Campaign for America's Future News

MORNING MESSAGE: We Need a New Deal for Millennials

OurFuture.org’s Richard Eskow: “Studies show that unemployment at the start of a career lowers lifetime earnings. We need to end our youth unemployment crisis now with a Millennial WPA that jumpstarts their careers, and our economy, the way the Works Progress Administration did under Franklin D. Roosevelt. We also need a major initiative in primary and secondary education. Millennials are having children now, and those children need schooling. What’s more, Millennials represent a large part of the workforce that can provide teachers for them. That means committing to a renewed emphasis on public education. Lastly, let’s end all this talk about cutting Social Security and expand it instead…”

Drama Abounds In Immigration Battle

Friction within Gang of 8. Sen. Lindsey Graham vents about Sen. Marco Rubio to HuffPost: “How do we put together a bill and then the guy who put it together says that he may not vote for it? I just don’t get what we’re doing here.”

Top House conservative threatens Boehner’s speakership over immigration. The Hill: “Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) warned Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would face a conference revolt that could threaten his Speakership if he allows a House vote on the immigration bill presently being debated in the Senate … Rohrabacher conceded that he didn’t know if a majority of Republicans in the House currently supported a vote on immigration, but said if they do, it’s only because they’ve been deceived by propaganda from the media and a push from conglomerates looking to import cheap labor.”

Bipartisan House group close to final agreement. Politico: “The House bipartisan group, which has labored for four years without releasing anything, is finally on the verge of producing a bill … And the all-Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus will huddle with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday.”

Corporations lean on House to back immigration reform. WSJ: “With the Senate in the throes of debate over a comprehensive immigration bill, the Business Roundtable – an association of chief executives from major companies – prodded House leadership Monday to keep up the immigration-overhaul momentum.”

AFL-CIO pushes Senate to scrap last-minute change on high-tech visas. Politico: “In a four-page letter sent to senators Monday evening, the AFL-CIO also said they would fight to reinstate the original agreement on H-1B workers — a deal that was changed during the committee markup to placate Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and the high-tech community, much to the dismay of unions.”

GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions employing same tactics as 7 years ago to kill immigration bill. NYT: “His tactics are the same as they were back then: organize the opposition, break down the bill section by section, raise questions over every aspect of it, slow progress on the floor to a crawl through procedural objections and a flurry of amendments, and hope that in the light of day a conservative backlash will crush final passage.”

Sen. Ted Cruz tries Voter ID poison pill to sink immigration. CNN: “His announcement came in response to the Supreme Court’s decision Monday to strike down an Arizona provision in its voter registration law that required identification confirming citizenship.”

Sen. Rand Paul has even more. The Hill: “Paul’s most ambitious proposal would eliminate the pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants and lift the caps on guest workers … Under [another amendment], immigration reform would not proceed until Congress votes on whether several criteria have been met … [A third] would make federal election funding contingent on states checking voter rolls against visa databases …”

Libor Charges Coming

UK prepares criminal charges in Libor scandal. WSJ: “Tom Hayes, a 33-year-old British citizen living near London, could face charges from the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office as soon as Tuesday. It would be the first move by U.K. authorities to seek criminal penalties against anyone allegedly involved in rigging the London interbank offered rate … U.S. prosecutors charged Mr. Hayes and a former colleague in December with conspiracy to commit fraud by attempting to manipulate Libor, but he wasn’t in the U.S. and hasn’t been extradited.”

Fed begins 2-day meeting today, faces “dilemma.” McClatchy: “The economy is showing enough improvement to justify dialing back some of the Fed’s life support, yet financial markets are terrified of what might happen and are taking it out on the housing sector … Chairman Ben Bernanke is likely to attempt to clarify in a news conference whether and when the Fed will begin tapering back its unconventional bond purchases that have boosted the economy.”

Grand Bargain Busted?

Dean Baker sees defeat for the grand bargain. HuffPost: “Maya MacGuineas, the leading spokesperson for [Campaign for Fix The Debt], apparently having given up on Congress, was last seen calling on Silicon Valley to use its technological prowess to disrupt the political process. And the Washington Post, which has been an open CFD cheerleader, mournfully noted the improbability of a deal involving major cuts to Social Security and Medicare. In this case the strong support of the public for these programs — which cuts across party and demographic lines — overcame the power of corporate money and the political elite. When push came to shove, not enough politicians were prepared to go against the strongly held views of their constituents. And it helped that the facts were on their side.”

Alliance for Retired Americans plans July 2 rallies to prevent Chained CPI: “More than forty actions are already scheduled to take place in front of key Congressional offices and Federal Buildings across the country. A comprehensive map of events is now available….”

MORNING MESSAGE: 9 Ways the Randian State Is An Assault on Millennials

OurFuture.org’s Richard Eskow: “The right, along with its ‘centrist’ collaborators, is transforming our nation into a bloodless and soulless Randian State. Their decades-long assault on our core social values is on the verge of consuming its first complete generation of Americans. Born at the dawn of the Reagan era, Millennials were the first to be fully subjected to this all-out attack on the idea that we take care of each other in this country, and they’ll pay for it from the cradle to the grave.”

US and Europe To Talk Austerity

Are US and Europe switching places on austerity? NYT: “The Europeans lately have slightly eased their austerity policies … And the Obama administration, after years of pressing Europe to adopt American-style stimulus measures, is now presiding — if reluctantly — over European-style austerity that is measurably slowing its recovery … That new reality in the United States reduces the president’s already limited leverage in his fiscal debate with Europeans…”

Has higher inflation helped Britain whether austerity? W. Post’s Neil Irwin: “What happened in Britain from 2010 to 2012 seems to be this: Many people, as experience suggests, saw their wages frozen in place. But because inflation was quite high, their ‘real,’ or inflation-adjusted wages, actually fell a good bit. That meant that employers who would be expected to have slashed jobs due to weak demand … instead kept employing people … That would help explain why Britain has about the same unemployment rate as the United States … despite much weaker growth … the [U.S.] Fed’s ‘success’ at keeping inflation well below its 2 percent target over the last few years looks … like something that has kept American unemployment from coming down more.”

