CHARTS: How Austerity Is Hurting State Economies

By Pat Garofalo on Jun 21, 2012 at 6:45 pm

The effect of austerity in Europe has been decidedly detrimental, stifling growth and needlessly prolonging economic pain for the continent’s residents. And in America, many states are doing the exact same thing, slashing spending and laying off workers in an attempt to cope with collapsed revenue.

As Center for American Progress economist Adam Hersh found, such austerity has been counterproductive for states as well. In fact, the states that have cut spending during the recession have higher rates of unemployment, lower rates of growth, and ultimately fewer private sector jobs. In the median “spending cut” state:

– The unemployment rate is 4.1 percentage points higher;

– There are 6 percent fewer private-sector jobs;

– The state economy is growing 2.7 percentage points slower than before the recession.

Despite this evidence, Republicans in Congress and in state legislatures continue to push austerity-like programs.

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Climate Progress

PHOTOS: June’s Top 5 Extreme Weather Events In The U.S.

By Intern on Jun 21, 2012 at 6:10 pm

by Steven Perlberg

Western wildfires, record-setting temperatures, devastating floods, and other extreme weather made more extreme by global warming have welcomed us to summer 2012. Yesterday’s solstice — marked by 66 high scorching records across the Eastern Seaboard — should serve as yet another reminder that it’s time to seriously address the carbon pollution.

Here are the top five extreme weather disasters in the U.S. for June:

1. Colorado Wildfire Blazes: This month, wildfires in northern Colorado forced thousands of families to evacuate their homes. Fueled by 40-to-50-mph winds and dry brush left after a particularly hot spring, the flames have destroyed at least 181 homes with 2000 firefighters deployed.

2. Zoo Animals Drowned in Minnesota Floods: Heavy rain in Duluth, Minnesota flooded two-thirds of the Lake Superior Zoo, drowning at least 11 animals in the process. Sinkholes and mudslides ravaged the rest of Duluth, flooding homes and shutting down roads. The flood also swept up an 8-year-old boy who luckily survived with just a few cuts.

3. Flooding in the Florida Panhandle: Earlier this month, torrential rains damaged homes and forced evacuations in the Florida Panhandle. The downpour cut power in the Escambia County jail and sent more than 100 residents to spend the night in Red Cross shelters, with 40 homes flooded in the city of Gulf Breeze.

4. Summer 2012 Poised for Record Low Sea Ice: Satellite observations analyzed by the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center show that this summer looks likely to bring unusually ice-free Arctic waters. The NSIDC predicts a low-ice year, the lack of white ice allowing more heat to be absorbed into the Arctic, an amplifying feedback that further accelerates warming and ice melt.

5. California Wildfire Prompts Evacuation: A San Diego County wildfire necessitated the evacuation of 150 homes. Over 500 firefighters were dispatched to attack the 907-acre blaze, which was fanned by strong gusts of wind and sent flames burning along the highway.

According to an NOAA analysis, the Northern Hemisphere land and ocean average surface temperature for last month was the all-time warmest May on record, at 0.85°C (1.53°F) above average. And as Amanda Staudt notes, it’s time for policymakers to start connecting the dots on carbon pollution. The recent influx of western wildfires — not to mention flooding, record heat, and the like — is extremely unlikely to occur under otherwise natural conditions.

Some states and insurance companies are beginning to recognize this, and regulators in California, Washington, and New York recently announced that insurance companies will be required to assess and disclose climate-related risks they face.

NEWS FLASH

U.S. Regulators Will Require Banks To Pay Up To $125,000 To Foreclosure Fraud Victims | The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a plan today that will attempt to compensate consumers for banks’ reckless behavior during the foreclosure fraud scandal that broke in 2010. The new system will review complaints from homeowners about predatory banking practices such as “starting a foreclosure for a borrower who wasn’t in default, denying loan assistance in error, a mistake on a loan modification, and wrongfully foreclosing on a member of the military,” potentially forcing banks to pay up to $125,000 per borrower. This policy is in addition to the $25 billion national foreclosure settlement with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Ally Financial reached earlier this year.

