Progressive Breakfast: Baltimore's Plight Shows Why A Good Jobs Policy Is Way Overdue

MORNING MESSAGE

The nation is now seeing that there is a broader story to be told about the roots of the violence that broke out in Baltimore this week. In addition to the mistreatment of African Americans by police, there is also the story of extreme economic deprivation – the consignment of entire communities to virtual jails of joblessness, poverty and neglect. The fact that such large expanses of poverty could exist in Baltimore and in other major cities across the country is a consequence of economic policies that are constrained by conservative austerity ideology and that fail to address institutional racism and structural poverty.

Bernie Is In

Sen. Bernie Sanders to announce Democratic primary challenge tomorrow. Vermont Public Radio: “Sanders will release a short statement on that day and then hold a major campaign kickoff in Vermont in several weeks … Sanders’ basic message will be that the middle class in America has been decimated in the past two decades while wealthy people and corporations have flourished.”
Bernie tweets: “Every candidate for president has got to answer one simple question.” “Are you prepared to take on the billionaire class whose greed is destroying the middle class and, through Citizens United, our American democratic system?”
More from HuffPost: “[He] has criticized Clinton for being too soft on Wall Street and has doubted whether Clinton can address income inequality. Sanders has been an outspoken critic of the Trans-Pacific Partnership [and] will provide a platform for Democrats to criticize Clinton from the left.”
Clinton to deliver speech on criminal justice reform today. HuffPost: “Clinton will lay out her vision for criminal justice reform, centering around an “end to the era of mass incarceration,” according to an aide who provided a preview of her remarks. Those changes include addressing probation and drug diversion programs, increasing support for mental health and drug treatment and pursuing alternative punishments for low-level offenders. She also will call for body cameras for every police department …”

Obama Courts Dem Moderates

Obama to meet with “New Democrats” over trade. Politico: “The four dozen members of the New Democrat Coalition were invited to a Thursday afternoon meeting at the White House … the 46 lawmakers [are] highly valuable to the White House’s effort to secure a broader trade deal with Pacific nations … Obama is also scheduled to have lunch with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in his private dining room Wednesday…”
China OK with TPP. NYT: “Some of China’s leading trade policy intellectuals now say that they have few concerns about the agreement. They also say that the pact could even help China, by making it easier for Beijing to pursue its own regional agreements … Still, the trade deal presents some potential tensions for China … The free trade agreement could give Japanese companies better access to the American market in large, high-tech industries that China wants to dominate, like automobile manufacturing and telecommunications.”
No deal yet with Japan. NYT: “…Mr. Obama and Mr. Abe emerged from an Oval Office meeting … with unsettled differences between the United States and Japan over automobiles and agriculture that have hindered negotiations over the broader Trans-Pacific Partnership … [But] they reported substantial progress in their negotiations, and … made a unified call for a quick resolution to the trade pact.”

Dems Try To Set Living Wage Example

“Dem leaders want Senate food workers to make $15 an hour” reports The Hill: “Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is next in line to become Senate Democratic leader, said he and his colleagues have spoken to Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) about raising wages for Senate food workers.”
“Income Inequality Is Costing the U.S. on Social Issues” argues NYT’s Eduardo Porter: “Pick almost any measure of social health and cohesion over the last four decades or so, and you will find that the United States took a wrong turn along the way … when globalization struck at the jobs on which 20th-century America had built its middle class, the United States discovered that it did not, in fact, have much of a welfare state to speak of. The threadbare safety net tore under the strain.”

Corker Corks Budget

Sen. Bob Corker blocks budget deal over “gimmick” Politico: “The Tennessee Republican on Tuesday said he would not sign the final budget deal because the agreement would let appropriators take unspent money from mandatory programs — like a crime victims fund or children’s insurance account — and use it to pay for other congressional priorities … GOP leaders can’t move forward until he signs it.”
“Spending pressure” in Congress could override GOP budget. NYT: “The House and the Senate Armed Services Committees are drafting legislation … breaking military spending caps … A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing measures to speed the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process for drugs and medical devices, which would probably require additional spending. Senators Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, introduced legislation on Tuesday to expand Pell Grants that the new budget deal is supposed to freeze.”
Veto threats for first GOP spending bills. The Hill: “The White House said the bill ‘fails’ to fund building upgrades on military bases and and expansions to medical facilities used by veterans. While it provides $4.6 billion above the 2015 funding level, it’s $1.2 billion less than Obama’s request. The administration said it also ‘strongly objects’ to the use of the Pentagon’s war fund to pay for infrastructure investments.”

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