Federal Reserve meets this week. Time: “Convincing the public that rates will remain low for five years is much more effective than simply causing rates to be low right now. As the past several weeks show, however, Bernanke is failing to make full use of this aspect of monetary policy. It’s partially a result of dissent inside the Fed, and partially a result of the market misinterpreting what the Fed is saying. Either way, what we have here is a failure to communicate, and Bernanke will have to work this week, and during Wednesday’s scheduled press conference, to reverse that failure.”

No need to focus on long-term deficit reduction, says NYT’s Paul Krugman: “…focusing on ‘long-run fiscal sustainability’ — which usually ends up being mainly about ‘entitlement reform,’ a k a cuts to Social Security and other programs — isn’t a way of being responsible. On the contrary, it’s an excuse, a way to avoid dealing with the severe economic problems we face right now.”

House GOP doesn’t know what to do with the Senate budget: “Some members see this as an opportunity to make a deal that makes permanent real budget cuts. There’s a contingent that either doesn’t want to make a deal with Senate Democrats or would prefer to wait until the debt ceiling is closer and they presumably have more leverage. And some would just toss the House-passed plan and start over.”

Immigration Optimism

Sen. Lindsey Graham predicts big vote for immigration reform on NBC’s Meet The Press: “I think we are going to get plus 70 votes. I’ve never been more optimistic about it … If we don’t pass immigration reform, if we don’t get it off the table in a reasonable, practical way, it doesn’t matter who we run in 2016. We’re in a demographic death spiral as a party.”

Sen. Rubio downplays differences on ABC’s This Week: “I think it’s an excellent starting point, and I think 95, 96 percent of the bill is in perfect shape and ready to go. But there are elements that need to be improved. This is how the legislative process is supposed to work.”

“Whatever the rhetoric and however he votes on some amendments, Rubio still is likely to support the bill in the end,” reports Bloomberg.

House GOPers try using ObamaCare to block immigration reform. W. Post: “…Republicans are considering proposals that would deny publicly subsidized emergency care to illegal immigrants and force them to purchase private health insurance plans, without access to federal subsidies, as a requirement for earning permanent legal residency … Frustrated Democrats argue that Republicans are picking a fight where one does not exist. In both chambers, Democrats say, they have agreed that illegal immigrants would not be eligible for public benefits….”

MORNING MESSAGE: NC State Senator Calls ‘Moral Monday’ Protesters ‘Moral Morons’

OurFuture.org’s Dave Johnson: “Since April, North Carolina citizens have been gathering at the state capital in Raleigh for ‘Moral Monday’ Arrests … What’s going on? Republicans took over and started enacting severe, cruel policies against the poor and minorities, while giving tax cuts to the rich and businesses … Republican State Senator Thom Goolsby wrote an op-ed for the Chatham Journal, ‘Moron Monday shows radical Left just doesn’t get it’ …But Moral Mondays will continue….”

First Poison Pill Rejected

Senate rejects conservative border security amendment. LAT: “Republicans still plan to offer several other measures to enhance border security, but this one, from Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, was one of the most hard-line of the proposals. The 57-43 vote to defeat the amendment offered an imprecise test of whether the Senate will find the 60 votes needed to pass the bill. Some senators who favored the tough approach may still vote for the bill.”

House Republicans in another universe. NYT: “…the House Judiciary Committee argued in an open hearing on Thursday the nuances of a bill that would turn millions of those immigrants into criminals overnight. The Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act, also known as the SAFE Act, includes provisions outlined in a contentious immigration bill passed by the House in 2005 that would criminalize all undocumented immigrants in the country whether they crossed the border illegally or overstayed a visa.”

Obama Readies Climate Agenda

Obama may roll out climate agenda next month. Bloomberg: “…pipeline opponents anticipate the package will include a plan from the Environmental Protection Agency to issue final rules to limit greenhouse-gas emissions from new power plants …”

Obama already implements a price on carbon. Bloomberg: ” The increase of the so-called social cost of carbon, to $38 a metric ton in 2015 from $23.80, adjusts the calculation the government uses to weigh costs and benefits of proposed regulations …

High-speed rail construction in CA can begin. McClatchy: “The initial 65-mile stretch between Fresno and Merced will be exempt from the customary requirement that railway construction first obtain prior approval from the federal board, under the ruling … The board’s majority … sided with the California high-speed rail planners in determining on Thursday that exempting the project from prior approval requirements would ‘minimize the need for federal regulation and reduce regulatory barriers.’”

Breakfast Sides

Friction between President and top Senate Dem over student loans. McClatchy: “Obama in his budget plan earlier this year proposed a market-based student loan rate, similar to a Republican proposal, but at a lower rate and with a different protection for future increases. [Sen. Tom] Harkin … has proposed an alternative that would freeze the borrowing rate at 3.4 percent for two years while Congress worked out a long-term plan. ‘I’ve got to tell you, I’m very upset with President Obama and the Republicans,’ Harkin told reporters Thursday.”

