Daily digest: Meet the new plan, same as the old plan

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

Obama Said to Seek $300B Jobs Package(Bloomberg)
This plan has it all: Infrastructure! Tax cuts! State aid! More tax cuts! It’ll be just like the Recovery Act, but smaller and less effective.

Old Tax Relief Seen as Anchor in Obama Plan (NYT)
The centerpiece of Obama’s ambitious new agenda is the same extended payroll tax cut he’s been asking for all year, which Republicans will still reject out of spite.

A Point That’s Going to be Important in a Few Days (On the Economy)
Jared Bernstein notes that despite much wailing and gnashing of teeth from conservatives, temporary spending has little impact on the deficit or debt growth.

New Polls Find All-Time Lows For Obama, Congress (HuffPo)
It’s official: Americans hate their entire government. Congratulations to President Romney and Speaker Pelosi!

Public disapproves of Obama on economy, but supports his actual fiscal policies (WaPo)
The bright side for Obama: Voters like most of his ideas; they’re just annoyed that nothing is actually happening. Stupid voters, always wanting people to “do” things.

What The Media Won’t — Or Can’t — Tell You About The Jobs Crisis (TPM)
Forget the Verizon strike or random bad weather. The big drag on monthly job reports is that government cutbacks are actively destroying the public sector.

The Corrupt Establishment Begins Smearing Eric Schneiderman (Naked Capitalism)
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Matt Stoller highlights the media’s new line of attack on Schneiderman: He’s obsessed with self-promotion, like he thinks he’s some kind of democratically elected law enforcement official or something.

Richard Cordray Goes To Capitol Hill, But Addresses Deaf Republican Ears(The Nation)
The CFPB’s sacrificial lamb testified before the Senate, but Republicans refuse to consider any nominee for director until the position is eliminated. Wait, what?

The Fall NLRB Season (TAP)
Any more progress on workers’ rights that’s going to happen has to happen by January, since that’s when the NLRB will functionally cease to exist for a while.

Of Princeton pair of Krueger and Krugman, it matters which is going to Washington (WaPo)
Alan Krueger and Paul Krugman share a lot in common, but Krueger may be less inclined to rock the boat for his Rubinite tennis partners.

Members of debt panel have ties to lobbyists (WaPo)
The Super Committee is sponsored in part by General Electric.

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult(Truthout)
Retired congressional staffer Mike Lofgren writes that the debt ceiling fiasco proves the GOP is now the party of the corrupt and ruthless, while Democrats are the party of the corrupt and useless.

Short URL: http://aworldofprogress.com/readingroom/?p=898

Posted by New Deal 2.0 on Sep 7 2011. Filed under New Deal 2.0, the reading room. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry