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: A New Strategy For Prosperity
OurFuture.org's Roger Hickey: "We Americans face a stark choice for our economy in the upcoming election, an election that will unfold in the midst of a historically slow recovery from a devastating economic recession. One strategy would have us double down on the policies that pushed us into recession and have slowed our recovery. This strategy would further enrich the very wealthy, undermine the middle class and restore the financial free-for-all that failed us so badly. The other choice – the choice we endorse – is a strategy that makes investments in our future as a country, supports working Americans and encourages broadly shared growth. In this strategy, we fix our politics and our economy so they work for the middle class, not narrow economic interests. In this strategy, we are guided by the practical lessons of our history and the growing amount of research that shows deregulation and tax cuts can’t build long-term prosperity. It is a choice, in other words, between austerity economics and prosperity economics."
Romney Embraces Drill-Baby-Drill Energy Plan
Romney to unveil energy plan today. NYT: "[The plan] would allow states more control over the development of energy resources on federal lands within their borders, as well as aggressively expand offshore oil and gas drilling — including along the coasts of Virginia and the Carolinas … The proposal may win votes in Virginia, where drilling would bring jobs and state revenues, but would be controversial in Florida, where offshore drilling has long been viewed as a threat to tourism …"
Romney plan will satisfy his donors. W. Post: "Romney’s plan caters heavily to oil and coal interests, and oil executives are some of his biggest benefactors. Romney spent Tuesday raising an estimated $7 million across Texas, including $3 million at a dinner at the Petroleum Club of Midland. He spent the night at the home of Miles Boldrick, founder of Statewide Minerals Co., which has stakes in more than 25,000 oil wells."
Medicare, Welfare Still Bedevil Romney Campaign
New poll shows Ryan's Medicare plan poses big risk to Romney in key states. NYT: "…Medicare ranks as the third-most crucial issue to likely voters in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin — behind the economy and health care … fewer than a third of those polled said Medicare should be changed in the future to a system in which the government gives the elderly fixed amounts of money to buy health insurance or Medicare insurance, as Mr. Romney has proposed … About 60 percent of independent voters in the three states support keeping Medicare as it is today…"
Romney spox John Sununu again challenged by CNN for repeating lies. ThinkProgress: "…Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer took Romney campaign chairman John Sununu to task over the false [welfare] ads, reading directly from the Dept. of Health and Human Services directive that outlines the waiver program and the letters from Republican governors who asked for the waivers."
Fed Close To Action
Fed may be ready for more stimulus. Bloomberg: "Many members of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said further action would probably be needed 'fairly soon' without evidence of 'substantial and sustainable' improvement in the recovery, according to minutes of the July 31-Aug. 1 meeting released yesterday … Many participants at the Fed’s meeting said a new large- scale asset-purchase program 'could provide additional support for the economic recovery,'"
"Middle-class income and wealth fell in last 10 years" reports LAT: "Median middle-class income dropped 5% in the 2000s, while net worth plummeted 28% — to $93,150 from $129,582 — as housing prices shriveled, the [Pew] report said. The middle class has steadily shrunk over the years, falling to 51% of the population in 2011 from 61% in 1971, the report found."
CBO warns that abrupt spending cuts and tax increases in January after "fiscal cliff" may cause recession. W. Post: "…the CBO warned that the nation would be plunged into a significant recession during the first half of next year if Congress fails to avert nearly $500 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to hit in January. [It] would disrupt recent economic progress, push the unemployment rate back up to 9.1 percent by the end of 2013 [and] a contraction of 2.9 percent in gross domestic product, 'similar in magnitude to the recession of the early 1990s.'"
Breakfast Sides
Top OH GOPer says voting rules should not help blacks. NYT: "The new [early voting] policy excluded weekends, and Democrats have accused the secretary of state, Jon Husted, of trying to scale back voting opportunities in urban areas that had longer voting hours during the last presidential election … The friction detonated this week when Doug Preisse, the influential Republican Party chairman of Franklin County [said] 'I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter turnout machine.'"
SEC blocks chairwoman's proposal to regulate money market funds. NYT: "While opposition was certain from the two Republican members of the commission, the crucial swing vote, a Democratic commissioner, Luis A. Aguilar, said in an interview on Wednesday afternoon that he would feel comfortable voting only after significant further study of the industry. Ms. Schapiro wanted the $2.6 trillion money market fund sector to start holding cash reserves or to let their share prices fluctuate, instead of promising to pay investors $1 for every $1 they put in, among other changes."