Climate Progress

House Energy Bill Fuels Dirtier Air, More Lung Disease

By Energy Interns on Jun 21, 2012 at 5:46 pm

Jontintinjordan, via Flickr

Today, the House of Representatives passed the Strategic Energy Production Act of 2012, H.R. 4480. This bill puts oil and gas profits above the health of the most vulnerable Americans, especially infants, children and senior citizens, in a concentrated attack on air pollution safeguards under the Clean Air Act.

The House passed this bill by a 248 to 163 vote, with 229 Republicans and 19 Democrats voting for it, and 5 Republicans and 158 Democrats voting against it. The 248 pro-Big Oil votes received $38.6 million from the oil and gas industry – over four times more than those who voted against it.

Particularly egregious is Title II of the bill. It is the Gasoline Regulations Act, originally H.R. 4471 and authored by Congressman Ed Whitfield (R-KY). Title II of H.R. 4480 would eliminate the bipartisan mandate under the Clean Air Act that the Environmental Protection Agency set health standards for ozone (or smog) pollution based only on the best medicine and science. It would also impair EPA’s ability to reduce dangerous pollutants from dirty industries, such as oil refining.

Instead, for the first time ever, the cost of pollution reduction would be used to determine how much health protection to require. In other words, air pollution that triggers asthma attacks and respiratory diseases would only be reduced if the polluters say they could afford to clean up.

The passage of this provision also prevents essential clean air regulations from taking effect until at least 2016, using “paralysis by analysis” to block additional health protections.

These clean air protections are essential, as more than 40 percent of people in the U.S. live in areas where air pollution levels threaten their health.

The EPA estimates that by 2020 the Clean Air Act – if properly implemented and enforced — would prevent more than 230,000 premature deaths, 200,000 heart attacks, 17 million lost work days, and 2.4 million asthma attacks per year. Should Clean Air Act requirements be substantially lifted, these numbers would certainly fall, and human and economic suffering would increase.

Security

Clinton: Iranian Hard-Liners Think An Attack ‘Would Legitimize The Regime’

By Ali Gharib on Jun 21, 2012 at 5:30 pm

In an interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former George H.W. Bush Secretary of State James Baker discussed a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear program. Both told Rose that they think the U.S. should keep all options on the table to deal with a potential Iranian nuclear weapon — a policy adopted by the Obama administration.

But Clinton and Baker had no illusions about the possible consequences of an attack by Israel or the U.S. against Iran’s nuclear program. After Baker highlighted a growing consensus of former top Israeli security officials against an attack and his view that Israeli capabilities could only cause a delay — not put an end to — Iran’s nuclear progress, he said that sanctions against Iran are “having an effect” and “you don’t want to lose all of that.” (Former top Israeli officials also share this view.)

Baker also discussed how an attack could serve hard-liners in Iran. “There are a lot of unanticipated consequences that could follow from [an attack], not least of which is — well, not least of which is strengthening the hand of the hard-liners in Iran.”

Clinton then said Baker’s assertion was “an important point,” adding what she sees as two schools of thought among Iran’s leaders:

CLINTON: There are those [among Iran's leadership] who say, “Look, you know, these sanctions are really biting. We’re not making the kind of economic progress we should be making. We don’t give up that much by saying we’re not going to do a nuclear weapon and having a verifiable regime to demonstrate that.”

And then, frankly, there are those who are saying, “The best thing that could happen to us is be attacked by somebody. Just bring it on because that would unify us. It would legitimize the regime.”

[The regime] doesn’t represent the will of the people. It’s kind of morphed into kind of a military theocracy. And, therefore, an argument is made constantly on the hard-line side of the Iranian government that, you know, “We’re not going to give anything up. And in fact we’re going to provoke an attack because then we will be in power for as long as anyone can imagine.”

