Europe (Not) Giving Up Austerity

French declare end to "austerity dogma." Reuters: "The European Commission on Friday gave France two more years to meet its budget deficit target because of the country's poor economic outlook within the recession-hit euro zone. 'This is decisive, it's a turn in the history of the European project since the start of the euro,' Moscovici told French radio Europe 1 in an interview. 'We have witnessed the ending of a certain form of financial austerity and the end of the austerity dogma.'"

Europe is only pretending to give up austerity, warns FT's Wolfgang Münchau: "A good example of the new PR-based anti-austerity strategy came in speeches last week by Enrico Letta, Italy’s new prime minister. He railed against austerity, but at the same time emphasised his commitments to Italy’s fiscal targets, as if the two were somehow unrelated ... If the eurozone were serious about a U-turn on austerity, the only effective way to accomplish this would be for the creditor countries to expand their fiscal positions during the recession. The opposite is happening."

Britain's austerity plan makes even less sense than before, finds Paul Krugman: "...even if you believe that markets would be unnerved by some relaxation of short-term fiscal austerity ... how is this spike in long-term rates supposed to happen? ... Osborne’s case for keeping on the path of harsh austerity isn’t just empirically implausible, it appears to be a complete conceptual muddle; they just haven’t thought this thing through."

Can Immigration Reform Win Supermajority?

Immigration political strategy hinges on Senate supermajority. Politico: "...bringing along many of these staunchly conservative targets will require almost flawless execution by the Gang of Eight, along with lots of political momentum, a few more Democratic concessions and, perhaps above all else, the continued backing of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ... The legislative strategy for passing a bill is based largely on the theory that an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in the Senate is essential to getting it through the Republican-controlled House."

Conservative backlash lurks. AP: "Opponents acknowledge that supporters started out better organized and mobilized than last time around ... But critics also have important grass-roots influence, including from talk radio hosts who were instrumental in defeating the bill in 2007, and opponents argue that as the public absorbs the content of the legislation, the tide will turn against it."

Silicon Valley unhappy with immigration compromise, reports Politico: "The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 offers the promise of more temporary visas and green cards to tech companies that say they’re starved for engineering talent. But new restrictions on the programs, designed to ensure companies make an effort to hire American workers first, have the tech industry feverishly working to change provisions of the legislation."

Climate Agenda Still Kicking

NY Mag's Jonathan Chait argues Obama's green legacy depends on forthcoming power plant regs, not Keystone: "...a few weeks after last year’s election, the Natural Resources Defense Council published a plan for the EPA to regulate existing power plants in a way that was neither ineffectual nor draconian. The proposal would set state-by-state limits on emissions. It sounds simple, but this was a conceptual breakthrough. Much like a cap-and-trade bill, it would allow market signals to indicate the most efficient ways for states to hit their targets—instead of shutting coal plants down, some utilities might pay consumers to weatherize their homes, while others might switch some of their generators over to cleaner fuels ... The NRDC calculates its plan would reduce our reliance on coal by about a quarter and national carbon emissions by 10 percent ... This is the last best chance to deal with global warming in the Obama era ...The struggle will be lengthy, waged largely behind closed doors, and its outcome won’t be known until the Obama presidency is nearly over."

Former GOP congressman building carbon tax coalition. The Hill: "[Former Rep. Bob[ Inglis is logging heavy miles on the campus and editorial board circuit to promote his 'revenue-neutral' plan. He sees wooing college kids — especially conservative students — and op-ed writers as one part of a larger plan. By his reckoning, building a base of support to make a tax less radioactive to GOP lawmakers, and giving them cover at home, will merge with two other forces to give a carbon tax new life in the last two years of Obama’s term."

Breakfast Sides

NYT assesses the breadth of sequester pain: "The $85 billion in federal budget cuts known as sequestration are beginning to be felt far from the nation’s capital, like at a Head Start program in Pejepscot, Me., that is being closed and a cancer center in Birmingham, Ala., that is looking at layoffs. Kidney patients are losing their free transportation to dialysis centers in Stark County, Ohio, and flood gauges are being shut down on the Red River in North Dakota. Some programs are coping, some are struggling and others appear to be out of luck."

Obama renews push for investment in jobs and expanded preschool. The Hill: "'We're going to start doing these day trips that highlight these three questions,' a White House official told reporters on Sunday: 'How do we make America a magnet for jobs, how do we make sure workers have the needed skills to compete, and how do we make sure an honest day's work leads to a decent living?'"

NY plans more litigation against banks to protect homeowners. Bloomberg: "In October, Schneiderman sued JPMorgan Chase & Co., alleging that Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan took over in 2008, deceived mortgage-bond investors about defective loans backing securities they bought, leading to 'monumental losses.' He said the case would be a model for future actions against banks that issued mortgage bonds during the real estate boom. He sued Credit Suisse Group AG on similar grounds the next month."