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: No Deal. Good. Now Focus on Jobs.
OurFuture.org's Roger Hickey: "If the so-called 'Super Committee' had made a bi-partisan deal based on the announced negotiating positions of the Republicans and Democrats on that panel, the result would have been higher unemployment, serious damage to the social safety net -- and worsening deficits ... Luckily, the progressive base – and the Democratic Caucus in the House and Senate – convinced those negotiators that a bad deal is worse than no deal ... All of the elements of President Obama’s American Jobs Act should now be taken up by everyone in Congress who professes to be concerned about the deficit."
After SuperFail, The Choice Is Clear: Tax The Rich Or Slash The Military
NYT edit board laments "Super Committee" failure, blames GOP: "The only reason the committee failed was because Republicans refused to raise taxes on the rich, and, in fact, wanted to cut them even below their current bargain-basement level ... had a single Republican on the panel endorsed even a modest increase in upper-income tax rates, Republicans could have won trillions in cuts from entitlements and discretionary spending. (Certainly far beyond anything we would endorse.)"
"Markets Shrug" reports Bloomberg: "Bonds issued by states and local agencies and governments were little changed yesterday as it became clear the supercommittee had failed ... S&P said the supercommittee’s failure wouldn’t change its credit rating on federal debt..."
Former Defense Sec William Cohen blasts fellow GOPers for putting low taxes for the wealthy ahead of national security, in NYT oped: "Congressional Republicans need to look back at this sad episode and decide: Do they care more about keeping 'a no tax pledge' or giving our troops the tools they need to protect the nation?"
Obama warns GOP, forget about losing triggers. It's higher taxes on wealthy or automatic military cuts. WSJ: "President Barack Obama said that he would veto any attempt by Congress to roll back $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts ... 'One way or another we will be trimming the deficit by a total of at least $2.2 trillion over the next decade,' he said."
More gridlock means ... more deficit reduction. NYT: "Tax cuts passed in the Bush administration will expire at the end of 2012. By law, the panel’s failure triggers new caps on spending, cutting $1.2 trillion from the military, education, health care and other priorities over 10 years beginning next fall. The combined impact of higher tax rates and less spending would reverse the growth of annual deficits beginning in 2013, reducing by more than half the current $1.3 trillion gap between annual revenue and spending."
The Next Fight: Extend Aid For Middle Class and Jobless
WH prepares to press GOP on extending payroll tax cut. Roll Call: "The administration is eyeing an upcoming Senate vote on the payroll tax cut paid for by tax increases on the wealthy that officials called “a clarifying vote,” but they added that there are other ways that the tax cut could go forward even if Republicans block that package ... One official said that many people don’t realize that unless Congress acts, a typical family with $50,000 in wages will receive a $1,000 tax hike instead of the additional $500 tax cut President Barack Obama is proposing. The White House aims to change that with a message that Congress cannot go home for the year without preventing that tax increase."
GOPers suggest payroll tax cut and long-term jobless aid will be extended, with budget offsets. NYT: "Previously there was bipartisan support for extending both measures. But the Democrats and Republicans have diverged sharply on how to fund them. Many Republicans insist on ensuring that the two priorities are paid for by cutting from other programs or ending certain tax breaks ... Many Democrats believe the two measures should be paid for by borrowing, thus increasing the government’s net spending and injecting more short-term stimulus into the economy."
Marist/McClatchy poll shows voters do not blame Obama for economy, support his jobs plan: "A nearly 2-1 majority of voters think that President Barack Obama inherited, rather than caused, today's slumping economy ... Half of U.S. adults think that Obama's push to create jobs will do more good than harm, while 40 percent say the opposite."
New Round Of Newt Nuttiness
Gingrich renews support for privatizing Social Security. CBS: "...the former House speaker said the private Social Security program would be modeled on those in Chile ..."
And backs ending all federal anti-poverty programs. CNN: "Gingrich would also shift all federal-means tested welfare programs back to the states, which he said would 'help millions move from dependency to prosperity while saving taxpayer[s] trillions.'"
AFSCME slams Gingrich's bizarre call to replace school janitors with kids. Politico quotes: "... the people you want to fire and replace with kids? A lot of them are parents. That job puts a roof over kids' heads, food on the table, and provides them with health care and the chance to get an education. That job is the only thing between a kid and poverty."
Breakfast Sides
China makes concession in response to US trade complaint on solar panels. NYT: "Chinese solar panel makers plan to shift some of their production to South Korea, Taiwan and the United States in hopes of defusing a trade case pending against them ... But at the same time, the Chinese industry is considering retaliating by filing a trade case of its own with China’s Commerce Ministry."
HHS begins pressuring health insurers to withdraw "unreasonable" rate hikes. LAT: "Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that Everence Insurance Co.'s plan to raise rates by 12% next year on about 5,000 people who work for small businesses in Pennsylvania was 'unreasonable.' ... [HHS Sec Kathleen] Sebelius [promised] that the Everence review would be 'the first of many.' ... The healthcare law that President Obama signed last year does not give federal or state insurance regulators any new authority to prohibit rate hikes like the Everence increase in Pennsylvania. But the law allows government officials to require insurers seeking increases to publicly justify them, a move that proponents hope will persuade companies to think twice..."
