Close Jobless Aid Vote Expected Today
Reid delays jobless aid vote, now expected this AM. The Hill: "...at least 17 senators weren't present for the vote Monday evening due to the severe cold weather that has delayed flights ... It’s unclear if both sides will come to an agreement before the Senate is forced to transition to work on a $1 trillion omnibus spending bill aimed at keeping the government open."
Four Republicans prepared to stop filibuster, one more needed, reports CNN: "Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is one of the four Republicans who said she would vote to begin debate on the bill. However, she wouldn't rule out blocking it later if cost offsets aren't added ... The other three Republicans are Dean Heller of Nevada, a co-sponsor of the bill, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire."
"Senators From States With the Highest Unemployment Poised to Kill Unemployment Insurance Bill" reports The Nation.
Bloomberg editors slam obstruction: "Extending unemployment benefits merely recognizes the terrible burden that the recession has placed on blameless victims. It has nothing to do with enlarging or shrinking the role of the state; nothing to do with accepting or resisting income inequality. It has about as much to do with ideology as deciding whether to help a heart-attack victim in the street."
Inequality To Define 2014 Elections
Inequality "central issue" for 2014 elections, squeezing GOP, says W. Post: "Republicans are likely to resist [a minimum wage] increase, but party leaders also face political pressure from vulnerable incumbents to demonstrate more compassion for the poor after back-to-back presidential election losses. For the GOP, the challenge is to move beyond the rhetoric of past campaigns and focus on specific policies showing the party would be effective on behalf of the poor. While some leading Republican figures are developing their own policy prescriptions in anticipation of the 2016 presidential race, there is little consensus within the party about a shared poverty agenda."
50 years of the War on Poverty has made a difference, CBPP shows: "Under the [new poverty measure called] anchored SPM, the poverty rate fell from 26 percent to 16 percent [since 1967], meaning that a significantly smaller share of the population today has difficulty affording what we now consider 'the basics' ... the poverty rate for people aged 65 and over fell from 47 percent to 15 percent [and] the child poverty rate under the anchored SPM fell from 29 percent in 1967 to 19 percent in 2012..."
HIgh youth unemployment costing taxpayers. NYT: "[The Young Invincibles reports] determined how much young people would have paid in taxes had they been working, and how much less they would have collected in unemployment and other social welfare spending. Each jobless worker between 18 and 24 accounted for $4,100 a year, they concluded, and those between 25 and 34 accounted for $9,875 ... if youth unemployment were reduced to its prerecession rate, the study said, the federal government would recoup $7.8 billion, or $53 per taxpayer, and state and local governments would recoup $1.1 billion. If all those discouraged young people, who are not counted as unemployed because they are not actively seeking work, were also in the labor force, the total figure would be larger: $25 billion."
Breakfast Sides
Health care spending continues to be restrained. McClatchy: " Soaring health care spending - which helped pave the way for President Barack Obama's health law - continued to moderate in 2012, the fourth year of a historic slowdown in how much the nation pays for medical treatment, according to a new government report. Overall spending on health care rose less than 4 percent in 2012, less than half the rate of a decade ago ... The authors of the report, published in the journal Health Affairs, attributed most of the slowdown to lingering effects of the Great Recession ... But experts increasingly believe the slowdown also reflects fundamental changes being made to the nation's health care system ... The biggest effects of [Obamacare] on health spending will likely to be felt in coming years when more Americans gain health coverage."
Democrats suggest immigration deal possible with legalization but not path to citizenship. AP: "...some advocates of reform are beginning to rally around an idea to grant immigrants legal status in the U.S. and leave the question of citizenship out of the legislation. In other words, they can work, but not vote. 'I don't think this is a good idea because citizenship is important, but I don't think it is a big deal breaker either,' Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a leading congressional advocate for overhauling U.S. immigration law, said in a speech last month. 'Right now we have to stop the deportations that are breaking up families. And if we do not get citizenship this year, we will be back next year and the year after that.'"
CA Gov. Jerry Brown sticking with high-speed rail despite setbacks. NYT: "The ruling in November by a Superior Court judge in Sacramento blocked the state from using $8.6 billion in bond money to finance the first part of the train line, saying officials had failed to explain where they would find the remaining funds. That, in turn, jeopardized California’s access to more than $3 billion in federal matching funds, which are contingent on a state contribution ... Mr. Brown is expected to propose in his state budget on Friday that some funds collected from carbon producers under the state’s cap-and-trade program be used to help pay for the railroad, state officials said. But it remains unclear how much more money is available ..."
