Sequester Nation: 1 Month In
Republicans believe they are winning the sequester battle, reports Politico: "There’s been no sudden shock to the system. In fact, the economy seems on the mend, with housing starts higher than before the Great Recession. And if this drip-by-drip rollout continues, GOP activists say they'll keep the political high ground as the cuts slowly sink into the public consciousness..."
But Dems says the battle is not over: "[Dems are] seizing now on the line they think can beat the Republicans: law and order ... Federal prison union officials pointed to past budget cuts and continued staffing shortages — and what’s ahead from sequestration — after a federal prison inmate stabbed a guard to death last month in Canaan, Pa ... Warnings are also growing that the spending cuts will open the floodgates for more illicit drugs reaching U.S. soil. "
"Deficit scolds" switching arguments notes NYT's Paul Krugman: "Pundits who spent years trying to foster a sense of panic over the deficit have begun writing pieces lamenting the likelihood that there won’t be a crisis, after all ... So they have a new line: We must bring down the deficit right away because it’s 'generational warfare,' imposing a crippling burden on the next generation. What’s wrong with this argument? For one thing, it involves a fundamental misunderstanding of what debt does to the economy."
Corporations deeply divided over tax reform. WSJ: "High-tech, pharmaceutical and consumer-products companies, for instance, are eager to change the way overseas profits are taxed. Big domestic retailers, banks and telecommunications firms, in contrast, are more eager to see the corporate-tax rate come down ... firms that favor a dramatically lower rate often don't want a portion of that revenue going to pay for a [overseas] territorial system ... then there are the U.S. businesses ... that largely avoid the corporate tax. They pay tax on their profits through their owners' returns at individual income rates ... They worry they could become the cash cow that finances a tax rewrite for traditional corporations."
"Postal Service to close more than 50 mail-processing centers," reports W. Post, "accelerating a consolidation plan": "Some of the Postal Service’s financial difficulties are due to a 2006 congressional mandate that requires the agency to pre-fund 75 years worth of retiree benefits within a decade. That statute cost the post office about $1.4 billion during the last quarter alone, according to the agency’s financial report. Postal Service officials have urged Congress to end the mandate and enact legislation to overhaul the agency."
Welfare assistance to families with children declines in purchasing power, says CBPP: "Cash assistance benefits for the nation’s poorest families with children fell again in purchasing power in 2012 and are now at least 20 percent below their 1996 levels in 37 states, after adjusting for inflation ... There is not a single state in the nation in which the TANF benefit level for a family of three with no other cash income is at least equal to the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment."
Major Clean Gas Rule
EPA to enact "sweeping" rule on cleaner gasoline. W. Post: "The proposed standards ... would reduce the amount of sulfur in U.S. gasoline by two-thirds and impose fleet-wide pollution limits on new vehicles by 2017 ... a political blow to the oil and gas industry, which had mobilized dozens of lawmakers in recent days to lobby the White House for a one-year delay."
GOP outlines fossil fuel agenda for the year. W. Post: "[Republicans] said their top priorities included immediate approval of the Keystone XL pipeline extension; increasing oil and gas drilling on federal lands; reforming federal rules to make it easier to export oil and gas; and forcing federal agencies to take the full costs of their actions into account when adopting regulations."
Breakfast Sides
Immigration reform still hung up on guest-worker rules. W. Post: "...the biggest sticking point has been wages. The chamber wants to pay the foreign workers based on a government calculation of the prevailing wages of American workers — based on the minimum wage and on regional and industry norms. Unions are holding out for a higher pay scale based on median wages for each industry."
NYC to require paid sick leave, accelerating national trend. Bloomberg: "New York City plans to require all employers with 20 or more workers to give employees paid time off when they get sick, under a compromise agreement reached last night. The mandate will take effect on April 1, 2014, and will extend to include businesses with 15 or more employees a year later ... A similar measure has won approval in Portland, Oregon, while others are pending in Massachusetts, Vermont andWashington state."
