From the Barack Obama twitter feed:
An analysis released today by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities determined that the nation’s current budget deficits are largely a consequence of the previous administration’s policies. According to the Center, the Bush-era tax cuts, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economic downturn account for almost the entire deficit over the next 10 years:
…The events and policies that have pushed deficits to astronomical levels in the near term, however, were largely outside the new Administration’s control. If not for the tax cuts enacted during the Presidency of George W. Bush that Congress did not pay for, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that began during that period, and the effects of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression (including the cost of steps necessary to combat it), we would not be facing these huge deficits in the near term…
The Center continues:
Some commentators blame recent legislation — the stimulus bill and the financial rescues — for today’s record deficits. But those costs pale next to other policies enacted since 2001 that have swollen the deficit…
Just two policies dating from the Bush Administration — tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — accounted for over $500 billion of the deficit in 2009 and $7.1 trillion in 2009 through 2019, including the associated debt-service costs. These impacts easily dwarf the stimulus and financial rescues. Furthermore, unlike those temporary costs, these inherited policies (especially the tax cuts) do not fade away as the economy recovers.
Without the economic downturn and the fiscal policies of the previous Administration, the budget would be roughly in balance over the next decade. That would put the nation on a much sounder footing to address the demographic challenges and the cost pressures in health care that darken the long-run fiscal outlook…
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report confirms what conservative and independent sources have already reported. David Leonhardt of the New York Times wrote: “President Obama’s agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying… The story of today’s deficits starts in January 2001, as President Bill Clinton was leaving office.” And recent analysis by the right-wing CATO Institute agreed arguing, “don’t blame Obama for Bush’s 2009 deficit.”
The Center also determined President Obama’s first budget proposed responsible steps that will help to reduce deficits by approximately $750 billion over the next 10 years.
'; output += ''; output += 'From OFA Director Mitch Stewart:
'; output += ''; output += 'If we don\'t pass health reform, millions of Americans will be trapped in a broken status quo, unable to pay their bills or see a doctor when they need one.
More and more employers will drop coverage for employees. And Medicare and Medicaid will blow a hole through our budget.
There\'s too much at stake not to get this done. That\'s why, as of this morning, OFA supporters have made 849,856 calls to Congress in support of health reform since August.
And that\'s why today, with the Senate locked in last-minute negotiations, our goal is to hit one million calls.
Can you help? Please call your senators now and help "ring in reform."
This holiday season, millions of Americans will go without desperately needed care simply because they can\'t afford insurance.
But insurance lobbyists are desperate to pull apart the bill and derail reform, so your voice is needed now.
Just call your senators\' offices, then tell the staffers who answer where you live -- so that they know you are a constituent -- and that you support reform.
Click here to make sure you call is counted in the race to a million.
Thanks for standing up,
Mitch
Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America
From the New York Times:
At the White House, Mr. Obama declared himself “cautiously optimistic” after a meeting with the entire Senate Democratic caucus, where he urged senators to put aside their differences and “seize the moment,” to pass a measure that would extend health coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans.
“Now, let’s be clear,” Mr. Obama said after the hourlong private meeting. “The final bill won’t include everything that everybody wants. No bill can do that. But what I told my former colleagues today is that we simply cannot allow differences over individual elements of this plan to prevent us from meeting our responsibility to solve a longstanding and urgent problem for the American people.”
The meeting underscored the sense of urgency for Mr. Obama, who has made passing a health care overhaul his highest legislative priority. He is leaving on Thursday night for Copenhagen to attend a conference on climate change, and he acknowledged that “there are still disagreements that have to be ironed out” and “work to be done in the next few days.”
In the Senate, Democratic leaders said they were confident they could resolve those disagreements because liberals seemed willing to make concessions to get a bill passed…
“We are very disappointed,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who is a leading liberal in the Senate. Still, Mr. Brown said, “I’m going to vote for the bill — there’s too much at stake.”
