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: Don't Fear a Failed Deficit Deal
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "We've been told over and over that those of us who depend on government assistance must be sacrificed for the greater economic good. And we've been told that the economy will suffer if the Super Committee fails to come up with steep cuts ... The only problem with statements like these is that they're completely wrong ... the last time a 'bipartisan' budget-cutting deal was announced, the stock market - which we've been told love these cuts - tanked. After the inexplicable downgrade of US debt on August 5, what happened? The market didn't care."
Dems Propose Grand Bargain, GOP Snubs
Super Cmte Dems propose $3T deficit reduction plan, with $1T in tax increases, GOPers reject. The Hill: "The plan ... was presented as a grand bargain that cuts entitlements, stimulates the economy and goes much further than the $1.2 trillion deficit cut required under the August debt-ceiling deal ... Republicans instantly rejected the offer. Aides dismissed the plan as unserious and said the inclusion of tax increases and stimulus spending shows it is merely a political ploy meant to paint the GOP as intransigent. Democratic aides said the GOP is once again walking away from a grand bargain that would put the U.S. on a solid fiscal ground, noting that Medicare cuts unpopular with the liberal base, reportedly totaling around $500 billion, were included in the deal."
HuffPost investigates the good and bad in the Dem proposal: "The good is the reliance on revenues and the decision to include between $200 billion and $300 billion in new economic stimulus in the presentation. The bad is that the plan calls for around $400 billion in Medicare savings, half of which would be drawn from reducing benefits to recipients ... The presentation produced by Baucus and other Democrats does not call for a raising of the Medicare eligibility age."
GOP counter-offer doesn't budge on tax increases. Politico: "The Republican plan shares much of the same ground but allows for only $640 billion in revenues, and when this is broken down, very little comes directly from the sort of tax increases Democrats have been demanding ... about $440 billion appears to be generated instead by increased government fees, high patient co-pays under Medicare, for example, or increased Part B premiums charged to higher income beneficiaries — many changes that Democrats also accept but feel do not address the larger tax issue. On the tax side, changes in the CPI would again yield some revenue, but the greater share of the tax revenue here — about $200 billion — is attributed to the impact of future tax reform spurring economic growth."
W. Post suggests "grand bargain" may still happen: "Aides in both parties said Wednesday that they are not optimistic about the prospect of a major breakthrough. So congressional leaders are discussing a fallback plan in the range of the committee’s original goal of at least $1.2 trillion in savings through 2021. Still, support for a bigger deal appears to be on the rise. With a new CBS-New York Times poll showing public approval for Congress hovering at 9 percent, a bipartisan group of House members circulated a letter Wednesday aimed at pumping up the supercommittee’s ambition."
Rallies across country at 12 noon today to defend Social Security from Super Cmte cuts. AFGE: "Join Social Security employees, beneficiaries, and advocates as we take action ... outside of Social Security offices across the country with a simple message: 'Hands Off Social Security!' ... Click Here to Find an Action Near You."
GDP Growth Ticks Up
New GDP numbers show economy picking up the pace ... a bit. NYT: "Total output grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent from July to September, almost double the 1.3 percent rate in the second quarter ... The growth, however, is still paltry — not brisk enough to recover the ground lost in the economic bust, lower unemployment or even dispel fears of a second recession. But the report offered a small helping of reassurance. 'It ain’t brilliant, but at least it’s heading in the right direction,' said Ian Shepherdson, the chief United States economist for High Frequency Economics..."
Dean Baker puts GDP number in perspective: "It is very difficult to view 2.5 percent growth as much less than disastrous. At this rate the economy is growing just fast enough to keep pace with the growth of labor force. That means we are making zero progress in reducing the unemployment rate."
Crackdown On Occupy
Several cities begin crackdown to try to break "Occupy" protests. NYT: "...in Oakland ... the police filled downtown streets with tear gas ... [In] San Francisco, city officials there had also seemingly hit their breaking point, warning several hundred protesters that they were in violation of the law ... In Atlanta, Mayor Kasim Reed ordered the police to arrest more than 50 protesters early Wednesday and remove their tents from a downtown park after deciding that the situation had become unsafe ..."