AZ expands Medcaid under ObamaCare, snubbing Tea Party. WSJ: “Arizona legislators voted to extend the state’s Medicaid program to include all adults earning a little more than the poverty level Thursday, giving a hard-fought victory to GOP Gov. Jan Brewer who had spent months campaigning for the move …”

MORNING MESSAGE: Fighting For Our Classrooms, and For the Human Beings Inside Them

OurFuture.org’s Richard Eskow: “The Wall Street crowd wants us to think of education in terms of means – which usually means finding ways to spend less – rather than ends. But when it comes to education, the ‘ends’ are our children. And the means we choose for them, either consciously or through indifference, reveal who we really are as a people. Perhaps that’s why a new ‘education declaration’ has attracted signatories as diverse as author Dave Eggers; Prof. Robert Reich; education reformer Diane Ravitch; Larry Groce, host of NPR’s Mountain Stage; economist Lawrence Mishel; Prof. Theda Skocpol; and a number of other prominent political, academic, cultural, religious, and educational leaders. (You can sign it too.)”

Border Security Remains Obstacle To Immigration Reform

Immigration reform proponents look to win Republican votes with border security changes. NYT: “An important test for the bill was an amendment filed Wednesday by Senator John Cornyn of Texas, whom other Republicans are watching closely. It would require certification from Homeland Security and the top federal auditor that his border goals had been met for one year before provisional immigrants could start the path to citizenship. Democrats denounced Mr. Cornyn’s amendment as a ‘poison pill’ to cripple the bill … Mr. Grassley offered an amendment that would require Homeland Security certification of effective control of the entire Southwest border six months before any illegal immigrants could apply even for provisional status … Mr. Paul said he would offer an amendment that would require Congress to vote to approve border security levels annually for five years while illegal immigrants gradually received work visas.”

“Gang of Eight seeks alternative to John Cornyn amendment” reports Politico: “Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is beginning to speak out forcefully against the Cornyn language … Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is lobbying other Republicans on potential compromises … [Rubio] is working on a package that others in the Gang of Eight hope could emerge as an alternative.”

Sens. Marco Rubio and Orrin Hatch plan amendment to deny federal benefits to immigrants. The Hill: “The two say they fear the Department of Health and Human Services may use its authority to waive federal welfare work requirements to circumvent language in the immigration reform bill preventing immigrants with provisional legal status from receiving benefits … [Another] proposal from the two senators would require immigrant applicants to wait five years after achieving permanent legal residency before receiving tax credits and subsidies under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.”

“Immigration Costs Are Overstated, Study Finds” reports NYT: “The O.E.C.D., which is based in Paris, noted that over the decade 2001-2011, immigration was responsible for 40 percent of the population growth in member countries. Nevertheless, that inflow was usually almost irrelevant to overall public expenditures relative to gross domestic product…”

Rand Paul learns something. W. Post: “I’ve been told you’re not supposed to call them illegal immigrants, but undocumented. That’s an important distinction. People come wanting regular visas; they come wanting a better job. Words are important.”

New Visions For Jobs

Center for American Progress releases jobs plan. W. Post: “CAP’s plan is filled with detailed proposals that loosely fit two broad themes — boosting the skills and earning power of middle-class workers and fostering an economic environment where good-paying jobs are plentiful. The core of the plan is the notion that economies grow and thrive best when prosperity is broadly shared … It includes a proposal to make it easier for workers to form labor unions, against which conservatives have fought hard. It also features a parade of new or increased taxes: on the carbon emissions from power plants, on financial transactions on Wall Street, on dividends and capital gains income, and even on the profits from the ‘big five oil companies.’ … CAP’s plan also would require companies that offer executives ‘golden parachute’ payouts when they leave their jobs to pay severance to any other employee who is laid off.”

Jacob Hacker makes case for “predistribution” in The Guardian: “The only way out is a new governing approach – one that I have infelicitously called ‘predistribution’ … Third way jujitsu rested on two maxims: let markets be markets, and use redistribution to clean up afterward. For the left, this has proved fatal … key to a predistribution agenda is quality public services, most notably, those that invest in the skills and opportunities of the young and ensure good health over the lifetime at a reasonable cost. Public services open to all, and thus not seen as handouts or transfers, counter inequality … We must ensure that all workers, not just the unionised, have certain basic protections – to a minimum wage, the right to know what their co-workers earn, the right to request flexible schedules, access to paid leave for family care, and yes, the ability to form or join unions or other worker groups.”

Dem proposal would dock congressional pay if Republicans block debt limit increase. Roll Call: “…Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington said they want member pay halted when the government is unable to meet is financial obligations … effectively adopting the point Republicans made on budget resolutions by arguing that lawmakers would be ignoring their responsibilities by refusing to raise the debt limit.”

No net budget deficit in final third of fiscal year, argues Daily Beast’s Daniel Gross: “…as the economy continues to expand, revenues will continue to rise and spending will fall. The government often reports smaller monthly surpluses, and occasionally surpluses, in June and September, as people and companies make quarterly payments. But it will likely come in with a big surplus this June, in part because some spending that usually takes place in June was pushed into May and in part because Treasury is anticipating a humongous $59 billion dividend from the government-owned mortgage company Fannie Mae. Combined with an anticipated surplus in September, the gusher of revenues anticipated in June will more than wipe out the anticipated deficits for July and August. The greatest desideratum of fiscal hawks is for the government to take in as much money as it spends. For the next four months, for the first time in recent memory, that will be the case.”

Greece downgraded, reports ThinkProgress: “…MSCI Inc., an investment index provider, announced that it was moving Greece from its ‘Developed Markets’ index to ‘Emerging Markets.’ That is the first time the company has downgraded a country from developed to emerging market … Greece’s economy has been struggling under steep austerity measures as it tries to meet debt limits set by the European Union.”

Boehner will vote for farm bill with $20B in food stamp cuts. The Hill: “The announcement came as a surprise because Boehner voted against the 2002 and 2008 farm bills and is lobbying to alter the dairy program in this year’s version. Boehner is more supportive this time because the farm bill contains $20.5 billion in food stamp cuts and ends direct farm payments…”

Time Ticks For Student Loans

Student loan deal may be near … or not. Politico: “Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Tuesday that he believes congressional leaders are moving toward a deal to prevent interest rates on college loans from automatically doubling on July 1. But despite his optimism, a half-dozen Hill sources on Wednesday countered that Democrats and Republicans are still far apart on the contours of a permanent solution.

