The banking industry renewed its extortion threat against Congress today: If you create an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency that is not beholden to the banking industry, we'll make American consumers pay.

That's precisely the threat contained in a recently released set of "talking points" from the American Financial Services Association, which calls itself "the national trade association for the consumer credit industry."

Entitled, "The CFPA: Why It Could Do More Harm Than Good," the document's first argument is, "Consumers will pay more for financial products and services at a time when they can least afford it." Because the agency's costs will be covered in part through fees paid by financial institutions themselves, the association says that bankers will just wrap those costs into the fees they charge for credit cards and loan products.

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On a conference call today with economists who blog and folks who blog on the economy, Speaker Pelosi sought to bridge the gap between progressive proponents of public investment to create jobs, and right-leaning Democrats touting austerity for immediate deficit reduction, by saying: "We will never have deficit reduction without job creation."

The Speaker statement is grounded on the notion that without a growing economy that creates jobs and expands the nation's tax base, the deficit cannot be tamed over the long-term.

At one point on the call, she went even further, stating she wants "a jobs bill that will reduce the deficit."

One possible way to help the bill attain that goal, according to Speaker Pelosi, is to "front load infrastructure" investment, then "pay for it over a five-year period."

She indicated it was a strong possibility that the House jobs bill would include increased aid for states and localities. Such aid was scaled back in the stimulus package by self-described "moderate" Senators, and as a result, many state and local government have cut back services and laid off workers, undermining the impact of the stimulus.

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The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day.

Obama Will Announce Emission Target To Boost Chances Of Climate Agreement

Obama to announce carbon emissions target in advance of Copenhagen. NYT: "The United States will propose a near-term target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before the United Nations climate change meeting in Copenhagen next month, a senior administration official said Monday. President Obama, the official said, will announce the specific target 'in coming days.' ... the president would decide shortly whether and for how long he might attend the December climate meeting, which runs from Dec. 7 to Dec. 18 ... The House passed a measure in June that calls for a 17 percent reduction over 2005 levels of the domestic emissions of the gases that contribute to the heating of the planet. A Senate committee passed a bill last month that sets a 20 percent target, but that is likely to be weakened in future negotiations."

Politico notes WH looking for political boost from tripartisan trio: "U.S. negotiators are holding out hope that a bipartisan effort by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) will give them some momentum heading into the climate talks. The trio of senators is expected to release a framework laying out broad principles of their bipartisan proposal before the conference."

Climate Progress reacts: "I take this White House announcement to be another clear message that, yes, they will be insisting on an economy-wide cap-and-trade bill in the Senate "

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Sen. Claire McCaskill said last week that the Senate wasn't going to tackle the Clean Energy Jobs and American Protection Act this year because it would be "really, really hard." If the Senate doesn't handle it this year, will they deal with it in an election year? I think everyone working in progressive politics has heard the 'it's an election year' excuse for why something terribly important can't be done.

While McCaskill's comment in particular was frustrating, she has a lot of colleagues in the Senate who obviously feel the same way. So I'd like to talk about some of the hard things people who aren't Senators are facing that the CEJAPA legislation could begin fixing.

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Without the Koch money and buses,The Tea Partiers were able to muster about 30 people to rail against things. The Billionaires for Wealthcare joined the Tea Partiers in what was otherwise a disappointing day for them.

Over at StarkReports.com, Mike Stark has some great coverage of the Bilionaires for Wealthcare's with Sen. Corker and Sen Grassley.

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We'd talked about it earlier in the week, but hadn't really made a definite decision to go. Then, Sunday morning I came downstairs to find this Washington Post story on the computer monitor.

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, 6-year-old Heaven Skyler Wilson dragged herself off the school bus that dropped her in front of her home on a rural road in Jetersville, just south of Richmond. The little girl, who had never had so much as an ear infection in her life, was pale and feverish and complained of an upset stomach.

The next day, Heaven's grandmother, Pat Sparrow, took her to a nearby clinic. Heaven, usually a bright, bubbly girl with blond pigtails, dimples and effusive energy, had a sore throat and a 103-degree temperature. The doctor swabbed her for the flu, and the test was positive.

It was just something going around, Sparrow said she was told. The doctor told Sparrow to take Heaven home, give her Tylenol and chicken broth, and let her rest.

By the next morning, Heaven couldn't breathe. Sparrow called 911.

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In pledging to push for congressional passage of a U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, President Obama is showing his inexperience as well as the "no change we can believe in" attitudes of his economic advisers.