From the Washington Post blogs:
The core of this legislation is as it always was: $900 billion, give or take, so people who can\'t afford health-care insurance suddenly can. Insurance regulations paired with the individual mandate, so insurers can\'t discriminate against the sick and the healthy can\'t make insurance unaffordable by hanging back until the moment they need medical care. The construction of health insurance exchanges so the people currently left out of the employer-based market are better served, and the many who will join them as the employer system continues to erode will have somewhere to go…
A lot of progressives woke up this morning feeling like they lost. They didn\'t. The public option and its compromised iterations were a battle that came to seem like a war. But they weren\'t the war. The bill itself was. When liberals talked about the dream of universal health-care insurance 10, 20 and 30 years ago, they talked about the plight of the uninsured, not the necessity of a limited public option in competition with private insurers.
"This is a good bill," Sen. Sherrod Brown said on Countdown last night. "Not a great bill, but a good bill." That\'s about right. But the other piece to remember is that more than it\'s a good bill, it\'s a good start. With $900 billion in subsidies already in place, it\'s easier to add another hundred billion later, if we need it, than it would be to pass $1 trillion in subsidies in 2011. With the exchanges built and private insurers unable to hold down costs, it\'s easier to argue for adding a strong public option to the market than it was before we\'d tried regulation and a new competitive structure. With 95 percent of the country covered, it\'s easier to go the final 5 percent. And with a health-care reform bill actually passed, it\'s easier to convince legislators that passing such bills is possible.
From USA Today:
'; output += ''; output += 'As President Obama heads to Copenhagen this week to convince world leaders of the United States\' commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he\'s getting help from an unexpected quarter.
In the Senate, where partisan feuding engulfs Obama\'s health care bill, an unusual group of lawmakers is working across party lines on a compromise bill that would boost domestic energy production while reducing pollution that causes global warming.
Described by participants as "tripartisan," the effort unites Sens. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat; Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent; and Lindsey Graham, an outspoken South Carolina Republican…
The three are touting their alliance as proof that Congress is prepared to approve significant reductions in carbon emissions…
Kerry has a pointed message of his own for the Chinese in a speech he plans to deliver in Copenhagen today after an all-night flight from Washington.
"Some of my colleagues in Washington remain — like some leaders elsewhere — reluctant to grapple with a climate crisis mostly measured in future dangers and parts per million, when they\'re confronted every day with the present pain of hard-working people in a tough economic time," Kerry says, in remarks prepared for delivery.
"To pass a bill, we must be able to assure a senator from Ohio that steelworkers in his state won\'t lose their jobs to India and China because those countries are not participating in a way that is measureable, reportable and verifiable," he adds.
Obama has offered a 17% reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The House approved the same target in June, with just eight GOP votes and 44 Democrats opposed.
On Tuesday in Copenhagen, former vice president Al Gore— a Democrat who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change — called on Congress to approve a climate change bill by April 22, the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day.
Earlier today President Obama hosted what he described as a "very productive" meeting with Democratic Senators on the final stages of health care reform. Following the meeting, the President spoke briefly to the press on the current state of the debate:
There are still some differences that have to be worked on. This was not a roll call. This was a broad-based discussion about how we move forward. But whatever differences remain, there is broad consensus around reforms that will finally, number one, protect every American from the worst practices in the health insurance industry. No longer will these companies be able to deny you coverage if you have a preexisting illness or condition. No longer will they be able to drop you from coverage when you get sick. No longer will you have to pay unlimited amounts out of your own pocket for the treatments that you need. We are all in agreement on those reforms.
We agree on reforms that will finally reduce the costs of health care. Families will save on their premiums; businesses that will see their costs rise if we do nothing will save money now and in the future. This plan will strengthen Medicare and extend the life of that program. And because it gets rid of the waste and inefficiencies in our health care system, this will be the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade.
...These aren\'t small changes. These are big changes. They represent the most significant reform of our health care system since the passage of Medicare. They will save money. They will save families money; they will save businesses money; and they will save government money. And they\'re going to save lives. That\'s why this reform is supported by groups like the AARP who represents most of America\'s seniors. That\'s why this reform has to pass on our watch.