Howard Dean touts Warren bill in Roll Call oped: “The student loan program was originally designed to invest in what all politicians say they care about: our human capital. Congress ought to empower young Americans to follow their passions and be the future leaders of our country. Instead, they bury our young in debt while giving tax breaks to the financial service industry that came close to wrecking the world’s economy with irresponsible financial practices.”

Ed Sec plan push for universal pre-school. W. Post: “He is reaching out to Republican governors, hoping they will help him persuade GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill to embrace the ‘Preschool for All’ initiative. But it’s a tall order for many Republican governors who are cool to the notion of new taxes. In recent weeks, Duncan has traveled to Michigan, Georgia and Virginia and plans to visit Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio and Minnesota. Those states already use state money to fund some preschool, and Duncan figures that offers a path in.”

EU Trade Deal Loses Steam

Trade deal with Europe faces long odds. NYT: “…there is a range of … serious problems, including agricultural disputes over things like genetically modified food and chlorinated chicken and regulatory questions about car safety, pharmaceuticals and financial derivatives. New concerns about widespread American spying on Internet and telephone traffic will make existing disagreements about data privacy, an important issue in Europe, even more fractious.”

Proposed trade deals not about trade, notes Dean Baker: “[Trade] barriers have already been sharply reduced or even eliminated over the past three decades. As a result, with a few notable exceptions, there is little room for further reductions in these sorts of barriers. Instead both deals focus on other issues, some of which may reasonably be considered barriers to trade, but many of which are matters of regulation that would ordinarily be left to national, regional, or even local levels of government to set for themselves.”

MORNING MESSAGE: Sign This Declaration For A Positive New Direction For American Education

OurFuture.org’s Jeff Bryant: “Please sign the Education Declaration and share it to show your commitment to an education our children deserve … Teachers, students, and parents believe their schools are being deprived of the resources that are necessary to give students a quality education. They see that even the resources that are provided are very unfairly and inequitably spread. And they object to increasingly being disempowered and not having a voice in how their schools are governed. The Education Declaration to Rebuild America addresses those grievances by calling for significant new investments – particularly in early childhood education, personal learning plans for K-12 students, and supports to address the out-of-school factors that influence learning.”

Immigration Takes First Step On Senate Floor

Immigration clears first Senate procedural hurdle. The Hill: “Thirty Republicans, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), voted to take up the measure in the 84-15 vote, revealing a deep well of potential support. The vote tally was a promising sign of bipartisanship, and the legislation appeared to have strong momentum after Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) predicted Tuesday that immigration reform would become law by year’s end.”

AFL-CIO lobbies hard for passage: “The A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation’s largest labor federation, said it would bring 50 union leaders from 27 states to Washington on Wednesday to lobby in the Senate and the House. The organization said it was starting a call-in campaign by union members focusing on about two dozen senators, from states including Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee, who have not made public their positions on the legislation.”

Dems divided on immigration strategy. Politico: “Sen. Chuck Schumer’s pitch to find 70-plus votes for a sweeping immigration overhaul is running into skeptics from his own party – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Majority Whip Dick Durbin. The top two Senate Democrats believe that the push to win more GOP senators could significantly water down the measure, arguing their party should instead focus on the more achievable goal of securing the 60 votes … Schumer’s main fear is that jamming through a bill with only limited Republican support will embolden GOP opponents of immigration reform in both chambers into derailing the legislation he’s painstakingly worked to produce…”

Conservatives push Boehner to adopt formal rule only allowing votes on legislation, including immigration, with support from “majority of the majority.” W. Post: “The letter is signed by former Reagan attorney general Edwin Meese, Club for Growth President Chris Chocola, American Conservative Union President Al Cardenas, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Tea Party Express President Amy Kremer and American Values President Gary Bauer. Boehner has broken the [informal] Hastert Rule a number of times in recent years — as have other speakers, up to and including Hastert — and emphasized a couple months back that the rule isn’t technically a rule at all, but rather a guiding principle. His office said Tuesday that the rule remains the goal.”

Boehner Issues Debt Limit Demand

Boehner demands cuts on top of the sequester in exchange for debt limit increase. Roll Call: “‘I believe that if we’re going to increase the debt limit, there ought to be cuts and reforms in place that are greater than the increase in the debt limit,’ Boehner said … Boehner also focused on a long-term approach to spending reductions, suggesting Republicans also will seek an overhaul of entitlement programs as part of any fiscal talks …”

Breakfast Sides

Congress prepares to take up Fannie/Freddie reform. Politico: “[Sens. Tim] Johnson and [Mike] Crapo have entered the early stages of talks about where the Senate Banking Committee can agree, with Crapo urging that a bill addressing the future of the Federal Housing Administration precede legislation dealing with Fannie and Freddie … Their efforts come as [Sens. Bob] Corker and [Mark] Warner … have a draft bill that is circulating on the Hill, within the administration and among industry officials that would wind down Fannie and Freddie and replace them with an agency that guarantees certain mortgage bonds issued by well-capitalized firms.”

Progressive protests against far-right NC legislature intensify. NYT: “Week by week, Monday by Monday, since April 29, a growing coalition assembled by theN.A.A.C.P. has challenged the newly conservative Republican leadership in North Carolina, raising its voice against the loss of the state’s centrist government and what they see as diminished recognition of the poor and minorities … N.A.A.C.P. leaders and an increasing number of labor, immigration and civil rights groups are bent on turning the protests in North Carolina into a national movement to stop a hard swing right that they say has sprung from the election of President Obama and the rise of Tea Party-style politics.”

