HEALTH CARE The Final Act For Health Reform This afternoon, the House Budget Committee will begin marking-up the health care reconciliation package, signaling the beginning of the end of the Democrats' year-long effort to pass comprehensive health care reform. Congressional leaders have urged members to clear their schedules for the weekend in anticipation of final up or down vote in the House, which could happen as early as Thursday. Under the Democrats' plan, the House would pass the Senate version of the legislation, then take up a narrow package of fixes through the reconciliation process. If the House approves the changes later this week, they would go to the Senate, which would have to muster only 51 votes (or 50 votes plus Vice President Biden) instead of 60. "Congressional aides from both parties suggest Democratic leaders are starting with a little more than 200 firm supporters," and Democrats are expecting "some undecided lawmakers to swing their way once the final details of the bill come out." Still, as of this weekend, lawmakers had not secured the necessary 216 votes in the House but remained optimistic about their prospects. On Sunday, Obama senior adviser David Axelrod predicted that Democrats "will have the votes to pass this," and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs declared that "this is the climactic week for health-care reform." "I'm also very confident that we'll get this done," House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) added on NBC's Meet The Press. Throughout the week, Democrats will have their hands full as they try to convince "several of last year's no votes to switch to yes, while retaining at least a dozen yes votes who are wavering."
SETTLING THE ABORTION QUESTION: Last week, Democratic leaders decided to abandon their negotiations with Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) over the abortion provisions in the Senate health care bill and take the risk that some small number of pro-life Democrats will vote against the measure. The Democratic leadership believes that fixing the provision through reconciliation would be impossible and passing a separate bill is unlikely, especially after Stupak rejected an offer to take up abortion after reform. "We don't want to go without their votes, but we do want to forge ahead," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said. "As you know, Mr. Stupak has made it very, very clear that he's very strongly in favor of achieving health care reform in this Congress. And I think that a lot of his colleagues feel the same way." Indeed, over the last week, a growing number of conservative pro-life Democrats have signaled that they will break with Stupak and vote for the Senate health care bill. Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), "a 'yes' vote on reform who backed the Stupak language," told reporters that "the Senate language will restrict the federal funding of abortions and that he'll probably vote for the final bill" and Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA), who also supported the Stupak abortion amendment in the House, said that the Senate bill does not spend federal dollars on abortion and suggested that he is also leaning towards a "yes"vote. "I still haven't seen good evidence that the Senate language, as is, allows a taxpayer funding for abortion. It could be worded better and less awkwardly, but I don't know if there is even an indirect abortion funding in it," Altmire told C-SPAN's Washington Journal on Thursday. Over the weekend, several traditionally pro-life groups also came out in support of the Senate health care bill. A group of 25 "pro-life Catholic theologians and Evangelical leaders" sent a letter to Congress urging them to look past the misinformation on abortion and pass health care reform. "As Christians committed to a consistent ethic of life, and deeply concerned with the health and well-being of all people, we want to see health care reform enacted," they said. The Catholic Health Association, "the national leadership organization of more than 2,000 Catholic health care sponsors, systems, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and related organizations," sent a separate letter urging lawmakers to pass the Senate health bill. The group writes that while the legislation isn't perfect, it is "'a major first step' toward covering all Americans and would make 'great improvements' for millions of people.'"
LOOKING FOR VOTES: President Obama will travel to Ohio this afternoon to continue making a public case for health care reform and pressure reluctant House Democrats to support the Senate measure. The New York Times reports that Obama is "making daily telephone calls to Democrats who supported the health care bill last year, but have yet to decide how they intend to vote this time. He is also focusing on those who opposed the legislation, including Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, who said the measure did not go far enough. The president's trip to Ohio includes Mr. Kucinich's district, and he invited the congressman to join him aboard Air Force One." MoveOn, which has previously opposed the Senate measure, has sent an email to its members asking them to pledge to support a progressive primary challenger to House Democrats that vote against reform. "So we're asking every MoveOn member: will you pledge to support progressive primary challengers to House Democrats who side with Republicans to kill health care reform? With the big vote happening as early as this Friday, conservative Democrats need to know the stakes if they choose to side with Big Insurance over the voters on health care reform," the letter says. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry has also pledged a $12 million investment for a final advertising push in favor of reform and is "weighing a seven-figure nationwide ad campaign in major newspapers" that could start on March 15. Families USA Executive Director Ron Pollack, who is co-sponsoring the campaign," says that the ads are slated to feature the names of hundreds of organizations that endorse the health care legislation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California plans to bring to the floor."
BIG BUSINESS TRYING TO KILL REFORM: On the other side, a group of big business interests is funding "a multimillion-dollar wave of advertising" that "takes aim at about 40 House Democrats whose votes will help determine" the fate of health care reform. The 248-member coalition -- which includes National Association of Manufacturers and the National Retail Federation -- is led by the United States Chamber of Commerce and plans to target its ads towards the "27 Democrats who supported the health care bill last year and 13 who opposed it." "The organizations have already spent $11 million this month focusing on these lawmakers, with more spending to come before an expected vote next weekend." The new campaign "will last about 10 days and cost between $4 million and $10 million," the Seattle Times reports. Separately, "the health-insurance industry lobby America's Health Insurance Plans launched a $1 million-plus ad campaign on national cable TV blaming doctors and hospitals for rising premiums and "Americans for Prosperity, a group financed by David Koch, the oilman, is also jumping into the fray with an advertising campaign of nearly $1 million." "There is definitely more passion from people opposed to the bill," Altmire admitted, noting that his office has received hundreds of calls from angry constituents. "I have to decide between passing this bill or doing nothing at all. I need to do what's best for my district."
