MORNING MESSAGE: What’s Wrong With Jamie Dimon is What’s Wrong With America

OurFuture.org’s Richard Eskow: “After today’s shareholder votes at JPMorgan Chase, Mark Gongloff is right to describe Dimon as a ‘cult leader.’ … But that’s not the end of the story. It’s too easy to externalize responsibility by pinning the blame on villains. … The Jamie Dimon story shows that something more fundamental needs repair – in our economy, in our society, in us.”

Immigration Reform Clears Committee, Stings Labor

Bipartisan immigration reform bill clears committee. Time: “The Senate committee debating a landmark immigration bill approved the bipartisan measure on Tuesday night, voting 13 to 5 to send the amended package to the floor. Ten Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee joined with three Republicans, including two of the four GOP authors of the bill, in support of a sweeping deal that would open a path to citizenship for some 11 million undocumented immigrants, beef up border security and refashion the clunky U.S. immigration system.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch secures amendment helping tech firms win visa battle over unions. W. Post: “The compromise amendment lifts the requirement that companies first offer tech jobs to Americans for all firms except those that depend on foreigners for more than 15 percent of their workforce and relaxes the formula for determining the annual number of foreign high-tech workers.”

AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka vows to fight tech visa change on Senate floor. The Hill quotes: “Hatch’s amendments change the bill so that high tech companies could functionally bring in H-1B visa holders without first making the jobs available to American workers. Hatch’s amendments would mean that American corporations could fire American workers in order to bring in H-1B visa holders at lower wages.”

No Republican filibuster planned. The Hill: “Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Tuesday said he would not try to block immigration reform from reaching the floor despite the opposition of some conservative leaders … While McConnell stopped short of pledging his support for the legislation, he praised the Gang of Eight’s work and said he is ‘hopeful’ of passing a comprehensive immigration fix through the Senate.”

But more Republican concessions eyed. Roll Call: “…though the deal worked to secure Hatch’s backing for the immigration framework in committee, he and other Republicans are demanding more concessions before they back a final bill on the Senate floor. ‘I am going to vote this bill out of committee because I’ve committed to do that once this amendment passes,’ Hatch told his colleagues … ‘But make no mistake about it, those other four amendments that are Finance Committee amendments, we are going to reserve them for the floor, but I’ve got to get those or we’ll never pass those bills.’”

Apple Faces Senate

Senate hearing goes light on Apple CEO Tim Cook. TNR: “His interrogators seemed eager to prove how much they use Apple products … The problem, for [subcommittee Chair Sen. Carl] Levin, was that he made no determination that the company did anything illegal. He berated Cook for doing exactly what Congress has allowed it to do, by failing to update its tax code for a world where capital is mobile and intellectual property is more valuable than physical property.”

ThinkProgress offers “How To Close The Loopholes That Made Apple’s Tax-Dodging Completely Legal”: “[Economist Alan] Auerbach suggests that multinational companies pay their taxes only in the countries that use their products, so that moving money across borders doesn’t alter the taxes they owe in any given country. Tim Fernholz of Quartz explains that Auerbach’s idea strips ‘the ability to move US profits overseas’ artificially, as present law has encouraged Apple to do. With a few other tweaks, this could make it more attractive to invest in the U.S.”

Some corporate cash, parked offshore to avoid taxes, actually in US banks. NYT: “Apple’s $102 billion in offshore profits is actually managed by one of its wholly owned subsidiaries in Reno, Nev., according to the Senate report on the company’s tax avoidance. The money is tracked by Apple company bookkeepers in Austin, Tex. What’s more, the funds are held in bank accounts in New York. Because the $102 billion is technically assigned to two Irish subsidiaries, however, the United States tax code considers the money to be under foreign control, and Apple is legally entitled to avoid paying taxes on it. Tax experts say that such an arrangement is not uncommon among American multinationals.”

Fed Presses Europe To Quit Austerity

Fed Reserve member presses European central bank to adopt monetary stimulus. NYT: “The public comments were highly unusual. While central bankers from different countries frequently confer in private and offer advice and criticism to their peers behind closed doors, it is rare for any official to go public with even the mildest criticism of another central bank … The European Central Bank has given no signals that it is seriously considering quantitative easing.”

