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: Tell The Truth About Jobs And Regulation
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "The Republicans have opened another front in their neverending war against regulations ... the 'Financial Regulatory Responsibility Act' would, according to Senator Richard Shelby, 'determine the economic impacts of proposed rulemakings, including their effects on growth and net job creation.' Sen. Shelby added: 'My colleagues and I are simply proposing that each financial regulator determine whether the economic cost of a new regulation exceeds its economic benefit. If it does, then the regulation should not be implemented.' ... I think it's a great idea ... one one condition: The bill should be revised so that every politician who proposes de-regulating an industry, and every regulator who fails to use their powers properly, must be held to the same standard ... How have the deregulators performed so far? Let's look at the record..."
"Patriotic Millionaire" Makes Dramatic Plea To Raise Taxes
"Patriotic Millionaire" asks President to raise his taxes at town hall. W. Post: "'My question is would you please raise my taxes?' the man deadpanned, to immediate laughter and applause. 'I would like very much to have the country to continue to invest in things like Pell Grants and infrastructure and job-training programs that made it possible for me to get to where I am.' ... In response to [Doug] Edwards, Obama laid out his vision that wealthier Americans benefited from many factors in society and should be willing to pay back a little bit more of the money they have earned to benefit others."
Dean Baker questions why deficit scolds won't back a financial transaction tax on Wall St. speculators: "It is difficult not to believe that Wall Street's outsized role in pushing deficit reduction has some impact on the route the debate takes ... it is hard to understand why taxing financial speculation never appears on the agenda of the deficit hawks or gets mentioned in budget reporting if the issue really is deficit reduction. On the other hand, if this is all about using an economic crisis to push a longstanding agenda to cut Social Security and Medicare, then everything suddenly makes sense."
Aftermath of recession still plaguing cities, finds new report. NYT: "Nearly a third of the nation’s cities are laying off workers this year. More than half have canceled or delayed infrastructure projects. And two out of five have raised their fees [in the] fifth straight year of declining revenues, according to a survey of city finance officers to be released on Tuesday by the National League of Cities."
President defends enviro rules at town hall. The Hill quotes: “You're going to hear from ... Republicans over the next year and a half that somehow if we just eliminated pollution controls or if we just eliminated basic consumer protections, that somehow that, in and of itself, would be a spur to growth. I disagree with that."
Shutdown Averted
Compromise reached to avert government shutdown. W. Post: "...key senators clinched a compromise that would provide less money for disaster relief than Democrats sought but would also strip away spending cuts that Republicans demanded. The pact, which the Senate approved 79 to 12 and the House is expected to ratify next week, is expected to keep federal agencies open until Nov. 18 ... Some lawmakers from hard-hit states are unhappy with the compromise, saying that it would result in a slight delay in processing aid to victims, and that the overall total of FEMA funding wouldn’t be enough to account for the damage caused by the disasters."
Obama can "afford a stalemate" by the Super Committee, suggests Politico: "This time there is no threat of a debt default, no possibility of a government shutdown ... There is so little confidence in the supercommittee that administration officials, lawmakers and budget experts point to a likely alternate outcome: The committee deadlocks, but since the trigger on the $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board cuts wouldn’t be pulled until 2013, Congress and the White House would take that extra year to draw up a plan. The expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts at the end of 2012 would serve as an additional cudgel."
Breakfast Sides
Justice Dept. sets up Supreme Court decision on Affordable Care Act for next summer, during '12 campaign, reports W. Post.
USA Today highlights another GOP critic of federal green energy loans, who lobbied for his own loan: "Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., the chairman of House Energy and Commerce Committee, previously lobbied the Department of Energy to lend money for at least four energy projects in his home state through the same loan program. But after last month's bankruptcy of the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra ... Upton was among the Republican lawmakers who decried the Department of Energy loan guarantee program for 'picking winners and losers.'"
AFL-CIO today leads rallies at post offices nationwide to stop pending postal layoffs: "Under the guise of a 'budgetary crisis,' some in Congress are going after the USPS, proposing massive cuts and layoffs—including laying off 120,000 workers, closing thousands of post offices, eliminating Saturday mail service and closing mail processing facilities."
AFL-CIO highlights killed union leaders to stop Colombia trade deal. The Hill: "AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sent a letter to President Obama on Monday expressing his labor federation’s opposition to the pending free-trade deal with Colombia. Included with the letter was a list of names of the 22 union leaders who have been killed in Colombia, 15 of those after the United States agreed to a labor action plan ... The labor leader also cited an estimate from the Economic Policy Institute that approval of the Colombia trade deal will lead to 55,000 jobs being lost."
