Progressive Breakfast: Sack Simpson Calls Don't Stop

Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security.

Sack Simpson Calls Don't Stop

WH reiterates Alan Simpson will not be fired from debt commission. HuffPost: "'Senator Simpson sent an e-mail that he's now apologized for,' White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters at Monday's daily briefing. 'We regret that he sent that e-mail. We don't condone those comments. But Senator Simpson has and will continue to serve on the commission.'"

OWL's Ashley Carson, recipient of Alan Simpson's "milk cow" missive, maintains call for his ouster on MSNBC's Countdown.

Dean Baker wonders if Alan Simpson can answer basic questions about Social Security: "...seven key facts about Social Security, the budget and the well-being of workers and retirees. Senator Simpson should know this information inside out. But does he? Try asking him. If he can restrain his curses and insults long enough maybe we can find out if he is qualified for the position he holds. At this point we only know that he has a poor understanding of the anatomy of barnyard animals."

HuffPost's Amanda Terkel tallies the conservative congressional candidates embracing Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to privatize Social Security and Medicare: "Part of the reason these candidates may be supporting Ryan's budget plan is that they have no other alternative. They are coming out against Democratic policies, but since the Republican leadership hasn't put forward any blueprint, they are forced to endorse Ryan's roadmap."

Sign the petition at OurFuture.org/SackSimpson.

WH Jobs Push, But How Big?

President presses GOP to end filibuster of small business lending bill. The Hill: "The president called for bipartisan support to launch a 'full-scale attack' on helping the economy recover, and said the small-business lending and tax cuts bill should be Congress's first order of business when they return."

President suggests new jobs initiatives forthcoming. W. Post: "Obama recited a litany of policy initiatives long in the works, including plans to extend Bush administration tax cuts for the middle class that are set to expire in January; increase investments in clean energy and corporate research; rebuild the nation's physical and communications infrastructure; and provide tax cuts to encourage small businesses to hire new workers. But as Congress prepares to return to Washington next month, Obama said he and his economic team are 'hard at work identifying additional measures....'"

NYT sets expectations low: "...any measures he takes seem likely to be small ones, and his options are limited with Congress showing little appetite for more spending in a hotly contested midterm election year."

Economist's View's Tim Duy analyzes Bernanke's recent speech, gets "pit in my stomach": "He made it clear that the Fed's remaining options were weak and/or less than palatable for policymakers. With such low ammunition, how can we take seriously his conviction that the Fed will aggressively defend against the threat of deflation that is already upon us? Simply wait around for the fiscal policy backstop? Don't hold your breath."

President seeks boost in exports by reforming Cold War regulations. W. Post: "...President Obama is scheduled to announce plans Tuesday to consolidate some [national security] enforcement activities in a single agency and develop a clearer list of products whose sale is restricted ... industry groups say changes to the export control rules might produce tens of billions of dollars in additional sales."

Robert Reich explains why a civil society extends unemployment benefits, debunking WSJ oped: "If people who lose their jobs receive generous unemployment benefits they might stay unemployed longer than if they got nothing. But that’s hardly a reason to jettison unemployment benefits or turn our backs on millions of Americans who through no fault of their own remain jobless in the worst economy since the Great Depression. Yet moral hazard lurks in every conservative brain. It’s also true that if we got rid of lifeguards and let more swimmers drown, fewer people would venture into the water. And if we got rid of fire departments and more houses burnt to the ground, fewer people would use stoves."

New research shows increased immigration would grow economy, boost wages. Reuters' Felix Salmon: "The SF Fed’s Giovanni Peri has the latest research on the subject ... 'immigrants expand the economy’s productive capacity by stimulating investment and promoting specialization. This produces efficiency gains and boosts income per worker ... a net inflow of immigrants equal to 1% of employment increases income per worker by 0.6% to 0.9% ... This implies that total immigration to the United States from 1990 to 2007 [led to] an increase of about $5,100 in the yearly income of the average U.S. worker...' Is there any chance of significantly liberalizing America’s immigration regime? I doubt it ... No matter how convinced economists are that immigration creates jobs, voters aren’t going to believe them."

"[Texas Gov. Rick] Perry To Accept Education Money, But Will ‘Look For Ways Around’ Actually Spending It On Education," reports Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo: "When Congress approved $10 billion in funding for states to preserve education jobs earlier this month, it included the requirement that Texas maintain its current education funding for the next few years if it wants to claim its share of the money ... 'Perry Chief of Staff Ray Sullivan told the Austin American-Statesman that they’ll look for ways around the requirement' ... Perry, for his part, seems to be endorsing the notion that the federal government should send money to states without any oversight whatsoever, which seems to be completely at odds with his professed concern regarding federal spending."

Wall Street Continues Hissy Fit Against Obama

President Obama made hedge fund managers sad. NYT's Andrew Sorkin: "Daniel S. Loeb, the hedge fund manager, was one of Barack Obama’s biggest backers in the 2008 presidential campaign ... So it came as quite a surprise on Friday, when Mr. Loeb sent a letter to his investors that sounded as if he were preparing to join Glenn Beck in Washington over the weekend ... 'Washington has taken actions over the past months, like the Goldman suit that seem designed to fracture the populace by pulling capital and power from the hands of some and putting it in the hands of others.'"

