MORNING MESSAGE: The Disempowerment Of Public School Parents
OurFuture.org's Jeff Bryant: "The parent trigger has been relentlessly marketed to parents and policy makers as an 'empowerment' that enables parents to conduct a petition campaign in their community to fire their school’s staff and change its governance. This has all the rhetoric of democratic activism – a majority of the parents deciding 'what’s best' for the education of their children. But what are the results? So far, the trigger has only been carried out to its fullest extent in one school: Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, California. A new video 'Parent Triggers: Another Reform Misfires,' released by the Education Opportunity Network, recently looked at the results of the parent trigger in Adelanto and found that rather then uniting parents in doing what’s best for children, the parent trigger brought deception, division, and disruption to the community ... rather than giving parents more control of the trajectory of their children, these policies are leaving more parents overwhelmed and powerless."
New Ryan Budget, Now With More Austerity
Ryan unveils right-wing austerity budget. AP: "House Republicans are sticking to their guns on the federal budget, promising to try to repeal so-called Obamacare, cut domestic programs from Medicaid to college grants and require future Medicare patients to bear more of the program's cost ... Ryan has resurrected a controversial Medicare proposal that replaces traditional Medicare for those currently under 55 with a government subsidy to buy health insurance on the open market. Critics of the plan say the subsidies won't grow with inflation fast enough and would shove thousands of dollars in higher premiums onto seniors before very long."
"Paul Ryan’s make-believe budget" described by W. Post Eugene Robinson: "... it appears to depend on at least one ridiculous assumption and two glaring contradictions ... Ryan suggested Sunday that once Obamacare is repealed, this money can be plowed back into Medicare. Which, as you recall, will never happen. While Ryan’s new budget assumes that Obamacare goes away, it also assumes that the tax increase on high earners approved in the 'fiscal cliff' deal remains in place. 'That’s current law,' he said, as if Obamacare were not."
Senate Dems ready to counter with own budget. W. Post: "Senate Democrats are drafting a federal budget blueprint that would raise nearly $1 trillion in new taxes over the next decade and slice roughly $1 trillion more from projected spending ... Aides said Murray will not offer explicit policies for raising new revenue or trimming expensive health programs, but will instead leave those details to other committees, including the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee"
Bipartisan Senate bill to keep government open seeks to avoid fight with House. W. Post: "[Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski] hoped to include language in the measure that would give agency heads broad new authority to shift money from program to program to help manage the impact of the sequester. However, a Democratic aide said bipartisan negotiators agreed over the weekend to drop that provision ... The Senate will also include new spending priorities for agriculture, commerce, justice and science, as well as homeland security — all areas negotiated in advance with Republicans in the House and Senate. And the Senate will propose $100 million in new funding for Head Start and the National Institutes of Health, as well as $200 million in spending on transportation."
Conservatives still tout spending in their home districts. Time: "'Simpson Secures Wildfire Funding in House Budget Bill,' [Rep. Mike Simpson's] office announced last week in a press release, trumpeting Simpson’s 'instrumental' role in adding $570 million in additional funds for wildfire suppression in a bill that passed the House Wednesday ... [Speaker Boehner] joined a bipartisan group of Senators and Congressman to insert $181 million in funding the Army does not want for an upgrade program at the Abrams Tank manufacturing plant in Lima, Ohio ..."
Grand Filibuster?
Sen. Sanders suggests he may filibuster any "grand bargain." W. Post: "'It’s more than just the filibuster,' he said. 'That’s a one day tactic. This is about rallying the American people and winning.' He predicted liberals in the Senate (Jeff Merkley, Sherrod Brown, and Elizabeth Warren come to mind) would likely band together to adopt a range of tactics to block such a grand bargain. 'Filibustering may be part of it,' he said."
"New CBO Estimates Show How Shifting to Chained CPI Would Harm Poorly Compensated Workers" reports CEPR's Shawn Fremstad: "... as the CBO estimate shows, the cuts to the [Earned Income Tax Credit] and other refundable tax credits are $300 million in 2015, but grow to $3.7 billion in 2023."
Obama to visit Congress for three days straight. The Hill: "He will spend some time discussing the need to cut the budget deficit at the meetings beginning with [Senate] Democrats on Tuesday, but will also touch on gun control, immigration reform and even the slow pace of judicial nominations ... the president will switch to House Republicans on Wednesday and then to Senate Republicans and House Democrats in separate meetings on Thursday. Officials said while his message to all four groups will be similar, it will also be tailored to each caucus."
Bipartisan Backlash Against Big Banks
Legislation brewing in Senate to take on big banks. Politico: "[Sen. Sherrod] Brown is preparing to introduce a bill with Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) that would seek in various ways to crack down on big banks, and he says at least 10 Republicans have expressed interest in signing on ... In his first appearance as a new member of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) questioned regulators last month about reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act ... [But there] is little chance, at the moment, that Congress will enact legislation to break up big banks or greatly limit their size."
"When do we crack down on Wall Street" asks Dean Baker: "...we should not assume that just because the Justice Department says it is concerned about financial instability that this is the real reason that they are not prosecuting a big bank. There is precedent for being less than honest about such issues ... [But if it] is true then it makes the case for breaking up the big banks even more of a slam dunk since it takes the logic of too big to fail one step further."
More Nominees In GOP Crossfire
Dems try to break filibuster for CFPB's Richard Cordray. TPM: "[Democrats] will attempt to marshal public and industry opinion to pry a handful of Republicans away from their filibuster commitment. Ahead of the debate, Americans for Financial Reform and other CFPB supporters are ratcheting up pressure on the Senate to confirm Cordray. But if Republicans can’t be persuaded, Democrats will face a choice. They’ll either have to change the Senate’s filibuster rules or accept the fact that CFPB will automatically shed some of its hard-won powers the moment it loses its director."
"Senators refuse to negotiate" on Cordray. Bloomberg: "The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington overturned the validity of three National Labor Relations Board recess appointments made at the same time as Cordray’s, making him vulnerable to a similar legal challenge ... The two parties are 'deadlocked until a court rules on Cordray,' said Mark Calabria, a former Senate Republican staffer..."
Republicans may try to block Obama's Labor Sec pick. Mother Jones' Adam Serwer: "... since [Thomas] Perez took the helm [of the Justice Dept civil rights division], the division has blocked partisan voting schemes, cracked down on police brutality, protected gay and lesbian students from harassment, sued anti-immigrant Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling, stood up against Islamophobia, and forced the two largest fair-housing settlements in history from banks that discriminated against minority homeowners ... now that conservatives are working hard to roll back civil-rights-era legislation, Perez's unapologetic civil rights advocacy stands out and makes him a target for the right. "