Watch a clip of the exchange between the current and former Secretaries of State:

A potential Iranian nuclear weapon is widely considered a threat to both the security of the U.S. and its allies in the region, as well as the nuclear non-proliferation regime. U.S., U.N. and Israeli intelligence estimates give the West time to pursue a dual-track approach of pressure and diplomacy to resolve the crisis. Questions about the efficacy and potential consequences of a strike have led U.S. officials to declare that diplomacy is the “best and most permanent way” to resolve the crisis.

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Alyssa

Why Sports Leagues Should Adopt A ‘Rooney Rule’ For Women

By Travis Waldron on Jun 21, 2012 at 5:07 pm

Sandy Barbour, athletics director at Cal-Berkeley, is one of just three female ADs at top Division I schools

Title IX became law 40 years ago Saturday, and while it wasn’t specifically geared toward sports — it includes not a single mention of athletics — we have come to associate it with the opportunities it has provided women in the realm of athletics.

Those benefits aren’t small. Female participation in high school and college sports has increased by more than a thousand percent since 1972, and the number of female high school athletes now tops 3 million nationwide. Title IX, according to one study, is responsible for roughly 20 percent of the increase in women’s education and about 40 percent of the rise in employment for 25-to-34-year-old women. Women who play sports, according to some estimates, will make 14 percent higher wages than non-athletes over their lifetimes.

Still, significant challenges still face women in sports. At the collegiate level, 91 percent of the athletics directors who oversee women’s sports are men. There are only three female athletics directors at top-tier Division I colleges and universities; there have been only nine in history. Just four percent of collegiate athletics directors at the Division I level are female. No team in the big four American professional sports has ever had a female coach, neither has a men’s football or basketball team at the top college level. There has never been a female general manager in any of the major American sports.

Even in women’s sports, opportunities are declining. Forty years ago, females made up 90 percent of the coaches in women’s college sports. That has dropped to 42 percent, the lowest number on record. Successful female coaches have struggled to find new jobs, and they make significantly less than their male counterparts.

Perhaps, then, it’s time for the NCAA and major professional leagues to adopt a “Rooney Rule” for women. Facing a dearth of African-American head coaches, the National Football League instituted the Rooney Rule in 2003, mandating that franchises had to interview at least one minority candidate for any coaching vacancy. The rule later spread to include senior-level front office positions.

Though it was criticized by both blacks and whites at the time, the rule’s success is undeniable. In the 13 years preceding the Rooney Rule, NFL teams hired just four black head coaches. In the decade since, there have been 11 black head coaches, and two others were named interim coaches in that time. In front offices, the story is much the same. The NFL received its second consecutive “A” grade for diversity hiring last year, and minorities hold 25 percent of the league’s senior football operations positions. Minorities in the NFL still face challenges, but the Rooney Rule has created opportunities that were scarce, and often didn’t exist at all, before.

There may not be a large enough pool of candidates yet to mandate that females be interviewed for head coaching jobs at the top levels of men’s professional sports. But enacting such a rule could boost female coaching opportunities in women’s sports, and it could increase the number of women holding top-level positions in professional sports franchises and college athletics departments. Eventually, it could lead to breakthroughs for women in male sports — creating opportunities for women to coach men’s basketball, baseball, and football teams, just as men coach women in softball, women’s basketball, and other sports.

Sports leagues have taken large steps toward increasing participation of women over the last decade, but a glass ceiling not unlike the one once faced by black coaches in the NFL still exists. A Rooney Rule for women may just be the key to breaking it.

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Justice

Rubio Complains Obama’s Immigration Policy Helps Kids: ‘That Sense Of Urgency Has Been Taken Away’

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Jun 21, 2012 at 4:54 pm

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) complained today that Congress will not be able to pass a legislative version of the President’s immigration directive because the “sense of urgency has been taken away.” Despite the temporary relief this gives hundreds of thousands of young people, Rubio can no longer use their plight to attempt to frame himself as the leading champion for fair immigration practices.

