Freedom To Organize, Use Contraception At Stake Today
Final day of Supreme Court term will decide Obamacare contraception coverage mandate. The Hill: "A ruling against the administration could undermine the statute’s provision requiring companies to offer contraceptive services to workers as part of their insurance coverage ... Perhaps even more important, [Obamacare supporters] contend, are the ramifications of a finding that corporations could be exempt from federal statutes on grounds that they have religious objections. 'This really is about whether or not employers based on religious views can pick and choose which federal laws to follow and not follow,' Kathleen Sebelius [said.]"
Supreme Court could also deal huge blow to unions. Huffington Post: "Under the contract between the [SEIU] and [Illinois], all home care workers covered under the contract are required to pay a fee to SEIU to cover the expenses associated with bargaining, whether or not they want to be union members. This arrangement avoids what unions commonly refer to as freeloading -- that is, benefiting from the union's work without helping to underwrite it ... the court could rule that such workers are employed by individuals and aren't really state employees ... and could no longer be required to pay union fees. But another outcome -- albeit one that appeared unlikely during oral arguments -- is that the justices ... could give public-sector workers throughout the U.S. the ability to opt out of paying fees to the unions that bargain for them, thereby instituting a kind of right-to-work on the public sector."
ThinkProgress fears that Justice Alito is likely to write opinion in union case: "As a general rule, the justices try to spread work evenly among themselves and, because of this, SCOTUSBlog’s Tom Goldstein has pioneered the art of predicting which justice will author a particular decision by examining who has not yet written a case that was argued in a particular month ... If Justice Samuel Alito ... does indeed have the writing assignment in Harris, then that is almost certainly a bad thing for unions. Alito authored an opinion in 2012 that strongly suggests that agency fees paid to public sector unions are unconstitutional."
Will US Unilaterally Disarm In Trading Wars?
"Rivals Already Outgun U.S. on Trade Subsidies as Ex-Im Imperiled" notes Bloomberg: "South Korea topped the U.S. on government-backed export credit last year with an economy one-fourteenth as large. Germany helps Airbus Group NV compete against Boeing Co. with loan guarantees. China supports exporters of petrochemicals and electronics. The Obama administration is highlighting competition from abroad in its bid to keep alive the 80-year-old Export-Import Bank, which provides loans, loan guarantees and credit insurance to foreign buyers of U.S. goods ... In the arms race for world markets, export credits are “nuclear missiles,” said Stephen Myrow, a former chief of staff at the Ex-Im Bank. 'You have them because other countries have them, and the thought of unilateral disarmament is not realistic,' said Myrow."
Positions in Congress are "fluid" says The Hill: "Four in 10 House Republicans are on record as being opposed to reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, highlighting the challenge supporters face in winning a vote. Ninety-three House Republicans voted against extending the bank’s charter a little more than two years ago, the last time there was a vote ... Several Republicans who voted for the bank in 2012, including new House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), now say they’ll oppose it. But a handful of members who voted no have said they could consider changing their votes if the bank is reformed."
Breakfast Sides
Obama asks Congress for funds to deal with immigration crisis. Bloomberg: "The White House ... will send Congress a letter requesting emergency spending to deter unauthorized border crossings and for legislative authority to streamline and expedite the process of returning illegal entrants to their home countries ... Obama will seek more than $2 billion in funding after lawmakers return next week from recess."
Sen. Warren injects student loan reform into KY senate race. The Hill: "Speaking to a group of students at the University of Louisville on Sunday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said ... 'When you've got a choice between billionaires and students, Mitch McConnell says it is more important to protect the billionaires,' ... [Challenger Alison Lundergan] Grimes has focused much of her attention on issues such as raising the minimum wage, ensuring equal pay for women and, most recently, making college more affordable for students."
Conservative tax cuts hobbled Kansas, says NYT's Paul Krugman: "Two years ago Kansas embarked on a remarkable fiscal experiment: It sharply slashed income taxes without any clear idea of what would replace the lost revenue ... But Kansas isn’t booming — in fact, its economy is lagging both neighboring states and America as a whole. Meanwhile, the state’s budget has plunged deep into deficit, provoking a Moody’s downgrade of its debt ... the Kansas debacle shows that tax cuts don’t have magical powers, but we already knew that. The real lesson from Kansas is the enduring power of bad ideas, as long as those ideas serve the interests of the right people."
