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: Republican Repealers Already Voted To Demolish Medicare
OurFuture.org's Roger Hickey: "…by insisting on a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, even though they know it will not pass the U.S. Senate, Republicans in both houses are making it clear they are setting themselves up to take into the election a clear GOP plan to get rid of popular health benefits – and they are reminding voters that virtually the whole Republican delegation are already on record as voting for the Ryan budget, which would turn Medicare into a voucher system and would dramatically cut the benefits of middle class and low income Americans who depend on Medicaid for both long-term nursing care and for health coverage."
GOP Plans Repeal, Not Replace
"GOP leaders not saying how they'll fix nation's health care woes" reports McClatchy: "In the last year and a half, House Republicans have sent the Senate just one 36-page bill designed to limit medical malpractice lawsuits, despite pledging to develop detailed legislation to slow rising health care costs, help Americans keep their health plans and broaden access to insurance. And, as the House prepares to take its 33rd vote to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care Act, senior Republicans say they will not try to move a replacement plan until 2013 at the earliest."
"4 Things We Would Lose If Congress Repealed Health Reform" from CBPP's Shannon Spillane: "1. Health insurance for 3.1 million young adults … 2. Free preventive care for tens of millions of Americans … 3. Protections for children and adults with serious illnesses … 4. More affordable prescriptions for more than 5 million seniors."
Romney Struggles To Deflect Outsourcing, Swiss Bank Charges
Romney tries to accuse Obama of outsourcing, fails. NYT: "…Romney’s latest attacks on the president’s stimulus spending appear to be based primarily on snippets of news reports about the activities of companies that — upon contacting the companies themselves — do not bear out as fact."
Biden slams Romney's secret tax returns to National Council of La Raza conference. LAT quotes: "He wants you to show your papers, but he won’t show us his."
Romney's response on Fox News' "Hannity"? Fast and Furious! W. Post quotes: "…now he says, ‘Well, this is a matter of transparency,' … Well, how about the transparency of a president who through executive privilege is preventing the American people from finding out what happened in the Fast and Furious program?"
Sen. Lindsey Graham's response? ThinkProgress quotes: "it’s really American to avoid paying taxes, legally."
Romney's plan is a recipe for lower taxes on wealthy, higher taxes for everyone else. The Atlantic's Derek Thompson: "Finding enough holes in the tax code to make up for the money Romney is giving up with lower marginal rates is a nearly impossible challenge, the Tax Policy Center concluded … [it would likely] raise taxes on every income group except for the top 5 percent."
Americans are not overtaxes, says Jared Bernstein: "…the average US household was paying 17.4% of their income in federal taxes [in 2009], compared to 22% in 1979."
Bankers Knew About Libor
Bankers knew of Libor problems' for years. Time: "…the bigger doubts about Libor and Euribor’s reliability became particularly apparent after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in August 2007 and the ensuing turmoil in bank lending markets, when credit all but dried up … On Tuesday, the New York Fed acknowledged that in late 2007 it had received 'occasional anecdotal reports from Barclays of problems with Libor,' and that in spring 2008, it had inquired further as to how Libor submissions were being conducted. The Fed said in a statement that it had shared its analysis and suggestions for reform of Libor with British authorities."
Geitnher met with Barclays while at NY Fed. HuffPost: "Though the subject of those discussions is unknown, they came at a time when Barclays was also talking to New York Fed officials about problems with an interest rate known as Libor, some five years before the bank agreed to pay $450 million to settle charges that it manipulated that interest rate."
Scandal makes case for Volcker Rule. ThinkProgress' Pat Garofalo: "…the fact that banks were looking to profit off LIBOR’s movements shows the emphasis that they have put on trading over more traditional lending — and makes the case for rules that rein such risky trading in."
Increased transparency, decreased speculation in new Dodd-Frank swaps rule. Bloomberg: "A definition of swaps required by the Dodd-Frank Act and approved by U.S. regulators will bring government scrutiny to a $648 trillion global market that has been largely unchecked since it emerged three decades ago … Limits mandated by Dodd-Frank on speculation in oil, natural gas, wheat and other commodities will also begin to take effect two months after publication of the definition."
Breakfast Sides
Urban Dems fight food stamp cuts. Politico: "…Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn stepped into the fray Tuesday, warning that the $16.5 billion in food stamp savings are already an 'abomination,' … Urban Democrats are warning they will move to kill the farm bill entirely when it comes to the floor. Given the expected opposition from tea party Republicans, that could be enough to block action … But Clyburn’s standing could yet make him a bridge to some compromise."
That heat wave? Probably global warming. NYT: "A new study found that global warming made the severe heat wave that afflicted Texas last year 20 times as likely as it would have been in the 1960s. The extremely warm temperatures in Britain last November were 62 times as likely because of global warming, it said. The findings, especially the specific numbers attached to some extreme events, represent an increased effort by scientists to respond to a public clamor for information about what is happening to the earth’s climate."
Carbon capture technology for coal emissions is here, but cost-prohibitive without a carbon cap law. Politico: "Without climate legislation or new regulations that mandate the technology, companies don’t really have an incentive to deploy the technology on a commercial scale. And some experts say billions of federal dollars are still needed to make it more mainstream."
Congress discusses "mini-Simpson-Bowles" to avoid sequester. Politico: "Republicans in a bipartisan working group are openly talking about finding new revenue as a way to temporarily stave off the defense cuts … That could come in the form of closing loopholes, selling federal property or increasing fees, [Sen. Lindsey] Graham said. A potential agreement would resemble a 'mini-Bowles-Simpson deal,' modeled off a plan produced by President Barack Obama’s fiscal commission that called for a 3-1 ratio of cuts to revenue increases. 'I think we can do a one-year fix if Republicans can put some revenue on the table,' said Graham…"
