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: What To Look For In The SOTU
OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "... the White House must resist the temptation to declare victory before the battle is done. The president still must run in an economy of mass unemployment and stagnant wages. He should not make the mistake of last year’s speech that hailed an economy 'on the verge of recovery.' He must be the forceful advocate for change – not simply Horatio at the bridge defending us against the yahoos ... 1. Deepen the populist critique ... 2. Demand action on jobs ... 3. Take action on jobs ... 4. Take on the "entitlement-opportunity" argument."
President To Deliver SOTU Tonight
AP previews tonight's SOTU: "Obama will frame the campaign to come as a fight for fairness for those who are struggling to keep a job, a home or college savings and losing faith in how the country works. The speech will feature the themes of manufacturing, clean energy, education and American values. The president is expected to urge higher taxes on the wealthy, propose ways to make college more affordable, offer new steps to tackle a debilitating housing crisis and push to help U.S. manufacturers expand hiring."
Speech will "bookend" last month's "Teddy Roosevelt" speech. McClatchy quotes WH Press Sec: "The State of the Union will be a bookend to the president's speech in Kansas last month about the central mission that we have as a country and his focus as president: Building a country and an economy where we reward hard work and responsibility, where everyone does their fair share, and where everyone is held accountable for what they do."
President expected to push increased oil and gas production along with clean energy, reports WSJ: "One idea being discussed within the White House is to include a natural-gas production goal. Such a move, if included in the final version of the speech, could help convey the message that the administration doesn't intend to slow production through regulations ... Mr. Obama is also expected to talk about renewable-energy sources, such as wind and solar, and may call for extending a production tax credit to spur investment in those areas.
President to follow speech with visits to manufacturing plants. Bloomberg: "...Obama tomorrow will stop at Conveyor Engineering & Manufacturing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which makes screw-type conveyors for moving materials such as feed, grain and chemicals for farming and processing facilities. Later in the day he’s scheduled to visit Chandler, Arizona, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Phoenix, where Intel Corp. has a manufacturing plant. The world’s largest chipmaker says the facility employs 9,700 people."
State AGs Hesitate On Foreclosure Fraud Settlement
Foreclosure fraud settlement "inches closer," but is not done, reports NYT: "The housing secretary, Shaun Donovan, met on Monday in Chicago with Democratic attorneys general to iron out the remaining details and to persuade holdouts to agree with any eventual deal. He later held a conference call with Republican attorneys general. But as he renewed his efforts, Democrats in Congress, advocacy groups like MoveOn.org and several crucial attorneys general said the deal might be too lenient on the banks ... Tom Miller, the attorney general of Iowa, said Monday that an agreement with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial — would not be reached 'anytime this week.' ... In addition to disagreements over the total amount, negotiations have been held up over the question of how much latitude authorities would have in pursuing investigations into mortgage abuses before the housing bubble burst in 2007."
Dean Baker slams settlement proposal: "Apart from the limited money at stake, the question is why would there be a reason to grant immunity for criminal wrong-doing? If people at these banks committed fraud, for example by lying about possessing documents that they did not possess, lying about the terms of loans to mortgage applicants or misrepresenting the mortgages in pools to investors, then why would we want to give them a get out of jail free card?"
Click here to tell President Obama: "No Sweetheart Bank Deal In The SOTU"
Bank of America CEO to be deposed in three civil suits reports WSJ.
TARP audit criticizes lack of effort to restrain executive pay. NYT: "Though Kenneth Feinberg, the special master, had been appointed to oversee the pay, a report released early Tuesday said that he had been pressured by both the companies and the Treasury to get around the caps. Forty-nine people received packages worth $5 million or more from 2009 to 2011, according to the report."
GOP Prez Hopefuls Disclose, And Raise More Questions
Romney's newly released 2010 tax return shows offshore tax shelters, absurdly low tax rate. Reuters: "[Romney] paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent in 2010 ... below that of most wage-earning Americans because most of his income, as outlined in more than 500 pages of tax documents, flows from capital gains on investments ... Romney's holdings include an undisclosed amount in funds based in the Grand Cayman Islands and other overseas entities."
And it's only one year. W. Post: "'If you release one year, you can pretty it up,' [Paul] Begala said. 'He’s got to go back a dozen years and really show us — or a lot of fair-minded people are going to conclude that he probably skated with paying less, or maybe even zero, for some of those years.'"
Romney's tax proposal would cut his own taxes in half, notes ThinkProgress' Pat Garofalo: "Romney’s proposed tax cut for millionaires is twice the size of the Bush tax cuts."
Gingrich used gimmick to avoid paying more taxes, finds ThinkProgress' Travis Waldron: "...according to Forbes, Gingrich dodged 'tens of thousands of dollars in Medicare payroll taxes' by classifying most of his income from two companies he owns as profits and dividends, therefore avoiding the payroll tax — a technique the IRS has 'consistently and successfully attacked' in the past."
Gingrich's Freddie Mac contract doesn't explain what he did. NYT: "After Mitt Romney repeatedly challenged him to release documents relating to his work for Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage giant, Newt Gingrich released a contract that is mostly legal boilerplate, and contains no details about the advice he gave or ways in which he would make use of his expertise or political contacts. But the yearlong contract did show that Mr. Gingrich was hired by the division of Freddie Mac responsible for lobbying — its office of public policy, which paid the Gingrich Group $300,000 for 2006."
Romney profited from Freddie Mac too, notes ThinkProgress' Garofalo: "...Romney’s own investments in the government backed mortgage giants ... have netted him tens of thousands of dollars."
