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Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Jeff Madrick, director of policy research at The New School’s Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, join Institute for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage in calling for President Obama to champion fairer global trade policies that safeguard American jobs at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. Both Brown and Madrick applauded Obama's decision to put a tariff on tires imported from China, and they both encouraged Obama to dismiss fears that the action would lead to a trade war. Governments should not confuse legitimate actions to support domestic businesses with "protectionism," Brown says.

Brown also says that climate change legislation currently pending in the Senate will not pass without assistance for American manufacturers. (The Hill publishes details.)

Bill Scher offers his analysis of President Obama's health care address to Congress on WHMP's The Bill Dwight Show.

This week's LiberalOasis Radio Show, broadcast Saturday 12 PM on WHMP led with my analysis of the right-wing mobs disrupting congressional town halls, and how they are backfiring on conservative obstructionists.

Also in this week's show, Vijay Prashad on the upcoming Afghanistan elections, Traci Olsen's progressive parenting feature "Momtroversies" on imbuing values of diversity when you are not surrounded by diversity, and our cultural roundtable on the sudden death of John Hughes.

EPI economist Heidi Shierholz says that the July employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that, f anything, the jobs report shows that Congress was wrong to bend to conservative pressure to limit stimulus spending. Shierholz explains what the report shows about the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the next steps congress should take to build on that impact.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, explains the merits of the public health insurance option during a media conference call August 6. Brown gives an example of a constituent who lost private insurance who would benefit from the public option. He goes on to explain that a strong public option would expand access to health care, provide a coverage safety net for such people as recent college graduates, offer more insurance choices to small business owners, and would keep insurance companies honest, providing competition that would keep costs under control.

Brown says that 14,000 people lose their health insurance coverage every day, and for them fight for the public option is crucial

The Senate Finance Committee today has unveiled a health care reform plan that does not include a public health insurance option. It instead proposes the creation of health co-operatives. At a media teleconference, I explain why this will not work and should be seen for what it is: an effort to kill what would be an effective competitor to the private insurance market.

A public health insurance option would provide a cost and quality benchmark for private insurers, a backup for people who could not get access to private insurers and a cost-control backstop that would drive innovation and efficiencies that private insuers could use. A co-operative would not have the reach necessary to fulfill these functions successfully in a market dominated by a a few large players.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich urges Senate Democrats to condemn false “bipartisanship” standing in the way of President Obama’s overhaul to the nation’s health care system in this news conference call. Reich said Democrats must support a public health insurance option because it’s the best way to control costs, citing evidence in a new report released by the Health Care for America Now coalition.

With health care costs skyrocketing, the report shows that the number of Americans in families with problems paying medical bills climbed to 57 million, or one in five, up from one in seven in 2003. Millions of these people have health insurance but are forced to go without essential care. Further, the lack of health insurance coverage causes 22,000 deaths each year in the U.S.

Reich said that many of the objections raised by opponents of the public plan are in fact the reasons why a public plan should be central to reform. Competition from a public plan would compel private insurance companies to change their practices in order to expand care at lower costs, he said.

He called on President Obama to "make it crystal clear" that he would not accept a health care reform bill that does not have a public option, and that he will not compromise on that in order to get Republican votes Noting that President George H. W. Bush famously rammed through a tax cut proposal without bipartisan support, "I hope the president does the same with health care."

Health care expert Jacob Hacker, who joined Reich on the call, defended the inclusion of a public health insurance option, calling it the best way to assure health care affordability, accountability and adequacy.

Hacker also highlighted a series of public opinion polls conducted this month by the Kaiser Foundation, Employee Benefit Research Institute, NBC/Wall Street Journal and CBS/New York Times that shows broad public support for a public health insurance option. About three-quarters of people polled favor creating a public option to compete with private health insurance plans.

Hacker and Reich also explained why state or regional health insurance cooperatives will not control costs, citing past experience of such co-ops mimicking the behavior and costs of larger for-profit companies.

A national coalition of nearly 200 state and local organizations—ranging from financial experts to community advocates—have kicked off a major campaign to reform our financial system and rebuild our economy.

They are operating under the banner of Americans for Financial Reform, and at a news conference Tuesday, heard here, some of the coalition members explained how they intend to change the political dynamic that up to now has allowed Wall Street bankers to write the rules for themselves.The coalition will fight for real changes that get at the root causes of this financial crisis, including lack of protection for consumers and an oversight system that is not up to the job.

Featured in this audio of the news conference is Jim Carr, Chief Operating Officer, National Community Reinvestment Coalition; Rob Johnson, economist with the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute; Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG’s Consumer Program Director; and George Goehl, Executive Director, National People's Action.

Americans for Financial Reform calls on Congress to put in place a strong watchdog structure with the resources and authority to police Wall Street and protect our financial security. The goal is to obtain reforms that keep people in their homes and prompt smart investment in communities and businesses that create good jobs and strong neighborhoods.

In a conference call with reporters, a team of health care experts discuss two new reports that together explain how an employer health mandate can be shaped so that it does not have the adverse impact on employment predicted by crirics of health care reform.

The report by Philip Cryan published by the Institute for America’s Future and the Economic Policy Institute shows that an employer contribution to health care would most likely lead to job gains. Even under a worst-case scenario, Cryan explains that any negative impact of a requirement that employers either provide health insurance ("play") or pay into a public plan would be minimal, and would be outweighed by the benefits of more broadly available health coverage and lower health care costs.

Health care experts Jacob Hacker and Ken Jacobs discuss their report on how to structure a “play-or-pay” requirement on employers, drawing heavily from what they deem is a successful implementation of a play-or-pay requirement in San Francisco. Their study was done for the U.C. Berkeley School of Law Center on Health, Economic and Family Security and Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.

Opening the call is economist Jonathan Gruber, who discusses a petition signed by 330 economists and health experts calling on President Obama and Congress to act now and act "boldly" on health care reforms.