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: The GOP's Mutually Assured Destruction
OurFuture.org's Terrance Heath: "...Republicans freaked out when Newt launched his attack on Mitt Romney's days at Bain Capital was because he pretty much pointed a double barrel spotlight on two things Republicans dread discussing: economic inequality and the GOP's lack any plan or political will to do anything about it. That's classic Newt. On the one hand, he wants everyone to stop talking about economic inequality. Then just when the GOP's traveling side-show of a primary race rolls into some of the most economically devastated parts of the country, inadvertently rubs everyone's nose in it, while also making it clear that they don't plan to do anything about it, and don't particularly want to. Newt exposes that not only do Republicans have no solutions for our economic and unemployment crises, but the don't see that anything needs solving."
Romney Sputters Into Next Round On Contests
Santorum may do well in today's GOP contests. Time: "...a series of Public Policy Polling surveys found Santorum with a slight edge over Romney in Minnesota, 29% to 27%, and in second place in Colorado, where he trails Romney, 40% to 26%. A week-old survey also placed him atop Missouri’s bragging-rights derby."
"Private-Equity Lobbying Protected Romney’s Tax Benefit of Carried Interest" reports Bloomberg: "The largest U.S. private-equity funds and venture capital firms have relied on a five-year, multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign to protect the carried interest tax break that helped drive presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s 2010 effective tax rate below 14 percent."
Romney hypocritical on clean energy subsidies. Politico: "While Mitt Romney was governor, Massachusetts also picked some winners and losers with energy subsidies. And like Obama, some of the companies Romney's state invested in came out on the losing end."
Payroll Tax Cut Talks Stall
Speaker lowers expectations for payroll tax cut deal by attacking Senate. Roll Call: "In an interview on PBS’ 'NewsHour,' the Ohio Republican said, 'It’s pretty clear that our Senate colleagues want no part of cutting spending.' ... his comments were the clearest sign to date that talks on the conference committee were breaking down."
Politico details the disagreements: "Democrats want to tack on a surtax for millionaire earners, which would pay for the temporary 2 percent payroll tax cut, and they don’t want unemployment insurance offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget. Republicans are opposed to higher taxes and instead want the package paid for by freezing pay for federal workers, imposing higher premiums for upper-income Medicare beneficiaries and banning millionaires from receiving jobless benefits and food stamps, among other options. Complicating matters, the timeline is actually much shorter, with both chambers scheduled to be out of session during the week of Feb. 20 for the Presidents Day recess."
Medicare payments to doctors also a sticking point. NYT: "In the absence of agreement, doctors’ fees will be cut 27 percent next month, and many doctors say they could not continue treating Medicare patients under the lower payments ... To help offset the cost of paying doctors, House Republicans want to reduce certain Medicare payments to hospitals. By contrast, Democrats and at least one powerful Republican senator, Jon Kyl of Arizona, want to cover the cost with money saved by winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Key States Still Won't Settle
Several states still hold out on foreclosure fraud settlement. Bloomberg: "California and New York’s attorneys general haven’t signed on to a proposed settlement with five banks over foreclosure practices that has won the support of more than 40 states ... More than 40 states signed on to the accord ... [IA AG Tom] Miller said federal and state officials continue to discuss matters with the banks involved in the talks ... Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. made a last-minute demand that New York drop claims filed against them Feb. 3 as a condition of the settlement ... The push by the three banks raised a new obstacle in getting Schneiderman’s support for the deal ... Nevada and Delaware [also] said late yesterday they hadn’t signed on to the settlement."
Mortgage company indicted for robo-signing. NYT: "One of the largest companies that provided home foreclosure services to lenders across the nation, DocX, has been indicted on forgery charges by a Missouri grand jury..."
Obama mortgage reform may help 500,000 homeowners. W. Post: "A new JP Morgan report estimates that the changes will lead 1.9 million more potential borrowers to qualify for mortgage modifications, along with 500,000 investors who rent properties ... Altogether, JP Morgan expects the HAMP expansion 'to result in 500,000 mortgage modifications that otherwise would not have taken place.' ... If the changes to HAMP end up succeeding, it could help the Obama administration build the case for the mass refinancing plan they’re pushing to Congress."
"Right To Work" Not Working
New study shows "right-to-work" doesn't create jobs. American Prospect's Abby Rapoport: "Because of free-trade agreements, companies can go to other countries and get their goods made for a fraction of the cost. Even in the most anti-union state in the country, there are still basic worker protections and a minimum-wage law to deal with. Such 'roadblocks' to corporate profit can disappear if the business relocates overseas. 'The wage difference that right to work makes ... is meaningless compared to the wage savings you can have leaving the country,' [economist Gordon] Lafer says."
Bloomberg's Ron Klain says OK proves "right to work" doesn't work: "The last state before Indiana to adopt a similar measure was Oklahoma, 10 years ago. At the time it passed, advocates promised that it would result in a surge of manufacturing jobs coming to the state. But in the decade that has followed, industrial exits from Oklahoma have increased 30 percent, manufacturing employment in the state is down by a third, and the unemployment rate is higher today than it was on the day the law was passed."
Breakfast Sides
NYT's David Firestone slams Karl Rove for being "offended" by Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad: "The White House said it had nothing to do with the ad, but it had a great deal to do with Detroit’s resurgence, and that’s what’s really offensive to Mr. Rove and other Republicans ... These are inconvenient facts for both Mr. Rove and for Mitt Romney, who is on the record as opposing the automaker bailouts. The outcry being raised against the commercial is not really from people who are offended, but from those who are embarrassed."
FAA bill clears Senate despite provision constricting union organizing. TPM: "The final vote was 75-20, with — not nearly enough Democratic opposition to prevent a supermajority from passing ... and labor officials are steamed."
Greece announces new austerity measures. NYT: "Despite new evidence of a deteriorating economy, Greece said on Monday that it would cut 15,000 state jobs this year ... Athens is racing to push through economic changes that it hopes will persuade its private sector creditors to grant easier debt repayment terms and will prompt Europe to release 130 billion euros, or $171 billion, in the next round of bailout money it needs to avoid defaulting on bond payments due in March ... The country’s two main labor unions, anticipating a new barrage of austerity measures, including wage cuts in the private sector, called a 24-hour general strike for Tuesday..."
House GOP may push Medicare privatization again. TPM: "[House Budget Chair Paul] Ryan’s signaling he’ll swap out his old Medicare plan with a new one — one that he actually co-wrote with a Democratic Senator. That’s what Democrats think he’s going to do, and if they’re right, it will allow him and members of his party to claim they’ve moved significantly in the Democrats’ direction ... [But] it ultimately hands Medicare’s benefit guarantee over to a whimsical market, instead of keeping it in government hands ..."
"The U.S. is the closest it has been in almost 20 years to achieving energy self-sufficiency" suggests Bloomberg: "Domestic oil output is the highest in eight years. The U.S. is producing so much natural gas ... And higher mileage standards and federally mandated ethanol use, along with slow economic growth, have curbed demand ...
The expansion in oil and natural gas production isn’t without a downside. Environmentalists say hydraulic fracturing, or fracking ... is tainting drinking water."
FL Gov threw away about $40M in annual revenue by rejecting high-speed rail. Tampa Tribune: "The high-speed rail project that Gov. Rick Scott doomed last February by turning down more than $2 billion in federal money would have made an annual surplus of $31 million to $45 million within a decade of operation, according to a state report. The Florida Department of Transportation sent the report to the Federal Railroad Administration in November. The Tampa Tribune obtained the document after a lengthy public records request."