Like China, Korea has an export-led, neo-mercantilist economic growth strategy. Each time the United States has negotiated trade agreements with these kinds of economies, it has wound up with dramatically higher imports and only small, if any, gains in exports. This is because the U.S. and the export-led economic systems are asymmetrical and largely incompatible.

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A really smart student intern I’ve had the privilege of working with (Jonathan Flack, GWU 2010) asked a really stupid question. “Why,” he asked, “Do we give China everything it wants? Why don’t we challenge them?”

This intern knows what’s going on. He knows about our $2 trillion trade deficit, the manipulation of the Yuan, and dumping of steel pipes in the US markets. Of course, he also knows about human rights and Tibet. But most importantly, he knows that economically China is eating our lunch.

He wants to know why our government doesn’t do something about it. He wants to know why we don’t take them on, rather than giving them the Olympics.

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The Associated Press reports that China has criticized last week's U.S.-China Commission (USCC) report for asserting that Chinese spies are aggressively stealing U.S. secrets. Beijing warns that the report is "full of prejudice" and that it could damage U.S.-China relations.

This is laughable. Not only are China's espionage, cyber attacks, intellectual property theft, piracy, and counterfeiting all widely documented, but Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Senior Analyst Kerri Toloczko can relate her own personal experiences with Chinese spying. A former USCC Comissioner, Toloczko's home computer has been hacked numerous times by China--just one consequence of her Congressional appointment to the USCC. Toloczko reports that other USCC Commissioners have also endured such hacking.

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When Sen. Joe Lieberman first announced he would filibuster any health care bill with a public option, I noted that he lied, falsely calling it an "entitlement program" that would be "trouble ... for the national debt," when in fact it is an "option" not an entitlement which would in fact help our federal government save money.

Yesterday on Meet The Press, Lieberman didn't exactly lie, but deployed -- as his Senate colleague Al Franken coined in his old radio program's "Wait, Wait, Don't Lie To Me" game show segment -- the "Weasel."

And Lieberman's Weasel brightly illuminates the blatant insincerity on the part of the crusaders against the public option.

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Today, President Obama meets with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with the Copenhagen climate summit two weeks away and their two nations very far apart on any climate agreement. Any international agreement will require the US, India and China to find some common ground.

On Saturday's LiberalOasis Radio Show, airing on WHMP in Western MA, I discussed the international fault lines that must be overcome for a successful Copenhagen summit with David Roberts of Grist.org. Listen below.

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The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day

Talk Of Public Option Compromise After Initial Senate Vote

CQ sizes up the state of play on public option: "Four senators — independent Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana — who voted to begin debate on the bill have said they will likely later oppose any move to end a filibuster and pass the measure unless the public option proposed by Reid is significantly altered or removed. On the other side of the issue, Bernard Sanders, an independent from Vermont, released a statement Sunday saying that there are a 'number of senators, including myself, who would not support final passage without a strong public option.' A compromise could emerge from talks on a proposal by Thomas R. Carper, D-Del. He has suggested a public option available only in states where private insurers fail to offer insurance plans that meet yet-to-be-defined cost standards, or in states that choose to offer a public plan in competition with private insurers."

Wonk Room's Igor Volsky notes that Sen. Lincolin's website still says she support public option: "Individuals should be able to choose from a range of quality health insurance plans. Options should include private plans as well as a quality, affordable public plan or non-profit plan that can accomplish the same goals as those of a public plan."

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Don't expect an answer from the ranters and ravers who frequent 'Tea Parties' — or the politicians who egg them on.

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During this week's edition of The Week In Blog on Bloggingheads.tv, Matt Lewis and I discussed blog reaction to the unveiling of the Senate's health care reform legislation, and how conservatives are responding to the Congressional Budget Office's projection of reduced deficits. Watch it below.

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Judge David. F. Hamilton was confirmed Thursday in the Senate to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals 59-39, after breaking a conservative filibuster Tuesday and persevering through a painstakingly delayed process. Senate Judiciary Chairman Leahy (D-Vt.) made the following statement:

“This is a nomination that should be confirmed and should have been confirmed months ago. David Hamilton is a fine judge and will make a good addition to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit."

Judge Hamilton had the support of both his home state Senators – Senator Lugar, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, and Senator Bayh, a well-respected moderate Democrat. He was rated “well qualified” by the American Bar Association, and his nomination cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in June. But despite all this, conservatives had since prevented a final vote, arguing Hamilton was too liberal.

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