MORNING MESSAGE: A Long Cold Summer For Young People Looking For Work

OurFuture.org’s Isaiah J. Poole: “Just in the past decade Congress has cut $1 billion from youth jobs programs, according to a report by the Center for American Progress. And that is at a time when even before the Great Recession youth unemployment was at chronic high levels … There is currently a youth jobs deficit of 4.1 million; that is the number of jobs that the economy would have to produce to restore the job market to what it was in 2007 … It may be too late to do much for the teenagers who are now beginning to end their school years and will face a summer without serious job prospects. But Congress has still before it a fiscal 2014 budget. If House Republicans would end their stonewalling on negotiating with the Senate on the budget details, Democrats can insist that a robust youth jobs program be a priority for 2014.”

Senate Dems Seek To Break CFPB Filibuster

Possible Thursday Senate vote on confirming Richard Cordray at CFPB. The Hill: “Senate Republicans, however, say they will filibuster Cordray unless changes are made to the bureau … Democrats argue that blocking a nominee to extract changes to the law is an abuse of the Senate’s filibuster rule, and say the so-called nuclear option — a controversial maneuver to change the Senate’s rules with a simple majority vote — is back on the table if Republicans do not end their obstruction of nominees. ”

Republicans wasting their time with Cordray filibuster. Politico: “… there has been little evidence that the standoff has prevented the agency … from doing its job. Since Cordray was installed through a controversial recess appointment in January 2012, the agency has marched through its day-to-day work, including writing highly anticipated, and lobbied, mortgage rules while putting in place programs to supervise banks and other lenders … privately [financial] industry officials appear to be tiring of the debate, noting that Cordray has proven to be a more open and reasonable regulator than they anticipated.”

Former 14-year NLRB member Wilma Liebman urges approval of labor board nominees: “…, the five nominees are highly experienced labor lawyers and qualified to serve as members of the NLRB … At any other time, their confirmation would be a virtual certainty … the unions, employers and individual employees who rely on the NLRB to resolve disputes over unfair labor practices and union representation deserve better than this crisis of governance.”

Immigration Vote Nears

Senate Judiciary Cmte may vote on immigration reform bill this week. AP: “…the committee must resolve a few remaining disputes … One involves amendments over high-skilled immigrant visas sought by the high-tech industry but opposed by labor unions … There’s also a disagreement over whether gay Americans should be given the right to sponsor their foreign-born spouses for green cards like straight Americans can …”

Business-labor compromise may unravel. Bloomberg: “… a series of amendments backed by technology and construction companies and opposed by the AFL-CIO labor federation risk upsetting a delicate balance … the reopening of fissures between business and labor serves as a reminder of how tough the challenge is. That divide is the one that scuttled the last attempt in 2007.”

Battle For Affordable Student Loan Heats Up

Sen. Gillibrand proposes student loan reform. HuffPost: “Debtors with high interest rates on their federal student loans would refinance into cheaper loans under proposed legislation to be unveiled this week, in a move that would lower borrowers’ burdens and potentially hurt private lenders and investors. The plan sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) would force the U.S. Secretary of Education to automatically refinance most government loans carrying interest rates above 4 percent into fixed, 4-percent loans. Roughly nine of 10 federally-backed loans would be affected…”

Warren student loan bill “the germ of a counter-revolution against austerity politics,” argues Robert Kuttner: “Corporations are able to declare bankruptcy under Chapter 11 and write off old loan — but college debt follows former students literally to the grave even if they go bankrupt. Big banks have gotten trillions of dollars of debt relief from the TARP program and the Federal Reserve’s program of buying toxic assets from banks. But there is no debt relief for students and former students. Can’t we build a movement around that?”

Breakfast Sides

Good Jobs Nation rallies for living wages in DC tomorrow at noon.

NYT edit board slams CFTC derivatives deal: “…the commission’s initial proposal called for hedge funds, asset managers and corporations to contact at least five banks when seeking prices for a derivatives contract. In a major concession to the banks, that number was lowered to two in the final rule. Sometime in 2014, it is supposed to rise to three, but that would still be inadequate. Worse, there’s always the risk that delayed rules will never go into effect. The initial proposal also called for derivatives trading to take place on open electronic platforms. The final rules will allow much of the negotiation over derivative prices to take place over the phone, a practice that is difficult to monitor and prone to abuse.”

