MORNING MESSAGE: Mitt's Harvest
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "David Corn at Mother Jones has released another Romney video. This one's from a Bain Capital meeting in 1985 in which Romney says Bain's business model is to acquire companies and then 'harvest them at a significant profit' in five to eight years … Here's how it works: Target companies are fattened up like sacrificial animals on a diet of debt, much of which goes to pay the exorbitant fees charged by companies like Bain. That put intense pressure on their management to pump up short-term earnings by any means necessary. Jobs are lost. Companies go bankrupt. The harvest continues."
Senate Races May Bolster Obama's Mandate
An Obama win will be a mandate to reject Simpson-Bowles-style austerity, says NYT's Paul Krugman: "[Simpson-Bowles] was put together in a political environment in which progressives, and even supporters of the safety net as we know it, were very much on the defensive — an environment in which conservatives were presumed to be in the ascendant, and in which bipartisanship was effectively defined as the effort to broker deals between the center-right and the hard right. Barring an upset, however, that environment will come to an end on Nov. 6. This election is, as I said, shaping up as a referendum on our social insurance system, and it looks as if Mr. Obama will emerge with a clear mandate for preserving and extending that system."
"Unabashed liberal" Sen. Sherrod Brown poised to win re-election in OH. Politico: "His support for things like the auto bailout, which remains popular in the state, give Brown an edge among Ohio’s blue-collar class … 'Fundamentally, the voters don’t see left to right, liberal or conservative, but they want to know if you are on their side,' he said. 'When it comes to the auto rescue, when it comes to China currency manipulation, when it comes to a health care plan, people understand I am on their side.'"
Outcome in VA senate race could break GOP coalition. NYT's Tom Edsall: "The Senate race here has become a testing ground for how far social conservatives can push their agenda — and continue to win elections — in a rapidly changing southern state with a burgeoning population of college-educated voters as well as many more ethnically diverse voters … The political costs to the Republican Party of rewarding social conservatives are beginning to outweigh the benefits in a state that is undergoing dramatic demographic transformation."
Robert Kuttner has questions for Sen. Scott Brown: "The other image Brown has carefully pursued is that of the last moderate Republican standing. But this is also hogwash … If I were questioning Brown, here are some of the questions I'd ask … If you are such an independent and such a moderate, why are you voting for these people [to chair Senate committees]? … Who are you supporting for president, and why? …"
Math Is Hard For Romney-Ryan
" I don’t have the time. It would take me too long to go through all of the math," says Paul Ryan to Fox News when pressed how the Romney-Ryan tax plan adds up.
Romney tries to assert he won't cut taxes on the wealthy. Bloomberg: "Romney has campaigned since February on a proposal to cut income tax rates across the board by 20 percent, arguing that doing so would help create jobs by allowing employers to keep and invest more of what they earn. Lately, he has highlighted the benefits of the plan for middle-income people and emphasized that he isn’t looking to hand more tax cuts to the wealthy. 'There should be no tax reduction for high-income people,' he said Sept. 24 on the CBS program '60 Minutes.' 'What I would like to do is to get a tax reduction for middle- income families.' Romney went further as he campaigned Sept. 26 in Westerville, Ohio, saying that no one should anticipate a substantial tax reduction, because his plan would be financed by curbing or eliminating targeted tax breaks."
Republicans can't agree on what Romney is doing wrong. The Hill: "One suggestion: Romney should hit Obama as hard as possible in Wednesday’s televised debate, because he needs to land a knockout blow. Or, he should ignore Obama, and instead focus only on his own message, because voters are hungry for specifics from him. More advice: Romney should peddle soft-focus biographical details because he has to show himself as a more compassionate, warm man than the plutocrat caricature Team Obama has pushed. Or, the battle of likability is already lost, and its electoral importance is overrated anyway, so he should confine himself to policy."
Voter ID Laws Face Courts
OH and PA voter ID laws face judges this week. Bloomberg: "There are at least 15 cases pending nationwide over election law limits on issues such as early voting, registration and identification in the run up to the Nov. 6 vote. Of those, about half are in [swing] states…"
GOTV efforts intensify to counteract Voter ID laws.McClatchy: "From Pennsylvania to South Carolina to Florida, a loose network of civic, religious, labor and civil rights groups are working to find, educate and register voters who might not meet eligibility requirements under a spate of new Republican-backed laws that opponents say create new barriers to voting in the name of stopping fraud … Voter ID laws and others that restrict voting opportunities could prevent or discourage up to 10 million Latinos from voting and registering, according to a new study by The Advancement Project, a multi-racial civil rights group."
Breakfast Sides
Temporary payroll tax cut may really be temporary. NYT: "Independent analysts say that the expiration of the tax cut could shave as much as a percentage point off economic output in 2013, and cost the economy as many as one million jobs … But there is still little desire to make an extension part of the negotiations that are under way to avert the huge tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts … both Democrats and Republicans would rather focus on the broader political and economic issue of the fate of the Bush-era income tax cuts. These cuts, too, were initially meant to be temporary … [The Economic Policy Institute] recommends replacing the payroll tax cut with infrastructure spending or fiscal aid to states…"
Austerity feeds support for Greek neo-fascist party Golden Dawn. NYT: "Preying on fears that immigrants are worsening crime rates and economic hardship, the group has been stepping up attacks against immigrants, many of whom are legal citizens, with the police frequently standing by … 'How can we not be angry when the government cuts our earnings so much?' said [retiree Iakovos] Zorzios, who is bracing for yet another reduction in the latest austerity plan forged this week. 'How can they expect us not to support Golden Dawn?'"
