MORNING MESSAGE: Economy Not Ready For Austerity
OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "The unemployment rate is down to 7.7 percent with 146,000 added jobs in November … which is much better than expected but hardly a clear marker … The economy still faces fierce headwinds – tightening austerity at the federal level, recession in Europe, slower growth in India and China. There is no sign of the robust levels of growth that would produce the jobs we need for the more than 20 million people in need of full-time work. Mass, long-term unemployment is continuing. That means stagnant or falling wages, spreading misery, jobless young people, inadequate demand and a recovery that will continue to falter, if it continues at all. The high drama Washington fiscal cliff negotiations get it wrong. You can’t fix the debt, as the lavishly funded CEO lobby suggests, by focusing on deficits. You have to fix the economy."
Tea Party Over. DeMint Quits
DeMint's departure sign of Tea Party decline. LAT: " Some of the movement's most fiery members lost reelection bids last month … Earlier this month, the House GOP leadership unceremoniously removed three conservatives from key committee assignments. And polls have shown declining support for the movement. A wide survey in DeMint's very conservative home state, released this week, found that more South Carolinians now disapprove of the tea party movement than approve of it."
Conservative group wants to dump Boehner as Speaker. National Journal: "'With Boehner basically out there promoting a tax hike and removing conservatives from key committees, these are not good precedents for the next two years,' [said American Majority's] Ned Ryun … He says his group is looking at a list of about 100 conservatives whom they will try to persuade to step up, go public with their disappointment in Boehner …"
Republicans Boxed In On Debt Limit
McConnell filibusters own bill to allow the President to raise debt limit. NYT: "Mr. McConnell, believing that some Democrats would vote against the president’s proposal, moved Thursday to put it on the Senate floor for a quick vote. If it could not muster a majority, Republicans were ready to say that Mr. Obama could not even unify his own party. But Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, called Mr. McConnell’s bluff. He said he would put the debt-ceiling proposal to a vote if Mr. McConnell would let it pass with a simple majority, rather than a filibuster-proof 60 votes. Seeing he had overplayed his hand, Mr. McConnell objected."
Republican debt limit arguments make no sense. TPM: "'By demanding the power to raise the debt limit whenever he wants by as much as he wants, [President Obama] showed what he’s really after is assuming unprecedented power to spend taxpayer dollars without any limit,' McConnell argued on the Senate floor. This sounds awfully sinister. But it’s a knowing misreading of the Constitution, which provides Congress and only Congress the power to spend money."
Business leaders side with President, oppose taking economy hostage with debt limit threats. W. Post: "Obama is trying to marshal influential business leaders — who are scared of repeating last year’s economy-rattling debate over the debt ceiling — in an effort to pressure Congress to address the debt ceiling now. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that he expects the business community’s objections to a debt-ceiling showdown to intensify if no agreement is reached with Congress."
President, Speaker Go One-On-One
President and Speaker begin one-on-one talks. NYT: "All sides, even the parties excluded, say clearing the negotiating room improves the chance of success [as it] minimizes the number of people who need to say yes to an initial agreement … The arrangement has led to bipartisan grumbling. Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont … said on Thursday that Senate Democrats needed to find a way to make themselves more relevant to the search for a resolution to the fiscal standoff. Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, has gone to the Senate floor repeatedly to denounce 'secret' deficit talks."
House Dem unity on discharge petition to extend Bush tax cuts for middle class only. The Hill: "Fifteen of the 19 centrist Democrats who joined the GOP in August to kill a Senate-passed proposal extending the Bush-era tax rates only on income below $250,000 have now endorsed a discharge petition pressing Republican leaders to bring that very bill back to the House floor this month."
Obama approval jumps in AP poll, strengthening his leverage: "Obama’s approval rating stands at 57 percent, the highest since May 2011, when U.S. Navy SEALs killed the terror leader, and up 5 percentage points from before the election. And 42 percent say the country is on the right track, up from 35 percent in January 2009. A majority think it’s likely that the president will be able to improve the economy in his second term."
NYT's Paul Krugman spotlights the "forgotten millions" of unemployed overlooked in the deficit talks: "…there is almost no organized pressure to deal with the terrible thing that is actually happening right now — namely, mass unemployment. … The panic over the fiscal cliff has been revelatory. It shows that even the deficit scolds are closet Keynesians. That is, they believe that right now spending cuts and tax hikes would destroy jobs; it’s impossible to make that claim while denying that temporary spending increases and tax cuts would create jobs …"
Breakfast Sides
Michigan legislature advances anti-union bill, governor shifts and signals approval. NYT: "Political analysts in Michigan said there might be a practical reason for the sudden rush. While Republicans will continue to control both legislative chambers, their control of the House will shrink to an eight-vote majority in January when newly elected legislators take office, compared with an 18-vote majority now."
Apple shifts some manufacturing to US. AP: "Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company will move production of one of its existing lines of Mac computers from China to the United States next year. Industry watchers said the announcement is both a cunning public-relations move and a harbinger of more manufacturing jobs moving back to the U.S. as wages rise in China."
NJ Gov. Christie refuses to accept ObamaCare state-based exchange. The Hill: "Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) vetoed a bill Thursday that would have started establishing a state health insurance exchange, meaning New Jersey will default to a federal one … The decision will be welcomed by conservatives who blamed Christie for praising Obama in Sandy's aftermath…"
ObamaCare has already saved consumers $1.5B. HuffPost: "Health insurance companies issued $1.1 billion in rebates and cut administrative costs and profit by $350 million because of the rules…"
Stopgap strategy proposed to slow global warming without international treaty, in NYT oped by Durwood J. Zaelke and Veerabhadran Ramanathan: "We can slow this warming quickly by cutting emissions of four other climate pollutants: black carbon, a component of soot; methane, the main component of natural gas; lower-level ozone, a main ingredient of urban smog; and hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are used as coolants. They account for as much as 40 percent of current warming. Unlike carbon dioxide, these pollutants are short-lived in the atmosphere. If we stop emitting them, they will disappear in a matter of weeks to a few decades. We have technologies to do this, and, in many cases, laws and institutions to support these cuts. Moreover, President Obama has the executive authority to move ahead aggressively on these pollutants…"