Naked Capitalism challenges Wall Streeter complaints in Sorkin's piece: "... the line that Sorkin parrots from big businesses, 'Be nice to us or we’ll quit investing,' is also bunk. Guess what? As we’ve indicated, big businesses were net disinvesting even during the corporate-friendly Bush Administration. And to the extent they are leery of investing now, far and away the biggest reason is macro uncertainty. It’s awfully hard to plan if you aren’t sure whether the outlook is for inflation or deflation. But businesses will cavil like crazy about government intervention because it is one of the few variables they might be able to influence."

Dean Baker reminds Wall Street always whines, makes money anyway: "... business leaders were never more angry at the government than during Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. And, let's see what they did in those years. Here are the growth rates for non-residential fixed investment in the first four years of the New Deal ... looks like the business leaders were able to put their anger aside and invest where it was profitable."

The Climate Is Angry

Ben Jealous of the NAACP writes that five years after Katrina we still haven't the lesson that human-caused climate change is worsening natural disasters:: "Due to climate change, we have seen more severe disasters and accompanying loss of life and wellbeing in these past few years than ever before from hurricanes Katrina, Ike, and Rita domestically, as well as flooding in Tennessee and the most recent flooding tragedies in Pakistan and China ... proportionately communities of color emit less than the general population and countries in the global south emit far less than countries in the global north. Yet it is African-Americans who disproportionately live in coastal communities most vulnerable to disaster and urban areas most affected by heat, Native Americans whose lands and health are defiled by processing of fossil fuels, and countries in the global south that are ravaged by disaster, displaced by rising sea levels, and starved by drought, who suffer the most."

Grist's David Roberts notes that China is shutting down its old coal plants: "Though the recession has slowed growth somewhat, China's total coal consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions are going to rise for the foreseeable future; such is the inexorable mathematics of growth. Nonetheless, authorities recognize that shutting down old, inefficient power plants advances both environmental and economic goals. It removes the largest sources of toxic air and water pollution while swapping in new, cleaner, more efficient power plants. It also serves as economic stimulus, driving investment in and construction of new generation capacity. It's what a free market system would already be doing, if such a system existed anywhere on the planet. Chinese officials get it on old coal plants. We'll see if Congress really does follow its lead."

EPA & NHTSA propose new fuel-efficiency stickers for cars that detail climate impact. NYT: "...one [proposal] would assign letter grades for fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions. The letter grades — from A+ to D — were immediately denounced by some industry groups ... The second possible window sticker would also contain information about fuel economy and [greenhouse gas] emissions, but would not assign a letter grade ... The agencies will accept public comment for 60 days before choosing one of the two stickers."

Judge denies subpoena request for Virginia conservative attorney general's frivolous lawsuit against climate scientist. Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard: "[AG Ken] Cuccinelli has been trying to pursue a case against Mann under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act. But today's ruling is bad news for Cuccinelli's case ... [Although, the] judge indicated that Cuccinelli could take another stab at the subpoena."

Federal housing regulator stiffens opposition to federal stimulus program financing home retrofits. Grist's Jonathan Hiskes: "FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco rejected the possibility of a PACE pilot program, seen as the last best hope for bringing the suspended finance tool back to life in the near term ... The remaining options for saving the popular PACE program are a court battle, legislation, or possibly intervention from the Obama administration. That last option seems remote since the administration has so far refused to put its top people on the case."

Gulf state politicians reluctant to crack down on Big Oil. Stateline: "Besides providing jobs to Gulf Coast residents, the oil industry pumps millions of dollars into the region’s tax receipts, helping to fund state and local programs at a time of deep economic uncertainty ... as local and state officials seek reimbursements from BP for government losses related to the spill -- primarily lost tax revenues -- they are moving carefully, aware that their region depends heavily on the industry they are confronting."

Drug Rebate Checks In The Mail

More than 1 million Medicare recipients have received prescription drug rebate checks from our government. NYT: "...more than one million Medicare beneficiaries had received $250 rebate checks as part of the provision to close the gap in prescription drug coverage known as the doughnut hole. The announcement, in a news release distributed by the White House, came on the same day that House Republicans opened a weeklong focus on their effort to repeal the law."

HHS Sec. notes the rebate checks are helping counter rampant "misinformation" about health care reform. ABC quotes: "Once people understand that [the rebate checks are] just one of the new features for Medicare beneficiaries, they become increasingly more enthusiastic."

TNR's Jonathan Cohn warns against reading too much into stories of health insurer layoffs: "When Assurant Health, a Milwaukee-based health insurance company, announced this month it was laying off 130 employees in Milwaukee and Minneapolis, it blamed the health care overhaul ... insurance is becoming more accessible, more comprehensive and more efficient. Alas, that may also be bad news for Assurant [which was] slapped ... with a $37 million judgment for wrongly refusing to pay the bills of a woman in a car accident. (The company claimed the woman had hidden evidence of a pre-existing condition ... when the layoffs were announced, an article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel noted that reform would 'undercut one of Assurant's strengths -- determining which customers are the best risks.' I have no idea whether Assurant can find other ways to survive as a business. But, if it can't, then we're better off relying on competitors that can."

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