MORNING MESSAGE: Five Real Scandals Republicans Might Want To Address

OurFuture.org’s Bill Scher: “Republican might want to ask themselves: do we really believe there’s any there there? … Meanwhile, there are real scandals out there: festering crises that demand policy solutions and government action. For example: 1. Carbon dioxide atmospheric levels hovering around 400 parts per million … 2. Our crumbling infrastructure needs $3.6 trillion just to reach a “state of good repair” … 3. The top 1 percent in America holds 35 percent of the nation’s wealth … 4. More than 4 million Americans have been jobless for more than half a year … 5. Forty percent of America’s children between 3 and 5 are not enrolled any sort of preschool…”

Bipartisan House Group Reaches Immigration Agreement

Bipartisan House group reaches tentative agreement. Politico: “House immigration negotiators emerged from a meeting Thursday with an agreement ‘in principle,’ and plan to turn their attention to drafting a comprehensive reform bill. Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) made the announcement after the two-hour meeting. He declined to elaborate on the details of the deal.”

Senate negotiators trying to woo Sen. Orrin Hatch. W. Post: “The bid to bring Hatch into the fold highlights the strategy of Senate immigration proponents who believe that building as much bipartisan support for the bill is crucial to improving its chances in the Republican-led House … Hatch has filed several amendments to relax visa limits and rules for high-tech companies seeking to hire foreign engineers and programmers … Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), backed by labor unions that fear that Americans could lose out on jobs, fiercely opposes the further relaxation of restrictions on H-1B visas for high-tech companies.”

Filibusters Loom, Dems Near Breaking Point

EPA, Labor nominees clear committee on party-line votes, likely face filibuster, renewing rules reform push. NYT: “…many Democrats have become increasingly exasperated by routine efforts to stall and block presidential nominees. And they are now more supportive than ever of exploiting a technicality of Senate rules that would allow them to make changes with a simple majority of 51 votes.”

Republicans signal opposition to package of NLRB nominees. WSJ: “While ‘It is important to have a fully confirmed National Labor Relations Board … I can’t support the nomination of these two’ recess appointees, said Sen. [Lamar] Alexander, who called them both ‘qualified’ and armed with ‘distinguished backgrounds.’ ‘My problem is that they have continued to issue decisions’ after the D.C. Court ruled against their [prior recess] appointments, said Mr. Alexander … He suggested that Mr. Obama should nominate two equally qualified candidates to replace them, though some Democrats question whether Republicans would confirm any Democrat to the board…”

400 professors and 125 community leaders sign letter urging approval of NLRB nominees, announces American Rights at Work: “In order for our labor laws to work effectively, it is essential that the agency responsible for enforcing these laws be operational. Current and future vacancies on the NLRB, together with the uncertainty created by the D.C. Circuit’s recent Noel Canning decision, make it imperative that the Senate move quickly to consider the package of nominees.”

Breakfast Sides

Republican debt limit hostage plan taking shape. Politico: “In addition to hiking the debt limit, the legislation is likely to have three categories: spending cuts, a framework for tax reform and what will be called a ‘jobs’ element, which will include energy legislation, which would likely be a provision related to the Keystone XL pipeline.”

Bank of England official praises Brown-Vitter “too big to fail” reform bill reports HuffPost.

Over at The Week, I make the argument that presidential scandal politics usually fail to lift the political prospects of the party outside the White House. No party has reaped a political reward from pushing scandal since Nixon, yet both parties have repeatedly tried.

However, short of impeachment or electoral gains, opposition parties may be sated by simply using scandal to distract the President from advancing his agenda. But today, that doesn’t make sense. Republicans already have the numbers in Congress to block what they want. And the main item on Obama’s legislative agenda for the year is one that leading Republicans now support: immigration reform.

Furthermore, distraction cuts two ways. By flogging scandal, the opposition party risks distracting themselves from developing and selling their own governing philosophy and policy agenda. And Republicans are already in a deep intellectual hole, lacking an agenda that makes a break from failed Bushonomics and might be taken seriously by the public.

Republican might also want to ask themselves: do we really believe there’s any there there?

Does it even make sense that Obama would have lost re-election if he quickly blamed Al Qaeda for Benghazi, having already proven his counterterrorism bona fides?

Does it makes sense that an IRS managed by a Bush administration holdover would allow a plot to prevent Republicans from defeating Obama by deliberately targeting county-level Tea Party groups but blessed Karl Rove’s new machine with tax-exempt status?

Is it even a scandal for the Justice Department to apply current law and subpoena phone records in a sensitive national security leak investigation? Controversial and worthy of debate, but no heads are going to roll if it’s legal.

Meanwhile, there are real scandals out there: festering crises that demand policy solutions and government action. For example:

1. Carbon dioxide atmospheric levels hovering around 400 parts per million. Some argue that we need to be at 350 ppm to avoid the ill effects of global warming. But considering the rapid rate we are putting carbon in the air, and the difficulty involved in removing what is already in the air, we may literally never be able to get below 400, ever.

2. Our crumbling infrastructure needs $3.6 trillion just to reach a “state of good repair,” according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. That doesn’t even count what it would cost to build new modern infrastructure such as high-speed rail or a smart electric grid. One proposal, backed by President Obama, is to help get started is to launch an infrastructure bank, using small amounts federal seed money to attract big private investment. The approach has won the backing of both the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, but Republicans have failed to embrace it or propose any significant alternatives.