MORNING MESSAGE: Austerity Is Dead. So Can We Fix Infrastructure Now?

OurFuture.org’s Dave Johnson: “You might have heard that ‘austerity is dead.’ You’ll certainly be hearing it, and with good reason: the US deficit is down more than 50% from what Bush left behind, projections of the rise in medical costs that drove future deficits are way down, the ‘intellectual foundation’ that justified the push for cutting government has collapsed (as if it ever existed), and the European experiment has shown that budget cuts really just make things worse — much, much worse — and cause misery and suffering to boot. Meanwhile we have two real problems to worry about: unemployment and crumbling infrastructure. So can we hire people to fix the infrastructure now?”

Obama To Rally Support For Immigration

Obama to boost immigration reform at WH event this AM. W. Post: “Obama is scheduled to appear at the White House with a broad coalition of immigration supporters to tout the legislation that has reached the Senate floor this week … Among them will be U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, former Bush administration Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, business executive Steve Case, and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro (D).”

SEIU, Karl Rove all in. Politico: “The Service Employees International Union is launching a seven-figure ad buy Tuesday to bolster immigration reform as the Senate opens debate on the bill … Crossroads GPS, a Republican-leaning advocacy group, announced that it had spent $100,000 on print ads urging conservatives to support an overhaul of the immigration system.”

Top GOPers McConnell and Cornyn are on the fence. The Hill: “Cornyn says the bill’s enforcement provisions must be strengthened … Yet Cornyn did not sign a letter endorsed last week by four other Republican members of the Judiciary Committee condemning the Senate bill as a non-starter … Backing from McConnell and Cornyn would bring along other Republican senators and likely give the legislation the 70 votes the Senate Gang of Eight is aspiring to attain in order to give it more political momentum. McConnell and Cornyn face reelection in 2014; both have positioned themselves to guard against potential conservative challengers.”

Gang of 8 struggles to stay united. Politico: “Gang of Eight members are planning a similar strategy to the one they used during the committee process: Huddle regularly and decide what amendments will help the bill and which ones will harm it. The Gang is expected to meet at least twice this week to discuss its plan, and aides to the lawmakers in the group will also meet frequently.”

House ready to move. Bloomberg: “House Speaker John Boehner and other leaders have decided to focus on immigration before the August recess, three Republican aides said yesterday. The aides asked not to be quoted by name because official deadlines haven’t been set.”

Wall Street Killing The Economy?

The growth of the financial sector, relative to GDP, is contributing to the lack of economic growth, argues Bruce Bartlett in NYT: “…according to a new report from the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency, financialization is by far the largest contributor in developed economies. The report estimates that 46 percent of labor’s falling share resulted from financialization, 19 percent from globalization, 10 percent from technological change and 25 percent from institutional factors. This phenomenon is a major cause of rising income inequality, which itself is an important reason for inadequate growth.”

Dean Baker concludes: “That would seem to be a pretty good argument for a financial transactions tax like the one they have had on stock trades in the UK for the last three centuries. Of course this sort of tax on the sector faces an uphill battle in Washington because, in addition to being a major drag on economic growth and generator of inequality, the financial sector is also a major source of campaign contributions.”

“Banks profiting from overdraft coverage plans” says CFPB: “The report, to be released Tuesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, found that consumers who sign up for banks’ optional overdraft coverage on debit card transactions and ATM withdrawals pay higher fees and are more likely to end up with involuntary account closures than those who decline.”

Shutdown Looms Again

Parties remain far apart three months before deadline. Politico: “House Republicans and Senate Democrats remain more than $90 billion apart on 2014 discretionary spending, with prospects for a House-Senate conference on the budget dwindling daily. Obama has issued veto threats for two spending bills already approved by the House, and the Appropriations panels in both chambers know many of their bills might not ever reach the floor. The fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, but both sides are already preparing for a continuing resolution to fund the government into next year … The Treasury Department expects to hit the borrowing limit in October.”

House Republicans, Senate Democrats, ready separate legislation that breaks sequester caps. Roll Call: “House Republicans so far are engaged in something of a legislative charade with Democrats. Instead of directing how the Pentagon might operate under the current cap, they are proceeding with a far more generous plan and acting as if this could be enacted without GOP concessions on taxes or increasing the overall fiscal 2014 spending cap. Democrats are undertaking a similar exercise in the Senate, where appropriators next week will put forward a spending plan that would break the discretionary spending caps set under the 2011 deficit reduction law for defense and domestic programs.”

Senate passes farm bill with $4B, 10-year cut in food stamps. NYT: “Groups fighting hunger said the cuts in food stamps would put millions of poor families at risk. A House version of the bill would provide for food stamp cuts of $20 billion … Last year, conservative lawmakers helped kill the bill because of their desire for deeper cuts in the food stamp program, which serves about 45 million Americans.”

MORNING MESSAGE: The Banks Can’t Stop Beethoven, Can They?

OurFuture.org’s Sam Pizzigati: “What do bank executives who make $19 million a year do in their spare time? They do the same thing they do in the hours they spend in their executive suites. They squeeze America’s middle class. That’s not, of course, what the flacks at U.S. Bancorp, the nation’s fifth-largest bank, will tell you. They’ll inform you that the CEO of their Minneapolis-based banking giant, Richard Davis, graciously gives of his spare time to serve on the board of the nationally renowned Minnesota Orchestra … Davis chairs the negotiating committee at the nonprofit responsible for the Minnesota Orchestra. Last October 1, Davis and his fellow corporate managers who run the nonprofit ‘locked out’ the orchestra’s musicians after they refused to accept a contract offer that would have cut musician pay by up to 50 percent and jumped annual health care premiums by up to $8,000. Ever since then, the Minnesota Orchestra’s near 100 symphony musicians have gone without salary, health insurance, and pension contributions…”

Immigration Hits Senate Floor

Immigration hits Senate floor today. NYT: “That intraparty clash will play out for the next three weeks on the Senate floor, as Republican supporters of the bill — aided behind the scenes by the Obama administration — seek modest changes that they hope will secure broad support among both parties.”

