Progressive Breakfast: Obama & America vs. Blue Dogs

Obama & America vs. Blue Dogs on Budget

President Obama slaps obstructionists in budget remarks. "there are those who say the plans in this budget are too ambitious to enact; to say that -- they say that in the face of challenges that we face, we should be trying to do less, than more. What I say is that the challenges we face are too large to ignore. The cost of our health care is too high to ignore. The dependence on oil is too dangerous to ignore. Our education deficit is growing too wide to ignore."

Also warns: "We're going to get some numbers with respect to the budget that may make this even tougher in the coming couple of weeks."

The Hill on WH strategy: "President Obama ditched his bipartisan budget sales pitch Tuesday and went on the offense against his Republican critics."

Robert Borosage in HuffPost "Time to Dog the Dogs": "Evan Bayh ... has joined with Tom Carper of Delaware and Blanche Lincoln to organize the equivalent of a Blue Dog group in the Senate. Bayh objects to early reports that described them as working to obstruct the president's reforms and water down his budget, arguing "we're not a counterweight to anybody. We're not here to obstruct anything. We're here to help get to 60 votes," referencing the threshold that's needed to overcome filibusters. Exactly. That is the threat that enables them to obstruct the president's reforms and water down his budget."

OurFuture.org launches "Dog The (Blue) Dogs" campaign: lists phone numbers of potential obstructionists. "Pick one of more Blue Dogs and say, 'Don’t let the right-wing Dr. No’s in Congress pull your leash. I support President Obama’s budget proposals and so should you.'"

WH budget director Orszag makes case for using Senate budget rules to prevent filibusters and pass major reforms with simple majority. McClatchy: "'Pretty much every major piece of budget legislation going back to April 1981, April '82, April 1990, April 1993, the 1990 act, the 2001 tax legislation, they were all done through reconciliation. Yet somehow this is being presented as an unusual thing,' Orszag said. 'The historical norm as opposed to the exception is for a major piece of budget legislation to move through reconciliation.'"

CBPP reminds Republicans of recent history in W. Post: "Jim Horney, a budget analyst at the left-leaning Center for Budget and Policy Priorities ... said reconciliation is hardly a declaration of war on Republicans. Several past reconciliation bills, including a student-loan measure in 2007, won bipartisan support, Horney said. He added that it's 'a little odd that Republicans who thought it was hunky-dory to push through the Bush tax cuts now find it unbelievably offensive that you might use reconciliation, even as a backup.'"

Politico on Senate Budget Cmte Chair Kent Conrad's hypocritical opposition to Obama's budget: "Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad warned Tuesday that significant 'adjustments' are needed in the White House’s spending plans and said he will oppose any effort to employ [Senate budget rules] to expedite the administration’s health care and climate-change initiatives ... Unlike Obama, who presented a 10-year spending plan, the chairman said he will confine his resolution to just five. Conrad said he made this decision because of the uncertainty of long-range forecasts, but the end result of narrowing the window is significant in itself. First, it will very likely shrink the $634 billion reserve fund envisioned by Obama as a 10-year down payment for health care reform. Second, it opens Conrad himself to criticism for ducking the long-range deficit problems facing Obama and a national debt that hit $11 trillion this week and could double in the next decade."

W. Post front-pages additional Blue Dog criticism:

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said reconciliation would send the opposite message, creating "kind of a divisive atmosphere." Lincoln, a member of the Senate Finance Committee who has been working for months with GOP colleagues to lay the foundation for health-care reform, said circumventing that painstaking process "would just be sticking them in the eye."

Lincoln is one of seven Democrats who last week joined 21 Republican senators in declaring their opposition to using reconciliation to expedite Obama's plan to auction off permits for the release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, a proposal known as cap and trade. That legislation "is likely to influence nearly every feature of the U.S. economy," the letter says, adding that any move to put it on a fast track or to limit debate "would be inconsistent with the administration's stated goals of bipartisanship, cooperation, and openness."

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which is handling health care, also has spoken against reconciliation, arguing that he would rather have a health-care plan that can win broad, bipartisan support than a narrowly drawn proposal passed only by Democrats. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, has argued against reconciliation as well.

HuffPost's Joseph Palermo on how Republicans will use the Blue Dogs: "The Blue Dogs provide an opening for the Republicans to 'triangulate' against the progressives inside the Democratic Party. They're calling for 'belt tightening' at a time of severe under-consumption and high unemployment. Republican leaders in the Senate will try to use the Evan Bayhs and Blanche Lincolns of the Blue Dog faction as a wedge to defeat vital parts of President Barack Obama's legislative agenda."

NYT looks at Organizing for America grassroots effort to rally support for the budget this weekend.

Obama scheduled to hold town hall in Orange County, CA today.

Bonus Fallout

BBC on Treasury plan to recoup the AIG bonus money for taxpayers: "Ailing insurer AIG will be required to pay back hugely controversial bonuses it awarded after taking public bail-out money, the US treasury secretary says. In a letter to congressmen, Timothy Geithner also said $165m would be taken from $30bn the firm is due to get as part of its government bail-out."

Congress looks at using tax code. W. Post: "A proposal from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the panel's ranking Republican, Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), would levy an excise tax on AIG and the executives who received the payments, adding up to more than 90 percent of the total of the bonuses. That tax would also apply to future bonuses awarded, either by AIG or by other firms receiving federal aid. Similar proposals taking shape in the House would target as much as 100 percent of the bonus money ... House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (Md.) told reporters that he worried about running afoul of the Constitution's equal-protection clause ... [WH Press Sec] Gibbs said Obama is open to the idea of a special tax on the bonuses, along with other options that lawmakers are floating, including legal action against AIG."