3. The top 1 percent in America holds 35 percent of the nation’s wealth. It was not always thus. Over the last 30 years, the top 1 percent has increased its wealth by 38%, while the bottom 60 percent has seen their wealth diminish. In other words, inequality has gotten worse. And that’s harmful for all of society. As one professor explains: “A wide range of social problems are worse in societies with bigger income differences between rich and poor. These include physical and mental illness, violence, low math and literacy scores among young people, lower levels of trust and weaker community life, poorer child well-being, more drug abuse, lower social mobility and higher rates of imprisonment and teenage births.”

4. More than 4 million Americans have been jobless for more than half a year. The long-term unemployment problem is not only devastating for those directly affect, it’s also a major drag on the recovery of the entire economy. Those out of the workforce for extended periods of time have a much harder time getting rehired than those briefly unemployed. We are risking the creation of a permanent underclass to care for instead of tapping our labor pool to the fullest extent possible.

5. Forty percent of America’s children between 3 and 5 are not enrolled any sort of preschool let alone a high-quality program that research shows can make a critical difference in their ability to perform well in school and find good jobs in later life. This is a major gap in the American promise of equal opportunity for all.

These are all massive problems with no easy fixes. You might think a major political party would have something to say about them, spend some time developing ideas to solve them, and seek to build public support for those ideas.

Or Republicans can chase Benghazi down the rabbit hole.

There are plenty of scandals out there to choose from. What a party chooses to focus on speaks volumes.

MORNING MESSAGE: Simpson-Bowles Austerity Gang, Go Home

OurFuture.org’s Richard Eskow: “A lot of liberals, like Josh Marshall, are celebrating the fact that the deficit is plummeting so rapidly. But it’s actually going down too quickly, in a way that undercuts long-term stability and growth … ‘Go big or go home,’ bellow Bowles and Simpson, and for once they’re right. Go home, all of you, and take the sequester with you. Then the grown-ups can start working on realways to fix the economy, with jobs and growth and other things that really work.”

Rifts Form In Immigration Reform

Tension between Dems and Rubio. The Hill: “Rubio caught fellow members of the Senate’s gang off guard Tuesday when he voiced support for an amendment sponsored by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the bill’s most outspoken opponent, to dramatically strengthen the system for tracking entry and exit visas. The Sessions measure was defeated … ‘He needs this bill to succeed as much as Democrats do. If this bill goes down, he goes down with it,’ warned a senior Democratic aide. ‘Rubio is overplaying his hand if he thinks we’ll go along with anything.’”

Sen. Orrin Hatch making demands to win his vote for immigration reform. Roll Call: “Hatch has offered a package of 24 amendments to the bill, and he wants to see some of them adopted before he will lend his support to the measure. But a few of Hatch’s proposals are within the jurisdiction of the Finance Committee, and that may make it difficult for Democrats to compromise with him.”

House GOPers may dissolve bipartisan working group. Politico: “Republicans in the House bipartisan immigration group are threatening to leave negotiations if they don’t come to an agreement Thursday … If the House does not come out with its own plan, it will make immigration reform a lot more difficult. The theory from Republican leadership was that the bipartisan group’s product would give the House GOP buy-in … The group has been hung up over how the legislation deals with the health care of newly documented workers and worker visas.”

Medicare Chief Confirmed

Senate actually confirms a nominee. NYT: “The Senate on Wednesday approved President Obama’s nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid, Marilyn B. Tavenner, providing the agency with its first confirmed chief in six and a half years … [She] will have a huge role in carrying out major provisions of the new health care law, including the expansion of Medicaid and the creation of marketplaces to sell subsidized private insurance.”

Another vote scheduled on CFPB nominee for next week. Reid warns of filibuster reform if blocked. TPM: “‘We’re going to fill that job. Cordray is there now. He’s going to get a vote.’ Reid wasn’t able to explain why he believes (or claims to believe) Cordray will ultimately be confirmed. But he alluded to the possibility that he may pursue a rules change mid-session. ‘Whether it’s Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton that’s the next president, I don’t think they should have to go through what we’ve gone through here,’ Reid said. ‘People better watch.’”

Senate cmte moves on labor nominees. WSJ: “First up will be a 9:15 a.m. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee vote on [Labor Sec nominee Tom] Perez … He is expected to clear the committee, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by two, but his fate before the full Senate remains cloudy … Afterwards, the committee plans a hearing on the pending nominations to the National Labor Relations Board … The five-slot board currently has just three members, the minimum needed to issue rulings and conduct most business. NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce’s term will expire in August, leaving the board without a quorum …”

New Clothing Maker Accepts Safety Agreement

Abercrombie & Fitch agrees to safety plan. NYT: “Under the legally enforceable plan, retailers and apparel companies have committed to having rigorous, independent factory inspections, and to helping underwrite any fire safety and building repairs needed to correct violations.”

