Senate Set To Pass Unemployment Insurance Extension
Big bipartisan vote ends Senate filibuster of jobless aid. The Hill: "The Senate voted 65-34 Thursday to advance legislation that would restore federal unemployment benefits ... Action in the House appears unlikely, however, as Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said he wouldn’t consider the Senate deal ... The Republicans who voted in favor of advancing the bill were: Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Dan Coats (Ind.), Susan Collins (Maine), Dean Heller (Nev.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Pat Toomey (Pa.), Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) ... lawmakers have said they expect a vote on final passage by Friday."
CT Gov signs $10.10 minimum wage into law, reports NYT: "...Connecticut’s future rate [in 2017] would be the highest of all state rates that are now on the books ... Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia currently set rates that are higher than the $7.25 imposed by federal law, with Washington State topping the list at $9.32, Oregon second at $9.10, Vermont third at $8.73 ..."
Obamacare Enrollment Hits Goal
Obamacare exchange signups hit 6M. Politico: "More than 6 million people have signed up on the new insurance exchanges, and enrollment is surging with four days to go before the Obamacare signup deadline ... the pace of enrollment is a striking turnaround after the disastrous start last fall ..."
Some states doing better than others. NYT: "...the program widely known as Obamacare looks less like a sweeping federal overhaul than a collection of individual ventures playing out unevenly, state to state, in the laboratories of democracy."
Enrollment numbers are even "bigger than you think", notes National Journal's Sophie Novack: "...people who bought insurance directly from insurers, and not through the law's exchanges, will not be included. And just how many people that represents is a figure that will not be available in time for the big enrollment-total reveal—and likely not for a long time after."
Why Can't We Talk About Wealth Concentration?
Long American history of preventing wealth concentration being sidelined, argues NYT's Krugman: "[Economist Thomas] Piketty goes so far as to say that 'confiscatory taxation of excessive incomes' — that is, taxation whose goal was to reduce income and wealth disparities, rather than to raise money — was an 'American invention.' And this invention had deep historical roots in the Jeffersonian vision of an egalitarian society of small farmers ... So how did such views not only get pushed out of the mainstream, but come to be considered illegitimate?"
Thomas Piketty's charts are reshaping the inequality debate, says New Yorker's John Cassidy: "The first chart is a simple one ... It tracks the share of over-all income taken by the top ten per cent of households from 1910 to 2010 ... From the mid-forties to the mid-seventies, it stayed pretty stable, and then it took off ... the recent rise in its share is a bit less dramatic when the analysis is confined to wage income. The difference between the bottom line (wage income) and the top line (total income) is accounted for by income from capital—dividends, interest payments, and capital gains."
Dems Keep Up Pressure For Immigration Reform
Immigration reform more important than winning in November, says House Minority Leader Pelosi. The Hill: "A number of Republicans and other conservative voices have accused Pelosi and the Democrats of using the immigration reform issue as a political crutch, suggesting the Democrats would rather keep the issue alive for campaign purposes than actually pass a bill ... 'I say this with all the sincerity I have, that it is more important to pass comprehensive immigration reform — to me and to my caucus — than to win the election in November,' Pelosi said at a Washington gathering of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce."
VP Biden argues undocumented have proven their American-ness. CNN: "'You know, 11 million people that are living in the shadows. I believe they’re already Americans citizens,' Biden said. 'These people are just waiting, waiting for a chance to be able to contribute fully. And by that standard, 11 million undocumented aliens are already Americans in my view.'"
Breakfast Sides
"E.U. Tries to Assuage Fears Over U.S. Trade Deal" reports NYT: "The top trade official for the European Union sought on Thursday to soothe opposition to a planned deal with the United States by imposing a 90-day period for the public to comment on protections for investors and companies ... [Talks] have progressed less rapidly than some officials had hoped, partly because of a clause that would allow companies to sue any member state for failing to comply with the terms of an eventual Transatlantic partnership."
Republicans aim to stop NLRB's union election reform. The Hill: "One bill, backed by Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), would require the NLRB to let 35 days pass after employees file a petition before they are allowed to vote on forming a union. Kline says the NLRB's new union election rule would 'rush' the process by reducing this time to as little as 10 days. Republicans are calling it a rule for 'ambush' elections..."
