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 Real Deficit Story
OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson: "Any time any DC elite complains about 'the deficit' remind them that when Clinton left office we had a huge surplus, so big that at the rate it was being paid down the entire US debt was going to be paid off in 10 years. Bush demanded that we give back the people's money and Greenspan warned of the danger of paying off the debt ... So we went from big surplus to huge, huge deficits. Bush said it was 'incredibly positive news' when we went back into deficit spending. He said it was good news because it continued the plan to use debt to force the government to cut back ... The Reagan people said it too, back when they started the massive deficit spending ... They called it 'strategic deficits.' They said it was the plan to force the country into debt, and then they would demand that we cut the things that government does for the 99%, in order to further enrich the 1%."
GOP Lurches Farther Right, Dumps Lugar
Sen. Dick Lugar blasts Tea Party "mindset" after losing bid for 7th term. Salon quotes: "...his embrace of an unrelenting partisan mindset is irreconcilable with my philosophy of governance and my experience of what brings results for Hoosiers in the Senate. In effect, what he has promised in this campaign is reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party."
Indiana GOP senate primary winner Richard Mourdock filed suit against saving the auto industry. NYT: "...he became the country’s only government official to push back against the Obama administration’s auto bailout in court. Secured bondholders were forced to accept 29 cents on the dollar for their investments, which outraged Mr. Mourdock because three state funds — two managed by him — owned $42.5 million in Chrysler bonds. Many lawmakers and business owners, some of them Republican, saw the challenge as folly since Indiana has so many autoworkers, the legal action was costly and a federal bankruptcy court and an appeals court rejected it."
Lugar loss big blow to foreign policy, argues Mother Jones' David Corn: "... this Hoosier frequently endeavored to forge bipartisan coalitions to advance national security priorities ... Lugar worked—that is, conspired with—the Obama White House to win ratification of the New START treaty reducing the number of US and Russian nuclear weapons ... this is indeed a genuine loss for those who care about arms control, nuclear nonproliferation, and foreign-policy discussions that are serious and deep, not silly and opportunistic."
And threatens Supreme Court nominations, notes NY Mag's Jonathan Chait: "The most important and alarming facet of Lugar’s defeat ... is one of the reasons Mourdock cited against him: Lugar voted to confirm two of Obama’s Supreme Court nominees ... The social norm against blocking qualified, mainstream Supreme Court nominees is one of the few remaining weapons the Republican Party has left lying on the ground. But if Republican Senators attribute Lugar’s defeat even in part to those votes for Kagan and Sotomayor, which seems to be the case, what incentive do they have to vote for another Obama nominee?"
Romney Tries Splitting Dems
Romney tries to drive wedge, claims President Obama turned his back on Clinton. W. Monthly's Ed Kilgore debunks: "It’s particularly outrageous for Romney to claim that the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act of 2010 was some sort of betrayal of the New Democrat legacy ... During the 2008 presidential primaries, the only significant differences between the health care proposals of Barack Obama and of Hillary Clinton (notice the last name again!) was that she insisted on the individual mandate that Mitt Romney had implemented in Massachusetts..."
"GOP stumbles in outreach to Hispanic voters" reports McClatchy: "... the Republicans’ top Hispanic outreach director, Bettina Inclan [said] Romney is 'still deciding what his position on immigration is,' ... Democrats, though, were happy to step in with their own definition of Romney’s immigration policy. That includes pledging to veto the DREAM Act ... registered Hispanic voters back Obama by 67 percent to 27 percent ..."
Student Loan Bill Filibustered
Senate GOP filibusters student loan bill. NYT: "The vote was the Senate Republicans’ 21st successful filibuster of a Democratic bill this Congress, which started in January 2011."
House-Senate committee fails to reach agreement on transportation jobs bill in initial meeting. The Hill: "Supporters and foes of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline dug in Tuesday during the first day of formal House-Senate talks on transportation legislation, with one notable exception: Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who kept his cards closer to the vest ... With Senate Democrats outnumbering Senate Republicans on the negotiating team eight to six and Baucus declining to make Keystone make-or-break, backers of the pipeline face big hurdles."
House GOP Plans Vote To Extend Bush Tax Cut
House will vote to extend Bush tax cuts, says Speaker Boehner. The Hill: "'The House is going to act to extend the current tax rates. Whether we make them permanent or extend them for a year — that debate is still up in the air,' Boehner said in an interview on CNBC. 'Otherwise we’re going to have this mess all stacked up until after the election. And you want to talk about a train wreck? You’re talking about a big one.'"
But Democrats will have "upper hand" in post-election legislative session, says top Dem congressman Chris Van Hollen. US News: "...he thinks that his side will have the upper hand in the lame duck as Republicans will be forced to reconcile their big deficit talk with their infatuation with bigger tax cuts ... He blames Republican obstinacy over raising tax revenue for the various standoffs, but indicated that the looming deadlines would give the Democrats a negotiating advantage."
W. Post's Suzy Khimm explores the impact of the House GOP food stamp cuts: "There’s a legitimate argument about which Americans should receive food stamps and how much they should receive. But the GOP legislation doesn’t eliminate fraud or abuse. It eliminates or reduces benefits to Americans who legitimately received them."
