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 Jobs Babble
OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "…if Republicans have nothing to say about jobs, neither do Democrats. They are terrified by polls that say voters are concerned about deficits. So every jobs program has to be 'paid for' – and almost by definition, small. Obama issues a 'to do list' for Congress that even his aides have a hard time pretending to be excited about. Ironically, there really isn’t much of a secret about what needs to be done. The only question is how deep the crisis must go, how crippling the pain must be, before it gets done."
Wisconsin Recall Election Today
Barrett says he's closing in on Walker. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Barrett said after greeting cheering volunteers at a Democratic Party office in Portage that he believes the race is 'dead even.' … 'This race is going to be totally determined by who comes to vote,' … With his shirt-sleeves rolled up, Barrett gave a fiery speech in which he promised 'to restore worker's rights, boost funding for education' and end what he has called Walker's ideological 'civil war.'"
It comes down to turnout. W. Post: "If Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) can pull off a come-from-behind win in an election to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R) on Tuesday, it will almost certainly be because of volunteers like these, whom Democrats are counting on to overcome being outspent by tens of millions."
Journal-Sentinel's Craig Gilbert says we don't know who will show up: "Self-described conservatives made up 37% of the vote in 2010. Four years earlier, when Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle got re-elected, conservatives made up only 27% of the vote … What do the 2012 polls have to say on this subject? Most statewide surveys this year have captured a very conservative mix of voters -- even more conservative than the 2010 electorate in Wisconsin. Either those polls are true barometers of conservative intensity and are accurately predicting the rightward tilt of the vote Tuesday -- or they’re oversampling conservatives and overstating Gov. Walker’s lead."
Win or lose, recall is a victory for progressives, says Katrina vanden Heuvel: "… in the last 15 months, Wisconsin’s progressives have shown us that the battle against bankrolled austerity can be bravely waged by an army of dedicated people committed to protecting working families. They’ve reminded us that good organizing is our only chance to withstand the blitzkrieg of corporate funded advertising — and better yet, leave a lasting mark"
Germany Considers Compromise
Germany hints at compromise to spur growth. NYT: "…Germany has indicated that it is prepared to accept a grand bargain that would provide greater support for its most indebted euro zone partners in exchange for more centralized control over government spending in Europe … German officials remain adamant that they are not talking about euro bonds, or jointly issued debt, which they have dismissed as unconstitutional. More likely is a plan to combine much of Europe’s bad debt into a single fund with the idea of paying it off over 25 years, an idea gaining traction in Germany as an alternative to euro bonds …"
"Austerity has never worked" says The Guardian's Ha-Joon Chang: "The same happened during the 1982 developing world debt crisis, the 1994 Mexican crisis, the 1997 Asian crisis, the Brazilian and the Russian crises in 1998, and the Argentinian crisis of 2002. All the crisis-stricken countries were forced (usually by the IMF) to cut spending and run budget surpluses, only to see their economies sink deeper into recession."
Governments should be taking advantage of low interest rates, says Larry Summers: "These low rates on even long maturities mean that markets are offering the opportunity to lock in low long-term borrowing costs … Rather than focusing on lowering already epically low rates, governments that enjoy such low borrowing costs can improve their creditworthiness by borrowing more, not less, and investing in improving their future fiscal position, even assuming no positive demand stimulus effects of a kind likely to materialize with negative real rates. They should accelerate any necessary maintenance projects — issuing debt leaves the state richer not poorer, assuming that maintenance costs rise at or above the general inflation rate."
TPM charts the "Gobsmacking Drop In Government Spending Under Obama": "… the drop in overall government spending after Obama’s stimulus funds expired in 2010 has been the sharpest since the 1950s, when the United States was demobilizing after the Korean War … 'Gosh, I wonder why the economy is underperforming?' Krugman wrote …"
CBPP reassures that lack of "grand bargain" by January will not spark immediate recession: "Policymakers, media, and others widely refer to the tax and spending changes slated to take effect at the start of January as the 'fiscal cliff.' Those changes will not produce an economic calamity, however, if the measures most damaging to the economy in the short term are in effect for only a few weeks or even a month or so while policymakers work toward an agreement. If current law initially takes effect — causing various income and payroll tax cuts to expire on January 1, emergency unemployment insurance (UI) to expire while joblessness remains very high, and across-the-board spending cuts to kick in on top of the discretionary cuts that the 2011 Budget Control Act caps mandate — the economy will indeed start down a slope that could ultimately lead to a recession in 2013. But that's a far cry from the economy falling off a cliff and plunging immediately into recession."
