 POLITICAL NEWS UPDATES Page 5UN signals delay in climate change treaty Just weeks before an international conference on climate change, the United Nations signaled it was scaling back expectations of reaching agreement on a new treaty to slow global warming. Constitutionality of health overhaul questioned On top of all the other obstacles facing President Obama in his quest to pass health reform is this one: Does the U.S. Constitution allow the government to require uninsured Americans to buy medical insurance or impose a tax penalty if they refuse? Congress has never before required citizens to purchase any good or service, but that is what both House and Senate health bills would mandate. Joe Lieberman: I'll block vote on Harry Reid's plan Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill. Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program — even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid has said the Senate bill will. Nineteen States Move to Defend Individual Health Care Choice Regardless of what the U.S. Congress decides about health care reform, a growing number of states are standing up for individuals’ freedom of choice when it comes to purchasing – or not purchasing – health insurance. Several Kansas Republicans have introduced a state constitutional amendment that would protect the right of Kansas residents to make their own health care choices. That makes Kansas the 19th state where legislators have introduced, or will introduce, such legislation. Reid Says Senate Bill Will Have Public Plan The Senate's top Democrat said the health-care bill he is bringing to the Senate floor will include a government-run health-insurance plan, a remarkable comeback for an idea that was voted down in a key committee less than a month ago. The announcement by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid came as the White House-backed drive to overhaul the nation's health-care system picked up pace. "We're all optimistic about reform because of the unprecedented momentum that now exists," Mr. Reid said. Senate on Verge of Health Bill With 'Public' Plan Top Senate Democrats are close to finalizing their health bill and could unveil a measure as soon as early this week that would include stiffer penalties on employers who fail to provide health coverage. Senate leaders plan to submit the bill to the Congressional Budget Office for a cost estimate as soon as Monday, and make the legislation public as soon as Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Obama hits out at climate 'naysayers' US President Barack Obama on Friday hit out at naysayers he blamed for peddling "cynical" claims that global warming is a myth to derail a landmark climate change bill in Congress. Obama warned that the closer the Senate came to passing legislation which has already cleared the House of Representatives, the more opponents would resort to underhand tactics. Reid, Pelosi get dose of tough medicine Public option — yes or no — has been at the heart of the debate on health reform all year, but Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were reminded Wednesday that the obstacles to getting a bill done are even bigger than that. In the Senate, Reid got a taste of just how hard it will be to corral his famously fractious caucus — as a dozen Democrats joined with Republicans to vote down the so-called doc fix to Medicare physician reimbursements because it would add $247 billion to the deficit. Obama White House Rebuffed, As Other Networks Stand Up for 1st Amendment, Fox News Republicans say the Obama White House is engaging in “Chicago-style politics” by “demonizing” its opponents. The pattern is familiar, said Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) at his weekly press briefing Thursday: “When you can’t win an argument based on the facts, launch vicious political attacks. This Chicago-style politics is shutting the American people out and demonizing their opponents.” Centrists vs. Pelosi: Blue Dog Democrats beginning to show spending fatigue The reservoir of Democratic support for legislation to stimulate the economy — while adding to the deficit — is drying up. Already faced with what many economists are labeling a jobless recovery, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are considering passing more measures to lower the nation’s highest unemployment rate in 26 years. Democrats Lose Big Test Vote on Health Legislation Democrats lost a big test vote on health care legislation on Wednesday as the Senate blocked action on a bill to increase Medicare payments to doctors at a cost of $247 billion over 10 years. CNN Poll: Half the country disagrees with Obama on issues For the first time since he took over in the White House, Americans don't see eye to eye with President Barack Obama on the important issues, according to a new national poll. But the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey does indicate that a majority approve of how Obama's handling his duties as president. House healthcare bill under $900 billion: Pelosi House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday new estimates showed a healthcare overhaul drafted by Democrats would reduce the U.S. budget deficit over 10 years and cost less than $900 billion. Thomas to White House: End Fox fight Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas on Monday advised the Obama administration to stand down and avoid fighting with Fox News and its correspondents. In an interview with MSNBC, the columnist -- who is promoting her new book on presidents and their campaigns -- also stressed the White House ought to "stay out of these fights." Secret Obamacare Negotiations Enter Day 7 – The Fix is in As the secret Obamacare negotiations enter Day 7, word has leaked from the meeting that the White House and Senate leaders have ordered Congress to pass a $247 billion dollar payoff to doctors groups for their support of comprehensive health care reform. The Fix is in – Doc Fix that is. 53 House Republicans call on Obama to fire Kevin Jennings A group of 53 Republican members of the House has sent a letter to the president asking for the removal of Kevin Jennings, the gay activist who now runs the Education Department's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. "It is clear that Mr. Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in this capacity," the lawmakers write. 'Stim' out of steam The stimulus isn't doing a thing to help the unemployment rate in the New York metro area, according to shocking new White House data released yesterday. The feds have spent a half-billion dollars on 10 of the largest government stimulus contracts in New York City and Long Island -- but created or retained only 54 jobs. That's an astounding $9 million per job. Liberals Increasingly Frustrated With Obama's Style and Performance In recent weeks, President Obama has faced increasingly sharp criticism of his style and performance from an unlikely quarter: liberals. Liberal commentators from Saturday Night Live comedians to newspaper columnists to leftist bloggers to gay rights activists have been portraying Obama as a do-nothing president and "whiner-in-chief," expressing a growing concern that the commander in chief is not showing enough spine. Sen. Barbara Boxer Says Bill Limiting Greenhouse Gases May Pass Soon The chairman of the U.S. Senate's environment committee said Monday that it's possible Congress will pass a bill aimed at slowing global warming before international talks on a deal to limit climate change in Copenhagen in December. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bill, said she is pushing for approval of the legislation with specific targets to limit greenhouse gases, adding that the Obama administration "is very strong on this." Christian Group Opposes Federal Health Care Coverage for Illegals Though the National Association of Evangelicals recently voiced its strong support for immigration reform, it does not call for undocumented aliens to be covered in health care reform legislation, says the group's president. Reid rips LDS Church's Prop. 8 support In a meeting with gay-rights activists last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid criticized the LDS Church for backing a ballot measure banning same-sex marriage in California, saying the leaders of his faith should have stayed out of the contentious political fight. Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, is the highest ranking elected official who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He previously has not commented on the flood of Mormon money and volunteers who helped propel Proposition 8 to victory in November. Inhofe: Boxer using 'corporate prostitutes' to sell climate bill Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is using "corporate prostitutes" to "intimidate" Congress into passing climate change legislation, a key Republican senator said Wednesday. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who is the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, chided committee chairwoman Boxer's claim that her climate bill would bring billions of dollars in private investments to the economy. Fraud Problem With Current Government-Run Health Care Amid concerns over a proposed government-run health insurance option, the Government Accountability Office says it has major problems with the current government-run option. A new GAO report says that in fiscal years 2006 and 2007, prescription drug fraud in Medicaid cost more than $63 million in just five states: California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Texas. Senate Health Bill Imposes $29B More in Taxes California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised President Barack Obama's drive to overhaul the nation's health care system on Tuesday and urged fellow Republicans to join in efforts to finish the job this year. Reid ‘Likely’ to Make Entire Health Bill an Amendment to Unrelated Tax Bill That House Passed in March A senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told CNSNews.com that it is “likely” that Reid will use H.R. 1586—a bill passed by the House in March to impose a 90-percent tax on bonuses paid to employees of certain bailed-out financial institutions—as a “shell” for enacting the final version of the Senate’s health care bill, which Reid is responsible for crafting. Gibbs: Obama Has Only ‘Read a Decent Part’ of Health Care Bill President Obama has spent some time in the past few months rebutting critics of the health care legislation being debated in Congress, and telling Americans what he insists it does or does not say about certain issues such as abortion and whether people will be able to keep their current health insurance plans. But the president has only read “a decent part” of the legislation he is describing, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs revealed yesterday. Michael Moore: ‘It's Absolutely a Good Thing’ for Government to Drive Private Health Insurance Out of Business Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore told CNSNews.com "it's absolutely a good thing” for