ECONOMY -- FCC PLANS TO INTRODUCE NEW PROPOSAL TO INCREASE BROADBAND SPEEDS, EXPAND ACCESS: After a year-long effort crafting policy to revamp and expand broadband coverage in the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will release tomorrow its plan to bridge the "long-standing digital divide by bringing broadband into 90 percent of American homes by 2020." According to a FCC-commissioned Harvard study, American cities' broadband Internet "trail far behind their counterparts in South Korea, Sweden -- even eastern Slovakia" in terms of speed and access. The new proposal will focus "simultaneously on expanding access and increasing speeds," improving the broadband experience for users who already have access and bringing high-speed connectivity to the "93 million Americans, almost a third of the population, currently lack high-speed Internet at home." "Americans would find it hard to imagine their country without access to the advanced highway system of the 20th century," wrote Mark Lloyd, former senior fellow at the Center For American Progress, in 2008. Lloyd is now chief diversity officer at the FCC. "[I]n order to meet the demands of catastrophe or defense, all Americans in the 21st century need access to telecommunications services that are continually upgraded, robust, redundant, and able to withstand multiple threats and uses," Lloyd said. However, telecommunications companies have reacted coolly to the new proposal. Qwest Communications International Inc. called the FCC's goal of "100 Mbps speeds to be in place at 100 million American homes in 10 years" -- above the current average of less than 4 Mbps -- a "dream" and AT&T said the FCC should "resist calls for 'extreme forms of regulation.'" While many of these telecommunications companies are resisting a policy change on grounds that the FCC could use new regulatory powers implement net neutrality regulations, these companies stand to benefit most from broadband expansion. Increased spectrum availability and planned infrastructure improvements would both increase these companies' customer base and create jobs building towers and laying new lines.
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In an interview with The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin, Justice John Paul Stevens -- who will soon turn 90 years old -- announced that he plans to retire soon. "You can say I will retire within the next three years. I'm sure of that," Stevens said. Asked about President Obama, Stevens added, "I have a great admiration for him, and certainly think he's capable of picking successfully, you know, doing a good job of filling vacancies." The Obama administration's early opportunity to reshape America's judiciary "appears close to slipping away, due to a combination of White House inattention and Republican opposition," the Los Angeles Times reports. "It's just a missed opportunity," said University of Chicago professor Geoffrey Stone, who signed a letter to Obama late last month urging him to act with "far more energy and dispatch." Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren told the Israeli consuls general in a conference call this weekend that the U.S.-Israel relationship is in a "crisis" moment. "The crisis was very serious and we are facing a very difficult period in relations [between the two countries]," Oren was quoted as saying by someone on the call. "Three people connected to the U.S. Consulate in Mexico's deadliest city, Ciudad Juarez," including two U.S. citizens, were shot and killed Sunday. In a statement released the same day, the White House said it "shares in the outrage of the Mexican people at the murders of thousands in Ciudad Juarez and elsewhere in Mexico." Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had "no kind words" for President Obama's efforts to reform immigration, accusing him yesterday of "paying lip service only for temporary political reasons." Graham is working with the White House on the issue, "but you wouldn't know it from his comments." "Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program," Defense Department official Michael D. Furlong has "set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants." Some U.S. officials "say they became troubled that Mr. Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation" and they are unsure who authorized his work. Senate Republicans "remain deeply divided" over how to handle earmarks and will meet this week to decide whether to "follow their House counterparts and impose a moratorium on the practice." "We're going to discuss it and see what to do. We have different views within our caucus," said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN). Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) is expected today to unveil legislation to overhaul the financial regulatory system. The bill "is likely to be more modest than either the Obama administration's proposal last summer or a plan Dodd pushed last fall" and is "expected to abandon the stand-alone Consumer Financial Protection Agency." A new report from the nonpartisan National Security Archive has found "mixed results" from President Obama's pledge to make the federal government more transparent. "Agencies are talking the talk, but few yet are walking the walk," said Thomas S. Blanton, the Archive's director. And finally: An extended outtake sequence from "Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion" is making the rounds on the internet. The clip features George Bush Sr., played by comedian Dana Carvey, mistakenly calling Barack Obama "Borat." Follow ThinkProgress on Twitter. |
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"[T]he suggestion that somehow or another the [Bush] administration had as its policy, 'We're going to go in to Iraq and take their resource and pay for the war' is not accurate."
-- Former Bush aide Karl Rove, 3/14/10
VERSUS
"[Iraq] is a rather wealthy country. ... And so there are a variety of means that Iraq has to be able to shoulder much of the burden for their own reconstruction."
-- Then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, 2/18/03
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