Romney Means Recession
Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz slams Romney's economic agenda. Bloomberg: "…Stiglitz said the election of Mitt Romney as president in November would 'significantly' raise the odds of a recession because it would herald a shift to a much tighter budget…"
Nothing in Romney's record proves his business experience means anything, says Slate's Matthew Yglesias: "The short recession of 2001 had a lot of regional variation in its impact on the American economy. Northern manufacturing centers were hit very hard, and so was the high-tech sector. This combination made it a very nasty recession for Massachusetts … one can say it's not at all clear that this is even remotely Romney's fault … But he definitely didn't deliver on the theory that his business background gave him some magical insight into super-charging employment growth."
Senate farm bill may cut food stamps. The Hill: "One big fight among Democrats is likely to be over food stamps. Gillibrand announced she will fight to restore $4.5 billion in cuts to the food stamp program and will propose paying for the increased spending with cuts to crop insurance. Stabenow on Monday said she was opposed to changing her version of the bill in order to maintain its bipartisan support, but some Democrats could be reluctant to take a vote that can be portrayed as cutting aid to the poor in favor of farm subsidies that often go to the wealthy."
Solar v. Power
Solar companies fight utilities over paying customers who produce power. NYT: "Net metering has been so popular that several states are rapidly approaching regulatory limits on how many systems are eligible, meaning new customers have no assurance they can reap the same rewards. The solar industry, which is growing in size and influence, has been pressing to raise those limits to continue to encourage rooftop installations, while the utilities have generally been opposed … The federal Department of Energy envisions a future in which a typical homeowner might feed power into the system from solar panels, small wind turbines or electric vehicles sitting idle in the garage, offsetting charges for power used at a later time and helping provide energy to the system during periods of high demand."
Romney-backed solar company goes bankrupt. Politico: "A Massachusetts solar company to which Mitt Romney personally delivered a $1.5 million loan when he was governor has gone belly up, leaving him vulnerable to the same 'picking winners and losers' charges that he’s been lobbing at President Barack Obama over Solyndra … In January 2003, just less than three weeks into his term as governor, Romney handed a check to Konarka executives during a news conference … One of the other winners announced that day — Evergreen Solar — has already undercut Romney’s Solyndra attacks by filing last year for bankruptcy protection."
Cap-and-trade working in the Northeast. NYT: "The cap and trade system known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative announced Monday that carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in the nine participating states on the East Coast fell by an average of 23 percent during the first three years of the program."
Breakfast Sides
War on women continues Republican prepare to filibuster Paycheck Fairness Act. W. Post: "The paycheck bill would bar companies from retaliating against workers who inquire about pay disparities and permit employees to sue for punitive damages if they find evidence of broad differences in compensation between male and female workers."
NYT's Joe Nocera sheds his anti-union bias: "…like many college-educated children of union parents, I have never been a member of a union, and I viewed them with mild disdain … 'Draw one line on a graph charting the decline in union membership, then superimpose a second line charting the decline in middle-class income share,' writes [Timothy] Noah, 'and you will find that the two lines are nearly identical.' Richard Freeman, a Harvard economist, has estimated that the decline of unions explains about 20 percent of the income gap … if liberals really want to reverse income inequality, they should think seriously about rejoining labor’s side."
JPMorgan Chase, other banks, fleecing students on loans. Bloomberg: "JPMorgan Chase & Co. charges Mirella Tovar as much as 10.25 percent annual interest on her student loans -- a rate as high as a credit card … Unlike the federal student-loan program, which lets consumers borrow at fixed rates directly from the government, these loans from at least 30 banks and other private lenders feature mostly variable rates that can be more than twice what some people pay in the U.S. program. With college costs spiraling, the marketing and interest rates of these loans are drawing increasing complaints from borrowers and regulators, who say teenage consumers often don’t understand their terms."
