Grassley tells constituent: If you want good health insurance, ‘go work for the government.’
Grassley tells constituent: If you want good health insurance, ‘go work for the government.’
During a townhall in Waukon, IA Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was asked by a constituent of his: “Why is your insurance so much cheaper than my insurance and so better than my insurance?” When Grassley struggled to explain the details of his own health care plan, the elderly man followed up, “Okay, so how come I can’t have the same thing you have?” Grassley said, “You can. Just go work for the federal government.” Watch it:
Grassley has been at the forefront of railing against Obama’s health care plan, declaring, “We need to make sure that there’s no public option.” As Igor Volsky notes, there is an irony in government workers like Grassley complaining about “government-sponsored health care.” If Grassley wants to stand on principle, he could abandon his government-sponsored insurance and try his luck in the individual health insurance market.
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Did an embezzlement scandal force Sarah Palin to resign?
Did an embezzlement scandal force Sarah Palin to resign?
Max Blumental reports on The Daily Beast that Sarah Palin may have quit her job today because she was trying to avert a major, yet-to-be-disclosed corruption scandal. The gist of the rumor is that an Alaska building company called Spenard Building Supplies (SBS) was awarded a contract by Palin to build a hockey arena in Wasilla, AK, and in return, SBS helped construct Palin’s home:
Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide open state.
SBS has close ties to the Palins. The company has not only sponsored Todd Palin’s snowmobile team, according to the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett, it hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004.
Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few “buddies,” according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.
Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an addition $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.
Alaska bloggers have reported in recent weeks that “a long simmering embezzelment/IRS scandal is still being looked at by the feds.” In her press conference today, Palin asked the public to “trust me with this decision and know that it is no more politics as usual.” But she also bemoaned “political operatives” who have “descended on Alaska” to investigate “all sorts of frivolous ethics violations.” Palin said this “politics of personal destruction” was one of the key motivating factors behind her decision today.
New Budget Estimate Of Public Plan Proves It Lowers Cost And Covers More Americans
New Budget Estimate Of Public Plan Proves It Lowers Cost And Covers More Americans
A couple of weeks ago, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a preliminary score of the health care legislation under consideration in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. The bill was estimated to cost $1 trillion over 10 years, while reducing the number of uninsured by “only” one-third. As many informed bloggers noted at the time, the cost estimate was incomplete because the legislation that the CBO reviewed did not contain language about a public health insurance plan or an employer mandate.
Nevertheless, Republicans seized on the opportunity to engage in merciless political attacks, citing the incomplete CBO score as proof that health care reform is not worth doing:
John McCain: “[The CBO estimate] should be a wake up call for all of us to scrap the current bill and start over in a true bipartisan fashion.”
John Boehner: “[T]he public option would cost over $1 trillion, and would cause 23 million Americans to lose their private health care coverage.”
Lindsey Graham: “The CBO estimates were a death blow to a government run health care plan.”
The HELP Committee has since added language for a public plan option to its legislation, as well as an employer mandate provision. The AP reports the new results:
The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd said in a letter to other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. [...]
The [employer mandate] provision is also estimated to greatly reduce the number of workers whose employers would drop coverage, thus addressing a major concern noted by CBO when it reviewed the earlier proposals.
In other words, the addition of the public plan dramatically reduced the overall cost of the bill and ensured coverage of almost all Americans. So what excuses will McCain, Boehner, Graham, and other Republicans offer now? Their attacks were not only found to be baseless, but their concerns about the costs and coverage have also been addressed.
Howard Dean Joins With TP’s Igor Volsky And Faiz Shakir To Author Book On Health Care Reform
Howard Dean Joins With TP’s Igor Volsky And Faiz Shakir To Author Book On Health Care Reform
In recent months, Howard Dean — the former physician, Governor of Vermont, and DNC Chairman — has been passionately advocating for health care reform that contains a public health insurance option. Now, he’s written a book fleshing out his detailed ideas for comprehensive progressive health care reform. And I, along with Wonk Room health care blogger Igor Volsky, are honored to be his co-authors.
The book — which is being released in paperback today — is titled “Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Health Care Reform.” (If it’s not available in your local bookstore, you can purchase a copy online here.)
The book is being released in the midst of a heated policy debate over health care reform. A number of so-called “moderate” Democratic senators — including Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Joe Lieberman, and others — have indicated they are opposing President Obama’s efforts to include a public plan. Our book is part of an effort to ensure that Congress and the Obama administration do not abandon core principles that the vast majority of the public supports. As we write in the book:
Americans need real healthcare reform, not just insurance reform, and nobody should mistake the two. If we only get reform that requires insurance companies to provide coverage to everyone who applies, charge everyone the same premiums, and end their predatory practices, that would be great insurance reform. But that is not healthcare reform.
Igor and I recently sat down with Gov. Dean to discuss our book. Gov. Dean taped this message specifically for the ThinkProgress community. Take a look:
Also, Gov. Dean recently discussed the book on The Colbert Report. Watch it here.
