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: Four Republican Medicare Secrets … and a $600 Billion Funeral
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "The Republicans are demanding $600 billion in Medicare cuts over the next ten years. Their only concrete proposal is to deny Medicare coverage to Americans during what is now their first two years of eligibility, at ages 65 and 66. But their official offer isn’t even that specific. It just throws out that figure: $600 billion. But you can’t get there from here. At least you can’t do it their way – not without causing enormous hardship, and not without costing the public twice as much from other sources as would be saved in government spending. In fact, there are only two paths to $600 billion in savings. One’s macabre and morbid,and is offered here only to make as a Swiftian “modest proposal.” The other would take a chunk out of corporate profits. Which path do you think the GOP would prefer? This entire Medicare debate’s being held under false pretenses. Here are four multibillion-dollar Medicare secrets they don’t want you to know – along with that funereal 'modest proposal.'"
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid Teeter on "Fiscal Cliff"
Obama and Boehner Talk Deficits at the White House [NY Times]: "With just three weeks left for lawmakers to avert a fiscal crisis, President Obama and Speaker John A. Boehner met privately at the White House on Sunday as a top Republican senator suggested that his party should perhaps accede to Mr. Obama’s demand to raise the top tax rates so that the attention can shift to making serious cuts in benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid. … The latest meeting gave rise to renewed optimism that a deal could be reached before the end of the month. … Any optimism is a step forward from Friday, when Mr. Boehner told reporters that he did not have a progress report because there was 'no progress to report.'"
The Daily Beast's Paul Begala warns against Washington's euphemistic deceptions: "I tried to persuade Bill Clinton to mock one of today’s more egregious euphemisms—the Republicans’ use of words like “fix” to describe what they want to do to Medicare—as he prepared his speech to the Democratic National Convention in September. Here’s the line I pitched him: 'Every time I hear Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan say they want to ‘fix’ Medicare, it reminds me of when that veterinarian said he wanted to ‘fix’ my old dog Buddy. But it was not a fix. It was a cut, and there’s a difference.' Our former president, you may be comforted to know, thought it best not to include in one of the most important speeches of the election a dog-castration joke. But the point I was trying to make remains important: beware of euphemisms—they mask mischief. Republicans don’t want to 'fix' Medicare or 'reform' Medicare. And Lord knows they don’t want to 'modernize' it or—as the deeply disingenuous Paul Ryan says—'protect and strengthen Medicare.' No, they want to end it."
Republicans Want To Move Beyond Tax Rate Fight [Huffington Post]: "Conservatives have no choice but to give into White House demands on higher tax rates for the wealthy, if the fiscal debate is to move to their main goal, overhauling big government benefits programs, several Republicans said on Sunday. 'There is a growing group of folks who are … realizing that we don't have a lot of cards as it relates to the tax issue before yearend,' Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said on the 'Fox News Sunday' program."
OurFuture.org's Dave Johnson urges action to defend Medicare: "Cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security hurt PEOPLE. Raising tax rates on the wealthy is just money. They do not equate, do not trade them. Please join Monday’s big, national event and add your voice. We voted to end tax cuts for the wealthy in November. We voted not to cut Medicare and Social Security for We, the People. Monday, December 10th is International Human Rights Day, and all across the country, workers, seniors and supporters will be standing up for their rights at a series of vigils and actions to say NO to cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and NO to extending tax cuts for the richest 2%."
Michigan Labor Fight
Michigan unions to protest "right-to-work" measures this week [Reuters]: "Union members and others opposed to Michigan becoming a "right-to-work" state plan major protests in the state capital this week to try to stop Republicans from restricting labor unions in the cradle of the unionized U.S. auto industry. Right-to-work opponents will begin to converge on Lansing on Monday, organizers said, and they expect thousands at the rally on Tuesday when the state legislature reconvenes. With Republicans in control of the legislature and the governor committed to sign the laws, Michigan could become the 24th right-to-work state by the middle of the week, dealing a stunning blow to the power of organized labor in the United States."
Obama Expected To Weigh In On Michigan Right-To-Work Battle In Detroit Speech [Huffington Post]: "When President Barack Obama arrives in Michigan on Monday to sell his vision for addressing the so-called fiscal cliff, he will be stepping into a state that is currently witnessing a massive battle between its governor and labor community. And according to union officials, Obama will weigh in on the controversy and speak out against 'right-to-work' laws. Michigan is set to become the 24th right-to-work state, with Gov. Rick Snyder (R) poised to sign the controversial bill on Tuesday after it was fast-tracked by the GOP-controlled legislature. Thousands of union supporters protested at the state capitol in Lansing last week, and more protests are expected in the coming days."
Guesting at Political Animal, Adele Stan sees the hand of the Koch brothers in Michigan's labor fight: "Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, has always tried to present himself as a breed apart from Kochbot governors of Wisconsin and Ohio, even as he grabbed for power with an "emergency manager" law that allowed him to appoint operatives to run failing cities and break labor agreements with public employees in those towns. … But last week, as David Koch presumably sat stewing in the pot of wholesale defeats, Snyder had a sudden change of heart, promising to sign a bill that was rammed through both houses of a lame-duck legislature last week, a bill that would do just that, conveniently drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, and organization funded by Koch and his brother, Charles. Americans For Prosperity, the astroturf group founded by the Kochs, led the charge, as state police maced union protesters and locked them out of the state capitol building."
