His fellow hopefuls, however, experience no such ambivalence: they loathe him.) There is a name for this set of candidates: losers."

S.C. Sen. DeMint says he won't run in 2016 [McClatchy]: "“Pending some unforeseen circumstances,” U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint told the Columbia Rotary Club Monday he will not run for re-election in 2016. 'If you see the finish line, you can give it all you’ve got,' DeMint said. 'There are very few people who have been (in Congress) over 10 years who are still fighting for something. That’s what Americans want us to do, right now, is to fight for the right thing — even if we lose.' DeMint added he will not run for president, either, quipping, 'I think I'm the only senator who does not see a president when I look in the mirror.'"

Jon Huntsman seeks middle ground in GOP's 2012 race [McClatchy]: "Waving off his low poll numbers, GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman insisted Monday that he is a 'mainstream conservative' who can win South Carolina's Republican primary. On his fourth campaign visit to the state, Huntsman touted his experience as a businessman, two-term Utah governor and ambassador to China. 'I’m going to remind people that we’ve been there and done that.' Huntsman — a 51-year-old, motorcycle-riding, gun-owning father of seven — is positioning himself as a moderate who can win voters in South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary in February and, more importantly, independents in the general election."

Breakfast Sides

In Wisconsin, writes DKos' Steve Singiser, budget cutting means cutting teacher sick days: "Now, with no vehicle to combat them, teachers are watching as local school boards, crippled by budget cuts magnified by newly-enacted limits on levying taxes, are going after teacher benefits. Some districts are going so far as to limit the number of days that teachers can call in sick before having to pay out of pocket.

The U.S. has wasted $30 billion on Iraq and Afghanistan contracts [Guardian]: "The U.S. government has wasted more than $30 billion on private contractors and grants in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade – more than 15% of the total spend – according to a bipartisan group charged with examining the issue. The figure, described as 'sobering but conservative', illustrated the need for significant law and policy changes to avoid such waste in the future, the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan said. The body, set up by a Senate vote in 2007 to mimic the work of a post-second world war commission that investigated waste, will submit its report to Congress on Wednesday."