GOP Operative Schmidt Blasts Bill Kristol: ‘He’s In The Business Of Ad Hominem Insults And Criticism’
GOP Operative Schmidt Blasts Bill Kristol: ‘He’s In The Business Of Ad Hominem Insults And Criticism’
Yesterday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol — a long-time aggressive public advocate of Sarah Palin — took great exception to a new article in Vanity Fair by Todd Purdum which quoted McCain campaign officials disparaging Palin’s performance as a vice presidential candidate.
Kristol fingered one particular McCain official for blame: chief strategist Steve Schmidt. Kristol claimed that Schmidt trashed “Palin’s mental state to others in the McCain-Palin campaign.” And now Schmidt is firing back by unloading some very candid rhetorical bombs against Kristol. Politico’s Jonathan Martin reports:
Asked about the accusation, Schmidt fired back in an e-mail: “I’m sure John McCain would be president today if only Bill Kristol had been in charge of the campaign.”
“After all, his management of [former Vice President] Dan Quayle’s public image as his chief of staff is still something that takes your breath away,” Schmidt continued. “His attack on me is categorically false.”
Schmidt then offered more colorful perspective of Kristol’s character:
“Bill Kristol, going back to the time of the campaign, has taken a lot of cheap shots at the campaign without ever offering a plausible path to victory,” Schmidt said. “He’s in the business of ad hominem insults and criticism.” […]
As for the charges of being a sunshine soldier with regard to Palin, Schmidt said: “Nonsense. I’m a team player. That’s a reflection of [Kristol’s] values. He’s the Washington, D.C., talking head and glitterati. I live in Northern California and I really don’t give a s— about that stuff.”
Kristol responded by claiming that “John McCain deserved better” than Schmidt. And Kristol’s chief McCain campaign ally — Randy Scheunemann — likened Schmidt to the “Iranian secret police.”
During the presidential campaign, neoconservatives Kristol and Scheunemann had made Palin their “project,” seizing upon her cluelessness to shape her foreign policy views. As Matt Duss observed at the time, Palin’s “simplistic presentation of the Russia-Georgia conflict, her mindless threat of war with Russia, asserting that America shouldn’t ‘second guess’ Israeli policy, and her tiresome and dishonest conflation of 9/11 and Iraq,” all confirmed that she was getting the neocon talking points. And now the neoconservative camp is returning the favor by rushing to defend her.
Sebelius Indicates Willingness To Compromise On Public Plan, Offers Support For Co-Op Proposal
Sebelius Indicates Willingness To Compromise On Public Plan, Offers Support For Co-Op Proposal
In an emailed statement to Bloomberg News, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she’s open to the idea of dropping a public health insurance option in favor of a medical-insurance cooperative. “You could theoretically design a co-op plan that had the same attributes as a public plan,” Sebelius said.
The leading co-op proposal in the Senate, offered by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), does not share the attributes of a public plan. Instead, Conrad’s proposal would create multiple state or regional non-profits as a competitor to the private insurance market. As Howard Dean has said of this plan: “The co-ops are too small to compete with the big, private insurance companies. They will kill the co-ops completely by undercutting them, using their financial clout to do it.”
Bloomberg’s Al Hunt asked Sebelius, “[If] you’re willing to compromise on your notion of a public plan…what’s non-negotiable?” Sebelius responded that the final bill has to “have a comprehensive approach that lowers costs. That’s non-negotiable.” She added reform also “needs to provide coverage for everyone.” Watch it:
This isn’t the time to compromise on core health care reform principles. As CAP fellow Ruy Teixeira notes, “Right now support is running high for the public option.”
Matt Yglesias adds that the public option is uniquely important because, if implement, it is likely “become an enduring feature of the landscape that’s unlikely to vanish.” While other progressive health insurance reforms can be enacted in the future, Yglesias argues, “for the public option, it’s probably now or never.”
Perino: Sanford affair proves we need to ‘elect more women.’
Perino: Sanford affair proves we need to ‘elect more women.’
Commenting on Gov. Mark Sanford’s (R-SC) extramarital affair with a woman from Argentina, former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino writes in the National Review: “If the constant stream of these confessions by unfaithful husbands is any guide, we’ll be treated to more and more of these stories.” She then suggests an interesting solution:
While I am not able to explain, I do think I know the answer to all of this: Elect more women. No woman I know has the time for such trysts, nor do I know any who say the desire one. They’re too busy trying to keep all the plates spinning at home, at work, and at the gym to make sure none fall and break.
Right-wing anti-tax activist Grover Norquist had quite a different takeaway from the Sanford saga, suggesting that women might be the problem. “It does indicate that men who oppose federal spending at the local level are irresistible to women,” he said.
BBC investigation of Bagram finds detainees were ‘beaten,’ ‘hung from the ceiling.’
BBC investigation of Bagram finds detainees were ‘beaten,’ ‘hung from the ceiling.’
The BBC recently interviewed 27 former detainees who were held at the Bagram Airbase detention facility between 2002 and 2008. All but two of the detainees said they had been ill-treated. According to the investigation, the detainees were “beaten, deprived of sleep, hung from the ceiling and threatened with dogs. Four claimed officials had put a gun to their head and threatened to kill them.” One inmate said:
‘They did things that you would not do against animals let alone to humans.
