The dispute over whether or not a Texas wind farm receiving federal subsidies would source its components from a Chinese manufacturer has come to a more agreeable solution, with the partnering companies agreeing to open a 1,000 person turbine factory in the US and offering as an explanation their intent all along to source 86 percent of the installation's components by weight from within the US.

The new turbine factory won't provide the parts for this particular wind farm, but it seems like a better solution than either cancelling a wind power array or going on as if nothing had happened. Considering how unresponsive corporations can be to public protests over their business practices, I'm taking this as a win and going home.

Thing is, a wind turbine is a big, complicated gearbox with nacelle blades sitting on top of an enormous pole secured firmly to the ground by a big block of concrete or similar. Saying that you're going to get 86 percent of your components by weight in the US can easily mean, and does in this case, getting mostly the heavy and simple things here. So as much of an improvement as this outcome is, it's important to keep an eye on what American workers are getting pigeonholed into making.

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Whether the Stupak amendment ends up in the final health care reform bill or is replaced by the more moderate compromises in the Senate bill, both the passage of the amendment and the almost immediate response that women and pro-choice progressives should "take one for the team" hold a lesson and a warning for both progressives and Democrats.

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There was a major victory for accountability this week in the financial reform fight, but there was also a demonstration that when it comes to protecting the profits of bankers at the expense of ordinary people, no institution does it better than the Party of No.

First the good news—and it is huge. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., working with Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, managed to get an "audit the Fed" amendment into financial regulation legislation (HR 3996) that is moving through the House Financial Services Committee.

That amendment will for the first time expose the deals that the Federal Reserve has been cutting with the financial services industry and will detail what taxpayers are on the hook for and why. It is a commonsense amendment that has united progressives and conservatives, especially in light of the trillions of taxpayer dollars the Fed has put at potential risk to bail out Wall Street, without accountability to anyone. Grayson made the case for the legislation in a "Dear Colleague" letter in May.

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The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day.

Paul-Grayson Fed Audit Plan Clears Committee

NYT on House committee vote repudiating Fed: "Mr. Paul, a libertarian Republican who has called for abolishing the Fed entirely, has introduced a version of his bill in every session of Congress since the early 1980s and never made any progress. But the Fed’s trillion-dollar efforts to bail out major banks and rescue the financial system provoked a popular firestorm that ignited both right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats. Mr. Paul’s amendment would instruct the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to carry out audits of all the Fed’s operations. Those include an array of emergency lending programs, bailouts of giant financial institutions, dealings with foreign central banks and the central bank’s efforts to drive down interest rates by intervening in bond markets. Mr. Frank had already agreed that the G.A.O. should be authorized to audit all of the Fed’s rescue programs, but he had wanted to wall off the Fed’s more basic job of setting interest rates to steer the economy."

Vote on overall financial reform package stalled by Black Caucus members demanding more action on economy. The Hill: "Frank delayed the panel’s final vote after Congressional Black Caucus members said they would withhold their votes. 'It has nothing to do with the underlying bill,' said Steve Adamske, Frank’s spokesman. 'It has to do with larger economic issues with the African American community.'"

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Representative John Kline (R-MN) and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced legislation this week that keeps our broken student loan system in status quo, with corrupt private lenders and federal bank subsidies worth billions. This is a move directly against the Democrat-backed Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) that ends the practice and moves to federal direct lending, thus avoiding the private sector middlemen.

The Republican legislation does nothing to aid students, but sure does resuscitate the private loan industry. The proposal extends the existing Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA) that is the lifeline for the federally-guaranteed, subsidized lender program. ECASLA is set to expire in July 2010, so many in Congress want to make sure lenders’ profits stay fresh.

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Have you heard of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission? Their job is to assess the national security implications of the trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Actually, that’s a big deal, especially now.

I joined a conference call today as the Commission today released its 2009 report to Congress. Here is a link to the audio of today's conference call.

Eric Lotke summarizes the report, in the post, Obama’s Home And The Report Is Out: China Takes Us To School

The official, bipartisan China commission held hearings, traveled to China and received closed briefings on classified information. They reported back about expansion of the Chinese navy, China’s stepped-up espionage and cyber-warfare capabilities, and the world’s most sophisticated web filtering and Internet control systems.

But the economy is behind it all. China is quite literally eating our lunch. ...

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It turns out a Texas windmill farm developer's request last month for nearly half a billion in stimulus funds to create 2,000 jobs in China doesn't rank first on the audacity scale.

Shockingly for American taxpayers, and sadly for the staggering 10.2 percent of Americans who are unemployed, it doesn't even rank second.

That's because Washington already has doled out hundreds of millions in stimulus funds to foreign renewable energy firms. Of the $1.05 billion in clean energy grants awarded by D.C., $849 million -- 84 percent -- went to foreign wind companies, according to an analysis by Russ Choma of the Investigative Reporting Workshop. He wrote:

"The cash grants were given for the installation of 1,763 megawatts of capacity - 1,566 installed by foreign companies. Using the Renewable Energy Policy Project's own numbers, as many as 4,500 manufacturing jobs may have been created overseas."

