Progressive Breakfast: Yes We Can v. No We Can’t
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.
McConnell: Obstruct More
After Sen. Min. Leader McConnell says “I wish we had been able to obstruct more,” President Obama responds. ABC quotes: “Obstruct more? Is that even possible? Apparently that’s their plan for the future: No, we can’t.”
Call The Roll For Social Security
ourfuture.org/handsoffsocialsecurity—into high gear with this exercise in crowd-sourcing. Just ask the question, get the candidate’s signature on this pledge if they answer yes, and email the result to promise@ourfuture.org.”
Conservative House candidate calls for Social Security benefit cuts. HuffPost: “‘My number one priority would be to cut spending, turn off the spigot. We can do that, and the way we would do that is to roll back the budget to 2007,’ said Daniel Webster during a Tea Party forum for Republican candidates gunning for firebrand Democrat Alan Grayson’s job … ‘Does it take back some of the [cost of living adjustments] for the entitlement programs? Yes…’ Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) in 2008 and 2009, of 2.3 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, amounted to roughly $100 per retiree every month.”
Rep. Paul Ryan not being honest about his desire to gut Medicare, finds Matthew Yglesias: “…people are accusing him of wanting to end Medicare as we know it because his plan would end Medicare as we know it. The existing single-payer system would be scrapped. In its place would be a system of means-tested vouchers to buy private insurance whose value would grow more slowly than the cost of health care. Basically Ryan’s idea is that old people should get medical care if they’re rich, and not otherwise.”
Dean Baker calls out the scapegoating of public employee pensions: “…public sector workers are far more likely to have a college or advanced degree than the population as a whole … many public sector workers are not covered by Social Security … if we cut all public employee pensions in half tomorrow it would not create a single job or save anyone’s house. The reason that millions of people are suffering is a combination of Wall Street greed and incredible economic mismanagement.”
Treasury Holds Housing Policy Summit Today
Newsweek poses five questions to be answered at today’s housing summit: “How involved should the government really be in the housing market? … What should be required of people if they’re going to buy a house? … Should the government put a limit on the size of the mortgage it’s willing to insure? … What should the future of home ownership look like? … do housing conferences accomplish anything?”
Rep. Barney Frank tells NYT’s Andrew Sorkin we can take our time reforming Fannie and Freddie: “Why hasn’t the government tried to unwind and replace Fannie and Freddie, which have so far cost taxpayers $145 billion, more than any other bailed-out firm? His response was counterintuitive — and as unsatisfying as it may sound, he’s right. ‘There is no urgency,’ he said … shutting down Fannie and Freddie and having the private market step in, as politically popular a sound-bite as that may be, is economically unfeasible. For better or worse, Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie Mae were behind 98 percent of all mortgages in this country so far this year, according to the Mortgage Service News. Pulling the rug out from under them would be pulling the rug from under the entire housing market as it continues to struggle. ‘Nobody in the private market thinks we’re ready,’ [Rep. Frank] said, adding that whatever legislation is developed, it will be ‘for a postrecession world.’”
Will the big banks take over Fannie and Freddie? NY Post: “Government-owned mortgage behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be converted into giant co-ops co-owned by Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America under one plan to be discussed today …”
Grist’s Jonathan Hiskes offers “how Obama could make housing policy greener: “There is good news in the administration’s launch of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, a collaboration among the EPA and departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. But it’s got less than $200 million to spend on projects so far and will depend on Congress for more. The Obama administration could make much bigger change by directing Fannie and Freddie to make location efficiency part of their underwriting criteria…”
New Fed rules on abusive mortgage lenders. WSJ: “The rules include a ban on yield-spread premiums—controversial payments that mortgage brokers have historically received in exchange for guiding consumers toward higher-interest rate mortgages … Loan originators would, however, be able to continue receiving compensation based on a percentage of the loan amount.”
Pete Peterson v. Elizabeth Warren?
Pete Peterson’s Fiscal Times hold strange bias against Elizabeth Warren, finds Reuters’ Felix Salmon: “On Friday, it ran a peculiar piece by Eric Pianin [who wrote,] ‘Warren’s critics say that her aggressive advocacy and stinging rhetoric make her the wrong choice to head a new agency that will have to mediate between conflicting industry and consumer advocacy interests…’ … [It] followed up with another piece, by John Berry, saying that she doesn’t have ‘the balanced judgment needed…’ … [But] it’s not the CFPB’s job to be balanced: it’s the CFPB’s job to protect consumers.”
Judge questions if SEC agreed to weak settlement with Citigroup. W. Post: “Judge Ellen S. Huvelle of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia [asked] how it decided on the size of the penalty and on the individual executives who also face sanctions … She asked why company shareholders must ultimately bear the price of the sanction, and why the agency charged only two executives with wrongdoing when more senior executives were involved … Last year, a federal judge in New York pilloried the SEC over its settlement with Bank of America…”
Banks opening doors for small biz again. AP: “Banks have eased lending standards for small businesses for the first time in nearly four years, the Federal Reserve said Monday.”
