MORNING MESSAGE
Pope
Francis is preparing to deliver a major “encyclical,” or address to clergy, that
declares preventing a climate crisis to be a moral imperative. This will be a
landmark moment: the marriage of faith and science by one of the world’s most
influential religious leaders, bolstering international talks to forge a global
agreement by the end of the year. Obviously, the man must be stopped. At least
that’s what the climate science deniers at the Koch Brothers-funded Heartland
Institute think...
Bernie Announces
Sen.
Bernie Sanders tells the Associated Press he’s running for president in the
Democratic primary: “People should not underestimate me. I’ve run outside of
the two-party system, defeating Democrats and Republicans, taking on big-money
candidates and, you know, I think the message that has resonated in Vermont is a
message that can resonate all over this country.”
Sanders’
entry put assures Democratic debate over the economy. Bloomberg: “‘I think
we should raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over a period of years, not
tomorrow,’ he told Bloomberg … Sanders is adamantly opposed to trade deals that
he says entice employers to leave the United States.”
Sanders
pens Des Moines Register oped in favor of expanding Social Security: ” I
have reintroduced legislation that would apply the payroll tax to earned income
above $250,000 as well as investment income. This would allow us not only to
increase benefits to meet the elderly’s higher living expenses, but to extend
Social Security’s solvency until 2065.”
Hillary
edges away from some of Bill’s record. W. Post: “…the Democratic
presidential contender is increasingly distancing herself from — or even
opposing — key policies pushed by Bill Clinton while he was in the White House,
from her recent skepticism on free-trade pacts to her full embrace of gay
rights. The starkest example yet came Wednesday, when Hillary Clinton delivered
an impassioned address condemning the ‘era of incarceration’ ushered in during
the 1990s in the wake of her husband’s 1994 crime bill — though she never
mentioned him or the legislation by name.”
Martin
O’Malley faces criticism for aggressive policing when Baltimore mayor. NYT:
“….critics old and new questioned his record as mayor, the ‘zero tolerance’
brand of policing he introduced and the lingering effects it had on the
relationship between law enforcement and Baltimore’s poor communities.”
“Marco
Rubio Went to Bat for Corinthian Colleges” scoops Bloomberg: “Last summer,
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida asked the U.S. Department of Education to
‘demonstrate leniency’ toward Corinthian Colleges by permitting the wealthy
for-profit company to continue accessing millions of dollars in federal
financial aid while it was cooperating with a federal investigation. Ten months
later, the company shuttered its remaining 28 campuses, instantly displacing
some 16,000 students just days after it was fined $30 million by the Department
of Education…”
Fast Track Off Track
Fast
track doesn’t have the votes in the House yet. Politico: “At this point,
upward of 75 House Republicans could vote against trade promotion authority if
it comes up for a vote in the coming weeks … Some of the lawmakers fear job
losses in their districts from free trade; others distrust Obama and oppose
giving him more power … House Democrats, meanwhile, say just 12 to 20 of their
lawmakers support Obama’s request … it’s early, and the tide could change. [Rep.
Steve] Scalise’s whip count Friday afternoon is critical…”
Hillary
Clinton suggests opposition to element of TPP in her book “Hard Choices.”
HuffPost: “Clinton writes in her book … ‘we should avoid some of the
provisions sought by business interests, including our own, like giving them or
their investors the power to sue foreign governments to weaken their
environmental and public health rules’ … Obama’s TPP deal would be enforced by a
process known as ‘investor-state dispute settlement,’ which allows foreign
companies to attack domestic laws or regulations before an international
tribunal if they believe those rules unfairly curb investment returns…”
TPP
should let workers reap more gains, argues W. Post’s Harold Meyerson: “When
we set the standards for globalization, we need to ensure benefits flow to
workers as well as investors, and that won’t happen absent the kind of
fundamental shift in power from shareholders and management to labor that the
German system embodies. Like earlier trade deals, the Pacific pact offers no
such rebalancing.”
Corker Ends Budget Block
GOP
budget resolution set to pass. NYT: “Senator Bob Corker, Republican of
Tennessee, lifted his blockade of a House-Senate budget deal Wednesday, clearing
the way for a blueprint that would cut $5 trillion in spending in the next
decade to balance the federal budget … Few lawmakers expect Congress to pass
legislation to carry out the plan. Top Republicans are already talking about
negotiating a more realistic bipartisan deal.”
Real
fight begins over spending bills that keep government open. The Hill: “…the
budget dynamics leave [Republicans] with the difficult task of devising spending
bills that can attract enough bipartisan support to pass through both chambers —
and win President Obama’s signature — for the sake of avoiding a government
shutdown like the one that damaged the GOP politically in 2013. Democrats won’t
be providing any cover. Obama’s allies from both chambers quickly denounced the
Republicans’ budget blueprint as a giveaway to corporations and other special
interests at the expense of working people.”
First
GOP spending bill pulled off the floor. Politico: “House Republicans on
Wednesday night abruptly pulled their first spending bill of the year off the
floor after it became clear that a bipartisan amendment to strike part of a
multibillion-dollar Pentagon budget increase might actually pass … [That] would
eliminate part of a Defense Department boost that is essential to getting
defense hawks to support the party’s annual spending blueprint. And it’s not a
good sign for the appropriations process overall. The spending bill pulled from
the floor is generally one of the least controversial and easiest to pass.”
Breakfast Sides
California
sets aggressive targets for carbon cuts. TNR’s Rebecca Leber: “… California
Governor Jerry Brown announced a plan to cut the state’s greenhouse gas
emissions 40 percent by 2030; according to his office, it is ‘the most
aggressive benchmark enacted by any government in North America to reduce
dangerous carbon emissions.’ … The baseline year California uses in for its
goal—1990—is itself significant, because emissions were lower then than they
were in 2005. Federal targets set by President Barack Obama use the year 2005,
when emissions were at a peak, as their baseline.”
Greek
deal by Sunday? Bloomberg: “… both sides in a meeting of euro-area officials
agreed to pursue intensive negotiations beginning on Thursday with the target of
a preliminary deal by May 3… A key factor in a potential breakthrough may be the
decision by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to intervene and play a major role in
the negotiations to help the process along … Tsipras has … curtailed [Finance
Minister Yanis] Varoufakis’s role in day-to-day negotiations…”
Progressive
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