More Proof The Stimulus Worked
New WH report shows how much the 2009 stimulus worked. Politico: "By itself, the stimulus bill saved or created an average of 1.6 million jobs a year for four years through the end of 2012, [WH aide Jason] Furman said in a White House blog post ... The report said recovery act spending will have a positive effect on long-run growth, boost the economy’s potential output and ultimately offset much of the law’s initial cost. More than 40,000 miles of roads and more than 2,700 bridges have been upgraded, nearly 700 drinking water systems serving more than 48 million people have been brought into compliance with federal clean water standards and high-speed Internet was introduced to about 20,000 community institutions."
More from Time's Michael Grunwald: "If you combine the Recovery Act with a series of follow-up measures, including unemployment-insurance extensions, small-business tax cuts and payroll tax cuts, the Administration’s fiscal stimulus produced a 2% to 3% increase in GDP in every quarter from late 2009 through 2012 ... Unfortunately, the only long-term effect of the Recovery Act that’s gotten much attention has been its long-term effect on national deficits and debts. As the White House report makes clear, that effect is negligible. The overwhelming majority of the Recovery Act’s dollars have gone out the door; it’s no longer adding to the deficit. It did add about 0.1% to our 75-year debt projections, but allowing the economy to slip into a depression would have added a lot more debt. The real long-term danger is that the Recovery Act became so unpopular so quickly that future politicians might shy away from stimulus packages. Europe quickly embraced austerity, which is one reason the unemployment rate in the euro zone is almost twice as high as ours."
Yet Gallup poll shows unemployment top concern: "Americans have a new No. 1 problem. Nearly one in four Americans mention jobs and unemployment as the most important problem facing the country, up from 16% in January. The government and politicians had topped the list since the government shutdown in October."
"Student debt may hurt housing recovery by hampering first-time buyers" reports W. Post: "Recent improvements in the housing market have been fueled largely by investors who snapped up homes in the past few years. But that demand is waning as prices climb and mortgage rates rise ... First-time buyers, the bedrock of the housing market, are not stepping up to fill the void ... The trend has alarmed some housing experts, who suspect that student loan debt is partly to blame."
Unions Regroup After Defeat in Chattanooga
Unions determined to organize South despite VW loss. WSJ: "Antiunion sentiment is strong in the South, but unions believe the region is a prime area for expansion, given its growth in jobs and population ... One question that has emerged is whether labor needs to improve its brand in the South, and whether labor opponents were successful in tainting the UAW by affiliating it with bankrupt Detroit. In Houston on Monday, Mr. Trumka said the unions can regroup in the South by strengthening ties with 'every progressive group in the state.' 'We're already organizing in the South,' he said. 'We've organized a 1,000-worker poultry plant in Alabama and parts plant in Tennessee.' Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, said one of labor's strategies will be to link up with civil-rights and human-rights groups fighting issues such as voting rights."
UAW hampered in Chattanooga by reputation of liberalism, says American Prospect's Harold Meyerson: "...the union provided funds to civil rights activists who conducted the Montgomery bus boycott, paid for the buses and sound system at the 1963 March on Washington, detailed staff and dollars to the efforts to build municipal employee unions and Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers, donated resources to the fledgling efforts of Students for a Democratic Society and the National Organization for Women, and helped fund the first Earth Day ... This was the legacy that the union brought South, and it was this—not its fictitious reputation for thuggishness—that made the union so hard a sell to some of Chattanooga’s workers ... the politics of race and culture often eclipse those of class in the United States."
Green Money May Shape 2014
Billionaire enviro may spend $100M to elect candidates who will stop climate change. NYT: "The donor, Tom Steyer, a Democrat who founded one of the world’s most successful hedge funds, burst onto the national political scene during last year’s elections, when he spent $11 million to help elect Terry McAuliffe governor of Virginia and millions more intervening in a Democratic congressional primary in Massachusetts. Now he is rallying other deep-pocketed donors, seeking to build a war chest that would make his political organization, NextGen Climate Action, among the largest outside groups in the country, similar in scale to the conservative political network overseen by Charles and David Koch ... Targets include the governor’s race in Florida [and] the Senate race in Iowa, in the hope that a win for the Democratic candidate, Representative Bruce Braley, an outspoken proponent of measures to limit climate change, could help shape the 2016 presidential nominating contests."
"Could Tom Steyer's Anti-Keystone Campaign Help Mary Landrieu? She Thinks So." National Journal: "Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge-fund investor turned environmental activist, may launch an advertising campaign panning Landrieu for supporting the Keystone XL pipeline ... Her thinking is that voters who live in a state dependent on oil and natural gas like Louisiana would like a candidate more if she's facing criticism from the environmental Left for supporting a project that would foster more petroleum-related energy production ... Rob Collins, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, says that Steyer could actually end up helping Landrieu's main GOP challenger, Rep. Bill Cassidy, win the race ... environment-minded voters may stay at home..."
Meanwhile pro-gay pro-immigrant Republican donors step up giving. Politico: "The operation was launched discreetly last year, with the previously unreported formation of a club called the American Opportunity Alliance to bring together some of the richest pro-business GOP donors in the country, several of whom share [Paul] Singer’s support for gay rights, immigration reform and the state of Israel. Around the same time, Singer and his allies also formed a federal fundraising committee called Friends for an American Majority that raised big checks for a select list of the GOP’s most highly touted 2014 Senate hopefuls. Those candidates are among the big names expected at a two-day retreat organized by the American Opportunity Alliance set for the last week of February at a swanky Colorado resort."
"Obama to order tougher fuel standards for heavy trucks" reports Politico: "During a visit Tuesday morning to a Safeway distribution center in Upper Marlboro, Md., Obama will announce he’s directing the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department to develop fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for future trucks and other heavier vehicles by March 2016. They would cover vehicles for model years after 2018 ... [The standards are] part of the list of items Obama laid out in June in his climate action plan."