Now, let\'s be clear. The final bill won\'t include everything that everybody wants. No bill can do that. But what I told my former colleagues today is that we simply cannot allow differences over individual elements of this plan to prevent us from meeting our responsibility to solve a longstanding and urgent problem for the American people. They are waiting for us to act. They are counting on us to show leadership. And I don\'t intend to let them down, and neither do the people standing next to me. There\'s too much at stake for families who can\'t pay their medical bills, or see a doctor when they need to, or get the treatment they need. The stakes are enormous for them.
...So there are still disagreements that have to be ironed out. There is still work to be done in the next few days... [But] I am absolutely confident that if the American people know what\'s in this bill and if the Senate knows what\'s in this bill that this is going to pass, because it\'s right for America. And I\'m feeling cautiously optimistic that we can get this done and start rolling up our sleeves and getting to work improving the lives of the American people.
Read the President\'s full remarks . . .
'; output += ''; output += 'From the New York Times:
President Obama pressured the heads of the nation’s biggest banks on Monday to take “extraordinary” steps to revive lending for small businesses and homeowners, prompting assurances from some financial institutions that they would do more even as they continued to shed their supplicant status in Washington.
Meeting with top executives from 12 financial institutions, Mr. Obama sent a clear message that the industry had a responsibility to help nurse the economy back to health and do more to create jobs in return for the huge federal bailout last year that kept Wall Street and the banking system afloat…
During the hourlong meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Mr. Obama prodded the executives to stop fighting the regulation legislation intended to deal with the problems that led to the financial crisis, White House officials said.
“I made very clear that I have no intention of letting their lobbyists thwart reforms necessary to protect the American people,” Mr. Obama said in remarks after the meeting. “If they wish to fight common sense consumer protections, that’s a fight I’m more than willing to have…”
From the Wall Street Journal:
Senate Democrats on Monday evening dropped a plan to expand Medicare, winning the support of moderates and the reluctant acquiescence of liberals, in another major step toward building enough support to pass a health-care overhaul…
At an evening caucus of all 58 Democrats and the two independents who sit with the party, including Sen. Lieberman, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and other party leaders made clear they wanted to head off the dispute.
Sen. Evan Bayh (D., Ind.) said Democrats agreed that the dispute over Medicare shouldn\'t hold up legislation that would extend coverage to tens of millions of Americans.
"There are a lot of good things here," he said. "To use an old cliché, the general consensus was we shouldn\'t make the perfect the enemy of the good..."
Mr. Reid wants to vote on the legislation by Christmas, setting the stage for House-Senate negotiations on a final compromise bill in January. Among other things, the bill would expand Medicaid, which serves the poor, and create tax subsidies to help families purchase insurance…
Senate Democrats are set to visit the White House Tuesday to meet President Barack Obama, who is also pressing for action before Christmas…
Liberal Democrats suggested they would reluctantly go along with Mr. Lieberman\'s position. "There\'s enough good in this bill...that we ought to move it," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa)…
A solid majority of Americans support the idea of a global treaty that would require the United States to reduce significantly greenhouse gas emissions, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, although many also express concern about the potential impact on the economy.
The results provide some encouragement for President Obama, who attends the United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen on Friday. By 55%-38%, those surveyed endorse a binding accord to limit the gases tied to global warming…
There\'s a lot of public support for various climate policy approaches that diminishes as you begin to put a specific dollar figure with it," says Barry Rabe, a University of Michigan political scientist who studies public opinion on the environment. He says the findings show many Americans open to persuasion…
Young people, those 18 to 29 years old, are by far the most supportive of a treaty, backing the idea by 66%-26%...
From the Michigan Post-Bulletin:
'; output += ''; output += 'This holiday season children are not the only ones writing letters with their Christmas wishes.
Supporters and opponents of the Democrats\' health care reform proposals are launching holiday letter-writing campaigns. Organizing for America, a political group run by the Democratic National Committee, has set up a Web site where supporters can send lawmakers an e-mail that says, "I am a constituent, and this holiday season, my wish is for health reform…"
President Obama is scheduled to meeting with members of the Senate Democratic Caucus at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building today, in order to discuss the ongoing negotiations and debate on health reform. Following the meeting, the President will make a statement to the press. The meeting will begin at 1:40 P.M., with the President\'s remarks expected around 3:00 P.M. Eastern.