But demand for loans remains weak. Bloomberg: “Demand for loans at the majority of lenders in the U.S. failed to rise last quarter…”
Clean Energy, Made In America
Obama touts “Made In America” clean energy jobs goal. LAT: After visiting [a advanced battery] plant, Obama told a Milwaukee fundraiser that the heart of his economic strategy in the months ahead ‘will be three powerful words: ‘Made in America.”‘ But analysts warn that federal efforts to encourage clean-energy manufacturing could shrivel without steps to mandate its use.”
President says we’re on track for 800,000 clean energy jobs by 2012 notes Energy Department blog.
Stronger review standards for offshore drilling in place. NYT: “The new policy will require much more extensive environmental scrutiny once the moratorium is lifted and will lengthen the process of granting new drilling permits. Under current policy, the agency has only 30 days to decide whether to approve a drilling application, and few are denied. The new policy will also suspend the issuing of automatic exemptions from environmental review for virtually all new wells in the gulf … The Center for Biological Diversity … called the new Interior Department policy a step in the right direction … Erik Milito of the American Petroleum Institute, the lobby for big oil companies, said the new rules could slow approval of new wells and cost jobs.”
Judge that nullified the last offshore drilling moratorium will rule on the current one, reports Bloomberg.
Shrimp season begins on Gulf coast. NYT: “In a test run on Friday, shrimpers found no sign of oil on their nets or shrimp, [Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board's Ewell] Smith said, but shrimpers had trouble finding buyers.”
Group of scientists contend government is vastly understating the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf. HuffPost: “The scientists believe that roughly three-quarters of the oil (70% to 79%) still lurks under the surface. The research team, affiliated with the University of Georgia, said that it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that has dissolved is actually gone or harmless. The report was based on an analysis of federal estimates, but the Wall Street Journal notes that it hasn’t been published or peer-reviewed yet.”
Michigan spill came from Canadian tar sands, despite what pipeline CEO said. Grist’s Jonathan Hiskes: “As the Gulf spill made deep-sea offshore drilling look a lot less appealing, there’s a temptation to see alternatives such as the tar sands as safer in comparison.”
Breakfast Sides
Americans cut back on health care during recession far more than nations with comprehensive systems. NYT: “…26.5 percent reported reducing their use of routine medical care since the start of the global economic crisis in 2007. This proportion dwarfs the comparable numbers for other countries: 5.3 percent in Canada, 7.6 percent in Britain, 10.3 percent in Germany and 12 percent in France … Cutbacks were generally correlated with the size of out-of-pocket costs … Several provisions of the new health care law, signed by President Obama in March, could counter the trend described in the report.”
Paul Krugman breaks with NYT edit board on China currency strategy: “I say confront the issue head on — and if it leads to trade conflict, bear in mind that in a depressed world economy, surplus countries have a lot to lose from such a conflict, while deficit countries may well end up gaining.”
Rep. Joe Barton hates the stimulus, unless it funds a hospital in his district. Wonk Room’s Pat Garofalo: “Last week, Barton was at it again, attending a groundbreaking ‘for an expansion of an Ellis County clinic made possible under the law.’ … The [$250,000] construction grant ‘comes in addition to more than $1.4 million the clinic has received in stimulus funds, which clinic staff said was secured with the help of Barton’s office.’ … prior to appearing at the groundbreaking, Barton called the stimulus a ‘boondoggle,’…”
106 House progressives criticize Senate anti-obesity child nutrition bill for cutting funds for food stamps. Boston Globe: “In a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, written by Representatives James McGovern of Massachusetts and Keith Ellison of Minnesota, 106 Democrats ask that their version of the child nutrition bill be taken up for consideration instead of the Senate’s, as theirs does not slash food stamp funding.”
Anti-union forces try to prevent NLRB’s Craig Becker from participating in cases. W. Post: “The National Right to Work Foundation sent a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. last week, requesting an investigation into Craig Becker’s decision to hear cases involving local chapters of the Service Employees International Union … Becker [said] he would recuse himself from any cases in which the SEIU or the AFL-CIO was a party. But he would not recuse himself from cases involving an SEIU chapter, because the SEIU is a ‘separate and distinct legal entity’ from its affiliated locals … Stanford University labor expert Nelson Lichtenstein called the uproar contrived … The recusal demand is just a way to reduce Becker’s influence, he said.”
State parks increasingly turn to corporate sponsorship. Stateline: “… a growing number of states are trying out or considering corporate sponsorship or exclusive distribution deals as a way to help close budget gaps.”