government to drive private health insurance companies out of business and replace them with a single-payer system. President Obama, Moore said, should stop trying to sneak a single-payer health care system through the “backdoor” and come straight at it instead. Moore said he would advise the president to tell the American people: “Look, we should be like every other Western Democracy and have a single-payer health care system. Pure and simple.” Cuts in military pork fall short of rhetoric "Absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely." Thus spoke candidate Barack Obama in last fall's first presidential debate, when asked about the targeted "spending with a Zip Code" items, known as earmarks, that lawmakers tuck into appropriations bills. Health Care Debate Looms Large in Senate Leader's Re-Election Strategy While the health care reform legislation making its way through Congress aims to protect millions of uninsured or underinsured Americans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is pushing to begin debate in the full Senate at mid-month, may need it to protect his political career. Gov't Still Hiding Secrets After Obama Order President Barack Obama's new standards of openness in the federal government have not trickled down to some of its agencies, where officials have used special statutes inserted into bills to skirt the Freedom of Information Act, open government advocates said Wednesday. Efforts to strengthen the 42-year-old law "have been hampered by the increasing use of legislative exemptions that are often sneaked into legislation without debate or public scrutiny," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said in remarks prepared for a hearing on the issue. Congress’s Secret Plan to Pass Obamacare President Obama and liberals in Congress seem intent on passing comprehensive health care reform, even though polls suggest it is unpopular with the American people. And despite the potential political risks to moderate Democrats, the President and left-wing leadership in Congress are determined to pass the measure using a rare parliamentary procedure. Boxer, Kerry Set to Introduce Climate Bill in Senate Ending some nine months of closed-door deliberations, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) will release global warming legislation Wednesday that they hope will be the vehicle for broader Senate negotiations and an eventual conference with the House. The bill's authors said last week that they expect to start hearings early next month on the bill, with a markup in Boxer's Environment and Public Works Committee to follow soon thereafter. They also acknowledged that their legislation is just a "starting point" in a bid to win over moderate and conservative Democrats, as well as Republicans. Liberals, conservatives rip 'state secret' policy Liberals and conservatives alike harshly criticized a new Obama administration policy designed to make it harder for the government to hamper lawsuits against it by invoking a "state secret" claim, and even the support from privacy-rights groups was tepid and cautious. "I Am a Member of ACORN" -- Is Legislator Blocking Probe? ACORN is inside the gates. The American Spectator has learned that a bill introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature to investigate the activities of the controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- ACORN -- is stalled in the powerful State Government Committee. The chairman, State Representative Babette Josephs, a Philadelphia Democrat, is a member of ACORN. Young, Uninsured Turning Against Obamacare The elderly were the first group to turn against President Barack Obama's healthcare proposals, alienated by the plans to cut $500 billion cut from Medicare. The young and the uninsured may be the next to jump ship — out of worry over the huge premiums they'd have to pay. Requiring everyone to buy insurance will impose a massive tax on all who now are uninsured. The Congressional Budget Office projects that it would force the middle-income uninsured to pay on average more than 15 percent of their income. CBS: Pelosi Seeks to Make Health Reform bill More Liberal As a candidate for president, Barack Obama decried the financial toll that the Iraq war was taking on the economy, but Obama’s proposed spending on welfare through 2010 will eclipse Bush’s war spending by more than $260 billion. “Because of the Bush-McCain policies, our debt has ballooned,” then-Sen. Barack Obama told a Charleston, W.V., crowd in March 2008. “This is creating problems in our fragile economy. And that kind of debt also places an unfair burden on our children and grandchildren, who will have to repay it.” Obama Will Spend More on Welfare in the Next Year Than Bush Spent on Entire Iraq War, Study Reveals As a candidate for president, Barack Obama decried the financial toll that the Iraq war was taking on the economy, but Obama’s proposed spending on welfare through 2010 will eclipse Bush’s war spending by more than $260 billion. “Because of the Bush-McCain policies, our debt has ballooned,” then-Sen. Barack Obama told a Charleston, W.V., crowd in March 2008. “This is creating problems in our fragile economy. And that kind of debt also places an unfair burden on our children and grandchildren, who will have to repay it.” Budget chief contradicts Obama on Medicare costs Congress' chief budget officer is contradicting President Barack Obama's oft-stated claim that seniors wouldn't see their Medicare benefits cut under a health care overhaul. The head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, told senators Tuesday that seniors in Medicare's managed care plans would see reduced benefits under a bill in the Finance Committee. 