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: Pressure Rising On DeMarco To Help Homeowners
OurFuture.org's Isaiah Poole: "Principal reduction is the the critical fight going on in the housing front right now, and members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the financial reform group New Bottom Line, and other grassroots organizations gathered outside the Capitol to challenge the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Edward DeMarco: Move on principal reduction or be removed. Their call echoes our own campaign calling on DeMarco to get out of the way of the relief homeowners need, which has generated several thousand messages that have done directly to DeMarco's office. Click here to send your message."
Romney Failing To Win Working-Class Votes
Romney consistently losing working-class vote. ThinkProgress: "A ThinkProgress analysis of exit/entrance polls from the 14 states that have conducted them shows that Romney consistently does best among those earning more than $100,000 or $200,000 a year, while more often than not losing among middle- and working-class voters. The only states where this wasn’t true were Massachusetts, his home state where he served as governor, and Virginia, where Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich weren’t even on the ballot."
Romney's working-class problem could doom him in November. The Nation's Ben Adler: "...his problem with the same demographic in the Midwest could be decisive. 'The question for working class white voters will be whether they vote,' says another Republican consultant. 'When you look at recent polls, [Romney] is not beating Obama there. When a critical part of any close campaign is turning out your low propensity voters, how does Romney turn out unenthusiastic working-class white voters? I don’t think he can.'"
Romney flip-flops on minimum wage, after previously backing increases pegged to inflation. New Deal 2.0's Richard Kirsch: "This week he got back in line with right-wing economic theology, telling CNBC’s Larry Kudlow 'there’s probably not a need to raise the minimum wage.' Even in reversing his position he can’t help throwing in a waffle: 'probably.'"
Boehner Can't Unify Party On Transportation Bill
Boehner pitch fails to entice conservatives to back his transportation bill. Politico: "It leaves Boehner and the Republican leadership scratching their heads about what went wrong and will likely force the House GOP to take up a shorter-term measure — most likely a short-term extension. The House doesn’t want to take up the [bipartisan] Senate bill, and they’re mulling how long of a clean extension they’ll propose. GOP leadership will meet Thursday ahead of a one-week recess to make a decision."
Boehner warns that House conservative resistance may mean passing bipartisan Senate transportation bill: "During a closed-door conference meeting Wednesday he implored conservatives to support five-year, $260 billion transportation legislation that has been stalled for weeks, warning them that if they failed to do so, they have to swallow the $109 billion Senate bill or 'something that looks just like it.'"
President working to defeat Senate amendment forcing construction of Keystone pipeline reports Politico.
Another budget fight brewing. Politico: "House Budget Committee Republicans are to meet Thursday morning on options for the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, and the GOP is coalescing around a plan that would cap appropriations at a level of $1.028 trillion — nearly $20 billion below what was agreed to last August as part of the Budget Control Act. The move is designed to appease fiscal conservatives, many of whom opposed last summer’s debt agreement and have threatened to delay action on the budget. But the strategy only ensures more delay and rancor this year, since the Senate intends to move ahead at the higher $1.047 trillion cap set in the law."
Republican "JOBS Act" would give hedge funds a 20% tax cut. Bloomberg: "...Cantor told House members in a memo last month his plan would let 'every' business with fewer than 500 employees deduct 20 percent of its profits. That approach would depart from restrictions in an earlier version. Legislation introduced when Republicans were campaigning to take over the House majority in 2010 would have prevented companies in health, law, finance, architecture and other industries from qualifying for the break. Abandoning those limits would let professional sports teams, liquor stores and hedge funds [claim it.]"
Republican Hypocrisy On Clean Energy
USA Today investigation shows House Republicans now attacking clean energy loans, pleaded with Energy Department for clean energy loans: " Republican members of Congress investigating federal loan guarantees to now-bankrupt energy companies told Energy Secretary Steven Chu last week that they never asked him to speed up similar projects in their states. But that's exactly what some did, according to a review of 484 congressional support letters obtained by USA TODAY."
W. Post's Dana Milbank dissects the GOP strategy to attack Obama on gas prices: "As the stock market advances and the labor market improves, Republicans are losing their best campaign themes. That makes the recent spike in gas prices — in part a byproduct of higher economic growth — a potentially crucial issue for the opposition. The facts aren’t on their side (policymakers have little sway over oil prices; and one policy area that is spurring prices, the prospect of attacking Iran, has been pushed by Republican presidential candidates) ... Republicans weren’t quite so out of sorts when gas prices exceeded $4 a gallon in the summer of 2008, during George W. Bush’s tenure..."
President backs bigger tax credits for clean cars. NYT: "The president called for increasing to $10,000 an existing $7,500 credit per vehicle for consumers and businesses that buy cars and trucks powered by electric battery, natural gas or hydrogen. He would also expand the technologies that qualify and allow buyers to benefit at the time of purchase, by transferring the credit to the dealer or financier. The credit’s enhanced value would bring the purchase price of alternative-energy vehicles more in line with conventional models..."
Breakfast Sides
Political attacks on teachers hurting morale, survey shows. NYT: "More than half of teachers expressed at least some reservation about their jobs, their highest level of dissatisfaction since 1989, the survey found. Also, roughly one in three said they were likely to leave the profession in the next five years, citing concerns over job security..."
"CEOs Of Tax Dodging Corporations Push Congress To Cut Corporate Tax Rates" reports ThinkProgress' Pat Garofalo: "Several corporate CEOs representing the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group, were on Capitol Hill today to unveil a set of measures that they claim will boost the economy. Not surprisingly, some of the high-profile items are a cut in the corporate tax rate and shifting to what’s known as a territorial tax system ... the interesting thing about these particular CEOs pushing this particular policy prescription is that several of them already run corporations that pay little to nothing in taxes."
NYT's Nick Kristof surveys the damage austerity has inflicted on Greece: "It’s stunning here in Athens to see many traffic lights not working, to see beggars pawing through garbage for food, to see blackened ruins of shops burned in rioting. I was even greeted by a homeless man who spoke impeccable British-accented English ... The overall unemployment rate here is 21 percent — 48 percent among young people ... Some 250,000 Greeks now receive free meals from churches or shelters ... There’s no doubt that Greece had been living recklessly and needed structural reforms ... Yet instead of structural reforms or improved tax collection, what has changed in Greece, so far, has mostly been slashed budgets. And, as in the rest of Europe, austerity in the middle of recession has made matters worse ..."