Keynesians winning the argument, to no avail, notes NYT’s Eduardo Porter: “For despite all this intellectual firepower, governments across the industrial world are zealously tightening their belts. The Italian government has cut its annual budget deficit to 3 percent of G.D.P. last year from 5.5 percent in 2009, and the Irish government has slashed it to 7.6 percent from 13.9 percent. In Britain … the government of Prime Minister David Cameron reduced the deficit to 6.3 percent of G.D.P. last year, down from 11.5 percent in 2009 … The German government is running a budget surplus. And despite the public’s belief that Washington is engaged in a spending spree, the deficit in the United States narrowed to 7 percent of G.D.P. in 2012 from 10.1 percent in 2009.”

“Sequester Part 2″ coming in January. The Hill: “Unless President Obama and congressional leaders reach a deficit grand bargain, experts say Congress is on track to put most spending on autopilot with another continuing resolution.

Amendment to protect food stamps from cuts fails on Senate Floor reports HuffPost.

Sens. Paul and McCain have floor flight over debt limit. Roll Call: “Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine joined Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., on the floor in support of going to conference without imposing special mandates on conferees. McCain objected to a bid by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to require that Senate budget negotiators not provide for an increase in the debt limit … Allowing a debt limit increase through budget reconciliation would require agreement from House GOP budget conferees, which would be led by Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis. McCain highlighted that point during a floor exchange with Collins. ‘Isn’t that a little bit bizarre?’ McCain asked Collins.”

On the menu this morning

MORNING MESSAGE: The Latest Lie – IRS Targeted Conservatives

The Bite of Apple: Worming Through Tax Loopholes

Homeowners Arrested; Say Bankers Should Have Been

Good Deficit News Bad News for Right

Latest Immigration Bill Twists

Breakfast Sides

MORNING MESSAGE: The Latest Lie – IRS Targeted Conservatives

http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130520/the-latest-lie-irs-targeted-conservatives “The corporate media is blasting out the story that the IRS “targeted conservative groups.” Some in the media say there was “IRS harassment of conservative groups.” Some of the media are going so far as claiming that conservative groups were “audited.” This story that is being repeated and treated as “true” is just not what happened at all. It is one more right-wing victimization fable, repeated endlessly until the public has no choice except to believe it.” Continue reading

The Bite of Apple: Worming Through Tax Loopholes

“Senate investigators find Apple employs elaborate tax avoidance scheme. Time: “The world’s most valuable company is holding overseas some $102 billion of its $145 billion in cash, and an Irish subsidiary that earned $22 billion in 2011 paid only $10 million in taxes … The strategies Apple uses are legal, and many other multinational corporations use similar tax techniques to avoid paying U.S. income taxes on profits they reap overseas. But Apple uses a unique twist … Apple capitalizes on a difference between U.S. and Irish rules regarding tax residency…”

Apple tax avoidance strategy “went beyond anything most experts had ever seen” reports NYT.

“Apple prepares for Washington onslaught” at hearing today, reports Politico: “Apple isn’t taking any chances with senators looking to embarrass CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday at a hearing on the tech giant’s offshore $100 billion stash … Apple has turned to a top Washington law firm for help, O’Melveny & Myers – veterans at trying to keep big companies out of trouble, like Enron, Ford and Goldman Sachs.”

Homeowners Arrested; Say Bankers Should Have Been

District and federal law enforcement officials arrested 17 people at the Justice Department Monday. The Washington Post: “About 100 protesters with groups called the Home Defenders League and Occupy Our Homes marched on the building about 2 p.m. … ‘A couple months ago, Eric Holder said banks are too big to prosecute,” [Jason Collette, a protester,] said. “We think that is fundamentally wrong.’” …

Campaign for Fair Settlement launches “Week of Action” to pressure Justice Department to “prosecuting the bankers who destroyed our economy.

Foreclosure victims arrested in Justice Dept. protest. ThinkProgress: “…a group of activists and foreclosed homeowners marched on the Justice building in downtown Washington, D.C. … protesters moved past a police barricade and attempted to establish a sit-in, at which point police began arresting homeowners and activists.”

OurFuture.org’s Jas Sajjan talks to homeowners who showed up at the protest.

Good Deficit News Bad News for Right

The “deficit scolds” aren’t happy that the deficit is down, notes Paul Krugman: “You’re Bowles/Simpson, with a lucrative and ego-satisfying business of going around the country delivering ominous talks about The Deficit; you’re an employee of one of the many Pete Peterson front groups; and now, all of a sudden, the deficit is receding, and you had nothing to do with it. It’s a disaster!”