Another Republican Senator backs bill. CNN: “‘For too long, politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington have failed to lead on this issue,’ [Sen. Kelly] Ayotte wrote. ‘And no doubt there will be naysayers in this debate who will continue to make excuses for inaction.’”

House and Senate Republicans warily eye each other, unsure what the other will do: “…the dispositive bloc of Senate Republicans won’t vote ‘yes’ unless they’re confident the House will do the same. And the crucial bloc of House Republicans won’t be open to getting to ‘yes’ until they know precisely what legislative question the Senate is asking. All that mutual wariness has revived the use of one of the Hill’s favorite intransitive verbs: ‘To get Btu-ed,’ which essentially means to be legislatively hung out to dry by people in your own party.”

Reid assails GOP poison pill. Politico: “The amendment to the bill from Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) would require significantly higher thresholds of border control before the bill’s ‘trigger’ kicks in allowing undocumented immigrants to move toward citizenship. The effort has been praised by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a key Gang of Eight member, as a provision that ‘will get this bill where it needs to be.’ But Reid said Cornyn’s amendment is not intended to be constructive and that he ‘will not accept any poison pills’ as the bill comes before the full Senate this week.”

Dem rejection of Cornyn amendment puts “GOP In a Bind” reports TPM: “Reid’s pushback suggests that Democrats believe they have the upper hand in negotiations, and reveals limits in how far they’re willing to go to appease conservatives … Cornyn, more broadly, faces a variety of competing pressures. As the No. 2 Republican senator, he has to worry about the party’s national viability — which risks taking a huge hit if immigration reform fails. But he needs to balance that with his conservative electorate in Texas and, if his voting history is any indication, his restrictionist inclinations.”

“John Boehner begins to sketch immigration plan” for House, reports Politico: “The speaker wants House committees — Judiciary has primary jurisdiction — to wrap up their work on a version of immigration legislation before the July 4 recess. And he would like immigration reform to see a House vote before Congress breaks in August. His goal is to begin moving either bite-size immigration bills or the bipartisan House immigration group’s legislation through committees before the Senate passes its bill, which could happen by the end of this month … It’s an ambitious plan, considering House leadership has not yet settled on what bill it will advance.”

“Too Big To Fail” Bill Meets Resistance

Brown-Vitter “too big to fail” bill so far attracting few co-sponsors. Politico: “A Brown aide said the duo will roll out several additional co-sponsors in the coming weeks … the lack of support from fellow senators sympathetic to putting a tighter leash on big banks that has been notable … But if lawmakers have been slow to warm up to Brown’s and Vitter’s proposal, the introduction of the bill appears to have injected some urgency into the debate among federal regulators about bank capital standards.”

Global push to persuade Obama on plan to expose shell companies that evade taxes. NYT: “The plan, backed by Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain this year, was outlined in letters sent to Mr. Obama last week by two groups of current and former prosecutors and activists. The issue is set to be raised again at the Group of 8 summit meeting of industrialized countries this month … Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, has introduced legislation that would require states to collect information on the ‘beneficial ownership’ of companies incorporated within their borders. It has failed to pass three times since 2000. On one of those occasions, it was co-sponsored by Mr. Obama, at the time a senator.”

Breakfast Sides

Washington is still shrugging at the jobs crisis, says NYT’s Paul Krugman: “…while insiders no longer seem determined to worry about the wrong things, that’s not enough; they also need to start worrying about the right things — namely, the plight of the jobless and the immense continuing waste from a depressed economy. And that’s not happening. Instead, policy makers both here and in Europe seem gripped by a combination of complacency and fatalism, a sense that nothing need be done and nothing can be done … If Washington would reverse its destructive budget cuts, if the Fed would show the ‘Rooseveltian resolve’ that Ben Bernankedemanded of Japanese officials back when he was an independent economist, we would quickly discover that there’s nothing normal or necessary about mass long-term unemployment.”

NYT edit board reminds we’ve already implemented Social Security benefit cuts: “…under current law, Social Security benefits will replace 31 percent of the typical retiree’s preretirement earnings in 2030, compared with 42 percent as recently as 2004 … A misguided plan by the Obama administration to cut the COLA as part of a deficit reduction package would add to that cutback. Social Security benefit cuts are already well under way, and they cannot go much further. Reform should balance cuts with tax increases, including raising the level of wages subject to payroll tax. It should also include a plan to create good jobs and foster immigration…”

Obama, Xi forge agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. WSJ: “The two countries announced an agreement to phase out the use of a hydrofluorocarbons, a kind of gas that has gained widespread use in recent years for industrial applications, especially as a refrigerant. HFCs are particularly potentgreenhouse gases, hundreds or even thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide. The White House said the agreement with China to phase out HFCs through the existing Montreal Protocol could eventually cut global emissions by the equivalent of 90 billion tons of CO2, or two years’ worth of global greenhouse-gas emissions.”

MORNING MESSAGE: Tell The Senate To Stop Filibustering Affordable College

OurFuture.org’s Isaiah J. Poole: “…in a Senate in which the filibuster has become routine, Republicans united to block debate and an up-or-down vote on the bill … we should be going out of our way to make going to college as debt-free as possible. That’s why it is tragic that the best legislative solution to the college-debt crisis – Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s bill that would take student loan rates down to 0.75 percent, the same rate as overnight loans to the big, money-center banks – did not even get a vote today. Today, we’ve launched an updated petition demanding Congress approve that bill.”

