Inequality To Be Spotlighted In SOTU
Inequality, minimum wage to be Obama's focus in SOTU. The Hill: "A president who has yet to add to the big legislative accomplishments of his first term will call for raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour and extending federal unemployment benefits that expired last month. He will also discuss energy and college affordability, two other issues that relate to the economic mobility message that is a major White House theme ahead of this year’s midterm elections."
"6 Conservatives Who Support Raising the Minimum Wage" from The Nation.
Economy weighs on Obama before SOTU. Bloomberg: "What’s happening, Republicans and some Democrats say, is that voters left behind in the recovery now blame him and not his predecessor, George W. Bush, and could punish Obama’s fellow Democrats in this year’s congressional elections ... At the root of the dissatisfaction are flat-lining household income and a jobs market that still hasn’t fully recovered from the worst recession in seven decades. The contrast between improving growth and deteriorating presidential approval frustrates some White House allies, who say Obama and Democratic House and Senate candidates need to convince voters things are looking up."
Rate of upward mobility is not good, but not getting worse. NYT: "The new study, based on tens of millions of anonymous tax records, finds that the mobility rate has held largely steady in recent decades, although it remains lower than in Canada and in much of Western Europe, where the odds of escaping poverty are higher ... [The authors] still believed that a lack of mobility was a significant problem in the United States. Despite less discrimination of various kinds and a larger safety net than in previous decades, the odds of escaping the station of one’s birth are no higher today than they were decades ago. The results suggested that other forces — including sharply rising incomes at the top of the ladder, which allows well-off families to invest far more in their children — were holding back talented people..."
Sen. Chuck Schumer seeks to drive wedge between wealthy right-wing donors and blue-collar Tea Party members. The Hill: "[He] will argue in a major speech on Thursday that super-wealthy Tea Party donors have hijacked the grassroots movement ... [Schumer] thinks that Tea Party leaders are at a vulnerable crossroads because their unifying ideology centered on the federal deficit has become outdated ... Democratic pollsters say a majority of Tea Party voters support increasing the minimum wage, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will address later this year."
Debt Limit To Hit Next Month
Treasury calls for debt limit increase in 16 days. Politico: "Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday, saying the 'best course of action would be for Congress to' raise the nation’s debt limit 'before February 7 to ensure orderly financing of the government.' At the latest, Lew writes, Congress must lift the cap by the end of February ... The debt limit is not the fiscal standoff it used to be. When Republicans first took the House, they demanded deep cuts to spending as a price for increasing the national borrowing limit. Last time they lifted the cap, they did it without concessions from Democrats and President Barack Obama. Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, hinted in an email that Republicans will again demand concessions from Democrats to raise the borrowing limit."
GOP to plot strategy soon. NYT: "President Obama continues to say he will not negotiate over the debt limit, which he said is a congressional responsibility, not a bargaining chip ... House Republicans will gather next week for their annual planning retreat. That will kick off efforts to resolve an impasse on the debt ceiling."
HHS Keeps Pushing For More Medicaid Expansions
HHS Sec urges mayors to help press holdout states to expand Medicaid. The Hill: "On Wednesday, Lucie Tondreau, the mayor of North Miami, Fla., asked Sebelius what she could do to help her poorest constituents gain healthcare coverage. The secretary singled out Florida as a state that could be ripe for persuasion on Medicaid expansion. Sebelius said that Florida’s uninsured rate is at 23 percent — the second highest in the country — and that about half of those would be eligible for Medicaid under the expansion, which would pump $51 billion in federal largesse into the Sunshine State over the next decade."
MediCaid signups strong where available. Politico: "More than 6.3 million people have been determined eligible for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage since the October start of open enrollment, the Obama administration announced Wednesday ... the Medicaid numbers just released don’t include eligibility determinations made through federal-run exchanges in 36 states, meaning the total could be higher ..."
