MORNING MESSAGE: Growing Group of Senators Oppose Fiscal Swindle
OurFuture.org's Roger Hickey: "…And now, there’s a new gang in the US Senate. Politico reports that 15 Senators have signed a letter to President Obama much more in line with what voters said they wanted. Written by Senators Harkin and Rockefeller, who are seeking 15 more signers, the letter stands up to the demands of the Senate austerity gangs and urges President Obama to reject any deal not guided by the following principles … Deficit reduction should not kill jobs … Any deal must include significant revenues … Any deal must protect Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security benefits from harmful cuts … A deficit deal must be struck in the light of day with plenty of time for all groups to respond … this new Gang of 15 (and growing) needs the help of activist citizen groups … To take action online, click here.
Republicans Yet To Actually Offer Concession
Despite change in tone, Republicans haven't changed any positions yet. TPM: "…the impression [is] that Republicans are willing to raise revenue by limiting deductions and loopholes. Correct, but they’ve always been open to that — if and only if the new revenue is used to lower tax rates rather than reduce the deficit. Look closer and it’s apparent that that stance is still the same."
But "Top Republican Doesn’t Rule Out Increasing Tax Rates" reports ThinkProgress: "House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) isn’t ruling out supporting a deal … 'Tax increases to chase ever higher spending is a fool’s errand. What we need to do is have that balanced approach.'"
Does a deficit deal have to go through Paul Ryan? NYT: "Speaker John A. Boehner has tapped Mr. Ryan … to help strike a deal to avoid big tax increases and spending cuts by the end of the year, and to bring along fellow Republicans … While President Obama and the Democrats are expected to give ground on entitlements and discretionary spending, it is likely that Mr. Ryan will be the player under the most pressure to back away from his previous conservative positions in order to form a bipartisan agreement … said Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington State who will become the Senate Budget Committee chairwoman, '… his vision was actually on the ballot and Americans decided to go in a different direction.'"
NYT's Bill Keller explains how we can cut military spending without harming national security: "Almost everyone starts with a significant cut in active-duty ground forces and the heavy vehicles and artillery that go with them … The services have a multiplicity of headquarters, on the principle that generals have to command something… Our military should invest heavily in research and development of breakthrough technologies, like unmanned aircraft, but resist the lure of gold-plated, highly specialized weapons that often overpromise and don’t deliver."
New ObamaCare Rules On Tap
Major ObamaCare rules coming soon. W. Post: "Most of the anticipation has been focused on rules that determine how the new state-based insurance marketplaces called exchanges will operate. But also closely awaited are decisions about how the government will tax medical devices, allot the shrinking pool of money for hospitals that treat the uninsured, and determine how birth control insurance coverage can be guaranteed … For instance, the law allowed insurers to alter their prices for people based on age, family size, where they live and tobacco use. The Department of Health and Human Services has to determine how insurers can go about setting those prices."
"Five ObamaCare battles to watch" from The Hill: "The [Republican] governors’ real weapon is in rejecting the law’s now-optional Medicaid expansion … The push to resist state exchanges is driven in part by the hope that a long-shot lawsuit will derail federal subsidies to help people pay for private insurance … Several healthcare industries want desperately to get rid of newly imposed taxes, and they see the prospect of broader tax reform as an opening …"
Breakfast Sides
Wall St. lobbyists trying to block Sen.-elect Warren from the banking committee. Mother Jones: "Aides to two senators on the banking committee tell Mother Jones the industry has already moved to block Warren from joining the committee … Consumer advocates and progressives would love to have Warren on the banking committee, which is stacked with bank-friendly Republicans and several Democrats representing states tied to the banking industry … It's up to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to decide which freshman senators get what assignments."
Wal-Mart turn to NLRB for help to stop organizing effort. NYT: "Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest employer and retailer, has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board — its first in a decade — seeking to prevent the group, known as OUR Walmart, from holding what the group says will be the biggest protests of this kind against the company at hundreds of stores [on the Friday after Thanksgiving] … In the filing with the labor board, the company said that the continuing protests were illegal because under the National Labor Relations Act, a union seeking recognition can picket for a maximum of 30 days … The two labor groups insist the protests are being sponsored not by the union, but by OUR Walmart, which they say is an independent group."
