Progressive Breakfast: Can't Stop Crazy

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

Bottomless Pit of Right-Wing Lies and Hate

ThinkProgress on fringe views of right-wing protesters: [1] "Specter protestor Katy Abram advocates the repeal of Medicare and Social Security."

Rep. David Scott shares his racist hate email on CNN [2], in response to his support of health care reform.

RNC chair lends approval to repeating the "death panel" lie [3] reports TPMDC

Grassley's similar fearmongering disqualifies him from bipartisan negotiations, says The Walker Report: [4] "Grassley is not only lying to the American people but he is trying to convince Americans that Democrats and the government employees have a secret plan to kill their grandmas. This rhetoric has no place in this important debate and neither should Senator Grassley. It is time for the Democratic leadership to tell Grassley to stop lying or kick him out of the bill writing negotiations. "

Joe Paduda reminds what America will look like under the status quo: [5] "Without reform of the insurance underwriting and rating laws, insurers will seek to be even more selective about the policies they write ... The number of viable healthplans will continue to shrink ... the free market will not increase 'choice' ... Bureaucrats at insurance companies will still be making decisions about what doctors you can see and how much they'll pay ... it will get harder and harder for individuals and employers to get insurance coverage."

Deal or No Deal?

NYT takes another look Obama's private deal-making with industry lobbies: [6] "Some Democrats and industry lobbyists now argue that, in negotiating deals through Mr. Baucus’s committee with powerful health care interests, the White House was tacitly signaling as early as last spring that it might end up accepting something more modest than the government insurer the president has said he prefers."

Ezra Klein asks top WH health policy aide Nancy-Ann DeParle if PhRMA deal is set in stone: [7] "No. We support the number [of $80B in savings]. The policies are what the Senate Finance Committee and the House bill enacts. We have to see what they end up with."

Astroturf Army Gearing Up To Kill Climate Bill

Change.org's Emily Gertz on the brewing lobbyist-funded Astroturf effort to stop climate bill: [8] "FreedomWorks is the conservative campaign consultancy that's been inciting people to violence with distortions about the Obama administration's health-care reform effort. Apparently it's going to bring the same shrewd astroturfing and flexibile definition of accuracy to blocking climate and energy legislation. And the American Petroleum Institute, the American Farm Bureau, the American Highway Users Alliance, and other very interested business-and-industry groups will be footing the bill."

Big Ag ready to unleash its smear and fear campaign. WSJ: [9] "Some of the nation's biggest food and agriculture companies are planning to release a flurry of studies in coming weeks that scrutinize the potential impact of climate-change legislation, warning that it could lead to higher food prices ... The coalition, which formed informally about two months ago, is becoming more active after concluding that member companies didn't win enough concessions in the House climate legislation, industry lobbyists said."

Wonk Room's Brad Johnson finds right-wing NAM report meant to undermine climate bill [10] actually concludes 20 million new jobs would be created.

Grist's Kate Sheppard reports on Repower America ads [11] targeting swing Senators.

Climate Progress reports red state Dem Sen. Tim Johnson announced support [12] of the climate bill.

Fed Looks To Pull Back, But Not Too Much

Fed to take a step towards "normal" policy after determining recession ending. NYT: [13] "Though the central bank stopped well short of declaring victory, policy makers issued their most upbeat assessment in more than a year by saying that the downturn appears to have hit bottom and that consumer spending, financial markets and inventory-building by corporations all continued to stabilize. ... It reiterated that it would keep its benchmark short-term interest rate at virtually zero for an extended period. But it also announced that it would wrap up its program to buy $300 billion worth of Treasury bonds by the end of October."

W. Post says Fed does not want to repeat Japan's mistakes: [14] "The central bank is trying to avoid the mistakes of Japanese officials in the 1990s, who repeatedly signaled that they would remove policies meant to support growth when there were only hints of economic improvement. That, in the view of many economists, prolonged the recession there. "

Citibank trying to protect $100M bonus for one trader, as WH pay czar prepares review. NYT: [15] "A decision to claim an exemption for the pay package of the trader, Andrew J. Hall, the head of a small trading firm that has been highly profitable for Citi, could provoke significant criticism from members of Congress who are to consider legislation restricting executive pay when they return to Washington in September. ... Many of the other contracts that the administration is to begin reviewing raise difficult issues for Mr. Feinberg because he has conflicting marching orders. The problem is that the administration, which is trying to change Wall Street’s pay culture, also is required to set pay packages that remain competitive with the companies’ peers ... Participants in [Treasury] discussions say Mr. Feinberg has discouraged packages that guarantee bonuses regardless of a company’s performance."