Senate Vote Today on Unemployment Insurance
Not enough GOP support yet for jobless aid to clear Senate tonight, reports W. Post: "With [GOP Sen. Dean] Heller and 55 members of the Senate Democratic caucus, supporters still need at least four votes ... Spokespeople for Alexander, Chambliss, Isakson, Portman and Wicker said Sunday that the senators plan to vote against the Reed-Heller plan because the cost of extending the program isn't offset by spending cuts. Aides to Corker and Kirk said Sunday that they didn't know how the senators planned to vote, while spokespeople for McCain and Toomey didn't respond to requests for comment.
Democrats are targeting several other GOP senators who have voted in the recent pastto end debate on Democratic-backed legislation, a group that often includes Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). Aides to those senators didn't respond to requests for comment."
Vote beginning of Dem populist strategy for 2014. Politico: "The inequality campaign will intensify later in the year with a push in the Senate to raise the federal minimum wage that will be synced with President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, which is expected to dig heavily into the issue of economic disparity ... Democrats believe they can win again by spotlighting the growing divides between the rich and poor and daring Republicans to oppose legislation aimed at benefiting low-income Americans."
Republicans used to vote for jobless aid and minimum wage hikes, reminds W. Post's E. J. Dionne: "It was not some socialist but a president named George W. Bush who declared: 'These Americans rely on their unemployment benefits to pay for the mortgage or rent, food and other critical bills. They need our assistance in these difficult times, and we cannot let them down.' Bush spoke those words, as Jason Sattler of the National Memo noted, in December 2002, when the unemployment rate was a full point lower than it is today ... [But now, a] substantial part of the conservative movement is now determined to blow up the national consensus that has prevailed since the Progressive and New Deal eras."
Congress Ready To Lock In Budget Deal
Omnibus spending bill near completion. Politico: "The Pentagon’s base budget, which is expected to end up near $488 billion, represents its own middle ground: $24 billion less than the House approved in July but $20 billion more than what sequestration once threatened this month. At the same time, non-defense appropriations will be restored to $492 billion — roughly the same level as before the March automatic cuts but less than what President George W. Bush enjoyed in the last years of his administration. New investments in science and medical research will be possible. Less glamorous accounts like project-based rental assistance for low-income tenants will come up short by as much as $1 billion."
Global central banks split over more stimulus. Bloomberg: "The Federal Reserve -- soon to be led by Janet Yellen, who is poised for confirmation by the Senate today -- begins pulling back on its quantitative easing amid stronger U.S. growth, and the Bank of England is trying to cool its housing market. The European Central Bank and Bank of Japanlean toward more monetary action to fight weak inflation."
Larry Summers pushes investment over austerity in W. Post oped: "....this means ending the disastrous trends toward ever less government spending and employment each year and taking advantage of the current period of economic slack to renew and build out our infrastructure. If the federal government had invested more over the past five years, the U.S. debt burden relative to income would be lower: allowing slackening in the economy has hurt its long-run potential."
Obama, Senate Dems prepare to sell trade deals to left, reports FT: "In the next few weeks, the leaders of the Senate finance committee, who generally support Mr Obama’s trade policy, are expected to unveil [fast-track] legislation ... Liberal critics, including labour unions, remain unconvinced that the administration’s approach to the negotiations, particularly with regard to the more controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, is really any different than what has been done in the past ... But for now, Mr Obama’s trade agenda seems to be sitting rather uncomfortably alongside his party’s tilt to the left – and one of his missions for 2014 will be to reconcile the two."