'; output += ''; output += 'From the Wall Street Journal:
President Barack Obama lashed out at Wall Street, calling bankers "fat cats" who don\'t get it, in an escalation of tensions with the industry.
Mr. Obama, speaking on the eve of Monday\'s meeting with the heads of major banks at the White House, said he would try to persuade bankers to free up more credit to businesses, with the aim of boosting job growth. But the president also expressed frustration with banks that the government has assisted.
"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street," Mr. Obama said in an interview on CBS\'s "60 Minutes" program on Sunday.
"They\'re still puzzled why is it that people are mad at the banks. Well, let\'s see," he said. "You guys are drawing down $10, $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it\'s gone through in -- in decades, and you guys caused the problem. And we\'ve got 10% unemployment."
Mr. Obama is scheduled on Monday morning to meet with bankers to exchange ideas on ways to increase lending; to review the financial-industry regulatory bill moving through Congress; and to discuss bankers\' compensation, the White House and industry representatives said…
White House economic adviser Larry Summers also criticized Wall Street Sunday. "Here is what I think they don\'t get...It was their irresponsible risk-taking in many cases that brought the economy to collapse," Mr. Summers, who chairs the National Economic Council, said on CNN\'s "State of the Union."
Mr. Summers knocked big banks for opposing the bill in Congress that would tighten regulatory controls over the financial industry. The House passed a version of the measure on Friday.
From the New York Times oped page, by Paul Krugman:
…with the meltdown caused by a runaway financial system still fresh in our minds, and the mass unemployment that meltdown caused still very much in evidence — every single Republican and 27 Democrats voted against a quite modest effort to rein in Wall Street excesses.
Let’s recall how we got into our current mess.
America emerged from the Great Depression with a tightly regulated banking system. The regulations worked: the nation was spared major financial crises for almost four decades after World War II. But as the memory of the Depression faded, bankers began to chafe at the restrictions they faced. And politicians, increasingly under the influence of free-market ideology, showed a growing willingness to give bankers what they wanted…
Given this history, you might have expected the emergence of a national consensus in favor of restoring more-effective financial regulation, so as to avoid a repeat performance. But you would have been wrong.
Talk to conservatives about the financial crisis and you enter an alternative, bizarro universe in which government bureaucrats, not greedy bankers, caused the meltdown. It’s a universe in which government-sponsored lending agencies triggered the crisis, even though private lenders actually made the vast majority of subprime loans…
But it also reflects the extent to which the modern Republican Party is committed to a bankrupt ideology, one that won’t let it face up to the reality of what happened to the U.S. economy.
So it’s up to the Democrats — and more specifically, since the House has passed its bill, it’s up to “centrist” Democrats in the Senate. Are they willing to learn something from the disaster that has overtaken the U.S. economy, and get behind financial reform?
'; output += ''; output += 'They gathered, 300 strong, in Seattle\'s Occidental Park to rally for President Obama\'s health care reform today.
"The most humane way is to give everyone the same set of benefits and pay for it together," said Congressman Jim McDermott, speaking to the crowd. "Obama is creating a house of health. We\'re going to get a bill."
The Seattle rally was one of nine statewide put on by Organizing for America, a group formed by Obama and working to support his proposals, as health care reform…
Those at the rally waved their signs, "health care can\'t wait," and volunteers collected Christmas cards addressed to Washington Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, urging them to support health care reform…
"It\'s taking us too long to address it," said Seattle mayor-elect Mike McGinn. "But now it\'s within reach."
President Obama sat down for an interview with 60 Minutes recently, which airs tonight. The President discusses his plans for Afghanistan, the economy, jobs and financial reglatory reform. In a preview of the interview, CBS News reports:
President Obama is irked by the idea that bankers at companies that the U.S. government propped up with loans and policy only months ago will still get massive annual bonuses.
..."I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street," Obama says.
Check your local listings for time and channel.
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