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: Killing The Dream -- The High Cost of Low Wages
OurFuture.org's Terrance Heath: "Republicans have cooled on Texas governor Rick Perry as their great white hope for 2012, but their desire to make the rest of the country look more like Texas — economically, that is — hasn't. In fact, it's hotter than ever. Despite the fact that Texas leads the nation in creating low-wage jobs, conservatives tout Texas as an example of GOP-style job creation without a hit of irony. The 'Make Work Pay: Why Empowering Workers & Holding CEO's Accounable is Vital to Economic Growth' workshop at next week's Take Back the American Dream conference, will examine why America can't afford to go the way of Texas on jobs..."
Affordable Care Act On Fast Track To Supreme Court
Justice Dept. asks Supreme Court to rule on Affordable Care Act next year, before election. NYT: "... almost all of the usual signs indicate that the court will agree to hear at least one challenge to the law ... It is less clear which case the justices will agree to hear ... Nor is it clear which issues the justices will focus on. Simply agreeing to hear a case does not guarantee that the Supreme Court will decide whether Congress had the power under the Constitution’s commerce clause to enact the individual mandate..."
"A June Obamacare Ruling Might Be Win-Win," argues TNR's Timothy Noah: "? If the Court upholds Obamacare then we will all be reminded that this sole accomplishment makes Obama the most consequential Democrat since Lyndon Johnson to occupy the Oval Office ... But slapping down a sitting president in a transparently partisan manner with a decision that did violence to eight decades of jurisprudence and that would literally cost American lives ... would be a fantastically effective way to 'energize the base,' as we say in Washington, and maybe rope in some independents, too."
USA Today edit board says new rate hikes having nothing to do with "ObamaCare": "These latest increases are just further evidence of deep, long-standing flaws in the U.S. health care system that are only modestly impacted by the new law ... Medical inflation won't be addressed by re-debating or repealing the 2010 law. If anything, its politically divisive 'individual mandate' ... might hold down premiums by eliminating free-riders and giving insurers millions of new customers."
GOP Failing To Push Phony Scandal
Poll shows GOP failing to publicize phony Solyndra scandal. The Hill: "'Thus far, Solyndra is still news junkie fodder and not dinner table conversation,' states a joint Sept. 26 memo from the GOP firm Public Opinion Strategies and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3), a Democratic firm. 'Our joint survey of 650 voters in Ohio conducted a week after the bankruptcy filing, for example, demonstrated that just one‐in‐ten (11%) said they had heard "a great deal" about the issue...'"
TNR's Jonathan Cohn explains why there's no there there: "Ever since the Solyndra story broke, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop. And … I’m still waiting ... most of the loans in this program seem to have worked out."
Obama forges ahead with additional loan guarantees to solar companies. AP: "Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110 megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nev., and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150 megawatt solar plant near Phoenix ... The loan approvals came just two days before a renewable energy loan program approved under the 2009 economic stimulus law is set to expire. At least seven projects worth more than $5 billion are pending."
Energy Dept. also plans to fund new projects with "breakthrough" potential. NYT "On Thursday it will issue $156 million in grants for 60 research projects said to have potentially 'game-changing' ideas in energy production and efficiency, including plants that grow fuel molecules in their leaves and electricity generators and high-efficiency motors that do not need any rare-earth materials."
Bernanke Calls It A "Crisis"
Bernanke calls high unemployment a "national crisis," reports Bloomberg.
Sharpton to lead 10/15 rally in support of American Jobs Act. W. Post: "The march, which will count on the large ranks of union members, will bring 'drama' to the jobs debate, Sharpton said. He said he will give a speech, along with union leaders and the presidents of the NAACP, the National Urban League and the National Council of La Raza."
Closing the trade gap is the no-cost way to create jobs, argues C. Fred Bergsten in NYT oped: "First, the United States must, in effect, weaken the dollar by 10 to 20 percent. This step alone would produce one million to three million jobs ... The United States should take China to the World Trade Organization in Geneva for engaging in illegal competitive currency devaluation, and retaliate if China does not cease this protectionist policy."
Former French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy pushes for financial speculation tax in NYT oped: "...a tax of just 0.05 percent levied on each stock, bond, derivative or currency transaction would be aimed at financial institutions’ casino-style trading, which helped precipitate the economic crisis. Because these markets are so vast, the tax could raise hundreds of billions of dollars a year globally for cash-strapped governments and could increase development aid."
Foreclosure aid program falls short, shuts down. NYT: "'No one could have anticipated how difficult the statutory requirements would make it to qualify homeowners, causing us to overestimate the number of people who could meet the eligibility criteria,' said Todd M. Richardson, director of the emergency loan program. Yet Representative [Barney] Frank said he never heard the agency complain about the statue guidelines’ being overly stringent. 'They’re just trying to cover up their embarrassment,' he said."
WH Defends Immigration Enforcement Strategy
Obama administration highlights focus on deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records. NYT: "Officials from the agency portrayed the seven-day sweep, called Operation Cross Check, as the largest enforcement and removal operation in its history. It involved arrests in all 50 states of criminal offenders of 115 nationalities, including people convicted of manslaughter, armed robbery, aggravated assault and sex crimes."
President pushes back on charge his immigration record is harsher than his predecessor's. The Hill: "President Obama said statistics that show his administration is on track to deport more illegal immigrants than the Bush administration are misleading ... Obama explained that enhanced border security has led to Border Patrol agents arresting more people as they cross into the country illegally. Those people are quickly sent back to their countries, but are counted as deported illegal immigrants ... 'Our enforcement priority is not to chase down young people who are following all the other laws,' he said."
Four Days Until "Take Back the American Dream"
Katrina vanden Heuvel previews the conference in the W. Post: "On Oct. 3, thousands will gather in Washington at the 'Take Back the American Dream Conference' in the belief that only a citizens’ movement can reclaim and save the fading American dream ... unlike the Tea Party, the American Dream Movement is championing concerns that have widespread popular support ... The agenda is clear: It’s our job as citizens to preserve, protect and defend the American dream. But first we have to resurrect it..."
