MORNING MESSAGE
Negotiations
broke down Monday after the Europeans presented Greece with an ultimatum it must
have known would be rejected ... It seems somehow appropriate that this week’s
Euro-showdown came just after American audiences gave “Fifty Shades of Gray” a
record-breaking opening weekend. There are those in the United States who share
the Germans’ economic kink – they’re called Republicans – and the hostility
underlying their austerity fetish is revealed from time to time in moments of
unintended candor.
Deportation Relief Delayed
WH
expects to prevail after federal judge blocks deportation relief. W. Post:
“Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday that his department will
comply with a federal judge’s order to halt the controversial immigration
actions President Obama announced in November, but he expressed confidence that
the administration will win its upcoming appeal.”
Judicial
ruling clearly activist, says NYT edit board: “To get to where he clearly
wanted to go, Judge Hanen first had to find that the 26 plaintiff states have
standing — that is, the legal capacity — to sue the administration over the new
policy. He ruled that at least Texas did because the actions would force the
state to spend scarce resources providing things like driver’s licenses to
undocumented immigrants. Judge Hanen said the costs were the result of the
federal government’s ‘failure to secure the borders,’ and he noted the millions
of dollars that states spend to educate ‘each illegal alien child,’ even though,
as he knows, the Constitution already requires states to provide that
education.”
Obama’s
immigration hopes lie with Supreme Court. Politico: “Obama vowed to appeal
the ruling, but that challenge will head to a court considered the most
conservative federal appeals court in the country: the 5th Circuit … The White
House’s best chance to get Obama’s immigration efforts back on track may lie
with the Supreme Court, which issued a 5-3 ruling in 2012 backing strong
discretion for the federal government in immigration enforcement…”
Homeland
Security fears short-term funding solution. Politico: “…a continuing
resolution is just about the worst way that Congress could solve the funding
problem, short of actually shutting the department down …. A continuing
resolution wouldn’t include any of the money the department is supposed to get
for new initiatives — it just keeps last year’s funding on autopilot. And it
can’t issue the grants that help pay for emergency response and equipment
upgrades, as well as the ones that fund surveillance cameras to look for
terrorists in New York.”
McConnell
fails to seize opportunity for a deal. The Hill: “‘He certainly has not
looked that way thus far,’ said a senior Democratic aide. ‘He could have said,
“This issue is being discussed in the courts; that’s the appropriate venue.
Let’s keep the fight there and fund DHS in the meantime.”‘”
Bernie Backs Free College
Sen.
Bernie Sanders proposes two years of free tuition at public colleges. The
Hill: “Sanders, who is mulling a 2016 White House run, said rising college
costs are preventing young people from going to college and are leaving many
students in debt. ‘This is absurd. This is absolutely counter-productive to our
efforts to create a strong economy,’ he said, adding that the United States is
lagging behind other countries where college is free.”
Investing
in community college students pays off, finds NYT’s Eduardo Porter: “A few
years ago, the City University of New York began Accelerated Study in Associate
Programs, which covered any tuition not already provided by financial aid. It
offered students free textbooks and MetroCards for the subway. Crucially, it
offered intense tutoring … [The] program roughly doubled the three-year
graduation rate among the most disadvantaged students, those who initially
needed remediation classes.”
Breakfast Sides
Hillary
met with Warren in December, reports NYT: “Mrs. Clinton solicited policy
ideas and suggestions from Ms. Warren … [Warren’s] confidants have suggested
that she would use her Senate perch during the 2016 campaign to nudge Mrs.
Clinton to embrace causes like curtailing the power of large financial
institutions … [Clinton] is intent on developing an economic platform that can
speak to her party’s populist wing and excite working class voters without
alienating allies in the business community.”
Obama
weighs intervening in labor dispute. Politico: “President Barack Obama may
have to intervene directly in the West Coast ports dispute, becoming the first
Democratic president since Jimmy Carter to impose a resolution on a private
labor-management conflict. The slowdown in shipping comes at an especially
awkward time for Obama, who is trying to push through a global trade deal
largely opposed by organized labor … Labor and management both know that, should
[Labor Sec] Perez also fail and the stalemate continue, the next logical step
would be for the president to declare a national emergency under the 1947
Taft-Hartley Act and force a solution.”
Tax
breaks to encourage savings mostly help rich. Bloomberg: “The federal
government spent $384 billion in 2013 on tax incentives that encourage savings,
linked mainly to home ownership and retirement plans … The highest-earning fifth
of U.S. taxpayers got about two-thirds of the tax refunds … while the bottom
fifth received less than 1 percent, a report by the Urban Institute shows.”
Greece
may ask for a 6-month loan extension. Bloomberg: “Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras’s government intends to make the request on Wednesday … German Finance
Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble signaled it may not be enough … ‘there is no loan
agreement, it’s an assistance program … Greece would like to receive credit, but
not fulfill the conditions’…”
Progressive
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