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 Truth About Gas Prices
OurFuture.org's Bill Scher: "Conservatives are betting that a President Obama can't succeed in taking straight about gas prices the way Candidate Obama did. And they're spreading their usual misinformation about gas prices to scapegoat him ... In addition to exaggerating the jump in prices, conservatives are also trying to argue that higher gas prices are the result of a deliberate effort by President Obama. This is ridiculous, for three reasons..."
Despite High Gas Prices, Senate Blocks Clean Energy Incentives
Senate rejects clean energy tax incentives. Politico: "... a 49-49 Senate roll call in which Democrats failed to get even a simple majority for a nearly $12 billion package of energy-related tax incentives ... Tuesday’s Senate floor debate on energy incentives is not the final word. And Democrats could take some comfort that Republicans fared even worse with their own package, which was defeated 57-41. But the votes show stiffer Republican resistance to Obama’s plan to extend the costly 1603 Treasury grant program for renewable energy development."
But also rejects Arctic drilling. McClatchy: "Tuesday's vote was the first time in four years that the Senate has voted on a measure including ANWR drilling, and it failed miserably."
U.S. solar market grows, but may not sustain without extension of tax benefits. NYT: "About 1,855 megawatts of new photovoltaic capacity was installed, up 109 percent from 887 megawatts the year before. The number of large-scale installations grew as well, to 28 from just 2 in 2009. Globally, the United States represents only 7 percent of all photovoltaic capacity, the report found, but that is up from 5 percent in 2010 ... The momentum of solar may prove tricky to sustain. Lobbying efforts to revive the 1603 program have thus far proved unsuccessful."
TomDispatch's Michael Klare explains "why high gas prices are here to stay." "This pivotal shift has been brought about by the disappearance of relatively accessible and inexpensive petroleum -- 'easy oil,' in the parlance of industry analysts ... The world still harbors large reserves of petroleum, but these are of the hard-to-reach, hard-to-refine, 'tough oil' variety. From now on, every barrel we consume will be more costly to extract, more costly to refine -- and so more expensive at the gas pump ... if we proceed down the tough-oil path instead of investing as massively in alternative energies, we may foreclose any hope of averting the most catastrophic consequences of a hotter and more turbulent planet."
GOP Race Comes Down To Mitt v. Rick
Santorum victories effectively make GOP race a two-man contest. CBS: "... the conservative movement is not at all ready to fall in line behind the establishment choice to take on President Obama in the fall. And that means a long, mudslinging march to the nomination that will keep the eventual nominee from focusing on the general election."
Santorum campaign not expected to win majority of delegates, but to prevent Romney from doing so. NYT: "Mr. Romney’s campaign has maintained that Mr. Santorum will not be able to accumulate enough delegates to overtake Mr. Romney on the way to the 1,144 needed for the nomination. But Mr. Santorum’s aides say they can win enough to do something else: Block Mr. Romney from reaching 1,144..."
GOP Tries To Stop Small Biz Export Bill
GOP tries to block program to help small biz increase exports. ThinkProgress' Sabina Dewan: "[Conservative lawmakers] object to the reauthorization [of the Export Import Bank] calling [its] activities 'corporate welfare' that distorts the free market. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor suggested that, instead of reauthorizing the bank, the U.S. talk to our major trading partners to get them to 'end subsidized export financing programs and other forms of export subsidies.' By all means, lets talk. But in the meantime, there’s no need to pull the rug out from underneath firms and workers that export now."
Wages remain stagnant. W. Post's Ezra Klein: "Hourly pay rose just 1.9 percent over the past year — less than the rate of inflation ... workers still don’t have a whole lot of bargaining power ... There are still 3.7 job seekers for every available employment opportunity. That’s down considerably from the brutal 6.7-to-1 ratio seen in July, 2009. But ... higher than at any point during the 2001 downturn ... hiring is still down from pre-recession levels. And voluntary quits are way down from pre-crisis levels ... no wonder real wages have been falling over the past year:"
Conservative economist unwittingly makes case for higher taxes on wealthy. NYT's Bruce Bartlett: "On Friday, Prof. Allan Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon University, a well-known conservative economist, offered a commentary in The Wall Street Journal arguing against policies to equalize the distribution of income. His key piece of evidence is ... from a study by the Swedish economists Jesper Roine and Daniel Waldenstrom, that shows the share of income accruing to the top 1 percent of earners in seven Western democracies. They all follow the same trend line... If the rich are going to continue to get richer in low-tax countries and high-tax countries alike, then it must mean that high tax rates have far less of a disincentive effect on the rich than conservatives like Professor Meltzer continually proclaim."
NYT's David Leonhardt speculates how many jobs need to be created for Obama to be re-elected: "If a solid recovery has finally taken hold and job growth remains above 200,000 a month, many polling analysts and political scientists view Mr. Obama as a favorite. If oil prices rise much further, or something else causes job growth to fall close to 100,000, he becomes the underdog. In the middle — if job growth slows a bit, to something like 175,000 a month — the 2012 election has the makings of one of the closer races in recent history."
Fed Releases Stress Test Results
Four banks fail Fed stress test. McClatchy: "Citigroup Inc. and SunTrust Banks Inc. were the two traditional banks that failed to make the grade. The weakest, other two bank holding companies that must raise more capital were MetLife Inc., the nation's largest life insurer, and Ally Financial, formerly known as GMAC."
Bank lobbyists complain. Bloomberg: "Frank Keating, president and chief executive officer of the American Bankers Association, said he objects 'to testing bank capital under theoretical conditions that are far more severe than even those seen during "the Great Recession."' Ally Financial said in a statement that the central bank’s 'analysis dramatically overstates potential contingent mortgage risk, especially with respect to newer vintages of loans.'"
Goldman Sachs exec quits, then slams company in NYT oped: "It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as 'muppets,' sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact."
US Files China Trade Complaint
President announces international complaint against China trade practices in Rose Garden. W. Post: "'If China would simply let the market work on its own, we’d have no objection,' Obama said during his remarks. 'But their policies currently are preventing that from happening.' ... The United States stands a good chance of succeeding in the case, according to analysts familiar with the issue."
NYT suggests China complaint may be "too late.": "Even if the West and Japan overcome the stiff challenges of winning their case at the World Trade Organization, it could still take several years before Beijing changes its policies — by which time companies in the West and Japan could have moved even more of their factories that use rare earth metals to China."
