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: GOP Budget Would Bring Europe-Style ... Unemployment
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Europe's in crisis. Unemployment is at a fifteen-year high after climbing for ten straight months, thanks to the austerity measures imposed on it by conservative leaders in France, Germany, and the international financial community. But if you think things are bad over there, imagine what they'll be like if Republican budget measures are imposed here. The GOP budget makes European austerity look like summer camp."
President To Take On GOP Budget Today...
President and VP aggressively frame economic debate with GOP. CNN: "The campaign has dispatched Joe Biden to talk autos in Ohio, Social Security and Medicare in Florida and manufacturing in Iowa ... President Obama himself will jump into the fray on Tuesday. Obama will pay particular attention to Rep. Paul Ryan's budget [and] push for the so-called Buffett Rule..."
Obama to slam GOP budget today as "prescription for decline." USA Today quotes advance speech excerpts: "It's a Trojan Horse. Disguised as deficit reduction plan, it's really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It's nothing but thinly-veiled Social Darwinism."
Almost all of the gains from GOP budget go to millionaires. American Prospect's Patrick Caldwell: "Ryan's budget goes beyond the GOP regressive standard of turning all of the Bush tax cuts permanent and includes a number of other tax reductions that would benefit the wealthy. According to the Tax Policy Center that adds up to an extra $265,000 average windfall in fewer taxes that people earning over $1 million wouldn't have to pay each year"
Even big business is horrified. Bloomberg: "Business groups counting on Republican gains in Congress to deliver their legislative agenda are voicing frustration over obstacles within a party usually allied with their interests. At least two measures are hitting snags -- long-term highway construction funding and authority to keep the Export- Import Bank in business beyond May 31. Many of the Republicans elected in 2010 lean too heavily toward the demands of the Tea Party and other anti-spending groups, business leaders say."
Romney tries to adjust economic message after recent improvement. W .Post's Greg Sargent reviews: "Romney has gone from claiming Obama made the economy worse, to claiming that if the economy is improving, it’s despite Obama’s policies, to (most recently) claiming that Obama 'failed to lead the recovery,' which means that the recovery is underway. All of which is to say that it’s not easy to pivot from making the case that an incumbent made the economy worse to acknowledging that, yes, things are improving, but things would be better still if someone else had been in charge."
...After Slamming "Judicial Activism" Yesterday
President Obama says overturning health reform law would be "judicial activism." NYT quotes "For years what we’ve heard is the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or the lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law ... I’m pretty confident that this court will recognize that, and not take that step."
"Repealing ‘Obamacare’ Would Explode Debt, Says Government Auditor" reports TPM.
Health gap emerges among seniors. NYT: "...the link between college education and longevity has grown stronger over time. Premature death rates differed sharply across counties, and a lack of college education accounted for about 35 percent of that variation from 2006 to 2008 ... The premature death rate in the Bronx, 8 out of 100, was nearly double the rate in Putnam, 4.4 out of 100. Fast-food restaurants made up 44 percent of restaurants in Putnam County, compared with 62 percent of restaurants in the Bronx."
GOP fails to make privatizing Medicare bipartisan. TPM: "...Republicans are pushing to box in Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as a former supporter of the 'premium support' concept ... Israel’s office called the charge 'laughably disingenuous.' ... Apart from Israel, they’ve also pointed to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) ... But he, too, is refusing to bite. 'Sen. Wyden does not support the House Republican Budget for a lot of reasons,' his deputy chief of staff Jennifer Hoelzer told TPM."
Obama, Romney Engage On Energy
New Obama campaign ad defends energy record, ties Romney with "Big Oil" reports NYT.
NYT calls out Romney for gas price flip-flop: "...Mr. Romney accused Mr. Obama of having a presidential policy intended to 'see energy prices rise,' and he mocked the president for once saying that he would like gasoline prices to 'change gradually.' ... [But in] his 2010 book, 'No Apology,' Mr. Romney described a gradual increase in the cost of energy as the kind of market-based incentive that conservatives could embrace."
Romney claims Obama "chooses to do nothing to reform immigration reports CBS.
While ICE officials detain over 3000 immigrants here illegally with criminal records. W. Post: "'This is part of our effort to prioritize our immigration enforcement efforts,' said John Morton, the agency’s director. 'As a matter of public safety, we start first and foremost with criminal offenders.' ... Advocates for the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants expressed concern about Monday’s raids, saying that while they supported the premise of targeting criminal aliens, large roundups tend to sweep in less serious offenders who may have committed only minor violations."
Breakfast Sides
Community banks trying to avoid federal regulation. NYT: "The Dodd-Frank financial reform law closed their longtime regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and moved them to the comptroller. A few of these institutions are trying to become credit unions, and many others are choosing state oversight ... While the banks say that they are looking for a regulatory agency that understands them, some former industry experts have expressed concern that the financial institutions are regulator shopping."
Conservative undercover sting goes bust. NYT: "Young, bearded, a bit scruffy, a young man walked into a community organizing office in East Harlem, lugging a heavy bag ... he had another question: If he formed a union, could his fellow workers join with the employer to shake down politicians for more money? At this point, Rhea Byer-Ettinger, an organizer for Manhattan Together, felt her internal baloney detector go on red alert."
