At 7 AM this morning, Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, the epicenter of the Occupy movement, was supposed to be cleaned by the park’s owner Brookfield Properties. With the help of the NYPD, cleaning crews were planning to clean the park one-third at a time, thus allowing the protesters to continue their occupation. There was on catch: after each cleaning was completed protesters were not going to be allowed to bring their tarps and sleeping bags back into the park. The protesters saw this policy as an eviction notice.
Occupy Wall Street sent out word calling for supporters to come to the park at 6 AM this morning to stop the NYPD from clearing out the park. But, according to The New York Times, sometime last night Brookfield informed the mayor’s office that they no longer needed police assistance because they had decided to postpone the cleaning. Apparently, Brookfield believes it can work out an arrangement with the protesters that “will ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use.”
Will this victory embolden the protesters to further dig in at the park? It is already against Brookfield’s park rules to have sleeping bags, tarps, and tents in the park. But the NYPD has only been enforcing the no tent ban. Now that the protesters know Brookfield will cave, will they begin to flaunt the no-tent rule as well?
Eventually it will get cold and the protests may disperse with a whimper. But now that Brookfield has unofficially ceded control of the park to the protesters, what is stopping them from bringing in generators and other structures that could make surviving the winter possible? Apparently Brookfield believes the protesters can be appeased. Good luck with that.
Around the Bigs
The Washington Examiner, Businesses growing wary of McPherson Square occupation: The Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District, is stepping up pressure on the National Park Service to take a more active role in monitoring the growing encampment of the Occupy D.C. protesters in McPherson Square.
The Washington Examiner, Dems want higher taxes, fewer cuts to trim deficit: House Democrats held a press conference yesterday to draw attention to their request that the Super Congress cut the deficit by hiking taxes. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., told reporters that House Dems wanted to raise taxes to not just Clinton-era levels, but also wanted to tack on an additional millionaire’s surtax.
The Hill, Senate Republicans present Obama with counteroffer on jobs: Responding to Obama’s call for Republican ideas on job creation, Senate Republicans unveiled their own jobs package yesterday, and called on him to enter negotiations. The Republican plan repeals the Obamacare and Dodd-Frank bills and includes tax reform.
Politico, Barack Obama calls John Boehner, gets earful: Obama may have called Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, just to congratulate him on passing three free trade deals, but he got an earful about his campaign rhetoric instead. “I want to make sure you have all the facts,” Boehner told Obama, before upbraiding him for falsely claiming on the campaign trail that Republicans have not produced a jobs plan.
The New York Times, Auto Bailout Done, Obama Looks for Payback: President Obama will travel to Michigan today, where he will subtly remind residents they owe him their votes after he bailed out their state with other people’s money.
The Washington Post, Many economic sectors don’t have much more room to fall: While a recession is possible, The Post reports that since the Obama recovery was so weak, many of the key sectors that usually cause economic contraction, don’t have much more room to fall.
Campaign 2012
GOP Field: Registered voters tell Gallup that they prefer “the Republican Party’s candidate for president” to Obama by a 46 to 38 percent margin.
Romney: Mitt Romney has an op-ed in today’s Washington Post explaining his policy on China: “If I am fortunate enough to be elected president, I will work to fundamentally alter our economic relationship with China. As I describe in my economic plan, I will begin on Day One by designating China as the currency manipulator it is.”
Perry: Texas Gov. Rick Perry will release a comprehensive energy plan today that would end many federal restrictions on energy development.
Righty Playbook
Grover Norquist has an op-ed in today’s Washington Post explaining how his Taxpayer Protection Pledge helps push tax reform.
RedState‘s Ben Howe posts video of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., claiming that a bill to end taxpayer-funded aboirtions would “allow women to die on the floor.”
Michelle Malkin surveys the fiscal damage caused by the Occupy protests nationwide: “When fiscally conservative Tea Party activists held protests over the past two years, they filed for all the required permits and paid for their own power. Occupy Boston, by contrast, neither sought nor obtained any proper permits at any level, according to the Boston Globe. Instead, city and park officials have been cowed into providing them gratis electricity and camp space lest there be ‘conflict.’”
Lefty Playbook
The Huffington Post‘s Amanda Terkel notes that Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan looks an awful lot like the default tax settings in the SimCity video game.
The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees unveiled an ad supporting Obama’s American Jobs Act that they say will run on television and radio in selected states across the country.
The New Republic’s John Judis and Jonathan Cohn explain “Why Liberals Should Embrace Occupy Wall Street.”