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Senator Harry Reid, the Majority Leader, has introduced the Senate's health reform bill. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590), is projected to reduce the federal budget deficit by $130 billion in the first 10 years. So how does the final Senate bill stack up against the House bill in the categories I discussed in my previous post ("House Health Bill Should Be A Model For The Senate")? Pretty much as expected.

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President Obama is home from China and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission today releases its 2009 report to Congress. What have we learned? That we need to pay attention because we’re getting schooled.

While Obama posed for photos on the Great Wall and talked about a relationship “at an all-time high," China continues to take our lunch money. Hopefully, there were serious back-room negotiations over currency manipulation and illegal subsidies … because if not, we’re in trouble.

Don’t take my word for it. The official, bipartisan China commission held hearings, traveled to China and received closed briefings on classified information. They reported back about expansion of the Chinese navy, China’s stepped-up espionage and cyber-warfare capabilities, and the world’s most sophisticated web filtering and Internet control systems.

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Senate Health Care Bill Cuts Deficit

Senate bill will cut the deficit in each of the next two decades projects CBO. Bloomberg: "[The bill] cleared a major hurdle when the Congressional Budget Office said it would cut the federal budget deficit by $127 billion in the first decade [and] by $650 billion in the second decade..."

W. Post on Senate Dem reaction: "The legislation received a positive response from across the Democratic spectrum. 'This is the bill that we've been fighting for,' said Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), a liberal who pressed Reid to revive the public option. Sen. Kent Conrad (N.D.), the budget chairman and a leading Democratic fiscal hawk, said after a briefing on the bill, 'I was very impressed by what Senator Reid has done.'"

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The country needs a jobs program and needs it right now. Cash for Caulkers would be a good start. A new Civilian Conservation Corps would be another. But let's not allow a jobs program to cover over the need for real changes in the structure and core principles of our economy.

Yes, an effective jobs program can help people hold out a while longer - until necessary changes are made. It can make the unemployment rate will look better, for a while, and maybe the GDP will climb a little bit. But our low-wage, everything-to-the-top economy is not sustainable and needs to be redesigned and reregulated. The economy has to be changed so that it works for all of us, instead of just a few.

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This post is an excerpt of testimony presented to the Senate Agriculture Committee on November 18, 2009 in a hearing on legislation reforming regulation of financial markets. The testimony was presented on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform.

When they are properly designed, financial markets play a fundamental role in the resource allocation for our society. Well-functioning markets are an important means to achieve our societal goals. Financial markets, when functioning correctly, serve to aggregate savings and allocate them to productive uses. Financial markets also serve to allocate risk to entities that bear it most comfortably. The system we had in place in recent years, and the one that is still in place as we meet today, has revealed profound flaws.

The Senate Agricultural Committee has, in its history, seen the benefits the derivatives markets can create when they are transparent, have safeguards against manipulation, and restrict excesses of speculation. These markets can provide a powerful resource allocation tool, provide a mechanism to distribute risk and at the same time need not prey upon the resources of civil society.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gets it. No wonder she drives the wingnuts batty.

With the Senate befuddled by the antics of Joe Lieberman and Max Baucus on health care and the White House Clintonistas lobbying President Obama to devote his January State of the Union address to deficit reduction, Pelosi ladled up a portion of common sense. Unemployment is over 10 percent and rising. It is time to focus on jobs. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid added his support. The President announced a job summit for December. Democrats finally got the subject right.

The need is clear. One in six workers is unemployed, has given up looking or is forced to work part-time. For young workers aged 16 to 24, unemployment is 19 percent. For young African Americans, unemployment is at 30 percent. And as Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke testified yesterday, we're likely to see—at best—a slow recovery with no new job growth. That exacts a devastating toll in hopes crushed, families stressed, young people stalled, and poverty and hunger spreading.

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The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day

Senate Bill And CBO Estimate Today (Really, Maybe, We Think)

Reid to show bill to fellow Senators at 5 PM ET. Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will present the health care reform bill to Democratic senators at a special caucus meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, his spokesman said Tuesday night. Notice of the meeting went out to Democratic Senate offices Tuesday night, signaling the long wait for the merged bill is about to end."

Ezra Klein gets a morning scoop: "According to sources in the leadership's office, Harry Reid has the CBO's estimate of the merged Senate bill in hand and is 'very pleased' with the numbers. The rest of the world should get a look at it sometime today."

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From Bloomberg, we learn how China is pushing an ambitious domestic clean economy agenda, planning large scale projects that will keep their citizens employed and civil unrest at bay.

A 20 gigawatt wind farm that will be the world's largest is scheduled for completion by 2020 and, as the Bloomberg article also notes, the country will also be building the world's largest solar installation and embarking on an enormous reforestation project. (They've either been paying attention to the latest research indicating that forests can attract their own rain, or they're just sick to the teeth of the dust storms. Either way, they're being proactive.) For a country that doesn't want to be tied to binding international targets, China's still doing a good job of jumping into the climate problem with both feet.

How could we get there?

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