Student Loan Fix Blocked In Senate

“Senate Rejects Student Loan Proposals As Borrowers Await Relief” reports HuffPost: “Despite increasing warnings, Congressional Democrats are focused on saving the typical undergraduate borrower less than $10 a month on an average 12-year-loan, while promising to take additional steps in the coming months to help the vast majority of new and existing borrowers. Their bill failed to attract the necessary 60 votes, securing just 51 votes instead. Republicans aim to replace the current system of rates on all government loans being set by Congress to one dictated by the government’s cost to borrow, with apparently little regard to the fact that the government’s borrowing costs are forecast to double in three years. The Republicans could muster just 40 votes.”

Jobs Picture Stagnant

175K new jobs in May. NYT: “American employers added 175,000 jobs in May, almost exactly the average monthly job growth over the last year, the Labor Department reported Friday, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6 percent … ‘In general, the economy is just puttering along,’ said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist with MFR Inc. … Given the positive outlook among consumers, economists are not sure what is dragging on the economy, particularly given how well the housing market seems to be doing.”

“Austerity To Cost U.S. Economy 2 Million Jobs By 2019″ reports HuffPost: “A new study by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, estimates that today’s austerity measures are going to leave the U.S. economy with 2 million fewer jobs and $433 billion less in economic growth by 2019 … Another recent think-tank study, by the Brookings Institution, found that austerity had already cost the U.S. economy more than 2 million jobs since the recession. The CAP study suggests those jobs are not coming back for at least six years, if ever.”

House Swerves Right On Immigration

House moves away from Senate on immigration with anti-DREAM vote. NYT: “In a vote of 224 to 201 along stark party lines, the House adopted an amendment by Representative Steve King … to a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security. The amendment would shut down a program, initiated by President Obama as an executive action without approval from Congress, that has granted reprieves from deportation to more than 290,000 young unauthorized immigrants who came here as children. ‘My amendment blocks many of the provisions that are mirrored in the Senate’s bill,’ Mr. King said. ‘If this position holds, no amnesty will reach the president’s desk.’”

US News’ Robert Schlesinger is incredulous: “Honestly, when I saw that House Republicans had passed an amendment today which would defund President Obama’s limited, executive-order-driven Dream Act, my first thought was to wonder what the GOP is thinking. Does this party have a death wish?”

Immigration reform may help housing market. NYT: “So says the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals inSan Diego. If Congress approves legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the organization expects the country’s pool of home buyers to swell by three million, generating some $500 billion in new mortgages.”

Rep. Paul Ryan blesses bipartisan House immigration proposal, after Rep. Raul Labrador quits group. The Hill: “Ryan has kept in close contact with the group since the November election, but as recently as Wednesday he had declined to endorse the substance of their emerging proposal, and it was not clear whether he would side with Labrador or the three remaining Republicans in the group…”

Breakfast Sides

House Republican backs increased Social Security benefits. HuffPost: “In a letter dated June 5, Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) explained to a constituent that the current method of calculating price hikes doesn’t accurately account for all the costs seniors pay and that a consumer price index designed specifically for people age 62 and over would be a far better gauge. ‘I am not willing to ask seniors to bear a disproportionate share of the burden,’ he wrote.”

“Meals On Wheels Slashes Services And Adds Waiting Lists Thanks To Sequestration” reports ThinkProgress: “Meals on Wheels, the program that brings hot food to home-bound seniors, is facing big budget cuts thanks to sequestration, and the Meals on Wheels Association of America just released a new survey of 640 of its members to find out what choices they’re making with fewer dollars. It found thatnearly 70 percent have had to reduce the number of meals they serve, dropping 364 meals per week on average.”

Bipartisan Senate bill would ease purchases of energy-efficient homes. NYT: “Home buyers purchasing energy-efficient properties could qualify for larger mortgages than their incomes would normally allow under a Senate bill reintroduced Thursday with broad real estate industry support. The measure would allow lenders to include projected energy savings from efficiency upgrades when measuring the borrower’s income against expenses and the value of the home against the debt. In addition to giving borrowers larger loans in new purchases and refinancings, it could also lower their interest rates.”

MORNING MESSAGE: Corporations Are Colonizing Us With Trade Deals – and Wall Street Wants In

OurFuture.org’s Richard Eskow: “Now Wall Street’s trying to use these draft [trade] agreements to undermine our ability to protect ourselves from bank predation or another financial crisis. They’ve already tried to use the WTO’s archaic and destructive financial rules … Now Bloomberg News reports that banks and insurance companies are trying to use new proposed trade deals to overrule or further dilute portions of the Dodd-Frank Act.”

Resetting The Budget Battle

“It’s Time to Hit the Reset Button on the Fiscal Debate” argues the Center for American Progress: “…the fiscal outlook for both the medium-term and the long-term has improved substantially compared to what it was just a few years ago … The key argument that high debt causes slower growth has crumbled … Countries around the world have experimented with austerity, and those experiments have failed spectacularly … all of these changes mean that the deficit should no longer be the country’s most pressing economic concern … To that end, we offer a reasonable plan to replace the sequester through 2016.”

“Cracks Emerge In GOP’s Debt Ceiling Strategy” reports TPM: “…one of the most conservative House members broke with Senate Republicans by arguing that a debt ceiling increase should be included in the final product of bicameral budget conference negotiations … [Rep. Tom Price is] at odds with Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who have repeatedly blocked Democrats’ effort to initiate talks to reach an agreeable budget framework so Congress can govern without leaping from crisis to crisis. Their main demand is that a debt limit hike be taken off the table and dealt with separately. Price wouldn’t say whether those senators were right or wrong, but when asked about the dispute, said ‘it’s the difference between a majority and a minority.’”

