Progressive Breakfast: There’s No Crying In Legislating
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security.
Dem Ready To Pass Health Care As GOP Refuses To Compromise
Coalition leads Virtual March For Real Health Care today. Click here to participate.
Right-leaning Dems getting comfortable with simple majority vote for health care. Politico: “An idea that seemed toxic only weeks ago … is gaining acceptance among moderate Democrats who have resisted the strategy but now say GOP opposition may force their hands … Reid told reporters Tuesday that Republicans should ‘stop crying over reconciliation as if it’s never been done before.’ ‘It’s been done by almost every Congress, and they’re the ones who have used it more than anyone else.’”
LAT adds: “Democratic leaders … have settled on a strategy to avoid a Republican filibuster by convincing wary House Democrats to pass unchanged the healthcare bill approved by the Senate last year and send it directly to Obama for his signature. At the same time, Democrats in the Senate are rallying behind the use of a bare-knuckle legislative procedure known as budget reconciliation to push through a separate package of healthcare measures to satisfy liberal Democrats in the House.”
GOP criticizes summit they plan to attend. NYT: “’This so-called summit is a charade,’ Mr. Boehner said. ‘The Democrats want us to boycott so they can say Republicans walked away and they have no choice but to plow ahead with their health care takeover. They want us to boycott so we won’t be a thorn in their sides on issues like jobs and abortion. We shouldn’t let the White House have a six-hour taxpayer-funded infomercial on Obama Care.’”
Conservatives try to claim board to review excessive rate hikes sinister “government takeover.” Wonk Room: “… if conservatives want to argue that rate review will lead ‘less competition in the individual market’ or ‘a cascade of bankruptcies’ they should point to some specific examples in the more than 25 states that have already instituted the policy. ”
GOP will try to push private market health care proposals at summit. W. Post: “Their goal is to present voters with a clear choice between a Democratic approach that seeks to expand the government role in health care, and the Republican aim of finding solutions in the private marketplace … The Republican proposals would cover about 3 million uninsured people, whereas the Democratic legislation aims to reach 30 million.”
Salon.com’s Ethan Strauss reminds that the compromises with Republicans have already happened: “…Senate Democrats have accepted at least 161 Republican amendments to their healthcare reform legislation, they’ve incorporated core GOP planks, and they’ve scuttled an aspect of the plan most popular with its base, the public option, because of opposition by Republicans as well as red state Democrats. But they haven’t compromised with Republicans?”
FAIR says the media insistence that Obama is some kind of Radical is just plain delusional: “Think Progress’s Matthew Yglesias (2/22/10) points to a rather bizarre Economist editorial (2/18/10) blaming President Barack Obama’s problems on his failure to move to the right… Yglesias points out that Obama did, in fact, offer tort reform to conservatives, quoting Time’s Karen Tumulty
(5/5/09) on a meeting between Obama and congressional Republicans… More broadly, of course, Obama turned healthcare over not to his party’s left wing but to his party’s right wing, in the person of Max Baucus … Can you really
follow U.S. politics at all and not be aware of this?”
The GOP and the Zabka Principle: First Read’s Mark Murray draws a connection between GOP obstructionism and forgotten actor William Zabka: “Zabka is the actor who played the villain in quite a few ’80s movies — ‘The Karate Kid,’ ‘Back to School,’ and ‘Just One of the Guys.’ … In those movies, Zabka played such an unlikable character that he forced audiences to root for the protagonist — even if you didn’t like him/her … As Republicans work to oppose the Democratic agenda — and, just to be clear, that’s what minority parties usually do — they don’t want to go TOO far where they become unlikable. Opposition is one thing; becoming William Zabka is another.”
Second Jobs Bill On Tap
Jobs tax credit expected to formally pass Senate today, reports Bloomberg: “The plan would save or create as many as 234,000 jobs, according to the Congressional Budget Office.” REMINDER: 402,000 jobs a month needed to recover from recession.
House response unclear. W. Post: “The next stop is the House, where Democratic leaders are weighing whether to pass the Senate version or go to conference to reconcile it with the $154 billion jobs bill the House passed in December.”
GOP Sen. Grassley tries to claim job tax credit will foster illegal immigration. Wonk Room: “… the current jobs bill contains the exact same language that was first introduced in the tax rebate bill by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) which raised few, if any immigration-related objections.”
