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: Romney And The Rise Of The Superpredator Corporate Class
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "A highly wealthy American is now running for the highest office in the land with a nomination bought and paid for by his ultra-wealthy backers. The corporate class finally has the chance to elect one of its own, rather than depending on the compliance of someone else in that office … Romney's personal wealth was greatly increased by the Federal government's decision to treat much of his income as investment income and tax it at a much lower rate than many schoolteachers or secretaries pay … government leaders chose to offer this low tax rate even for investments that took jobs away, destroyed companies, or shipped jobs overseas. The failure to distinguish between productive and destructive investment was a choice - a choice to reward destructive financial behavior as richly as we reward constructive financial behavior. And that decision encouraged the growth of superpredator capitalism."
Romney Wraps Up Grandiose Donor Retreat
Romney's donors get private policy sessions…. ABC: "Romney's top donors were treated to panels on specialized policy topics, such as healthcare or the financial services industry, heard speeches from stars of the Republican Party, such as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and were granted access to the presidential candidate's senior advisors for information about the inner workings of the campaign. All events were closed to reporters…"
…while voters left in the dark. Politico: "Romney is remarkably candid, almost as though he’s reading the stage directions, about why he won’t offer up details: he thinks it will undermine his chances to win."
Health Care Ruling This Week
Overturning Affordable Care Act would suggest the Supreme Court is engaged in a "long-term coup," argues The Atlantic's James Fallows: "First, the presidential election is decided by five people, who don't even try to explain their choice in normal legal terms. Then the beneficiary of that decision appoints the next two members of the court … those two actively second-guess and re-do existing law, to advance the interests of the party that appointed them. Meanwhile their party's representatives in the Senate abuse procedural rules to an extent never previously seen to block legislation -- and appointments, especially to the courts. And, when a major piece of legislation gets through, the party's majority on the Supreme Court prepares to negate it -- even though the details of the plan were originally Republican proposals and even though the party's presidential nominee endorsed these concepts only a few years ago."
Real people will get hurt if Court overturns. TNR's Jonathan Cohn: "They’re the Americans who don’t have access to health benefits and the Americans who have access to health benefits but can’t afford to pay for them … The Affordable Care Act won’t help all of these people. But it will help an awful lot of them … On Thursday, the Obama Administration announced that 12 million Americans would be getting rebates from their insurance companies [because] insurance companies must spend at least 80 percent of their premiums on actual patient care … More than 5 million seniors have saved hundreds of dollars on their prescription drugs. As many as 6 million young adults now have comprehensive insurance coverage because, under the law, Americans under the age of 26 without access to coverage can enroll in their parents’ plans."
Scalia has to flip-flop to strike down law. Salon's Paul Campos: "In that [2005] case [about enforcing marijuana laws], Scalia wrote that, 'where Congress has authority to enact a regulation of interstate commerce, it possesses every power needed to make that regulation effective.' … [But in] a forthcoming book, Scalia disowns Wickard v. Filburn, the 70-year-old precedent on which his 2005 vote was explicitly based."
"Democrats Should Come Out Swinging Against the Court" says Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky: "Let’s say the court overturns the mandate by a typical 5-4 vote, but leaves the rest of the law intact … Mr. Cool needs to get Hot. Against unanimous and ferocious opposition, and in the face of blatant lies about what this bill would and would not do, he and the Democrats came up with a way for people with cancer and diabetes and what have you to get the treatment they need and not be either turned away or gouged. He’s proud of that, he ought to say, and by God, he’s going to fight for it."
World Leaders Failing Economy
Powerful institutions are abdicating responsibility to save the global economy, frets NYT's Paul Krugman: "It seems obvious that European creditor nations need, one way or another, to assume some of the financial risks facing Spanish banks … But no. Europe’s 'solution' was to lend money to the Spanish government, and tell that government to bail out its own banks. It took financial markets no time at all to figure out that this solved nothing, that it just put Spain’s government more deeply in debt … the [U.S.] Fed, like the European Central Bank, like the U.S. Congress, like the government of Germany, has decided that avoiding economic disaster is somebody else’s responsibility."
Struggling cities turn to ads to fight off more layoffs. NYT: "…straphangers in Philadelphia buy fare cards blazoned with ads for McDonald’s and ride the Broad Street Line to AT&T Station … [KFC] temporarily plastered its logo on manhole covers and fire hydrants in several cities in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee after paying to fill potholes and replace hydrants … Pizza chains now advertise on some school buses, as a growing number of states consider allowing school districts to sell ads."
Defense industry furiously lobbying to stave off sequestration. Politico: "[The Aerospace Industries Association's] seven-figure campaign, dubbed 'Second to None,' includes rallies in lawmakers’ districts, paying for studies on the economic impact of sequestration and pushing the issue through social media and catchy cartoons. Defense contractors like Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon spent more than $9.6 million on lobbying during the first three months of 2011."
