MORNING MESSAGE
This
week Mike Pence came to embody what might henceforth be known as the GOP’s
“Indiana problem.” Once a symbol of the GOP’s “deep bench” and one of its top
presidential contenders for 2016, Pence’s conservative credentials — and the
religious right’s continued influence over the GOP — demanded that he defend
Indiana’s anti-gay “religious freedom” law. Likewise, GOP presidential hopefuls
rushed to defend Indiana’s law, seeking to motivate Christian conservatives to
back them in the primaries. The problem is that Republicans have to be either
dishonest or deluded to back “religious freedom” laws, only to end up tripping
over the truth or running headlong into reality.
Republican Anti-Gay Push Met With Corporate Backlash
Walmart
calls on Arkansas governor to veto anti-gay “religious freedom” bill.
Fortune: “[Walmart’s CEO] said that the legislation, ‘threatens to undermine
the spirit of inclusion present throughout the state of Arkansas and does not
reflect the values we proudly uphold.'”
Republicans
throwing away 2016 with anti-gay stance, argues W. Post’s Dana Milbank:
“[Governor Mike] Pence backed down Tuesday and called for new legislation ‘that
makes it clear that this law does not give businesses a right to deny services
to anyone.’ Alas for Republican 2016 hopes, the leading candidates had already
backed the original, discriminatory version of the law.”
Republicans Can't Decide How Much Pain To Inflict
House
and Senate yet to reconcile their competing budgets. The Hill: “While the
Senate blueprint sticks to sequestration caps through 2021, the House’s plan
would raise the Pentagon’s spending cap by $387 billion over the next 10 years …
the Senate would cut [Medicaid] by $400 billion, while the House would cut it by
more than $900 billion … The House would make the deepest cuts [to domestic
programs], with nearly $760 billion over the next 10 years. The Senate would cut
funding for domestic programs by $236 billion.”
Obama
vetoes anti-union bill. The Hill: “Congress passed a resolution of
disapproval this month on a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that
sped up union elections … Obama vetoed Congress’ measure shortly after noon in
the Oval Office, the fourth veto of his presidency. Obama said that the
Republican resolution would reverse ‘common-sense, modest changes to streamline’
the union voting process.”
Too
much federal policy is via tax breaks, argues NYT’s Eduardo Porter: “At
bottom, the American government’s approach to taxing and spending is mildly
progressive, but basically an impotent weapon against inequality … For instance,
President Obama’s American Opportunity Tax Credit to subsidize college tuition
has particularly benefited families making from $100,000 to $180,000 … Many
economists have exposed how the mortgage tax deduction, which rises in value for
those in higher tax brackets, does little [for] middle-class homeownership…”
Breakfast Sides
Student
debt resisters meet with Education Department. HuffPost: “Fourteen federal
student loan borrowers refusing to make their monthly payments to protest the
U.S. Department of Education’s shoddy oversight of for-profit colleges met with
senior government officials on Tuesday to share their stories and learn about
the department’s plan to help them. The Education Department’s answer, in short:
Keep on waiting.”
“Americans
Don’t Feel the Slowdown in Health Costs” notes Drew Altman in WSJ: “…even
when spending and premiums experienced record-low growth in 2013 … 52% said they
had been growing faster than usual. The American people are not out to lunch;
their view of the problem of health costs is very different from that of
experts. The amount that people with employer-based insurance pay for premiums
has risen 212% in the last 15 years, while wages have risen 54% and inflation
43% … Experts (myself included) often focus on cost measures such as health
spending as a percentage of GDP and the rate of increase in health spending …
Americans with coverage care about … premium costs [and] deductibles…”
Progressive
Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to
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