W. Post’s Jamelle Bouie reminds cutting the deficit never was what Republicans really wanted: “…Obama and Congress have already taken three major actions to deal with the deficit … [But] the GOP was never really interested in a ‘grand bargain’ to take debt and deficits off the table. Rather, as evidenced by the rhetoric of many Congressional Republican, the real goal was to dismantle the social safety net with aggressive cuts. At the moment, that hasn’t been successful.”

“Projected Medicare and Medicaid Spending Has Fallen by $900 Billion” notes CBPP.

Latest Immigration Bill Twists

Immigration deal with Sen. Orrin Hatch, favoring tech companies over labor concerns, may be near. NYT: “…behind-the-scenes negotiating and arm-twisting picked up in earnest, with Mr. Schumer’s office taking the lead in trying to work out an agreement with Mr. Hatch … By late Monday night, Senate aides said, Mr. Hatch was closing in on a deal with the bipartisan group, and was expected to offer his high-tech amendments on Tuesday.”

“Rubio breaks with Dems on immigration bill’s asylum, student visa provisions” reports The Hill: “Rubio was dismayed the Senate Judiciary Committee defeated an amendment sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to halt proposed changes until a coordinated review detailing the intelligence and immigration failures [related to the Boston bomb attack] was submitted to Congress by the inspectors general of the relevant agencies … Rubio plans to address the issue after the Judiciary Committee’s markup.”

But bill is withstanding committee process. Time: “Slow but sure seems to be working for the supporters of the Senate’s immigration bill. With Washington distracted by scandals large and small, the Senate Judiciary Committee continued to chew its way through amendments to the bipartisan measure … The Judiciary Committee is hoping to wrap up its work as early as Wednesday night.”

Breakfast Sides

More seniors are living in poverty than previously thought. Politico reports on a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis: “The estimate, which takes into account health spending and regional cost of living, finds 1 in 7 seniors lives in poverty. It was previously thought that just 1 in 10 did. … under some proposals to reform Medicare, these poverty levels would keep climbing. “Under the supplemental poverty measure, which deducts health spending from income, poverty rates could increase if beneficiaries were required to pay higher cost sharing or premiums for Medicare,” the analysis states.”

Labor unions express unease with Obamacare implementation. The Hill: “A variety of unions are publicly balking at how the administration plans to implement the landmark law. … Many UFCW members have what are known as multi-employer or Taft-Hartley plans. According to the administration’s analysis of the Affordable Care Act, the law does not provide tax subsidies for the roughly 20 million people covered by the plans. Union officials argue that interpretation could force their members to change their insurance and accept more expensive and perhaps worse coverage in the state-run exchanges. … [S]ome employers won’t have the incentive to keep their workers’ multi-employer plans without tax subsidies.”

U.S.-China summit set for next month. NYT: “President Obama plans to meet President Xi Jinping of China next month for the first time since Mr. Xi’s installation as the leader of the world’s most populous nation, as the two leaders try to establish a working relationship on critical issues like North Korea, the global economy and allegations of state-sponsored cyber attacks…”

Gov. Chris Christie joins the climate change deniers. Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky: “It wasn’t so long ago that Christie spoke like a rational person on these matters … [But now, when Christie was asked should] New Jersey have prepared with climate change in mind? No, the governor said, ’cause I don’t think there’s been any proof thus far that Sandy was caused by climate change.’ It’s that ‘proof’ that’s the giveaway. No proof is what the science deniers say.”

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.

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: 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.”

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 …”

MORNING MESSAGE: Stop High Stakes “Common Core” Testing

OurFuture.org’s Jeff Bryant: “Ratcheting education standards ever higher at the same time we cut supports that schools and students need to reach those standards never made any sense to begin with. And the value placed on testing isn’t yielding the return promised in terms of significantly better results for children and improved evaluations of teachers and schools. Nevertheless, new tests with even higher stakes are being rolled out across the country … But curriculum materials aligned to the new tests are generally not available for teachers, and educators complain they’ve not been trained in how to teach to the new standards.”

Deficit Down

Budget deficit slashed after “fiscal cliff” tax deal. CNN: “The annual deficit has fallen 32% over the first seven months of this fiscal year compared with same period last year, according to Congressional Budget Office figures … Tax collections rose by $220 billion — or 16% — between the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1 through April 30 … The tax haul rose sharply primarily because wages and salaries were higher, the payroll tax cut of the past two years expired on Jan. 1 and the fiscal cliff deal brokered over New Year’s raised tax rates on high earners.”

