Washington Post — Close Win Predicted For Cap-and-Trade Bill
In a move reminiscent o the stimulus in February, a plan for global warming fees got a lot bigger and a lot more complicated late in the process and now the House speaker and the president want rapid passage.
There is the safeguard that the Senate may take the time to brush the burrs out, but as
writers Paul Kane, Ben Pershing and David Fahrenthold point out, the Frankenstein bill leaders have created in order to prevent the 41 Democratic defections that would kill the legislation – including potentially massive new subsidies included in a bill that once again, no one will have read.
“Keith McCoy, of the National Association of Manufacturers, said his group opposes the bill because so much is still unknown about how it would work. He said he is particularly concerned about the concessions made to win over Peterson, which introduced new provisions just days before the vote.
‘This has happened very quickly. There are many new concepts, new programs, new schemes that could potentially cost a lot of money,’ McCoy said. ‘That, we’re not comfortable with.’”
Wall Street Journal — Senators Try to Cut Cost of Health Bill
Maddeningly slow negotiations on health care continue in the Senate as Sen. Max Baucus of the finance committee tries to create a bipartisan bill. Baucus is now saything that he can hold the cost of a plan that will insure most of the 15 percent of Americans who don’t have insurance for about $1 trillion, rather than the $1.6 trillion estimated by the Congressional Budget Office.
Tax credits to help small businesses and families deal with the new requirements of the plan are out and taxes on employee health benefits are in.
Writers Janet Adamy and Gregg Hitt explain that with the more liberal Kennedy plan a flop, the negotiations to try to salvage something for the president’s current signature issue have become excruciating.
“Sen. Baucus said he and Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the panel’s top ranking Republican, would continue discussions. He declined to predict when the sweeping package would be unveiled publicly. “We’re ready when we’re ready,” he said.
The slow pace of action underscores the difficulties lawmakers are having in making good on President Obama’s demand for a health care package. Fundamental decisions about how to finance the package, and how best to extend coverage, still remain to be ironed out.”
New York Times — Governor Used State’s Money to Visit Lover
Even the death of Michael Jackson couldn’t blow away the coverage of the political freak show in South Carolina.
Since it is now clear that Gov. Mark Sanford midlife meltdown was partly facilitated by taxpayer money, calls for his resignation are mounting.
Most of the concern still focuses on the lying and general weirdness attendant to Sanford’s adolescent flight from responsibility, but now there’s a waste and abuse issue too.
Writers Jim Rutenberg and Robbie Brown explain that even though Sanford will reimburse the state for the cost of the trade mission that kindled his affair with the Argentine agribusiness executive, the window for his exit with any honor is closing fast as past supporters line up against him.
“‘I think he’s gone, it’s over,’ said one of them, Harvey S. Peeler Jr., majority leader of the State Senate. ‘Leaving aside his personal life, when you use taxpayer dollars, that’s what Republicans are all about — spending tax dollars wisely. This was not spending tax dollars wisely.’
Mr. Peeler said calls from his constituents were running two to one in favor of the governor’s resignation, though he said that was ultimately Mr. Sanford’s call to make.”
Washington Post — CBO Paints Dire Portrait of Long-Term Revenue, Spending
The White House is arguing in favor of the president’s budget on the grounds that now is not the time for fiscal responsibility. President Obama wants to keep many of the Bush tax cuts in place past their expiration next year, eliminate a pending reduction in Medicare payments to doctors and prevent the Alternative Minimum Tax from dropping a bomb on middle-class families
But the president’s budget also includes a staggering set of new spending proposals, like health care, that are only growing as they come into contact with Congress.
Writer Lori Montgomery looked at the new report from the Congressional Budget Office that warning of a potentially “explosive fiscal situation.”
While the White House argues that it will adopt fiscal probity as its new goal once the current economic downturn is over, even its own estimates based on optimistic growth rates and unspecified savings shows untenable debt loads in the next five years. But the CBO report says the consequences will be much, much worse.
Because of the borrowing now — $2 Trillion this year – the national debt will be equal to the Gross Domestic Product (currently about $14 trillion) in 14 years – banana republic territory. Even rapid growth and savings won’t be enough, demanding tax increases and major currency devaluation to prevent collapse.
“‘We’re drowning in unprecedented levels of red ink, and there is no plan to fix the situation. Having spent over a decade worrying about budget deficits, I can quite honestly say that things have never looked as bad as they do now,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “We need to be focused on slowing spending and finding better ways to raise revenue, not on cutting taxes and introducing new entitlement programs. We can either make these hard choices now, on our own terms, or we can make them in a panic on the heels of a full-blown fiscal crisis.’”
New York Times — Old Confirmation Wars Fueling Some Critics Now
Writer Neil Lewis looks back and explains to Times readers why Republicans are so incensed at being accused of meanness toward Judge Sonia Sotomayor. After 20 years of high-handed hijinks without historical precedent by Democrats toward Republican nominees like Clarence Thomas and mostly respectful behavior by Republicans toward Democratic nominees – more in keeping with the historic role of the Senate – the GOP is getting hit for being unkind to a woman of color.
“Conservatives also regularly note that in 2003 Senate Democrats resorted to the unusual tactic of using a filibuster against several Republican appeals court nominees. One whose nomination was blocked was Miguel Estrada, a Washington lawyer. Mr. Estrada had been nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the appeals court based in Washington, which would have put him in position to become the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court.
As recently as 2006, they say, Martha-Ann Alito fled in tears from the Senate hearing room, upset by questions about the integrity of her husband, Samuel A. Alito Jr., who was narrowly confirmed to the court.”
