Richard Eskow
13 Questions: About Greece, Europe, Austerity – and Us
Every day brings more headlines in the European debt drama: “Greece elects anti-austerity government.” “Greek Finance Minister says he won’t negotiate with the ‘Troika.’” “Anti-austerity movements gain ground across Europe.” What’s behind these stories? What does the future hold? What, if anything, are the implications for the United States?
Capital & Main Takes On Inequality
California news site Capital & Main launches month-long series on “how economic inequality is transforming California, and what can be done to rebuild our vanishing middle class.”
Greece v. Europe
Europe squeezes Greece. NYT:“The central bank decided that it would no longer accept Greek government bonds as collateral for loans, saying that it was not confident the country could meet its bailout requirements. The move raises the stakes for Greece, indicating that the European Central Bank, at least, is not prepared to bend its rules to accommodate the country’s newly elected government.”
Greece doesn’t budge. Bloomberg:“The government ‘remains unwavering in the goals of its social salvation program, approved by the vote of the Greek people,’ according to a Finance Ministry statement issued overnight.”
House GOP v. Senate GOP
Party split over immigration and funding Homeland Security. Politico:“What has caused the most consternation among top Republicans is a palpable fear that their party could incur a political backlash if the impasse causes a shutdown of an agency so essential to national security if no deal is reached before the Feb. 27 deadline … [But a]nything less than a full-fledged battle would spark a revolt from the right.”
“Democrats feel they have political leverage and have shown no sign of backing down,”reports The Hill.
Can Republicans even agree on a budget? WSJ:“Rep. Tom Price (R., Ga.), who heads the House Budget Committee, has promisedto offer a proposal that balances the budget in 10 years, which would require much deeper spending cuts than what many Democrats—and possibly those Republican senators who face re-election next year—will agree to…”
Trio of Republicans propose actual replacement for Obamacare. NYT:“[The bill] would halt the expansion of Medicaid and scale back subsidies for middle-income people to buy private insurance … [It would] reduce federal regulation of insurance policies [and] no longer require insurance policies to include coverage for maternity care … Their plan includes a potentially explosive proposal: Workers would have to pay federal income tax on the value of employer-provided health benefits that exceed certain annual thresholds — $12,000 for individuals and $30,000 for families.”
Nothing new from Jeb. W. Post’s Jim Tankersley:“…Jeb Bush’s speech on Wednesday before the Detroit Economic Club … was the highest-profile example to date of a Republican presidential hopeful embracing economic inequality and middle-class stagnation as problems that define America. What it was not — at least on its face — was a break with orthodox conservative thinking about the economy.”
Conservatives In States Target Workers
IL Gov. Bruce Rauner aims to weaken labor. NYT:“[Gov. Rauner] said on Wednesday that the state should ban some political contributions by public employee unions and allow local ‘right to work’ laws … reporters tried repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, to get the longtime Assembly speaker, Michael J. Madigan, to voice a firm opinion about the governor’s suggestions on right-to-work laws.”
TN legislature rebuffs GOP governor who wanted to expand Medicaid. The Hill:“[Gov. Bill] Haslam, a Republican, failed to garner enough support among members of his own party. Only three of the 10 Republicans on the [Senate] Health panel voted for the plan; the final vote was 7 to 4 against expansion.”
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