Other garment companies considering running from factory problems instead of solving them. NYT: “Western executives are checking on potential new suppliers in southern Vietnam, central Cambodia and the hinterlands of Java in Indonesia. Yet safety problems could exist anywhere. The ceiling of a small factory that makes shoes in central Cambodia collapsed on Thursday morning, killing at least two people … Many multinationals are exploring their options in case street clashes and politically motivated national strikes worsen in Bangladesh … Garment manufacturing makes up a fifth of the economy in Bangladesh and four-fifths of its exports … desperately dependent on continued export orders to stave off soaring unemployment and possibly further political unrest.”

Breakfast Sides

Republicans can’t agree on a debt limit hostage plan. Roll Call: “They talked about balancing the budget in 10 years, repealing Obamacare, slashing spending and overhauling the tax code. In other words, the House Republican meeting Wednesday afternoon to brainstorm a path forward for dealing with the debt limit basically consisted of ‘a laundry list of everything imaginable,’ in the words of Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah.”

Apple will testify to Congress about offshore tax shelters. Politico: “The company recently avoided paying as much as $9.2 billion in taxes by buying back stock with debt instead of offshore cash, Bloomberg reported. Apple has a reported $100 billion in offshore funds.”

“Big Banks Get Break in Rules to Limit Risks” reports NYT: “…regulators initially planned to force asset managers like Vanguard and Pimco to contact at least five banks when seeking a price for a derivatives contract … [But] the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has agreed to lower the standard to two banks … [Chair Gary] Gensler, eager to rein in derivatives trading but lacking an elusive third vote, accepted the deal … Mr. Gensler said that, even with the compromise, the rule will still push private derivatives trading onto regulated trading platforms, much like stock trading. He also argued that the agency plans to adopt two other rules on Thursday that will subject large swaths of trades to regulatory scrutiny.”

The social safety net is still helping. ThinkProgress: “Nearly a third of the country’s population would be living on less than half of the median income without the social safety net, but taking it into account drops that number to 17.4 percent.”

MORNING MESSAGE: America’s Education Spring: A Growing Revolt Against ‘Reform’ Mandates

OurFuture.org’s Jeff Bryant: “… the resistance to top-down education mandates is building. The movement is propelled by forces far greater than what education journalists and policy leaders understand – widespread grievances about inequity, unfairness, and public disempowerment. The revolt is happening. The revolt is now.”

Deficit Shrinking, Health Care Costs Slowing

New CBO projection shows plummeting deficit. NYT: “Since the recession ended four years ago, thefederal budget deficit has topped $1 trillion every year. But now the government’s annual deficit is shrinking far faster than anyone in Washington expected, and perhaps even faster than many economists think is advisable for the health of the economy … the deficit for this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, will fall to about $642 billion, or 4 percent of the nation’s annual economic output, about $200 billion lower than the agency estimated just three months ago.”

CBO even projects slowdown in health care costs. WSJ: ” In 2012, federal spending for Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor was about 5% below what CBO had projected in March 2010. CBO has been more reluctant than some other analysts to conclude that this is a lasting downshift in health care spending growth, but gradually it has concluded that some of the slowdown will persist.”

“If this holds … the deficit will have been cut by more than half over Obama’s first five years” notes US News’ Pat Garofalo.

W. Monthly’s Ed Kilgore: “I must have missed the blaring MSM news coverage, and also the ticker-tape parade. But then I guess deficits are news only when they are going up.”

…Yet Nothing Changes

Conservatives push deep cuts in exchange for debt limit increase. Roll Call: “Looking to up the ante on debt limit negotiations, House conservatives will push to enact spending changes included in the House-passed budget in exchange for an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling … Rep. John Fleming, R-La., said that, for him and many members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, any deal to raise the debt ceiling would have to be tied to a budget that would balance in 10 years ‘at a minimum.’”

Republicans may still want a grand bargain. NYT: “…if Republicans take control of Congress and the White House in the next two elections … they would then shoulder the political responsibility for the inevitable pain that comes from curbing those huge and popular programs. Much as Republicans may dislike Mr. Obama and his policies, a Democratic president can provide them a measure of political cover … Without cuts in entitlement programs, which can only come through a deal with Mr. Obama, Republican leaders will have trouble making Congress do something they acknowledge it must do — raise the debt limit.”