Declining deficit reduces pressure for “grand bargain.” W. Post: “The sunnier outlook means that President Obama will be able to pay the nation’s bills for months without seeking additional borrowing authority from Congress — probably until Oct. 1, according to independent forecasts. That might seem like good news, but it is unraveling Republican plans to force a budget deal before Congress takes its August break.”

Republicans Can’t Decide On Ransom

Republicans can’t agree on why they should take the debt limit hostage. The Hill: “Some Republicans say … they’ll need spending cuts as well as tax reform to raise the debt ceiling. Others in the conference say that only the full enactment of tax reform will be enough to raise the nation’s borrowing limit and that incremental progress toward completing tax reform is not enough … The problem with that stance is that finishing off a tax overhaul by October — about the time officials expect the debt limit will need to be raised — would be a monumental tas
k.”

W. Post edit board wants carbon tax as part of tax reform: “…Republicans should want to replace economy-sapping taxes on labor or business in return for a much more efficient tax on pollution. Democrats should be pushing for some of the revenue to pump up programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit to ensure the carbon tax doesn’t sting consumers, particularly those least able to afford it.”

Speaker Boehner expresses opposition to Senate online sales tax bill. WSJ: “‘Probably not,’ Mr. Boehner told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, when asked whether he could support an online sales tax bill that has cleared the U.S. Senate. ‘Listen, I just think that moving this bill where you’ve got 50 different sales tax codes, it’s a mess out there. And what you’re doing is you’re going to make it much more difficult for online retailers to be able to comply.’”

Immigration Bill Faces Slew Of Amendments

300 amendments filed to Senate bill. W. Post: “The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin considering the amendments Thursday, and the fate of the 844-page bill will be tested by a process that is likely to stretch through several days of hearings in coming weeks. Immigration advocates fear that an extended amendment process will derail the legislation by breaking apart a fragile, bipartisan coalition of eight senators that negotiated the package over several months.”

“Conservatives Expect Immigration Bill to Move Right” reports Roll Call: “Conservatives exiting a private meeting with Sen. Marco Rubio to discuss immigration reform predicted that legislation pending before Congress would move significantly to the right as it proceeds toward President Barack Obama’s desk.”

Sen. Rubio slams Heritage study on immigration. NYT: “‘Their argument is based on a single premise, which I think is flawed,’ he said. ‘That is these people are disproportionately poor because they have no education and they will be poor for the rest of their lives in the U.S. Quite frankly, that’s not the immigration experience in the U.S. That’s certainly not my family’s experience in the U.S.’”

Breakfast Sides

Obama administration releases hospital price data, exposes widespread discrepancies. HuffPost: “Administration officials said they offered up the data with hopes that its release would administer a market corrective, forcing hospitals to take greater heed of competitors while arming ordinary people with information they could use to seek a better deal. The data could also spur health insurance companies to negotiate with hospitals to seek lower prices.”

NLRB rule protecting union rights struck down by federal appeals court. NYT: “A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down a National Labor Relations Board rule requiring most private sector employers to post a notice informing employees of their right to unionize … the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concluded that the N.L.R.B.’s rule violated a federal law that bars the board from punishing an employer for expressing its views so long as those statements do not constitute threats of retaliation or force … ‘The Republican judges of the D.C. Circuit continue to wreak havoc on workers’ rights,’ [AFL-CIO] president, Richard L. Trumka, said.”

Sen. Warren worries that trade talks could undermine bank regs. Politico: “Warren didn’t detail which rules could be weakened through trade deals [with Asia and Europe], but some consumer advocates have warned they could provide new avenues for corporations to appeal regulations at home and abroad and have questioned whether trade agreements could limit the ability of countries to ban certain financial transactions or instruments.”

MORNING MESSAGE: Good Jobs – The Challenge of Rebuilding the Middle Class

OurFuture.org’s Robert Borosage: “This week, President Obama will travel to Austin, Texas to call for action on jobs. The proposals the president put forth in his State of the Union address – investing in infrastructure, expanding preschool, bolstering manufacturing assistance centers, raising the minimum wage – have been blocked in the Congress, and disappeared from the public debate … The president wants to revive his jobs agenda while still touting the economic recovery … [But] the fact that the economy is ‘steadily healing’ back to the old economy is the problem, not the solution.”

