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: DeMarco Sits While Homeowners Drown
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Acting FHFA Director Edward DeMarco's speech at the Brookings Institution was technical in nature, but to anyone with the right political or emotional closed-captioning device the message was loud and clear: Don't rush me, Mr. President - and find yourself another fall guy. And to anyone who's underwater on a mortgage the message was even clearer: You're not getting much help from me."
DeMarco Speech Stirs Speculation
Some speculate DeMarco may change his stance on principal reduction for struggling homeowners. NYT: "Mr. DeMarco described as limited the benefits from principal reduction, saying it would hardly be a magic bullet ... Still, his remarks raised speculation that the F.H.F.A. might change its rules to allow principal reduction on mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. The agency, which oversees the two mortgage finance giants, is expected to make a decision on principal reduction in the coming weeks."
Top Dem waits for action. Politico: "'I have been saying for many months that we need to focus on data rather than ideological or political opposition to principal reductions,' [Rep. Elijah] Cummings said in a statement released by his office. 'Although I am encouraged that Mr. DeMarco has now begun to move in this direction, we continue to await the documents and analyses we requested months ago, and the jury is still out on whether he will act to serve both homeowner and taxpayer’s best interests.'"
"Write Down the 11 Million" argues American Prospect's Stephen Lerner: "As we ready for the 99 percent Spring, there is a simple demand that should increasingly serve as a rallying cry: $300 billion or more from the banks to reduce mortgage principals to fair market value, as a way to lean into the recovery and help America’s underwater homeowners, their neighbors, and their communities."
President Ratchets Up Pressure For Buffett Rule
In Florida, President rallies youth to press Congress on Buffett Rule. McClatchy: "'In this country, prosperity has never trickled down from the wealthy few. Prosperity has always come from the bottom up,' Obama said. 'And yet we keep on having the same argument with folks who don’t seem to understand how it is that America got built.'"
"Obama to Enlist Millionaires in Buffett Rule Campaign" reports Bloomberg: "The president is holding an event at the White House today to promote the so-called Buffett Rule ... deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said in a Twitter message that it will feature millionaires who support 'fairness' accompanied by their secretaries."
"Corporate Tax Dodgers Didn’t Miss a Beat in 2011" reports AFL-CIO's Mike Hall: "A new report shows that most of the 30 Fortune 500 companies that paid no federal income tax from 2008 through 2010 were able to keep up their tax dodge two-step in 2011. Those nimble firms include Verizon, G.E., Boeing, Wells Fargo, Tenet Health Care and more. The report by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that 26 maintained their negative federal tax rate—with tax breaks and loopholes, they actually made more money after taxes than before ... Overall the actual tax rate corporations pay, called the 'effective' tax rate, is at 12.1 percent of profits..."
CEOs beef up private security to lower tax bill. NYT: "Each year, companies spend millions of dollars to ensure the ostensible safety of their executives, services that sometimes extend to others. Ford, for example, picks up the tab for family members who fly with [CEO Alan] Mulally. The automaker estimated that it spent $178,571 on Mr. Mulally’s and his family’s personal air travel last year."
NEA launches campaign to eliminate corporate tax loopholes: "Corporate tax loopholes are costing our schools and communities resources that would help the next generation achieve the American Dream. At a time when middle class Americans and small businesses are suffering, large, multi-national corporations are earning record profits and paying little to no money in taxes that are intended to support the communities where they do business."
Romney Falls Into Gender Gap
Romney tries to reverse gender gap. NYT: "'There’s been some talk about the war on women,' he said, referring to claims by Democratic leaders that the Republican Party is hostile toward women with its positions on issues like abortion and health care. 'The real war on women has been waged by the Obama administration’s failure on the economy.' He repeatedly cited the figure of 92.3 percent, which he said was women’s share of all the jobs lost since the president’s inauguration in January 2009."
But gets the facts wrong. Politifact: "First, Obama cannot be held entirely accountable for the employment picture on the day he took office, just as he could not be given credit if times had been booming. Second, by choosing figures from January 2009, months into the recession, the statement ignored the millions of jobs lost before then, when most of the job loss fell on men. In every recession, men are the first to take the hit, followed by women"
Speculators Blamed For High Gas Prices
Joseph P. Kennedy II fingers speculators for high gas prices, in NYT oped: "...in 1991, just a few years after oil futures began trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Goldman Sachs made an argument to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that Wall Street dealers who put down big bets on oil should be considered legitimate hedgers and granted an exemption from regulatory limits on their trades ... [Now,] only about 30 percent of oil futures traders are actual oil industry participants ... Federal legislation should bar pure oil speculators entirely from commodity exchanges in the United States."
Big Oil literally backing Romney. ThinkProgress: "American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard, has long backed Mitt Romney. Gerard and his family have donated $7,440 to the Romney campaign, and the campaign in turn has publicly thanked Gerard ... The candidate has pulled some serious support from the oil and gas industry, taking more than $750,000 from oil and gas and another $1 million for the pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future."
Breakfast Sides
It doesn't feel like recovery because wages are down, argues W. Post's Harold Meyerson: "Profits and dividends are up and wages are down — which is why ... all income growth in the United States in 2010 went to the wealthiest 10 percent of households ... Profits and dividends are up largely because wages are down ... This recovery differs from its predecessors because it is concentrated among the affluent, and almost entirely among the very rich."
Subprime is back: "Credit card lenders gave out 1.1 million new cards to borrowers with damaged credit in December, up 12.3 percent from the same month a year earlier ... These borrowers accounted for 23 percent of new auto loans in the fourth quarter of 2011 ... Consumer advocates and lawyers worry that the financial institutions are again preying on the most vulnerable and least financially sophisticated borrowers ... Subprime borrowers typically pay high interest rates, up to 29 percent, and often rack up fees for late payments."
Conservative report claiming "ObamaCare" increases deficit recycles discredited charge. CBPP's Paul Van de Water: "...there’s no double-counting involved in recognizing that Medicare savings improve the status of both the federal budget and the Medicare trust funds. The outlooks for the budget and for the Medicare trust funds are two different things; some changes in law may affect one and not the other, but other changes affect both."