Pentagon announces sequester furloughs. Politico: “Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told 680,000 civilian workers they’d have to stay home 11 days without pay. About 140,000 workers from other government agencies have already been given furlough notices. The number is expected to grow as more department heads make their own tough decisions…”

Immigration Reform Faces High-Tech Visas

High-tech visas delicate issue for immigration reform. Politico: “The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday largely kept intact an agreement on high-tech visas in the Gang of Eight immigration bill, making modest changes while defeating measures that would dramatically alter the compromise. But one major flash point remains … Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a major advocate for the tech industry, is viewed as a potential swing vote … But Hatch’s plans run right up against Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a top critic of H-1B visas and a Gang of Eight negotiator …”

“House bipartisan group at “impasse” reports Politico: “…top aides and lawmakers are unsure if they’ll ever come to the agreement they’ve sought for four years … Some Democrats and immigration reform advocates don’t want the House to move quickly. They are pressuring the group to slow down and wait until the Senate passes a bill before announcing a compromise, fearful that a conservative House bill would pull the reform effort to the right too soon.”

GOP Rep. Steve King deems immigration reform a plot to legalize new Democratic voters. CNN quotes: “[Democrats] are in the process of seeking to establish another monolithic voting bloc”

Breakfast Sides

Wal-Mart tied to Bangladesh factory disaster, pledges new safety measures. NYT: “Wal-Mart promised to stop production immediately at factories if urgent safety problems were uncovered and to notify factory owners and government authorities of improvements. But the company, the world’s largest retailer, stopped short of committing to help underwrite the improvements — one of the crucial aspects of the Bangladesh safety agreement adopted by European companies.”

Obama, GOP not far apart on student loan reform. McClatchy: “Congress now sets the rate, but a plan from House Republicans would base it on market rates instead. If it becomes law, subsidized loans – those that don’t accumulate interest while a student is in school – would have a higher interest rate next year. Unsubsidized loan rates would be lower. In the next five years, if interest rates rise as expected, student loans would cost more. The White House plan is similar, but would use a different formula than that set forth by House Republicans … Some House Democrats and student advocates say Congress should continue to set a low rate, at least for now.”

House GOP to hold 37th vote to gut ObamaCare. NYT: “…since 2011, Republicans have spent no less than 15 percent of their time on the House floor on repeal in some way.”

MORNING MESSAGE: Lift The Millstone of Student Debt That’s Slowing The Economy

OurFuture.org’s Isaiah J. Poole: “… if you or someone you know has had a hard time finding a job or selling a home, part of what you are experiencing is the effect that escalating college costs, combined with the weak employment and income prospects of college graduates, is having on the economy. This is a key reason why it is important to support Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s legislation to lower student interest rates to 0.75 percent, the same rate that the nation’s largest banks and private lenders pay to borrow money from the government.”

Jobs Scandal Continues

The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson explores why Washington is ignoring long-term unemployment: “‘m paid to spend my day reading economic papers and asking people to explain their conclusions. Spending my time this way has persuaded me that long-term unemployment is a national emergency … Politicians have a slightly different information diet. They spend more time gleaning information from lobbyists and rich donors … The centrality of big money in politics makes it nearly impossible for an issue like long-term unemployment to buy a sliver of mindshare.”

“This is no time to cut food stamps” argues NYT edit board: “…a proposed $4.1 billion cut in food stamps in an omnibus farm bill [is] heading toward Senate agriculture committee vote … Yet food stamps are already scheduled to take a hit when increases approved in the 2009 economic recovery act expire in November. The $4.1 billion reduction would result in an average cut of $90 per month for nearly 500,000 households nationwide … Allowing cuts in food stamps is the wrong position fiscally and morally, and a terrible strategy for beginning negotiations with the House.”

“Sequestration Batters Schools On Military Bases And Native American Reservations” reports ThinkProgress: “As sequestration went into effect in March, some lawmakers argued that the impact of the cuts would not be as immediate as had been claimed, as they would take place over a matter of years. But there are some areas that felt the impact immediately. One of those is schools on military bases or Native American reservations.”

Immigration Reform Faces Next Challenge

“Gang of 8 looks to defend guest worker plan” reports Politico: “This week, the gang will have to fend off amendments from both the right and left to fiddle with the program, either to appease businesses or insert stronger protections for labor. Much as they did with border security measures last week, the four members of the gang on the Judiciary Committee, who brokered the immigration deal will aim to band together and defeat changes that could prove fatal to the overall bill.”

Farmers want immigration reform to increase crop production, reports Bloomberg: “Farmers now have reasons to plant new crops … Produce buyers are seeking multiple sources to shield against regional crop failures, and the popularity of locally grown food has fueled a 150 percent surge in the number of farmers markets … A lack of workers can impede taking advantage of those opportunities, farmers say. Declining rural populations leave fewer kids at home to help in the harvest …”

Breakfast Sides

Amtrak earns record ticket revenue, invests in new locomotives. AP: “More than 31 million passengers rode Amtrak in the 2012 fiscal year, generating a record $2.02 billion in ticket revenue. Amtrak said it will be able to pay back a $466 million federal loan for the locomotives over 25 years using net profits from the Northeast Corridor line, where ridership hit a record high last year for the ninth time in 10 years.”

