House To Take Step Toward Shutdown Today
House expected today to pass bill tying Obamacare repeal to keeping government open. The Hill: "It cleared a test vote in the House on Thursday, 230-192, setting up a final vote for Friday. Once approved by the House, the measure will move to the Senate, where Democratic leaders have vowed to restore funding to ObamaCare and could try to increase spending levels to soften the blow of sequestration."
After internal GOP friction, Senate filibuster attempt of bill to keep government open possible. AP: "One day after conceding that the Democratic-controlled Senate probably would prevail on the last part, Sen. Ted Cruz still vowed to do 'everything and anything possible to defund Obamacare.' That includes a possible filibuster of legislation to prevent a partial government shutdown, added the Texas Republican."
Republican debt limit demands don't involve reducing debt. W. Post: "Republicans have long vowed to use the threat of default to force Democrats to confront the soaring cost of caring for an aging population ... Instead, Cantor (R-Va.) revealed more limited ambitions: Delay the implementation of President Obama’s health-care law for a year. Promote tax reform. Build the Keystone XL oil pipeline."
Obama will respond in KC speech. The Hill: "President Obama will travel to a Ford truck plant in Kansas City, Mo. on Friday as the White House looks to keep pressure on congressional Republicans with just 10 days remaining before a potential government shutdown. A White House official said the trip is intended to show that Republicans are 'playing politics with the economy' while the president is focused on growing the middle class."
It's not Obama's fault, reminds NYT's Paul Krugman: "Some pundits insist, even now, that this is somehow Mr. Obama’s fault. Why can’t he sit down with Mr. Boehner the way Ronald Reagan used to sit down with Tip O’Neill? But O’Neill didn’t lead a party whose base demanded that he shut down the government unless Reagan revoked his tax cuts, and O’Neill didn’t face a caucus prepared to depose him as speaker at the first hint of compromise."
15 GOPers defect as House passes cruel food stamp cuts. NYT: "The bill, written under the direction of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, would cut $40 billion from the food stamp program over the next 10 years. It would also require adults between 18 and 50 without minor children to find a job or to enroll in a work-training program in order to receive benefits. It would also limit the time those recipients could get benefits to three months ... left unchanged, the number of food stamp recipients would decline by about 14 million people — or 30 percent — over the next 10 years as the economy improves. A Census Bureau report released on Tuesday found that the program had kept about four million people above the poverty level and had prevented millions more from sinking further into poverty."
EPA Unveils Carbon Cap On New Power Plants
EPA releases carbon cap rule on new power plants today. AP: "...to meet the standard, new coal-fired power plants would need to install expensive technology to capture carbon dioxide and bury it underground. No coal-fired power plant has done that yet, in large part because of the cost. And those plants that the EPA points to as potential models, such as a coal plant being built in Kemper County, Miss., by Southern Co., have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants and tax credits."
Energy Dept will revamp clean energy loan program to help coal adapt. NYT: "Officials say the federal subsidies are necessary to support the development of technologies that are too complex, unproven and expensive for investors and private companies to pursue on their own, assertions that have already stirred criticism from opponents who see the program as too risky and a misuse of taxpayer money ..."
UN considering shortcut to cutting global carbon emissions. Bloomberg: "The idea is to bypass log-jammed United Nations climate treaty talks and hand responsibility for reducing refrigerants called hydrofluorocarbons to the Montreal Protocol, an instrument designed to protect the ozone layer ... The Montreal deal, touted as the most successful environmental treaty, was rolled out in 1987 to eliminate the use of chloroflorocarbons ... An amendment to the treaty requires two thirds of signing parties in attendance at a vote to win approval, a proportion that advocates say is achievable given its mechanism of a gradual phase-out that has already gathered significant support from industry."
Breakfast Sides
Yellen not a dove on inflation, reports Bloomberg: "Inflation expectations in the U.S. are rising in financial markets ... [But her] economic framework and communications strategy show little tolerance for higher prices. She led a subcommittee of the Federal Open Market Committee that produced an explicit inflation target of 2 percent, a topic the panel debated for more than a decade. Her policy approach uses models and rules that view stable prices as a necessary condition to try to move the economy toward full employment while holding interest rates near zero."
JPMorgan Chase fined in London Whale affair. NYT: "It’s an outcome that has vexed the public since the financial crisis of 2008. The government says there is wrongdoing at a large bank and makes it pay a fine. But senior executives who seemed to play a role in the missteps are not singled out for individual punishment. It happened again on Thursday, when regulators in the United States and Britain hit JPMorgan Chase with nearly $1 billion in fines for the bank’s failure to properly handle a trading debacle last year."
Detroit residents plead with judge to protect pensions. NYT: "Opponents of the bankruptcy, led by the city’s public employee unions, have argued that the filing in July violated Michigan’s Constitution, which expressly protects pension rights for workers. They also assert that the state-appointed emergency manager, Kevyn D. Orr, did not bargain fairly ... before recommending bankruptcy ... Judge Rhodes has so far reserved decision on the pension and bargaining issues until formal eligibility hearings start on Oct. 23 ... But the judge made it clear Thursday that he considers the testimony of residents, retirees and community leaders to be a key element..."
