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: Policing The 99%
OurFuture.org's Terrance Heath: "From using pepper spray against peaceful protesters to lobbing flash bombs at unarmed protesters rushing to help an injured man, the police tactics are chilling enough by themselves. When considered in the context of what really motivates the protesters, the policing of the 99 percent by the 99 percent on behalf of the 1 percent is truly ominous ... The protesters are not 'anti-capitalism' or even 'anti-capitalist.' They are Americans opposed to a capitalism that has operated without conscience or accountability for decades, and outraged that they, their families and their communities have borne the consequences. And this means one of two things: that their concerns must be prioritized and their voices heeded, or they must be more effectively policed."
Establishment Pushes Super Committee To Cut Retirement Security
A "Super Committee" deal might be close, reports Time's Jay Newton-Small: "Democrats are demanding a few hundred billion dollars in revenue increases up front, which would be achieved in part by doing away with the flashy deductions for the rich ... Democrats also want to start the tax debate from a baseline that assumes the expiration of George W. Bush’s 2001 tax cuts ... Republicans don’t like either of these requirements, which is why, a senior Senate source close to the talks tells me, there’s a 75% chance that the supercommittee will deadlock ... [But] GOP sources hinted that their party might give ground on the revenue front. The thinking goes that if Republicans cut a deal, they’ll get entitlement reform. Even changes to Social Security, which Democrats had long refused to consider, are now on the table. And if they don’t make one, tax reform will likely be enacted anyway without major tweaks to federal benefit programs. That’s why House Republican sources tell me the committee is likely to reach a deal."
Erskine Bowles proposes $2.6T deficit reduction plan to "Super Committee," with even more Medicare and Social Security cuts. Politico: "...the new Bowles proposal would raise $800 billion in revenue, cut $600 billion from health care programs, slash annual discretionary spending by $300 billion, save $400 billion in interest payments because of the other cuts, and reap $200 billion from changes to the way the consumer price index is calculated..."
Bowles plan would increase Medicare eligibility age. TPM: "...Bowles argued that the Affordable Care Act should allow Democrats to accept raising the Medicare eligibility age, because it creates a system of subsidized, guaranteed private health insurance for people who don’t qualify for government programs like Medicare and Medicaid ... The proposal infuriates progressives [for] hitting elderly minorities and poor people who have lower life expectancies hardest [and for shifting] costs on to seniors, states, employers, and other federal programs. And it doesn’t save much money."
Dems on House Ways and Means pushback on proposals to change Social Security cost-of-living formula, noting impact on other programs. Politico: "'[A] number of provisions of the tax code such as the income tax brackets, the standard deduction and personal exemption, and the earned income tax credit and the refundable child credit, are automatically adjusted for inflation. Changing the measure of inflation used by these programs to Chained CPI – which rises more slowly than the current measure – will reduce annual benefits in these programs over time and result in higher taxes, mainly for middle- and lower-income Americans,' the [Dem] memo said..."
W. Post highlights conservative House freshman concerns over pressure to back tax increases: "...they worry that the panel’s mostly private negotiations will produce a result that does not represent the kind of revolutionary change they had hoped ... while their opposition may not prove fatal, it means that Republicans will probably have to rely on the votes of House Democrats to get the recommendations approved."
Proposed Social Security cuts are a diversion, argues New Deal 2.0's Jeff Madrick: "It is a public relations stunt. They basically say so. All this is about is showing the world America is serious about cutting its long-term deficit. The nation has the guts to do what it takes. It is no bleeding heart country. It is willing to beat up on the elderly ... We have plenty of taxing capacity to take care of our needs. We simply refuse to act as a modern nation..."
GOP Prepares To Block Infrastructure Bill
Not one GOPer expected to vote for infrastructure jobs bill. The Hill: "Two of the Democrats’ targets, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), said they would likely vote against the infrastructure bill because it would raise the income tax. A third, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), said she is reviewing it ... [Kirk] said his fellow centrist Republicans are more likely to support a national infrastructure bank that would be funded by a repatriation tax holiday. Kirk and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) have teamed up on legislation to combine those proposals."
W. Post's Greg Sargent lists the Republicans who recently claimed they support investing in infrastructure: "...alll these Senators agree that in a general sense, infrastructure spending is important or even critical to help the economy and the country. They won’t support it in this case, however, because it would entail a tiny surtax on millionaires. This is the dealbreaker..."
"Recovery" is producing mostly low-wage jobs. Alternet's Annette Bernhardt: "During the Great Recession, the jobs we lost were concentrated in mid-wage occupations like paralegals, health technicians, administrative assistants and bus drivers, making $15 to $20 an hour. But so far in this weak recovery, employment growth has largely come from low-wage occupations like retail workers, office and stock clerks, restaurant staff and child care aids – most making $8 to $10 an hour."
"California's high-speed rail panel stands firm despite higher cost projection" reports McClatchy: "The California High-Speed Rail Authority, which came under heavy criticism in the Legislature and appeared for months to be on the brink of collapse, cast the new cost estimate as a measure of its credibility ... The authority compared the project to building California's freeways, particularly the decades it took to build Interstate 5. Even under the most conservative assumptions, officials said, the train would operate at a profit."
Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich calls out GOP rivals for opposing wind power tax credits. CBS: "...Gingrich took a swipe at the Texas governor and his assertion that the government should not pick economic winners and losers. Gingrich asserted that supporting incentives for the oil industry, as Perry does, is a form of economic favoritism. 'Nobody who comes from oil country seems to think that any of that is picking winners and losers,' Gingrich said of oil industry tax incentives. 'And all of them (rival candidates) oppose Obama's effort to get rid of it. Suddenly they find wind is (picking) winners and losers.'"
Occupy Oakland Launches "General Strike"
Occupy Oakland calls for "general strike." LAT: "The call for businesses to close and residents to demonstrate at banks and later march to the Port of Oakland came after last week's heavy police response to protesters speaking out against the razing of the movement's City Hall encampment. Demonstrations in support of Oakland's strike are planned in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and elsewhere, and organizers, who were allowed to reestablish their camp, said that letters of solidarity have flooded in from around the world, most notably from Tahrir Square demonstrators in Cairo."
GOP fails to slash spending, slow financial reform in financial services appropriations bill. Politico: "Smelling defeat, Republicans pulled their amendment to slow the pace of financial reforms being implemented by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. And Democrats appeared emboldened, even welcoming the next round of the same Wall Street fight when the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission budgets come before the Senate later this week."
Bank of America scraps debit card fee. WSJ: "The banking industry's brief experiment with charging customers to use their debit cards appears to be over. The about-face concluded on Tuesday when Bank of America Corp. dropped plans to charge customers $5 a month for using their debit cards to make purchases. Bank of America was the last major bank to back away from the fees..."
Obama administration sues Allied Home Mortgage for fraud. AP: "The federal government sued one of the nation’s largest privately held mortgage brokers on Tuesday, saying its decade-long lending practices amounted to fraud and cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars and forced thousands of American homeowners to lose their homes ... nearly 32 percent of the 112,324 home loans originated by Allied from Jan. 1, 2001, to the end of 2010 have defaulted, resulting in more than $834 million in insurance claims paid by HUD."
CFPB working on rules to protect military personnel from shady deals. LAT: "Since being appointed this year, Holly Petraeus has been visiting bases to learn how the military educates service members and where it needs help. In September, her office began seeking public input on financial products tailored to service members and their families so her aides could develop better financial education and outreach programs."