Democrats reconsider filibuster reform via simply majority vote. The Hill: “The option … was raised during a private meeting Wednesday involving about 25 Democratic senators and a group of labor leaders … Reid told a group of Democratic donors at an event hosted by venture capitalist John Doerr in San Francisco in late April that he is seriously mulling another attempt at filibuster reform, according to a person briefed on the meeting.”

MORNING MESSAGE: Help Elizabeth Warren Get Students the Same Rates as the Big Banks

OurFuture.org’s Robert Borosage: “On July 1, interest rates on student loans will double, jumping to 6.8%, according to current law. While the Big Banks are now enjoying interest rates of almost zero. Enter Elizabeth Warren with her first bill as a Senator: It solves the problem by giving students the same rock-bottom interest rates as the big banks. That’s why the Campaign for America’s Future is joining with Daily Kos to help get it passed. Click here to tell your Senators: Co-sponsor Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Bank of Student Loan Fairness Act.”

Grand Bargained Out

“A rosier economic outlook” reduces pressure on Congress for grand bargain, reports The Hill: “With increased federal revenues reducing the deficit, pushing a debt-ceiling showdown beyond the summer and into the autumn, lawmakers have been debating gun control and immigration … [However,] economic improvement may mask any damage done by the sequester and make it harder for appropriators to undo those much-maligned indiscriminate cuts.”

“It is time for President Obama to abandon his hopes of reaching a grand budget bargain with Republicans” says NYT edit board: “For years, the party has demanded entitlement cuts, but the moment the president actually offered one, he was attacked … Instead of negotiation, Republicans cling to their strategy of extorting budget demands by threatening not to raise the debt ceiling … Only when the Republican Party feels public pressure to become a serious partner can the real work of governing begin.”

“Renewed drive to ease sequester” reports Politico: “The shortlist for the next round of possible sequester saves includes cancer patients, medical researchers, hungry seniors, poor people and pre-schoolers … Whether any one proposal has a shot at becoming law requires a confluence of events. It needs bipartisan support and at least some semblance of a spending offset to cover the costs.”

Austerity Kills

Austerity is increasing the suicide rate and worsening health, argues David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu in NYT oped: “Countries that slashed health and social protection budgets, like Greece, Italy and Spain, have seen starkly worse health outcomes than nations like Germany, Iceland and Sweden, which maintained their social safety nets and opted for stimulus over austerity.”

“Europe Tries to Boost Economy After Pressure From U.S.” reports Bloomberg: “The bloc’s finance ministers and central bankers left weekend talks of the Group of Seven signaling that they’re poised to scale back austerity, are open to increased monetary aid and looking to unfreeze bank lending … Still in doubt for economists is what kind of stimulus will actually be delivered …”

Prof. Robert Pollin tells Real News Network it’s time to stop talking about the discredited Reinhart-Rogoff paper: “Maybe it’s time we just stop talking about their paper altogether … Let’s get back to talking about austerity … We’ve been in a recovery for four years, and there’s 21 and a half million people who are unemployed or underemployed … this, quote, economic recovery has been so skewed to benefit the rich that the gains in income over this four years since we’ve had a, quote, recovery have been going entirely to the top 1 percent…”

Breakfast Sides

Bangladesh pledges to increase garment worker pay. WSJ: “Workers’ groups say the current $38-per-month minimum wage, half of Cambodia’s, is barely enough to scrape by on … Bangladesh’s textile minister, Abdul Latif Siddiqui, said the government will soon start talks with labor groups and factory owners to agree on a new minimum wage … Wages are unlikely to go much higher. Factory owners, who oppose the hike, say they can’t afford to pay significantly more to workers because Western consumers have become accustomed to cheap clothing.”

Maligned firm handling foreclosure settlement payouts to face Congress. WSJ: “Lawmakers and federal bank regulators are stepping up scrutiny of a consulting firm that twice bungled payments to consumers in a foreclosure-abuse settlement … To critics, the problems with incorrect checks are the latest evidence that regulators haven’t done enough to oversee consulting firms hired to examine banks’ mistakes and compensate consumers.”

MORNING MESSAGE: “60 Minutes” And America’s Billionaires Want Us to Beg

OurFuture.org’s Richard Eskow: “’60 Minutes’ was once a shining light of independent journalism. Now it’s a covert mouthpiece for the far-right, anti-government values of the Peterson crowd. Once it spoke to, and for, a majority whose interests it fought to defend. Now it represents an atavistically self-centered billionaire class which expects flattery from its subjects whenever it deigns to take notice of their misery. CBS News, I want my hour back.”

