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: CEOs Too Big To Fail
OurFuture.org's Sam Pizzigati: "Consider Randall Stephenson, the chief exec at telecom giant AT&T. Stephenson had a bad year in 2011. A really bad year. His decisions cost AT&T over $4 billion. What price did Stephenson pay for this debacle? ... Our story starts back last March when CEO Stephenson triumphantly announced that AT&T had just closed a deal to buy T-Mobile ... But both the Justice Department and the FCC would balk at the takeover as public — and rival corporate — pressure against it mounted. This past December, Stephenson folded and took the takeover offer off the table. AT&T would swallow hard and pay out to Deutsche Telekom the $4.2 billion break-up charge ... [But Stephenson] didn’t even lose his bonus. AT&T paid the CEO, for his 2011 chief executive labors,$1.6 million in base salary, $3.8 million in cash bonus 'incentive award,' and $12.7 million in stock compensation ... [Meanwhile,] AT&T in Connecticut ... has cut more than 2,500 positions over the last four years ... In Georgia earlier this month, phone workers and Occupy Atlanta activists joined to stage a sit-in to protest 740 layoffs AT&T’s Atlanta office had announced in December."
Santorum, Romney Propose Cuts For The 99%
Santorum boldly chooses to oppose college education. W. Post: "...as he boldly tries to cast the race for the White House as a battle between the secular and the religious ... the candidate described President Obama as 'a snob' for focusing on the importance of a college education and disparaged the idea of a separation between church and state by attacking President John F. Kennedy ... Santorum said Obama’s focus on higher education constitutes 'indoctrination' into the president’s way of thinking."
Santorum's anti-college stance is a flip-flop, reports TPM: "... the last time Santorum ran for public office — his ill-fated 2006 Senate reelection campaign — he was right there with Obama, running on his promise to make college more accessible to all Pennsylvanians."
Romney's new tax proposals will provide "multimillion-dollar benefits" to his Super PAC donors, notes NYT's Tom Edsall: "... by my count, 20 members of the Forbes 400, whose combined wealth is $135.8 billion, have given a total of $33 million — that’s an average of $1.65 million each — to candidate-specific super PACs. And it’s February ... Romney was twice able to resurrect his campaign, in Iowa and Florida, because of the backing of a super PAC. Armed, as of Jan. 31, with nine contributions of $1 million or more from six men and three corporations and 14 more contributions of $500,000 to $750,000, Restore Our Future did the job."
Romney budget will force massive cuts to the poor, argues W. Post's Ezra Klein: "Mitt Romney is promising that taxes will go down, defense spending will go up, and old-people programs won’t change for this generation of retirees. So three of his four options for deficit reduction — taxes, old-people programs, and defense — are now either contributing to the deficit or are off-limits for the next decade. Romney is also promising that he will pay for his tax cuts, pay for his defense spending, and reduce total federal spending by more than $6 trillion over the next 10 years. But the only big pot of money left to him is poor-people programs."
Romney again advertises his ties to the 1%. CBS: "Asked by the AP reporter if he follows NASCAR, Romney responded, 'Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans. But I have some great friends who are NASCAR team owners.' Democrats and liberals quickly ridiculed the remark on Twitter. 'I don't know people who fish but I know people who own yachts,' tweeted Brad Woodhouse, communications director of the Democratic National Committee."
The GOP is throwing away Michigan by opposing the auto bailout, finds Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky: "... in opposing the bailout, they really were cheering against America. That’s language that verges on jingoism, and it’s not my usual stock in trade, but in this case it is true. The idea that they were willing to let maybe a quarter-million families lose their breadwinner, out of hatred of Obama and ideological rigidity, was beyond comprehension."
False European Narratives
Conservative narratives about Europe are "warping our economic discourse," says NYT's Paul Krugman: "The Republican story — it’s one of the central themes of Mitt Romney’s campaign — is that Europe is in trouble because it has done too much to help the poor and unlucky ... [But] Sweden, which still has a very generous welfare state, is currently a star performer, with economic growth faster than that of any other wealthy nation ... Next up, the German story, which is that it’s all about fiscal irresponsibility. This story seems to fit Greece, but nobody else..."
Europe to consider larger "firewall fund." NYT: "Many of the non-European G-20 countries think the fund needs to be larger and have pressed the Europeans to expand it. The European finance ministers have said they will discuss going up to $1 trillion when they meet in March, but Germany, the dominant country in the effort, has been reluctant to commit to a larger firewall, as the European stabilization fund has been called. For their part, cash-rich countries like China and Japan have indicated that they would not contribute additional resources to the International Monetary Fund until Europe agreed to do more to buffer its economies."
Breakfast Sides
GOP plans to propose anti-contraception amendment to Senate transportation jobs bill this week. Roll Call: "Democrats are eagerly anticipating the debate because they see an opportunity to use the issue for political gain in the upcoming November elections ... Other possible amendments to the bill include ... an amendment to green light the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline ... meanwhile, Speaker John Boehner’s ambitious plan to pursue a comprehensive energy and transportation bill fundamentally reshaping how the government pays for highways was in shambles, the victim of GOP infighting ... in addition to shrinking its length — likely to two years — Boehner will also abandon his plan to do away with funding transit programs from the broader transportation budget..."
The Volcker Rule is being watered down, says HuffPost's Robert Kuttner: "Financial regulatory officials, at the behest of Wall Street, have turned a simple bright line into a convoluted monstrosity. The questionnaire alone, inviting comments, runs 530 pages ... In the absence of a clear line, Wall Street can always field more lawyers than the government can spare regulators, and what an awful waste of taxpayer money ... The original Glass-Steagall Act ran only 37 pages. Investment banks and commercial banks were strictly separated, end of story. A properly fashioned Volcker Rule should be just that straightforward."
Anti-immigrant fervor in Arizona appears to be waning. NYT: "The sponsor of the state’s touchstone immigration bill has been recalled, while two sheriffs who championed the crackdown are enmeshed in legal difficulties. And there has been a notable decline in police activity aimed at illegal immigrants ... Democrats and some Latino leaders argue that the party has suffered long-lasting damage ... 'There has been a tangible, palpable momentum shift in the state, which is essentially saying, ‘Well that was a disaster, and what should we do about it?’' said James E. Garcia of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce."
States are dragging their feet on setting up health insurance exchanges, reports NYT: "Many states are waiting for a Supreme Court decision or even the November election results, to see whether central elements of the new law might be overturned or repealed. But that will be too late to start work. By Jan. 1, 2013, the Obama administration will decide whether each state is ready to run its own exchange or whether the federal government should do the job instead ... insurance companies, which battled Mr. Obama over health care in 2009 and 2010, are now urging state officials to set up exchanges. They generally prefer state regulation..."