Senate working on the next jobs bill. CQ: “The next part of the Democrats’ ‘jobs agenda’ is likely to include one-year extensions of dozens of popular tax provisions that lapsed Dec. 31, including the research and development tax credit, biofuels incentives and the deductibility of state sales taxes. The bill is also likely to include yearlong extensions of unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for laid-off workers and a six-month extension of additional Medicaid assistance to states, said Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill. … The new bill could reach the floor by the end of this week
Salon.com’s Joe Conason chronicles the new right-wing hate for Sen. Scott Brown: “…thousands of Brown’s most fervent fans have realized that he is actually everything they despise: a Republican in Name Only, a Benedict Arnold, a Massachusetts liberal, probably a Marxist … Why? Because he voted for the stripped-down, tax-cutting, locally oriented and essentially conservative jobs bill pushed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.”
title="With jobs bill, Democrats' new strategy: piecemeal legislation / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com">Have the Democrats finally hit upon a winning legislative strategy? The Christian Science Monitor says yes: parceling out change, piecemeal: “…carve up bills into smaller measures — and repackage elements to include those with broad support … Democrats plan to continue the strategy with a tourism promotion bill, a series of measures to help small businesses, and a package of popular tax-credit extensions, including an extension of unemployment benefits.”
Bernanke testifies to Congress today and tomorrow, reports Bloomberg. “Unemployment ‘will be a big topic’ when the Fed chief faces the Senate Banking Committee, [said] Senator Bob Menendez … ‘I want to hear Bernanke talk about how he’s going to rebuild American manufacturing,’ [Sen. Sherrod] Brown told reporters.”
Obama meeting with top CEOs today. WSJ: “[Meetings] will focus on job growth, investments in education and energy and an appeal for bipartisan support for the administration’s efforts on health care, financial regulation and deficit reduction.”
Senate Financial Reform Compromise Could Weaken House Consumer Protections
Politico on Dodd’s attempt to strike finanical reform compromise with GOP Sen. Bob Corker likely to weaken proposal for consumer agency: “…Dodd has moved away from the separate agency proposed by the Obama administration, seeking instead to find compromise by creating a consumer watchdog within another regulator. But even that initial move toward a compromise has raised Democratic hackles. ‘We will not fix the financial system, and we will not have an economy that works until we reform consumer financial practices,’ said Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.) … Dodd needs to win over at least one Republican to get the 60 votes he needs to scale that procedural wall. Corker said he’s willing to be the lone GOP vote … [But] Dodd runs a real risk of losing some Democratic votes on the left if the consumer protection compromise he reaches with Corker is deemed too weak.” ALSO Treas. Sec. Geithner will meet with Dodd and Corker this AM.
…and “too-big-to-fail”: “…any time a big financial institution is threatened with insolvency, the government would be authorized to take it over and close it down in a bankruptcy-like process. The government could provide temporary loans to ensure an orderly liquidation process and prevent financial panic, but only to the extent that the loan would be repaid from proceeds of the sale of the bank’s assets. Although insured depositors would be protected, creditors, counterparties and investors would all suffer losses.”
WH looks to give regulators flexibility in applying proposed “Volcker rule,” as congressional talks continue. Bloomberg: “The U.S. Treasury Department wants to give regulators discretion to define proprietary trading … The Obama administration is working with the Senate on legislation to forbid banks that take government-insured deposits from trading exclusively for their own profit or investing in hedge funds or private-equity operations. At the same time, proprietary trading will need to be defined in a way that doesn’t prevent banks from keeping their own trading accounts that may be used to offset customer bets or to ensure that securities are easily traded.”
Wall Street cash continues following the obstructionists. W. Post: “Commercial banks and high-flying investment firms have shifted their political contributions toward Republicans in recent months amid harsh rhetoric from Democrats about fat bank profits, generous bonuses and stingy lending policies on Wall Street … [going] from giving 2 to 1 to Democrats at the start of 2009 to providing almost half of its donations to Republicans by the end of the year… One GOP strategist said the party expects to face attacks on the issue no matter what. ‘We’d rather have the whacks and the money than the whacks and no money,’ he said.”
More Debt Commissioners Named
Sen. Reid names three to presidential debt commission. W. Post: “Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) has long advocated a mix of tax hikes and entitlement cuts to close the nation’s yawning budget gap. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who has authority over tax policy, has also called for entitlement cuts and tax reform, though he strongly opposed pursuing a deficit reduction plan through an independent commission outside the regular legislative process … [Sen. Dick] Durbin [is] a traditional liberal likely to be wary of deep spending cuts.”
