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: Romney "Jobs" Plan -- This Time It's Different!
OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "In honor of Mitt Romney's 'Jobs Plan' I would like to repost something I wrote in May when the Republicans released their ... uh ... 'Jobs Plan.' ... This time it's different. It really is. This time it really will create jobs instead of just handing even more money to a few at the top at the expense of the rest of us. You might not believe this because Republicans sell everything by calling it a jobs plan. And what they sell is always tax cuts for the wealthy while cutting the things We, the People do for each other. And it always ends up messing everything up for most of us. But this time it's different."
Romney's Rehash
New ideas missing from Romney plan. Time: "Most of his proposals align with Republican orthodoxy ... Romney’s proposals also dovetail with those championed by House Republicans ... And he shades many of the same facts as his Republican counterparts. 'If Mitt Romney has expressed a single original idea on the economy in the entire time he has been running for President – for the second time – you could auction it off on eBay in the rare stamp collection area,' Brad Woodhouse of the Democratic National Committee wrote..."
Romney's jobs record as governor ranked near the bottom. reminds W. Monthly's Steve Benen: "Remember, during Romney’s only service in public office, his state’s record on job creation was 'one of the worst in the country.' Massachusetts really did rank 47th out of 50 states in jobs growth on Romney’s watch (and unlike President Obama, Romney didn’t inherit an economic crisis)."
Obama Prepares $300B Jobs Plan
Obama jobs plan will be $300B mix of public investment and tax cuts, paid in part by long-term entitlement cuts, reports Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama plans to propose sparking job growth ... mostly through tax cuts, infrastructure spending and direct aid to state and local governments. Obama will call on Congress to offset the cost of the short-term jobs measures with spending and entitlement cuts as well as revenue increases [in later years], that he will present next week ... Almost half the stimulus would come from tax cuts, which include an extension of a two-percentage-point reduction in the payroll tax paid by workers due to expire Dec. 31 and a new decrease in the portion of the tax paid by employers."
Expanded payroll tax cuts may be used to pressure GOP. NYT: "For the White House, its appeal is that it may be the only large stimulus measure that can pass Congress this year given Republicans’ preference for tax cuts. And if Republicans oppose him, the White House figures Mr. Obama has the better of the political argument because he will be trying to block a tax increase that otherwise would apply to virtually all households on Jan. 1."
House Dems urge President to "be bold" tomorrow. The Hill: "'The president has demonstrated his willingness to compromise,' Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said. 'Now he needs to show his ability to fight.' Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said Obama’s speech Thursday lends him the chance 'to show leadership and make some change instead of merely tinkering in the margins.'"
And offer ideas of their own. WSJ: "Hiring young workers to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Irene and creating a system for financing road and bridge construction projects are among the ideas — many of them long-running — being pushed by House Democrats."
Progressive caucuses ask to meet with President before speech. TPM: "The letter ... hints that they'll push for actual hiring programs to guarantee job creation."
What's needed is an industrial policy, argues New Deal 2.0's Jon Rynn: "[MIT's Susan] Hockstein calls for more research dollars from the Federal government and support for more graduates and skilled workers in advanced manufacturing fields. While these are a good start, they won’t solve the underlying problem. What we need is an industrial policy, a coordinated set of initiatives that the government pursues to make up for the many market failures we are currently experiencing ... The reality is that in order to be wealthy in the long-run, an economy must be based on manufacturing."
Austerity Already Inflicting Pain
State budget cuts already weakening middle-class, increasing poverty. NYT: "Some states, including Florida and Missouri, have decided to shrink the duration of state unemployment benefits paid to laid-off workers, while others, including Arizona and California, are creating new restrictions on cash aid for low-income residents ... around the nation, lawmakers have weighed new limits to tax credits for low-income people ..."
Bloomberg edit board urges Obama cut deficit by empowering Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices: "... with 35 million beneficiaries in the Part D program, Medicare is essentially one of the world’s largest retail drug buyers. Like any big purchaser in the private sector, it should be able to negotiate healthy discounts."
Americans would be unhappy with unequal wealth distribution, if they knew. CBS: "[Poll respondent said the] richest top 20 percent of society, as determined by net worth, should control 32 percent of the wealth. The bottom 20 percent should control about ten percent. And the rest should be spread out among the 60 percent in the middle ... In reality, the top 20 percent controlled about 84 percent of the wealth, while the bottom quintile controlled just 0.1 percent."
Senate Dems move on Irene disaster relief, dare GOP to block it. The Hill: "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) last week said lawmakers should offset disaster funds, given the nation’s budgetary crisis ... but some GOP appropriators grumbled, while Republican governors such as New Jersey’s Chris Christie said no offsets should be required."
Breakfast Sides
Environmental issues may shape bill to keep government open past Sept. 30. Politico: "With spending bills and the deficit supercommittee looming, Senate Democrats plan to include energy items in a broader jobs agenda, while House Republicans look to continue to target a host of EPA regulations they view as job killers ... They set the boundaries, though, for each side’s attempt to slip what it can into a fiscal year 2012 omnibus spending package."
CFPB pick Cordray pledges to streamline financial regulations, GOP opposes anyway. NYT: "The nominee to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told a Senate committee on Tuesday that he would make it a priority 'to streamline and cut back' a mountain of regulations that has grown up over the last 30 years, which he said excessively burdened some banks and discourages them from lending money to consumers ... But committee Republicans were not buying it. They repeated their assertions ... that [the CFPB] and its director would wield unchecked authority over banks and other financial institutions."
Fed considers new move to lower interest rates. W. Post: "When Fed officials hold a pivotal meeting in two weeks, they will strongly consider buying more long-term Treasury bonds, which should lead to lower interest rates for those bonds and other long-term investments. This would ultimately make it cheaper for businesses to borrow money for investments and push more dollars into the stock market, in addition to reducing rates on mortgages and other consumer loans. To pay for the bond purchases, the Fed would sell off some of the shorter-term bonds it already owns rather than printing new money."