With ObamaCare Working, GOP Plans New Attack

GOP plots new attack on ObamaCare. NYT: “…this fall, just as the 2014 election season heats up, is the deadline for introducing the law’s core feature: the insurance marketplaces, known as exchanges, where millions of uninsured Americans can buy coverage, with subsidies for many. For the third time, Republicans are trying to make the law perhaps the biggest issue of the elections, and are preparing to exploit every problem that arises.”

Health reform on track to help save $770B through 2021. Bloomberg: “The changes include greater use of generic drugs, higher out-of-pocket costs and more efficient care, a trend encouraged by the 2010 health-care overhaul, said David Cutler, a Harvard University health economist. If they permanently slow growth, the U.S. may reap $770 billion in unexpected savings from projected expenditures by 2021, wiping out a fifth of the budget deficit …”

GOP Divide On Immigration Widens

Flimsy Heritage study divides GOP on immigration. The Hill: “Congressional Republicans were riven Monday by a report from a conservative group that estimated it would cost $6.3 trillion to give legal status to the estimated 11 million immigrants in the nation illegally … Americans for Tax Reform, headed by anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist, and the Cato Institute criticized Heritage for using a static budgetary scoring model after years of promoting dynamic scoring to estimate the cost of proposed tax cuts.”

Conservatives plan amendments to derail immigration bill. NYT: “With the committee expected to spend at least three weeks on the legislation, Republican critics could offer hundreds of amendments to try to reshape the overhaul. They include proposals that could lengthen the timeline for a pathway to citizenship and that could tamper with an already fragile deal negotiated between business and labor groups for a guest worker program.”

Breakfast Sides

Bipartisan bill to allow states to tax online retail clears Senate, faces House. Reuters: “The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 69 to 27 to back the measure, which pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc and cash-hungry state governments against such Web retailers as eBay Inc and Republicans wary of new tax measures … Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, a Republican, has reservations about the legislation, including its complexity and potential impact on small businesses, a spokeswoman said. Goodlatte has yet to schedule any hearings on it …”

“Red-State Democrats Buck Obama On Social Security Cuts” reports HuffPost: “The majority of Senate Democrats running for reelection in 2014, including three running in red states, have broken with President Barack Obama and are opposing his effort to cut Social Security benefits, imperiling the austerity project known as the ‘grand bargain.’”

Rep. George Miller calls on fashion industry to sign international safety agreement, in WWD oped: “The death toll in Bangladesh’s garment industry is staggering, with 1,000 dead over the past several years … American consumers and leaders in the fashion industry have a moral imperative to ensure that these tragedies do not happen again. The only way forward for the global brands to improve conditions and worker safety is an effective, enforceable and binding commitment. That is why I have asked a number of retailers and brands to join together and sign the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement, developed by nongovernmental organizations to prevent these types of disasters from occurring.”

Dems eye swing districts to retake House. Bloomberg: “Democrats need to take a net 17 seats to gain control of the chamber. In the 2012 election, there were 17 districts that voted to re-elect President Barack Obama and then switched parties to back a House Republican … capturing them will mean winning more than twice the eight seats they netted in the 2012 election. It also means defeating incumbents who have weathered the Democratic wave elections of the past.”

MORNING MESSAGE: The Democratic Dilemma: It’s Still the Economy

OurFuture.org’s Robert Borosage: “… for all of the Republican disarray, Democrats are in trouble. The bi-elections in 2014 come in the president’s sixth year in office. The economy and jobs will be the overwhelming issues. Voters will hold the president’s party accountable for the state of the economy. And this economy still is not working for working people … Democrats [are] tempted to repeat the same mistake they made in 2010, trying to sell the economy we have, hoping that the economy will continue to gain momentum and arguing that we are on the right track. Only one problem with that strategy: voters aren’t likely to buy the patter.”

Europe (Not) Giving Up Austerity

French declare end to “austerity dogma.” Reuters: “The European Commission on Friday gave France two more years to meet its budget deficit target because of the country’s poor economic outlook within the recession-hit euro zone. ‘This is decisive, it’s a turn in the history of the European project since the start of the euro,’ Moscovici told French radio Europe 1 in an interview. ‘We have witnessed the ending of a certain form of financial austerity and the end of the austerity dogma.’”

