Obama To Stump For Jobs

President to drive economic agenda this week. CNN: "Obama will return to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois on Wednesday to kick off a series of speeches about his economic plan ... The president will also visit Warrensburg, Missouri, on Wednesday and travel to Jacksonville, Florida, the following day ... the road show will wrap up before Washington faces another debt ceiling deadline around the end of September. Wednesday’s speech will also include mention of the economic case for immigration reform..."

NYT adds: "Mr. Obama will offer policy proposals — both new and familiar — on health care, housing, the affordability of higher education and how to create more manufacturing jobs."

New research on what affects ability to rise out of poverty. NYT: "The study — based on millions of anonymous earnings records and being released this week by a team of top academic economists — is the first with enough data to compare upward mobility across metropolitan areas. These comparisons provide some of the most powerful evidence so far about the factors that seem to drive people’s chances of rising beyond the station of their birth, including education, family structure and the economic layout of metropolitan areas ... Especially intriguing is the fact that children who moved at a young age from a low-mobility area to a high-mobility area did almost as well as those who spent their entire childhoods in a higher-mobility area. But children who moved as teenagers did less well."

14 GOP congresspeople take farm subsidies, cut food stamps. Politico: "Fourteen GOP lawmakers have received a total of $7.2 million in farm subsidies, according to the available data since 2004, but all voted for an amendment that would have decreased the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program according to a report Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) is releasing Monday ... Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) has received a total of $3.5 million in farm subsidies, according to numbers tracked by the lobbying firm Environmental Working Group. The company points out that according to his congressional filings, his net worth is between $204,995 and $1.1 million. And 22 percent of the residents of Fincher’s home county receive food stamps."

Detroit vs. Pensions

Public pensions targeted in Detroit bankruptcy. NYT: "Kevyn D. Orr, the city’s emergency manager, has called for 'significant cuts' to the pensions of current retirees. His plan is being fought vigorously by unions that point out that pensions are protected by Michigan’s Constitution ... Many retirees see the plan to cut their pensions as a betrayal, saying that they kept their end of a deal but that the city is now reneging. Retired city workers, police officers and 911 operators said in interviews that the promise of reliable retirement income had helped draw them to work for the City of Detroit in the first place, even if they sometimes had to accept smaller salaries or work nights or weekends ... the average pension benefit in Detroit is not especially high. The average annual payment is about $19,000 ... And it is about $30,000 for retired police officers and firefighters, who do not get Social Security benefits."

Detroit is not Greece, says NYT's Paul Krugman: "Are Detroit’s woes the leading edge of a national public pensions crisis? No. State and local pensions are indeed underfunded ... But many governments are taking steps to address the shortfall. These steps aren’t yet sufficient; the Boston College estimates suggest that overall pension contributions this year will be about $25 billion less than they should be. But in a $16 trillion economy, that’s just not a big deal — and even if you make more pessimistic assumptions, as some but not all accountants say you should, it still isn’t a big deal. So was Detroit just uniquely irresponsible? Again, no. Detroit does seem to have had especially bad governance, but for the most part the city was just an innocent victim of market forces. What? Market forces have victims? Of course they do..."

Student Loan Vote This Week

Bill to tie student loan rates to market expected to clear Senate this week. The Hill: "A final agreement could make its way quickly to President Obama’s desk for a signature, as Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has noted its similarities to the House proposal."

Fight won't end for low rates. Politico: "Some liberals remain holdouts: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) have already said they’ll vote no. And student groups and their allies won’t acquiesce quietly if interest rates increase with the market. Expect the drama to return during Higher Education Act reauthorization if interest rates are rising by then. Two signs that student advocates and some Senate Democrats are already setting the stage: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) requested a GAO study of loan program costs that could be fodder for a new push to lower rates."

Click here to tell the Senate Stop The Senate Student Loan Misdeal.

Breakfast Sides

"Boehner avoids taking position on pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants" reports W. Post: "If I come out and say, ‘I’m for this and I’m for that,’ all I’m doing is making my job harder."

Conservatives trying to undo Arizona's Medicaid expansion. NYT: "Volunteers have eight more weeks to finish the job of collecting signatures to put the Medicaid expansion on the ballot ... despite the fact that voters agreed, in 1996 and in 2000, to extend Medicaid coverage to childless adults ..."