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: Occupy The Kochs
OurFuture.org's Isaiah Poole: "The very name of a Washington conservative conference this weekend is the height of subterfuge. It's called the "Defending the American Dream" conference, which is not about defending the actual American dreams of most Americans (the focus of our own 'Take Back the American Dream' conference), sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, which is not an organization that promotes what is needed for broad American prosperity. This actually is the latest effort by the billionaire Koch brothers ... It's their attempt to perpetuate an American nightmare of continued income inequality and a government held hostage to the whims of elites. It is thus a perfect target for the latest Occupy-style protest."
Senate Vote On Infrastructure Jobs Today
President makes final push before infrastructure jobs bill Senate vote today. LAT: "...President Obama said he couldn't solve the unemployment crisis alone and needed Republicans in Congress to agree ... 'They hold the purse strings. It's the only way we're going to put hundreds of thousands of people back to work right now.'"
GOP tries to counter with vague transportation jobs bill. Boston Globe: "The GOP version, led by Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the Senate Finance Committee’s ranking member, would extend for two years the current federal highway program, but it was unclear how the measure would be financed."
Speaker Boehner claims that "nobody" wants to pay for infrastructure. ThinkProgress' Pat Garofalo: "... it’s simply not true that 'nobody' has tried to craft a bill that both invests in infrastructure and is paid for. President Obama’s American Jobs Act included money for infrastructure and was paid for by higher income taxes for the wealthiest Americans."
Fed releases bleak jobs forecast. NYT: "The unemployment rate, it predicted, would still be at least 8.5 percent at the end of 2012, at least 7.8 percent at the end of 2013 and at least 6.8 percent at the end of 2014. Such reductions probably would come in part from people abandoning the search for work, rather than those finding new jobs."
Data shows China policies major factor in weak US job growth. Jared Bernstein: "US manufacturing employment lost 3.4 million jobs between 2000-07 ... Autor et al find that more than half of those losses were the result of rising exposure to Chinese import competition."
Impoverished areas growing faster as recession wracks suburbs. Bloomberg: "At least 2.2 million more Americans, a 33 percent jump since 2000, live in neighborhoods where the poverty rate is 40 percent or higher ... concentrated poverty soared by more than a third in the past decade after declining by 29 percent during the 1990s ... the number of Americans in extremely poor suburban neighborhoods rose by 37 percent .."
Citizens United latest corporate front group to spend big on saving Ohio's anti-worker law. Politico: "'It’s clear that Issue 2 supporters are losing their attack on our everyday heroes in Ohio,' We Are Ohio spokeswoman Melissa Fazekas said. 'This is a desperate attempt by another shadowy out-of-state group that refuses to disclose the source of its money.'"
Bipartisan House Group Pushes For "Super Committee" Deal
40 House GOPers, 60 House Dems sign letter backing consideration of increased revenue and entitlement cuts in deficit reduction deal. Bloomberg: "'There is a lot of talk about pledges,' Ohio Republican Representative Steve LaTourette said, referring to a non-binding commitment many Republicans have signed not to support tax increases. 'It’s time to put the pledges in a bonfire.'"
W. Post caveats: "...several Republicans who signed the letter were careful to note they were not endorsing a net tax increase — but rather a broad rewrite of the tax code that might close loopholes and lower rates, while still producing more government revenue."
"Super Committee" may push back deadline. NYT: "In seeking an extension of the deadline, the panel, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, would not have to admit failure, but could tell Congressional leaders that it was making progress and needed more time ... A Democratic aide close to the discussions said: 'It is very disheartening. There is no sense so far that Republicans have been flexible on revenues.' [So,] an extension of the Nov. 23 deadline would not help because 'time is not the enemy here.'"
Biggest corporations not paying significant taxes. NYT: "...280 of the biggest publicly traded American companies faced federal income tax bills equal to 18.5 percent of their profits during the last three years — little more than half the official corporate rate of 35 percent and lower than their competitors in many industrialized countries."
The Atlantic's James Kwak takes down the Republican candidates' tax plans: "The tax plans from Rick Perry and Herman Cain would make millionaires vastly richer while raising taxes on the middle class. It's voodoo economics gift-wrapped for rich voters."
Occupy Making An Impact
Occupy may already be having an impact. In These Times' Miles Kampf-Lassin: "...Bank of America announced on Tuesday that it will be abandoning its highly contested plans to institute a monthly $5 debit card fee ... tens of thousands of Americans across the country have been closing their accounts with major banks and moving their money to local credit unions and community banks ... rulings in a number of cities over the past week have granted protesters the right to demonstrate in public spaces without curfew..."
"There's many a gray head in Occupy Wall Street crowd" notes McClatchy: "Like the younger protesters, the older crowd at Zuccotti Park offers a variety of reasons for being there, but all fit under the broad umbrella of being fed up with the status quo."
Mike Konzcal rips Mayor Michael Bloomberg for falsely exonerating the banks: "...these are people who can’t accept that some markets, especially financial ones, are disasters when completely unregulated – and thus find any far-fetched excuse to blame the government. But since we are going to hear a lot of it in 2012, how should one respond to the line that Congress and Fannie/Freddie caused the housing crisis..."
Average student loan debt continues to rise. NYT: "Students who graduated from college in 2010 with student loans owed an average of $25,250, up 5 percent from the previous year ... Matthew Reed, the report’s author, said that some people had expected the jump 'to be even higher because of the economic downturn,' but that larger grants had helped 'at least partially offset lower family incomes and higher tuitions ... '"
Police clash with Occupy Oakland protesters. SF Chronicle: "Morgan Ress, 30, of Oakland was watching the protest as an observer for the National Lawyers Guild. 'Police formed lines on both sides of us,' Ress said. 'I saw them beat anyone who ran and arrest anyone who stood still.'"