Conservatives Wobbly On Immigration Reform

Sen. Marco Rubio won’t vote for own bill until more changes are adopted. W. Post: “Rubio said Tuesday that the bill must be amended to included specific enforcement procedures that will prevent another influx of illegal immigrants. Without that, he said, he will not support the bill because it wouldn’t pass in the House.”

House bipartisan group moves closer to immigration proposal, but one Republican quits. The Hill: “[Rep. Raul] Labrador’s departure deprives the group of its most conservative member, and his concerns about the healthcare provision are likely to be echoed by other House conservatives if and when the bill comes out … While Democrats within the group had broadly agreed the immigrants in a provisional status should not receive government subsidies for healthcare, Labrador said they had pushed for too many exceptions in recent weeks for him to support.”

The House doesn’t need to strike a deal, notes W. Post’s Erza Klein: “The premise is that the purpose of the House process is to get a bill through the House. It could be a good bill. It could be a bad bill. It just has to be a bill. Because once something makes it through the House it will go to conference with the Senate. Once it goes to conference with the Senate, the Senate can force a product that’s more like its bill than the House bill. And once the process is that near to completion, House Republicans will be afraid to kill it.”

Breakfast Sides

Senate votes on student loans today. Politico: “Senators will vote on Thursday on dueling proposals that aim to stop interest rates from doubling on July 1 … The votes are both expected to fail largely on party lines, instead setting markers to guide Senate debate over the next month. But with immigration looming next week — and set to dominate much of this month’s Senate floor time — lack of progress on student loans could set up a last-minute showdown.”

Underwhelming economic data. AP: “The productivity of American workers grew a modest amount from January through March, after having declined in the previous quarter. And a private survey showed on Wednesday that American businesses added just 135,000 jobs in May, the second consecutive month of weak gains.”

MORNING MESSAGE: Christie’s Choice

OurFuture.org’s Bill Scher: “…the decision that NJ Gov. Chris Christie has yet to make — who will occupy the seat in the interim before the special election — could have a great impact on Obama’s second-term agenda and the long-term functionality of the Senate … Will he pick yet another conservative obstructionist to add to Mitch McConnell’s legislation-killing army? Or will Christie abide by his own words from this past January? … ‘At times we have to use a word that has become a curse word in this town — compromise.’”

Heavy Senate Agenda Tests Bipartisanship

Sen. Marco Rubio working with several GOP senators on border security amendments to immigration bill. AP: “He worked with Cornyn on an amendment to enact tough new border requirements, including a biometric exit system at all airports and seaports … Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said Tuesday they’d met with Rubio to discuss their concerns over border security and enforcement, and Portman said he was weighing amendments to address them. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., wrote an opinion piece in the Las Vegas Review-Journal last weekend in which he seemed open to the bill if improvements could be made and discussed meeting with Rubio to make them.”

Bipartisan energy-efficiency bill faces tricky path. Politico: “…Sens. Jeanne Shaheen’s and Rob Portman’s bipartisan proposal to promote energy efficiency … may be close to coming to the Senate floor. While the bill has drawn bipartisan support, backers worry that the bill could become a magnet for divisive messaging amendments on topics like climate change, the Keystone XL pipeline and ethanol … Shaheen-Portman is a rare energy bill that enjoys bipartisan support. It has the backing of more than 200 organizations, from the Union of Concerned Scientists to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”

Republican obstructionism of judicial nominations is unprecedented, says math. W. Post: “Dr. Sheldon Goldman, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts who focuses on judicial nominations, has developed what he calls an ‘Index of Obstruction and Delay’ … Goldman calculates his Index of Obstruction and Delay by adding together the number of unconfirmed nominations, plus the number of nominations that took more than 180 days to confirm (not including nominations towards the end of a given Congress) and dividing that by the total number of nominations. During the last Congress, Goldman calculates, the Index of Obstruction and Delay for Obama circuit court nominations was 0.9524. ‘That’s the highest that’s ever been recorded,’ he tells me. ‘In this last Congress it approached total obstruction or delay.’”

Sen. McCain disgusted with own party holding up budget process. Politico: “…the Arizona Republican blasted members of his own party, saying that they’re basically tempting Democrats to make a major rules change on the filibuster that would give the majority more power.”

End of the Charm Offensive?

Roll Call asks “Is Obama’s Charm Offensive Over?”: “… the president seems to have made a calculated decision to go on offense on judges, on student loans and with fresh veto threats on appropriations bills … [Sen. Lamar] Alexander and other Republicans say the current tactics being employed by the administration threaten to wipe out the gains Obama made with them earlier this year.”

Republicans may reject fast-track trade authority, argues W. Post’s Harold Meyerson: “Should the administration ask Congress to restore fast-track authority, Republicans will face a fascinating conundrum. GOP legislators frequently, and falsely, accuse the president of usurping all manner of powers. If enacted, however, fast-track would be a genuine usurpation of powers…”

Dems sharpen their budget message. Politico: “…Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who recently served as the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, has been advising fellow Democrats that talking about the budget with constituents is a winning strategy … Their message is simple: Democrats are the ones trying to pass a budget through compromise and regular order, and Republicans are holding them up. Democrats are fighting to end the sequester. Republicans want the status quo.”

Breakfast Sides

Sequestration slams health, science. HuffPost: “Removing $1.7 billion from [the National Institutes of Health] budget in a matter of months … is a dramatic exercise in spending reduction. Doing so requires harsh choices. According to the agency, 750 fewer patients will be admitted into the NIH Clinical Center and 700 fewer competitive research grants will be issued … The setbacks in medical research could be especially debilitating, stalling progress on cancer drugs, research for a universal flu vaccine and treatments for both common and rare diseases.”

New York State sues HSBC over foreclosure fraud. Bloomberg: “A state investigation found that HSBC failed to give homeowners a chance to negotiate loan modifications, as required by law, leaving them languishing in foreclosure proceedings…”