Declining Deficit Quiets Grand Bargain Talk

Shrinking deficit reduces pressure for “grand bargain.” WSJ: “…thanks to the improved fiscal picture, analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other firms believe the Treasury Department can maneuver until September or October without congressional help … the evaporation of the summer debt-ceiling deadline has removed any sense of urgency. Neither party now sees incentives to offer concessions and feels no pressure to act soon, several lawmakers said.”

The deficit is “melting away” from a gusher of tax revenue. Daily Beast’s Daniel Gross: “Payroll taxes were raised substantially on January 1, 2013, from 4.2 percent of the first $133,700 to 6.2 percent. And higher taxes on the investment and regular income of very high earners went into effect as well. What’s more, in anticipation of the higher taxes, companies in 2012 shoveled dividends and bonuses out the door in late 2012. In the first few months of 2013, especially in April, people had to pay tax on all that income … the bailed-out government sponsored mortgage companies Fannie and Freddie Mac have become cash cows. Owned by the taxpayers, they are forced to turn over their profits to the government each quarter. And with the housing market recovering, they’re doing quite well …”

No sequester relief for low-income families. Bloomberg: ” At least $80 billion in reductions under a process known as sequestration are curtailing funding for AIDS drugs, help for returning military troops and projects for low-income families who don’t have clout in Congress. Although lawmakers last month approved an emergency measure to bring an end to air-traffic controller furloughs that sparked flight delays, there is little reason to expect that other cuts will be reversed …”

Immigration Bill Withstands First Conservative Assault

“Immigration bill survives first day of debate in Senate committee” reports LAT: “After eight hours of debate, the bipartisan Senate immigration bill emerged mostly intact Thursday, despite Republican-led efforts to make substantial alterations … By day’s end, senators had dispatched with 32 of 300 proposed amendments.”

More from W. Post: “…the committee adopted 21 amendments, including eight offered by Republicans. Among them was a measure from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), one of the fiercest critics of the bill, that expanded a requirement that the government apprehend 90 percent of people attempting to cross the border illegally from just high-risk sectors to the entire Southwest border. Democrats, and two Republicans on the committee who helped negotiate the legislation, hailed the results as evidence that they were committed to a bipartisan process…”

Obama Touts Wage Hike

Obama pushes minimum wage increase at Texas stop. The Hill: “In a 20-minute speech at a technology school outside of Austin, Texas, Obama — who has been focused on the gun control and immigration debates in recent days — promoted his idea of raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour, as well as increasing spending on education, worker training programs and manufacturing-innovation centers.”

Wave of fast-food worker strikes comes to Detroit. W. Post: “The strike in Detroit … follows similar labor actions that hobbled fast-food restaurants and prominent retailers in New York, Chicago and, this week, St. Louis. In these cities, the unusual coalition of workers, who traditionally have not been unionized, took to the streets to complain about low pay and what they call often-shabby treatment by their employers.”

Breakfast Sides

Former WH aide Nancy Ann-DeParle defends ObamaCare implementation in W. Post oped: “Large-scale change is never easy. But recent health-care reforms have outperformed their critics. When the Affordable Care Act does the same, Obamacare will have completed its journey from a pitched partisan battle to a national point of pride.”

Republicans block committee vote on EPA nominee. W. Post: “All eight Republican members of the Committee on Environment and Public Works did not appear for a vote that would likely have moved nominee Gina McCarthy’s selection to the full Senate … Under Senate rules, a committee can vote on a nominee if 10 members constituting a majority confirm that they will be present and vote in the affirmative, a committee spokesman said. Democrats hold a 10-to-8 majority on the panel. A vote will be rescheduled soon with all 10 Democrats present.”

Earlier this week, I noted that the Republican plan to take the debt limit hostage to demand unspecified tax reform at a future date was too ridiculous to be believed.

But that battle plan looks like the Invasion of Normandy compared to the latest Keystone Kops scheme the Republicans floated to Politico today: hold the debt limit hostage for the “kitchen sink” full of “conservative goodies.”

The plan is simple: craft a debt ceiling hike onto a bill loaded with tons of conservative goodies to put lots of options on the table to garner 218 GOP votes.

Options being floated internally include language approving the Keystone XL pipeline, slashing regulations with the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act and additional spending cuts — perhaps even a framework for tax reform.

To make it even more attractive to voters back home, they’d frame it as a so-called job-creation bill. Basically, anything they could say creates jobs has a chance of landing in this legislative package.

There’s also real effort from the right — supported by leadership — to forestall Obama’s health care law in the fight to lift the debt ceiling.

To call this absurd would be an insult to Absurdists.

For Republicans to actually hold the debit limit hostage, threatening the stability of the entire global economy, for a slapdash wingnut wish list that has nothing to do with debt is the political equivalent of suicide by cop — an entire party running out of the house, waving weapons frantically in the air, racing into throng of armed voters in hopes of being blissfully annihilated, ending the pain and misery of actually having to govern, then buried in an unmarked grave next to the Whigs.