'Diversity czar' takes heat over remarks President Obama's diversity czar at the Federal Communications Commission has spoken publicly of getting white media executives to "step down" in favor of minorities, prescribed policies to make liberal talk radio more successful, and described Hugo Chavez's rise to power in Venezuela "an incredible revolution." Obama Says U.S. 'Determined' to Combat Climate Change, Despite Senate Delay President Obama promised the United Nations Tuesday that his administration is "determined" to do more to address the nation's climate change obligations. But left out of the speech to the General Assembly special session on climate change was the political reality the president faces in trying to keep that promise. While the House passed a sweeping climate change bill this year, it has stalled in the Senate as health care reform dominates the domestic agenda. Radicals Wrote Failed Stimulus The Labor Department reported Friday that 42 states lost more jobs than they gained in August, and that 14 plus Washington, D.C., reported unemployment rates of 10% or more. Michigan's rate rose to 15.2%, highest in the nation. Nevada, represented by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is second with 13.2%. California, home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is tied for fourth with Oregon at 12.2%. U.N. Budget: Would You Believe $13.9 Billion? “This level of resources,” Ban proclaims in his introduction to the 1,702-page budget document, “is the outcome of the lengthy budget formulation process, reflecting a thorough review and extensive consultations with program managers to ensure the optimal utilization of resources in order to fully, efficiently and effectively implement the objectives and mandates set by Member States.” Inside Obama’s Acorn What if Barack Obama’s most important radical connection has been hiding in plain sight all along? Obama has had an intimate and long-term association with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), the largest radical group in America. If I told you Obama had close ties with MoveOn.org or Code Pink, you’d know what I was talking about. Acorn is at least as radical as these better-known groups, arguably more so. Yet because Acorn works locally, in carefully selected urban areas, its national profile is lower. Acorn likes it that way. And so, I’d wager, does Barack Obama. NH Rep. Rappaport Requests Investigation of Obama’s Eligibility New Hampshire State Representative, Lawrence M. Rappaport payed a visit to Mr. William Gardner, the NH Secretary of State, on Thursday, Sept. 10th. His stunning request: an investigation of Barack Hussein Obama’s presence on the NH 2008 Ballot. Gardner’s stunning response: an investigation will commence. Axelrod: Obama Firm on Public Option Senior White House adviser David Axelrod said President Obama is "not willing to accept" that a so-called public option "is not going to be in the final package" of health-care legislation on "Face the Nation" Sunday. "He continues to believe it's a good idea," Axelrod told CBS News Chief Washington correspondent and "Face the Nation" anchor Bob Schieffer about a government-funded alternative to private health insurance. "He continues to advocate it, and I'm not willing to accept that it's not going to be in the final package." President Barack Obama to push banking overhaul On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Lehman's liquidation filing , the US President will on Monday warn that there remains much to be done to ensure the problems of the last 12 months do not happen again. Eight years after 9/11, the nation still mourns Americans are almost 3,000 days removed from the Sept. 11 terror attacks that toppled the World Trade Center and killed 3,000 people -- nearly the same amount of time it took al Qaeda plotters to regroup from their failed bid to take down the Twin Towers in 1993. While former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani says not a day goes by that he doesn't think of Sept. 11, for most Americans, that crisp, sunny morning of horror seems a lifetime ago, and, frankly, something they'd rather forget. Inside ACORN: Tax-Evasion, Prostitution, Sex-Trafficking ... A famous community organizer once said, “The only way to upset the power structure in your communities is to goad them, confuse them, irritate them and, most of all, make them live by their own rules. If you make them live by their own rules, you destroy them.” Impossible demands can irritate modern leftists in ways nothing else can, whether it’s by banning Lucky Charms cereal because it’s racist against Irish people, calling Planned Parenthood saying you want to donate money for black abortions in the name of Margaret Sanger, or making Sen. Snowe sign an oversized bailout check for a billion dollars to Amtrak, in her own office. "Harry" Reid - Dangerous and Incompetent "Reid today is losing by double digits to a twice-failed candidate for office who's the son of the former University of Nevada Las Vegas basketball coach, and he's losing by 5 points to a former Republican state assemblywoman who's the Republican state chairman...Harry Reid's numbers are dreadful, abysmal...These are much worse than Tom Daschle had when he lost to John Thune in 2004. News Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
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