USA Today on bonus recipients no longer working for AIG: "...American International Group paid bonuses of $1 million or more to each of 73 employees, including 11 who no longer work for the company, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday."

Sen. Wyden says his bill could have prevented bonuses, reports HuffPost, but unknown Senator stripped it conference cmte. It wasn't Dodd says The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder

ThinkProgress on conservative hypocrisy: "Republicans Who Opposed Wall Street Salary Caps Last Month Now Condemning ‘Outrageous’ AIG Bonuses." ALSO: "House GOP’s AIG plan simply recycles what Obama is already doing."

ABC reports on the White House timeline dealing with the bonus question.

AIG CEO Liddy testifies to Congress today in a previously scheduled appearance.

Market Overhaul Will Be "Lengthy Process"

AP checks in on plans to overhaul financial market rules:

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee said Tuesday he hoped to begin writing legislation by early May on overhauling how the federal government regulates the nation's financial system ... A goal of regulatory reform is to create a systemic risk regulator responsible for monitoring financial markets and institutions in order to head off the kind of high-stakes practices that contributed to the economy's current miseries.

...White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama wants both financial regulation reform and a new "resolution authority" to deal with giants such as American International Group Inc. that get into complex financial trouble. He said the authority would be used "to break apart, unwind and finally resolve the issues that we face with systemic risk."...

...The Fed is frequently mentioned as best able to handle that general oversight role, but lawmakers from both parties questioned whether the Fed, which controls monetary policy and can direct federal funds to distressed markets, should get a larger oversight role...

...Damon Silver, associate general counsel for the AFL-CIO, said the union believed systemic oversight should be done by a coordinating body of regulators chaired by the chairman of the Fed. But he said authority for consumer protection in financial services should rest in an agency that is separate from bank regulators.

Toxic Assets Plan Coming Soon

FT cites anonymous Dems sowing doubt about Geithner ahead of announcement: "Tim Geithner, America’s beleaguered Treasury secretary, faces a critical test of his credibility when he unveils a much-awaited plan to take toxic assets off bank balance sheets – in an announcement expected in the coming days ... Speaking on condition of anonymity, senior Democratic figures questioned whether Mr Geithner has the credibility with the markets and Capitol Hill to push through a new request for funds."

Fed Meets Today

Bloomberg on divisions within Fed: "Federal Reserve policy makers will likely determine today that the U.S. recession is still deepening, while clashing on what to do about it ... 'There are big philosophical differences' among Fed policy makers, said Ethan Harris, co-head of economic research at Barclays Capital Inc. 'Bernanke is on the very activist side, believing in active, aggressive policies. There are others who think policies should be much more limited, with minimal disruption in the operations of the free market.' The Fed’s Open Market Committee is scheduled to issue its statement around 2:15 p.m. today in Washington."

Bloomberg on Fed debut of TALF: "A $1.3 billion package of securities backed by Nissan Motor Co. auto loans became the first small piece of what Federal Reserve officials say may grow into a $1 trillion effort to unfreeze business and consumer lending. Nissan’s planned bond sale marks the debut of the Fed’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF. The securities will likely price on March 19, the deadline for investors to apply to the Fed for loans to buy the debt, according to a person familiar with the sale who declined to be identified because terms aren’t set. The Obama administration is counting on the TALF plan to help end the credit crunch and recession, thawing the market for asset-backed securities so lenders can make new loans to consumers. The program, first announced in November, was hampered by delays as investors, dealers and issuers worked on details."

Health Care Update

NYT reports on strong House coordination, and support for a public plan option: "Three powerful House committee chairmen have agreed to work together on legislation to overhaul the health care system, starting with the view that most employers should help finance coverage and that the government should offer a public health insurance plan as an alternative to private insurance. The unified approach contrasts with the competition and rivalry among committee chairmen that helped sink President Bill Clinton’s plan for universal health insurance 15 years ago ... Leading Republicans and insurance companies have expressed alarm at the idea of a new government-run insurance plan competing with private insurers. But House Democrats are not backing down."

Institute for America's Future releases new report from Diane Archer showing how Massachusetts' lack of a public insurance plan option harmed its ability to control costs.

New EFCA Polls

TPMDC's Eric Kleefeld looks at fresh polls, notes big differences based on poll wording.

WSJ on state targets and poll data: "The battle over a bill that would ease union organizing is zeroing in on lawmakers in three states -- Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Colorado. Business and labor are pressuring three key senators who are up for re-election in 2010, sparing little expense as they ratchet up television and radio ads, and recruit well-connected lobbyists ... At this point, lawmakers don't seem to be getting an unmistakable message from the public. A Gallup poll released Tuesday showed that 53% of respondents backed the concept of increased unionization, with 39% opposed. But the poll also found only 12% are following the issue very closely, and an earlier Gallup poll last year found only 35% in favor of unions having greater influence."

OurFuture.org's David Sirota on new conservative talking point: "Latest Anti-Labor Canard: 'If Workers' Productivity Increased, Workers' Wages Would Rise' ... of course, it is refuted by the actual data"

Fence-sitter Sen. Specter leaves open possibility of running for re-election as an independent.

Energy Update

NYT reviews renewed fight over offshore drilling, while Interior Sec. Salazar pushes offshore wind and wave energy reports The Atlantic.

Washington Independent: "‘Biggest. Tax. Evar.’ Welcome to the right’s new meme on cap-and-trade."

Terrance Heath contributed to the making of this Breakfast.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future