Democrats released the details of the compromise measure for the payroll tax cut, and there are basically three components to the pay-for for the legislation, which now only increases and extends the employee side of the payroll tax cut.

Weekly unemployment claims spiked up again today, and the NY Fed’s survey of regional manufacturing, a key indicator of the economy, was down sharply relative to expectations. This is a crisis time in the economy, and big solutions are needed to arrest the slide.

On a conference call, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey today released a report with Alan Krueger of Princeton University showing that the expiration of tax subsidies for the Big 5 oil companies will have no impact on gasoline prices. This is elementary when you consider the economics of the situation. The legislation Democrats have put forward would cancel $21 billion in subsidies over 10 years. The Big 5 oil companies made $35 billion last quarter. They simply would not feel the loss of these tax subsidies whatsoever, and if they “passed them on” to consumers, the resultant price increase could only be measured in fractions of a cent. And US jobs wouldn’t be affected either, Krueger said. “Because the U.S. is such a small producer, eliminating the subsidy would have very little effect in the long run and no effect in the short run on gas prices.”

Today, FDL launches its Students Not Banks campaign, with a petition calling on Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and members of Congress to pass student loan reform quickly through reconciliation.

Find out more about the Students, Not Banks campaign and sign the petition.

Ben Smith’s latest on Jonathan Gruber’s disclosure problems makes a very salient point – while disclosure would be expected in cases of traditional media mentions of Gruber, in the case of the New England Journal of Medicine, they have a formal process for disclosure