Appearing on MSNBC, Rubio argued that the President’s instructions to stop deporting young undocumented students who came to the country before 16 made it virtually impossible for Congress to enact that same policy into law. The Florida Senator complained that he couldn’t use their immediate livelihoods to use as leverage anymore:

We used to say, these kids want to go to college in September. Now that argument is gone. That sense of urgency has been taken away. The fact it’s all gotten mixed up in this election year and being used to attack Republicans has only made it harder. I’m still optimistic about the long term of this idea, but I think there’s a lot of work to do now because of the way the President did it.

Watch it:

Similarly, Rubio complained immediately after the directive was issued that the President didn’t call him first.

Graduation for undocumented students happens once a year — every May or June — and Congressional Republicans have not seemed to notice this urgency before. Indeed, very few of Rubio’s colleagues supported the President’s move despite the relief it brought to over 800,000 young people.

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Election

Members Who Supported Massive Giveaway To Big Oil Have Received $38.6 Million From The Industry

By Rebecca Leber on Jun 21, 2012 at 4:46 pm

The House of Representatives, which already holds the title of the most anti-environment House ever, today added another mark to the list — the Domestic Energy Production Act, H.R. 4480. The act is specifically designed to increase oil and gas development, with measures that block safeguards from smog and pollution and mandate drilling on public lands. The House Republicans passed this pollution and plunder energy package overrun by oil and gas industry interests, 248 to 163. This breakdown includes 229 Republicans and 19 Democratic members.

A ThinkProgress analysis of Center for Responsive Politics data shows how that oil and gas money overwhelmingly went to the votes for gutting safeguards from air pollution, drilling regulations and public lands protections:

The 248 pro-Big Oil votes received over four times more oil and gas contributions over their careers.
The 248 members — 229 Republicans and 19 Democrats — voted to pass the bill and enrich Big Oil. They received a total of $38.6 million in oil and gas campaign cash — or an average of $156,000 each — for their federal campaigns.
Of the yes votes, 229 Republicans received $36.2 million.
The 163 members who voted no — 158 Democrats and 5 Republicans — voted to protect children and seniors from smog, and ensure that our public lands could be enjoyed by all Americans, not just used for oil production. They received $5.8 million, or $36,000 each.

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NEWS FLASH

POLL: Most Republicans Still Believe That Iraq Had WMD | A new poll conducted by Dartmouth government professor Benjamin Valentino found that 63 percent of Republican respondents still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded in 2003, even though this assertion has been thoroughly debunked. In comparison, only 27 percent of independents and less than 15 percent of Democrats believed in the misinformation. Additionally, 64 percent of Republican respondents believe that President Obama was born in another country. As the Huffington Post’s Dan Froomkin notes, “this latest poll result seems to indicate a refusal — unique to the modern Republican Party — to acknowledge facts.”

— Angela Guo

Economy

Republicans Holding Nearly 3 Million Transportation Jobs Hostage For 6,000 Temporary Oil Jobs

By Adam Peck on Jun 21, 2012 at 4:45 pm

With as many as 2.9 million new and existing jobs on the line, House Republicans are refusing to pass a transportation reauthorization bill, even after the Senate’s version of the bill overwhelmingly passed through the upper chamber in a 74-22 bipartisan vote.

The deadline for new transportation funding is June 30, and if the calendar flips to July without a compromise, as many as 1.9 million workers could lose their jobs, at least temporarily. The Senate version of the bill, if adapted, would create an additional one million new jobs as well, according to Department of Transportation projections.

So why are House Republicans holding nearly three million jobs hostage? Because they want approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to be included in the bill. This infographic gives a sense of the GOP’s priorities:

The State Department estimates that roughly 6,000 jobs would be created if the Keystone XL is approved, but as few as 20 of them will be permanent.

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