On the Hill:
- Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., was in favor of the public option health insurance plan before she came out against it yesterday.
- The AFL-CIO wants to tax stock trades — which ultimately means you’ll get less out of your 401(k).
- Republicans lead on the generic Congressional ballot by seven points.
- Former Republican Rep. Pat Toomey and Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak, both gunning for Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter’s seat, will debate health care tonight at 6:15 pm in Allentown. Specter, who has been debating himself on the issue for several months, was not invited.
- Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., continues to heap up improprieties in his financial reporting and tax payments. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. is standing by her tax man.
Out of town:
Cook County, Ill. Board President Todd Stroger, D, whom President Obama once endorsed and called a “good, progressive Democrat,” gets to
keep the sales tax increase
he imposed earlier this year, which made Chicago’s the highest urban sales tax rate in America.
Stroger’s many detractors, left and right, loathe his practice of padding the county payroll with
family members
and
unqualified cronies
and refer to his tax increase as a “corruption tax.”