Europe is only pretending to give up austerity, warns FT’s Wolfgang Münchau: “A good example of the new PR-based anti-austerity strategy came in speeches last week by Enrico Letta, Italy’s new prime minister. He railed against austerity, but at the same time emphasised his commitments to Italy’s fiscal targets, as if the two were somehow unrelated … If the eurozone were serious about a U-turn on austerity, the only effective way to accomplish this would be for the creditor countries to expand their fiscal positions during the recession. The opposite is happening.”

Britain’s austerity plan makes even less sense than before, finds Paul Krugman: “…even if you believe that markets would be unnerved by some relaxation of short-term fiscal austerity … how is this spike in long-term rates supposed to happen? … Osborne’s case for keeping on the path of harsh austerity isn’t just empirically implausible, it appears to be a complete conceptual muddle; they just haven’t thought this thing through.”

Can Immigration Reform Win Supermajority?

Immigration political strategy hinges on Senate supermajority. Politico: “…bringing along many of these staunchly conservative targets will require almost flawless execution by the Gang of Eight, along with lots of political momentum, a few more Democratic concessions and, perhaps above all else, the continued backing of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) … The legislative strategy for passing a bill is based largely on the theory that an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in the Senate is essential to getting it through the Republican-controlled House.”

Conservative backlash lurks. AP: “Opponents acknowledge that supporters started out better organized and mobilized than last time around … But critics also have important grass-roots influence, including from talk radio hosts who were instrumental in defeating the bill in 2007, and opponents argue that as the public absorbs the content of the legislation, the tide will turn against it.”

Silicon Valley unhappy with immigration compromise, reports Politico: “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 offers the promise of more temporary visas and green cards to tech companies that say they’re starved for engineering talent. But new restrictions on the programs, designed to ensure companies make an effort to hire American workers first, have the tech industry feverishly working to change provisions of the legislation.”

Climate Agenda Still Kicking

NY Mag’s Jonathan Chait argues Obama’s green legacy depends on forthcoming power plant regs, not Keystone: “…a few weeks after last year’s election, the Natural Resources Defense Council published a plan for the EPA to regulate existing power plants in a way that was neither ineffectual nor draconian. The proposal would set state-by-state limits on emissions. It sounds simple, but this was a conceptual breakthrough. Much like a cap-and-trade bill, it would allow market signals to indicate the most efficient ways for states to hit their targets—instead of shutting coal plants down, some utilities might pay consumers to weatherize their homes, while others might switch some of their generators over to cleaner fuels … The NRDC calculates its plan would reduce our reliance on coal by about a quarter and national carbon emissions by 10 percent … This is the last best chance to deal with global warming in the Obama era …The struggle will be lengthy, waged largely behind closed doors, and its outcome won’t be known until the Obama presidency is nearly over.”

Former GOP congressman building carbon tax coalition. The Hill: “[Former Rep. Bob[ Inglis is logging heavy miles on the campus and editorial board circuit to promote his ‘revenue-neutral’ plan. He sees wooing college kids — especially conservative students — and op-ed writers as one part of a larger plan. By his reckoning, building a base of support to make a tax less radioactive to GOP lawmakers, and giving them cover at home, will merge with two other forces to give a carbon tax new life in the last two years of Obama’s term.”

Breakfast Sides

NYT assesses the breadth of sequester pain: “The $85 billion in federal budget cuts known as sequestration are beginning to be felt far from the nation’s capital, like at a Head Start program in Pejepscot, Me., that is being closed and a cancer center in Birmingham, Ala., that is looking at layoffs. Kidney patients are losing their free transportation to dialysis centers in Stark County, Ohio, and flood gauges are being shut down on the Red River in North Dakota. Some programs are coping, some are struggling and others appear to be out of luck.”

Obama renews push for investment in jobs and expanded preschool. The Hill: “‘We’re going to start doing these day trips that highlight these three questions,’ a White House official told reporters on Sunday: ‘How do we make America a magnet for jobs, how do we make sure workers have the needed skills to compete, and how do we make sure an honest day’s work leads to a decent living?’”

NY plans more litigation against banks to protect homeowners. Bloomberg: “In October, Schneiderman sued JPMorgan Chase & Co., alleging that Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan took over in 2008, deceived mortgage-bond investors about defective loans backing securities they bought, leading to ‘monumental losses.’ He said the case would be a model for future actions against banks that issued mortgage bonds during the real estate boom. He sued Credit Suisse Group AG on similar grounds the next month.”