Walker Signs Anti-Union Law
Gov. Scott Walker signs "right to work" bill, then fundraises off of it. AP: "His sleeves rolled up and his suit jacket off, the Republican governor sat at a table with a banner that said 'Freedom to Work' as he signed the bill that makes it a misdemeanor to require workers to pay unions dues ... He followed that up with a fundraising plea to supporters. 'The Big Government Labor Bosses will never forgive me for taking away their power but we are doing the right thing,' Walker said in the email..."
Obama slams Wisconsin law. NYT quotes: "...it’s inexcusable that, over the past several years, just when middle-class families and workers need that kind of security the most, there’s been a sustained, coordinated assault on unions, led by powerful interests and their allies in government.”
Sanders, O'Malley Make Presidential Moves
Sen. Bernie Sanders "expected to announce this month whether he'll enter the race for the White House." USA Today: "Sanders didn't provide additional clues on whether he would run for the White House as an independent or a Democrat. But after visiting early voting states, he appears to have honed a potential stump speech ... 'Any serious president that wants to represent working families has to mobilize people all over this country to make the Congress an offer they can't refuse,' he said."
Possible Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley backs Glass-Steagall. Bloomberg: "'When it comes to reform of Wall Street, I think we would make a mistake as a party if we held ourselves out as becoming some version of Dodd-Frank Light,' O’Malley told reporters after the Concord event. 'I think we need to reinstate Glass-Steagall. I think we need to ask some very serious questions about the sort of stock buybacks that corporations are involved in today.'"
Obama To Announce Student Loan Reforms
Obama to announce "Student Aid Bill of Rights." HuffPost: "President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce sweeping borrower-friendly recommendations to fix the $1.1 trillion federal student loan system that, taken together, amount to an indictment of the U.S. Department of Education's inability to protect borrowers from ever-increasing burdens ... Obama's directives are intended to counter complaints about a system rife with abuse that gives borrowers few protections from companies that process their monthly payments or schools that mislead them into taking out federal student loans."
Tougher regulation squeezing investment banks. FT: "This upheaval begs the question of whether anyone really makes much money from investment banking ... There are many reasons why these powerhouses, which regularly generated pre-crisis returns above 20 per cent, now struggle to earn more than their cost of capital. But the biggest one is clear: tougher regulation."
Breakfast Sides
Conservatives renew fight to end Ex-Im Bank. NYT: "Starting this month, Americans for Prosperity has committed to spending 'well into the six-figure range' to kill the bank, said Levi Russell, a spokesman for the group ... The targets are 93 House Republicans who they see as willing to block action on the bank’s reauthorization [by June 30.]"
Right splits over Florida solar power. HuffPost: "The group Conservatives for Energy Freedom is blasting Americans for Prosperity for what it called a 'campaign of deception' against a ballot initiative that would make it easier for businesses and individuals to install rooftop solar energy ... Currently, Florida is one of only five states in the country where it is illegal to sell power from any source other than electric utilities. But if approved, the ballot measure would allow homes and businesses to install solar and sell excess energy they generate to their neighbors."
Health care reform helping cut deficit. NYT: "If the Congressional Budget Office is right, the amount the federal government pays for health insurance in the coming years will be hundreds of billions of dollars lower than it recently forecast, meaning a much smaller federal deficit ... the federal government is now estimating it will spend about $300 billion less over the next 10 years because of lower health insurance premiums."
"We won't just rubber-stamp the Trans-Pacific Partnership" say Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Keith Ellison in Guardian oped: "Progressives believe that it’s possible to negotiate a trade agreement that doesn’t replicate the mistakes of the past ... But doing so requires that we rethink the old model of secret negotiations, backroom deals with industry and toothless side agreements on labor, the environment and other issues intrinsic to fair trade but deemed tangential to free trade."
Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards announces run for Senate. Baltimore Sun: "She won in 2008 by challenging 15-year incumbent Al Wynn in the primary, and was boosted by an aggressive advertisement campaign paid for by national liberal groups and unions ... Edwards takes a swipe at [Rep. Chris] Van Hollen in the video on Social Security ... Some progressive groups are upset over generally supportive statements Van Hollen has made supporting a deficit reduction plan. Van Hollen has fought against many of those reductions as well."