To repeat myself from Monday, this is so unbelievable, I don’t believe it.

Once again, we have a party leadership that deep down understands that more debt limit chicken is no path to regaining majority status (remember the Republicans temporarily suspended the debt limit in February, for fear of taking the blame for economic disaster). Yet the leadership is still stuck with a rank-and-file detached from political and policy reality, and needs to posture for as long as possible to avoid primary challenges.

Republicans are too afraid to force a real showdown over what they were claiming threatens American’s fiscal stability — Social Security and Medicare. And Republicans are too afraid to tell their right-wing base voters that we have to increase the debt limit to pay the bills Congress has already spent the money on. So they are scurrying around to come up with something, anything, to serve as a ransom.

But the public lurching from one proposed ransom to the next exposes the pathetic state of the Republican Party, incapable of unifying around a reasonable position. Politico describes the division:

The approach of slapping a number of conservative ideas together represents one pole — the other approach is embodied in what Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) is pushing toward. Camp, with the tacit support of Ryan, has been advocating tying tax reform to the debt ceiling — an approach that has drawn skeptics and supporters in GOP leadership. Conservatives are skeptical of that as well.

The last time Republicans were this divided, it was during the fiscal cliff talks. They caved then, too.

MORNING MESSAGE: Pass The Warren Student Loan Bill

OurFuture.org’s Robert Borosage: “…we are enthusiastically endorsing the first bill introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), which would lower student loan interest rates for one year to 0.75 percent, the same rate at which the government loans money to the banks through the Federal Reserve discount window. Student loan interest rates will double to 6.8 percent on July 1 without action. By linking the interest rates students pay to the interest rates big banks pay, the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act would insure that every qualified student can afford the education that he or she has earned.”

Obama Launches Jobs Tour

President Obama kicks off “Middle Class Jobs & Opportunity Tour” today in Austin: “Obama will launch competitions for three new ‘Manufacturing Innovation Institutes,’ … to invest in the development and growth of technologies that help U.S.-based manufacturers … In a second action, Obama will issue an executive order Thursday designed to make previously inaccessible data easily available to entrepreneurs, researchers and others trying to develop new products and services … [The White House] said ‘these steps are not a substitute for the bold Congressional action we need to create jobs and grow the economy, but they’ll make a difference.’”

Dallas Morning News’ Wayne Slater explains why the tour starts in Texas: “… the president wants to frame the two poles of our broken policy debate this way: Obama’s White House (compromise) vs. Cruz-type Republicans (obstruction) … The trip is the first in a series of day trips aimed at rallying support outside Washington against a Congress the president says ‘won’t behave.’”

While House Republicans float yet another debt limit hostage ransom. Politico: “…the top idea bouncing around GOP leadership is casually being referred to as a catch-all, kitchen sink plan … craft a debt ceiling hike onto a bill loaded with tons of conservative goodies to put lots of options on the table to garner 218 GOP votes. Options being floated internally include language approving the Keystone XL pipeline, slashing regulations with the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act and additional spending cuts — perhaps even a framework for tax reform.”

“Economists See Deficit Emphasis as Impeding Recovery” reports NYT: “The nation’s unemployment rate would probably be nearly a point lower, roughly 6.5 percent, and economic growth almost two points higher this year if Washington had not cut spending and raised taxes as it has since 2011, according to private-sector and government economists … The more recent austerity policies here are helping to bring annual deficits down … Yet many analysts would prefer that the measures had been timed for when the economy is strong and unemployment below 7 percent.”

Immigration Bill Faces Rough Road In Committee

Senate Judiciary Committee begins amendment process for immigration bill. Time: “[Chairman Pat] Leahy has given some clues about how he will sequence the committee’s work, which he hopes will wrap up by the end of the month before heading to the full Senate in June. First the committee will address the technical glitches in the legislation, followed by consideration of its ‘triggers’ — the security standards that have to be met before immigrants can embark on the path to legal status and then citizenship. Next come amendments that focus on border security, followed by immigrant visas and enforcement. If they want to preserve the bill’s bipartisan backing and win over converts, Democrats can’t swat away all Republican amendments.”

Republicans on committee trying to “gut the bill” reports Politico: “…only a fraction [of their amendments] even stand a chance of nabbing the panel’s blessing. But the attacks leveled by Republicans over the next three weeks are aimed at weakening the bill as it heads to the Senate floor, where the GOP hopes its ideas can gain traction. Republicans opposed to the Gang of Eight’s bill will try to score points during the markup by highlighting what they see as serious flaws in the legislation.”

Rubio signals support for changes to Senate immigration bill. Roll Call: “Changes Rubio would support include … mandating that specific portions of the southwest border be fenced with double-layered fencing … increase the number of background checks that immigrants are subject to … go after immigrants who commit welfare fraud …”