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 Stealth Tax Increase
OurFuture.org's Isaiah Poole: "The nice-sounding tax-cut sizzle in the Ryan Republican plan is a simplified tax structure on earned income, with 10 percent and 25 percent tax brackets. Ryan also promises the elimination of deductions and credits that he denounces because they direct 'resources to politically favored uses, creating a drag on economic growth and job creation' and even 'take taxes paid by hardworking Americans and issue government checks to individuals and corporations who do not owe any taxes at all.' But the Earned Income Tax Credit falls squarely in that category."
Big Push For Buffett Rule
Obama campaign hits Romney over Buffett Rule. ABC: "'Romney supports tax policies that reward people like him, and now he's trying to obscure just how much he would benefit, by hiding his own financial records,' said Obama campaign manager Jim Messina ... 'Mitt Romney's tax plan doesn't ask millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share. It just doesn't,' Messina said. 'In fact, it doesn't just the opposite.'"
Filibuster won't deter Dems. Politico: "Senate leaders have vowed to bring up the measure repeatedly before November to ensure the issue stays front and center."
President Reagan backs Buffett Rule. ThinkProgress: "In today’s video, President Reagan describes a letter he received from an executive who wanted to come to Washington and tell Congress why it’s 'wrong' that he was able to 'take advantage of the present tax code' to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary."
Food Stamps Are Working
Welfare reform may not be working, but food stamps are. NYT: "The food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, reduced the poverty rate by nearly 8 percent in 2009 ... since the changes to the welfare system in the 1990s, the food stamp program was one of the few remaining antipoverty programs that provided benefits with few conditions beyond income level and legal residence."
GOP budgets slash help for the poor. W. Post's Ezra Klein: "They’ve committed to new tax cuts. They’ve proposed spending more on defense. They’ve promised they won’t change retirement programs for the current generation of seniors. But they’ve also promised to cut the deficit, and fast. That’s left them with one option: deep cuts to programs for the poor. That’s what you see in the Ryan budget. It’s the basis for the Romney budget ... But there’s a problem with that, too. Cutting programs for the poor isn’t popular. So Republicans have come up with a solution: Don’t call them 'cuts.'"
Several states pushing higher minimum wage. NYT: "State legislators in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois and elsewhere are pushing to raise the minimum wage above the federal level ... the [Massachusetts] Legislature’s joint committee on labor approv[ed] a measure last month that would raise the minimum to $10 an hour, which would leapfrog Washington State, whose $9.04 minimum is the nation’s highest. Voters in Missouri may be asked to vote on a minimum wage referendum in November."
Embattled DeMarco To Speak Today
FHFA's DeMarco to deliver speech today. Bloomberg: "The acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is expected to release an analysis today showing that payments from the Treasury Department would make it more financially feasible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive debt on some troubled mortgages ... DeMarco has barred the two taxpayer- owned companies, which are overseen by the FHFA, from reducing principal on the more than 465,000 seriously delinquent loans they own or guarantee on the grounds that it would hurt their bottom line. An announcement that the FHFA will allow such writedowns isn’t expected today..."
CFPB plans new mortgage rules. W. Post: "The rules would require mortgage servicers to warn homeowners before any interest rate adjustments, provide options for delinquent borrowers to avoid foreclosure, investigate errors within 30 days and improve staff accessibility to consumers, among other things. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking business and public comment before formally proposing the rules, which are expected to be finalized by next year."
Bernanke warns against "shadow banking." Bloomberg: "Bernanke supported efforts to increase the 'resiliency' of money market funds, referring to Securities and Exchange Commission proposals to require firms to maintain capital buffers or to redeem shares at the market value of underlying assets rather than at a fixed price of $1. He also called for efforts to monitor financial innovation and backed curbs on intraday credit in tri-party repo markets."
Bipartisan Backing For Capping Carbon
Gallup poll shows bipartisan support for capping carbon. The Hill: "...65 percent of adults surveyed support mandatory greenhouse gas controls. Eighty-two percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans support controls ... Eighty-four percent of Democrats support spending more federal money to develop wind and solar power, compared to 51 percent of Republicans ... [However,] 65 percent of respondents support opening more federal land for oil exploration, an idea that drew support from 84 percent of Republicans and 49 percent of Democrats."
Last month was warmest March ever. ABC: "The average temperature of 51.1 degrees Fahrenheit [in the lower 48 states] broke the previous record set in 1910 by 0.5 degrees and was 8.6 degrees above average."
Trucking companies handling higher gas prices with greater fuel efficiency. LAT: "Since getting hammered by expensive diesel in 2008 ... transport specialists have altered their businesses to reduce diesel use. Coca-Cola Co. is using electric and hybrid vehicles and training drivers to reduce idling time. FedEx Corp. has adopted sophisticated software to improve truck loading and route planning with an eye toward fuel efficiency ... The trailer might feature side skirts or angled trays underneath so that the air flows easily past and doesn't drag on the vehicle, reducing the mileage a driver can get per gallon of fuel ... Drivers are put through training programs that encourage efficient and conservative driving over other considerations."
Romney's "Over-Regulation" Charge Falls Flat
Obama up 7 over Romney in W. Post/ABC poll as voters don't buy conservative charges of "over-regulation". "Obama has double-digit leads over the likely Republican presidential nominee on who would do a better job of protecting the middle class, addressing women’s issues, handling international affairs and dealing with health care ... Romney is up eight percentage points among male voters but trails by 19 among women ... more Americans consider unfairness in the economic system a bigger problem than over-regulation interfering with growth and prosperity."
TNR's Jonathan Cohn defends President's comments on the Supreme Court: "Striking down this sort of economic legislation, Obama said, would be unprecedented in the modern era—and reminiscent of the early 20th Century, when the Court threw out multiple pieces of economic regulations from the Progressive Era and then the New Deal ... when a government lawyer raised the specter of Lochner during oral arguments over the health care law two weeks ago, Chief Justice John Roberts sternly made the very same point [conservatives] did: Lochner was about state regulation, not federal regulation. But I'm pretty sure both Obama and his administration's lawyer were saying something different, and broader, when they invoked Lochner: By invalidating the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court would be resurrecting a vision of constitutionally limited government that, quite rightly, went out of fashion a long time ago."