Politico reports on progressive concerns with President’s debt commission: “…said Roger Hickey, co-director of the left-leaning Campaign for America’s Future. ‘The danger is this could be dominated by conservatives and focus entirely on cutting spending, focusing specifically on Social Security and Medicare.’ … ‘The problem with perennial proposals for entitlement commissions and deficit commissions is that they are too often premised on the mistaken assumption that short-term stimulus and entitlement spending are the root causes of burgeoning budget deficits,’ AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said…”
Pressure on EPA To Suspend Climate Action
Coal state Dems explore legislation to stop EPA climate regs. Politico: “[GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski has] attracted support from 35 Republicans and three moderate Democrats — Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana … Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) is also currently drafting legislation that would suspend EPA action in order to give Congress more time to act on a climate and energy bill … In the House, Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) has introduced legislation amending the Clean Air Act to exclude greenhouse gases — a radical revision of the country’s pollution regulations.”
The Vine’s Brad Plumer notes the coal-staters aren’t yet partnering with Murkowski: “…none of those Dems concerned about the EPA’s plans sound like they’re quite ready to join Lisa Murkowski’s efforts to nullify the agency’s authority over greenhouse gases.”
EPA’s Jackson schools Sen. Inhofe on climate science. The Hill: “She said she had not seen or heard any new evidence that would lead her to reassess EPA’s finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and welfare.”
Politifact catches Sarah Palin distorting and exaggerating issue of stimulus funds for green jobs going overseas: “There is a small amount of truth to Palin’s underlying point: Because many parts of these turbines are being made overseas, some of the stimulus money is supporting jobs abroad. But that’s not to say that no wind energy-related jobs have been created in the United States … it’s incorrect to say that any stimulus money has gone to Chinese turbine manufacturers, let alone 80 percent of the $2 billion spent on renewable energy projects.”
Slow start for weatherization program. NYT: ” President Obama’s plan to create jobs and rein in energy costs through a steep increase in money for weatherizing the homes of low-income Americans has so far borne little fruit, with many of the biggest states meeting less than 2 percent of their three-year goals to date, the Department of Energy’s inspector general said … spending cuts resulting from the economic downturn forced states to trim personnel expenses [and] most states did not begin hiring until the wage question [determining prevailing wage levels] was resolved last fall … But some state officials said that the numbers did not reflect current progress.”
WH to continue deferring to Senate leaders on climate bill. The Hill: “Don’t expect a sweeping White House climate and energy proposal any time soon. While the administration has become newly assertive in the healthcare fight by floating its own overhaul plan, White House climate and energy czar Carol Browner said Tuesday that a repeat performance isn’t in the offing right now … Kerry said at the same forum that the measure he’s crafting with Graham and Lieberman was coming soon, but didn’t offer a specific timeline.”
Kerry signals carbon cap structure yet to be determined. Green Energy Reporter: “…Kerry also told reporters Tuesday that the bill still lacks a heart – they don’t yet have a plan for reducing emissions (read: they haven’t figured out how to repackage cap and trade as something else).”
Van Jones returns to green jobs movement, joins Center for American Progress. W. Post: “Jones said he would spend his time at the think tank examining how to push for ‘green enterprise zones’ that would encourage clean technology development in poor urban and rural areas; for an aggressive national renewable energy standard; and for a ‘Home Star’ program that would provide federal incentives to make homes more energy-efficient.”
Conservative Watch
Newsweek’s “libertarian-leaning conservative” Conor Friedersdorf takes on the Mount Vernon statement to note that conservatives seem to inherently oppose the “founding principles” they love to tout: “…the right today is far more unified around an opposite belief: that the principled framework established by the Founders is inadequate to these uniquely dangerous times.”
Turn off the phone and grab the popcorn, if Amanda Terkel is right about the conservative backlash against Glenn Beck, this oughta be good: “Beck may have received a standing ovation at the convention, but many high-profile conservatives have been less enthusiastic about his GOP criticism … The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund said that several Republicans ‘complained that Mr. Beck is indirectly encouraging third-party candidates to challenge them this year, threatening to divide the conservative vote.’”
title="Michael Tomasky: All right; you want an argument, I'll give you an argument | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk">Low Tax, Low Innovation: Michael Tomasky, at the Guardian, debunks the idea that states with the lowest taxes enjoy the most growth and innovation: “The five least innovative states are five of the lowest-tax states: Alabama, Wyoming, West Virginia (sigh), Arkansas and who else but Mississippi in dead last place. But dang it all, that Haley Barbour, he’s good people, he’s one of us!”