Jobs, Joblessness, and Robots
Jobless Benefits Should Be Included In Fiscal Cliff Deal, Democrats Say [Huffington Post]: "Hovering in the background of the "fiscal cliff" debate is the prospect of 2 million people losing their unemployment benefits four days after Christmas. 'This is the real cliff,' said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. He's been leading the effort to include another extension of benefits for the long-term unemployed in any deal to avert looming tax increases and massive spending cuts in January. 'Many of these people are struggling to pay mortgages, to provide education for their children,' Reed said this past week as President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, rejected each other's opening offers for a deficit deal."
Jack Welch Casts Doubt On Jobs Report Again [Huffington Post]: "Jack Welch strongly implied on Twitter Friday that the September and October jobs reports were overly optimistic to help President Barack Obama get reelected… A number of prominent conservatives, including Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), echoed his claim, while many observers on Twitter mocked him. Welch later denied referencing the White House. The November jobs report, which was released on Friday -- the first jobs report since the election -- had a lot of statistical noise because of Hurricane Sandy, according to some economists and economics journalists."
Paul Krugman points to robots as one reason profits are rising at workers' expense: "Increasingly, profits have been rising at the expense of workers in general, including workers with the skills that were supposed to lead to success in today’s economy. Why is this happening? As best as I can tell, there are two plausible explanations, both of which could be true to some extent. One is that technology has taken a turn that places labor at a disadvantage; the other is that we’re looking at the effects of a sharp increase in monopoly power. Think of these two stories as emphasizing robots on one side, robber barons on the other."
"Too Big To Fail" Plan Revealed
US and UK unveil failing banks plan [Financial Times]: "US and UK regulators will unveil the first cross-border plans to deal with failing global banks on Monday, outlining proposals to force shareholders and creditors on both sides of the Atlantic to take losses and to ensure sufficient capital exists in the banks’ headquarters to protect taxpayers. Writing in the Financial Times, Martin Gruenberg, chairman of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England, say this represents the first concrete steps to end the “too big to fail” problem of large international banks."
BBC's John Preston points out the cost of he US/UK plan to make big banks safe: "[I]f investors and creditors regard the proposals as credible, if banks are no longer considered too big to fail, the costs for banks of raising money would rise: as you will have deduced, the risks of investing in and lending to banks increases in proportion to the perceived reduction in the implicit insurance against failure they receive from the state. What happens when banks find it more expensive to borrow or to issue equity capital? They have to make bigger returns to generate a profit. And, everything else being equal (as they say), that means they would feel obliged to charge their customers rather more for loans and for keeping money safe (cough)."
Breakfast Sides
Daily Kos' Chris Bowers wants to draft Stephen Colbert for the U.S. Senate:: "Here are three reasons why Stephen Colbert should be the next U.S. senator from South Carolina: He's Stephen Colbert. He's not Jim DeMint. He's also not the barbeque chain owner that Gov. Haley is apparently considering. Need any other reasons? I didn't think so."
Nikki Haley dashes Colbert’s Senate dreams [Salon]: "In a Facebook post, Haley, addressed the calls for Colbert to replace Sen. Jim DeMint, who announced last week that he was leaving his seat in January to take a job as chair of the Heritage Foundation. Haley, who must appoint DeMint’s successor until a special election can be held in 2014, wrote in the post: 'Stephen, thank you for your interest in South Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat and for the thousands of tweets you and your fans sent me. But you forget one thing, my friend. You didn’t know our state drink. Big, big mistake.' Haley was referring to her April appearance on The Colbert Report, when Stephen didn’t know that milk was the state’s official drink. Haley, for her part, was stumped by Colbert’s question about the state amphibian – the spotted salamander."
Matt Taibbi decodes the meaning of Jim DeMint's departure from the Sentate: "But while it's hard to stay focused on the fiscal cliff, the resignation of leading Tea Party pol Jim DeMint is (to me anyway) a more compelling development. Obviously, one story led to the other. The Tea Party is about purity, and DeMint doesn't want to sully himself with the congress's probably-inevitable decision to raise taxes to avoid this budget collapse. So his highly-symbolic resignation is his wing of the party's Picking-Up-The-Ball-And-Going-Home moment. The message of the DeMint move is simple: We tried to work within the system, but the system turned out to be dirty, so we are leaving the system."
New Gingrich says that if Hillary Clinton runs in 2016, the GOP "is incapable of competing": "Republicans right now are not much of a match for Hillary Clinton should she decide to run for president in 2016, Newt Gingrich said. 'Every Republican should focused on what we just talked about,' Gingrich told David Gregory on Meet the Press. 'I mean, if their competitor in ’16 ia going to be Hillary Clinton, supported by Bill Clinton, and presumably a still relatively popular President Barack Obama, trying to win that will be truly the Superbowl. And the Republican party today is incapable of competing at that level.'"