Van Jones and Jakada Imani says "All Eyes on Occupy Oakland": "Regrettably, the City of Oakland's mis-step last night shifted the focus to a "police vs people" narrative, distracting from the real problem: the big banks and corporations responsible for causing our economic crisis. The Occupy movement is powerful, not because it is fighting for the rights of a few hundred people to sleep outdoors, but because it is fighting for the right of millions of Americans to sleep indoors."
NYT's Nick Kristof argues Occupy Wall Street seeks to end "crony capitalism.": "...we face a threat to our capitalist system. But it’s not coming from half-naked anarchists manning the barricades at Occupy Wall Street protests. Rather, it comes from pinstriped apologists for a financial system that glides along without enough of the discipline of failure and that produces soaring inequality, socialist bank bailouts and unaccountable executives."
Hedge funds win concessions on SEC disclosure rule. NYT: "Large hedge funds ... will be required for the first time to report detailed information on their investments and borrowings ... [But the] changes call for only the largest funds to report the most detailed information, eliminate any penalty of perjury for misleading reports and delay for six months the initial reports for all but the largest funds. The data gathered from the new reporting will not be public; only regulators will have access to it."
Housing regulator considering proposal to allow debt paydowns. The Hill: "Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) – the independent agency that regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – is weighing a proposal to allow bankrupt homeowners to temporarily pay down their principal balance, interest-free, in an effort to reduce negative equity...'If Mr. DeMarco actually works with us to implement this proposal, it would be an important step to address this crisis,' Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.) ... said in a statement following the meeting."
Jobs Crisis Has Nothing To Do With Regulations
Bloomberg edit board debunks GOP talking points on regulations: " Obama’s White House has approved 4.7 percent fewer regulations than his predecessor at the same point in their administrations. Although the average annual costs of regulation for businesses have risen somewhat under Obama, they aren’t unusually high by historical standards. But the more important point is this: Although some federal regulations should be scaled back, doing so won’t resolve our unemployment crisis ... companies have blamed regulation for dismissing workers in only 79 of 35,807 mass firings tracked since 2007 ..."
NYT/CBS poll jobless Americans: "The nation’s lingering unemployment crisis has forced many people without work to dip into their savings, borrow from relatives and do without necessities including health insurance, and most people who receive unemployment benefits said that the money was not enough to meet their basic needs ... 7 in 10 of those receiving unemployment benefits said that they feared their benefits would run out before they could find new jobs."
Private sector won't step in if public sector abandons clean energy. W. Post: "Even before the stimulus bill poured money into renewable energy grants and loan guarantees, there was a relatively modest amount of money devoted to what is broadly known as 'clean technology' investments, industry experts say. Now, an abundance of cheap natural gas extracted from shale, the death of climate legislation and fierce competition between existing renewable energy companies have combined to make venture capital investors hesitate even more."
Presidential Sideshow
GOP rivals hit Romney for flip-flop-flip on Ohio anti-union law. NYT: "Questions about Mr. Romney’s willingness to change his positions have dogged him since he began seeking the presidency more than five years ago. Rivals have focused in particular on what they say are his changing positions on abortion, immigration, taxes and what they call 'Romneycare,' ... Mr. Romney’s remarks about the Ohio union legislation were a reminder that he remained vulnerable to incidents that seemed to reinforce the established narrative."
Rick Perry backs cutting Education Department in half. ThinkProgress' Pat Garofalo: "Perry yesterday rolled out his tax and budget plan, which cuts the Department of Education’s budget for elementary and secondary schools in half ... The federal government only accounts for about 8 percent of the nation’s overall funding for elementary and secondary education, but that 8 percent is incredibly important. Included in the pot of money Perry wants to cut is Title I funding for low-income students, all federal special education funding, the Teacher Incentive Fund, and several programs aimed at improving literacy."