‘They poured cold water on you in winter and hot water in summer. They used dogs against us. They put a pistol or a gun to your head and threatened you with death.
‘They put some kind of medicine in the juice or water to make you sleepless and then they would interrogate you.’
All the detainees were ultimately released without charge.
Obama questions legitimacy of Iranian elections, says it is ‘up to the Iranian people to decide’ their leadership.
Obama questions legitimacy of Iranian elections, says it is ‘up to the Iranian people to decide’ their leadership.
At this afternoon’s press conference, President Obama called on Huffington Post national editor (and TP alum) Nico Pitney, who has been aggregating and reporting valuable information coming out of Iran. Earlier today, Nico told his readers, “If I get called, I want to ask a question that comes directly from an Iranian.” Obama prompted Nico’s question, saying, “I know there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?” Nico posed this query from an Iranian to the President:
PITNEY: Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad? And if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn’t that a betrayal of — of what the demonstrators there are working to achieve?
Obama responded that there are “significant questions about the legitimacy of the election.” He added:
OBAMA: Ultimately, the most important thing for the Iranian government to consider is legitimacy in the eyes of its own people, not in the eyes of the United States. And that’s why I’ve been very clear, ultimately, this is up to the Iranian people to decide who their leadership is going to be and the structure of their government.
Watch it:
Transcript: More »
White House Staffers Concede ‘Frustration’ Over Administration’s Slow Action On Gay Rights
White House Staffers Concede ‘Frustration’ Over Administration’s Slow Action On Gay Rights
Last night, Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta moderated a panel at the American Constitution Society convention that included Lisa Brown, the White House staff secretary, and Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Biden.
Podesta asked the panelists about the concern that President Obama is not doing enough on gay rights, to which the crowd offered hearty applause. Podesta referenced a recent legal brief filed by the Obama administration which argued in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that Obama has said he would like to overturn.
Brown responded that the DOMA brief was “an awful lot better than the brief that was written in the Bush administration.” But, offering the disclaimer that she was merely giving her personal opinion, Brown continued:
There’s no question, personal statement, that there were some cites in there that should not have been in there. … They were trying to…essentially eliminate arguments actually that the Bush administration has made.
Brown conceded that the administration is “moving slowly” on gay rights. “Nobody thinks it’s fast enough right now, but I know the President cares about this. … It’s going in the right direction, if not quickly enough.” Klain agreed with Brown. “I understand the frustration,” he said, adding:
I hope next year when we have this conference and that question gets asked, it doesn’t elicit the same kind of applause that it elicited this time — because I hope we have more progress, more things to show for. And I hope the kind of applause it elicits a year from now is applause about the accomplishments we’ve made and the progress we’ve made in the ensuing year.
The crowd applauded, and Podesta said, “I hope you’re right.” Watch it:
AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis has argued that the Obama administration’s legal brief filed in the DOMA case is “despicable, and gratuitously homophobic.” Human Right Campaign’s Joe Solmonese penned a letter to Obama, stating that, “reading the brief, one is told again and again that same-sex couples are so unlike different-sex couples that unequal treatment makes sense.”
After initially criticizing the administration, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) sounded a more positive note. “I believe that the administration made a conscientious and largely successful effort to avoid inappropriate rhetoric,” he said.
Reneging on pledge to give Obama his ‘silence,’ President Bush criticizes Obama’s health care plan.
Reneging on pledge to give Obama his ‘silence,’ President Bush criticizes Obama’s health care plan.
After initially stating that he wanted President Obama to “succeed” and that he owed Obama his “silence,” President Bush yesterday decided to reverse course and criticize the President. The former President took aim at Obama’s desire to introduce a public health insurance option for Americans:
“There are a lot of ways to remedy the situation without nationalizing health care,” Mr. Bush said. “I worry about encouraging the government to replace the private sector when it comes to providing insurance for health care.”
Asked by the evening emcee at the 104th annual Manufacturer and Business Association meeting if he finds the new president’s policies “socialist,” Mr. Bush started then stopped.
“I hear a lot of those words, but it depends on…,” he said, breaking off. He later offered a more diplomatic assessment: “We’ll see.”
Former Gov. Howard Dean, a strong advocate of a public plan, responded to Bush’s criticisms this morning on NBC’s Today Show. “We’ve had a government system for 50 years,” Dean said. “The Republicans didn’t like it then — it’s called Medicare. Everybody over 65 is already in the government system. Let the people who are under 65 make a choice.” Watch it:
A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll finds that 76 percent of respondents believe that it is “extremely” or “quite” important to “give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance.”
AMA President: Opposition to public plan is motivated by desire to ‘protect the health insurance industry.’
AMA President: Opposition to public plan is motivated by desire to ‘protect the health insurance industry.’
A week ago, the American Medical Association declared its opposition to a public health insurance option, a key plank of President Obama’s health reform plan. Obama subsequently addressed the AMA membership directly, explaining his proposal and telling them that “the public option is not your enemy, it is your friend.” It appears that Obama’s argument may have compelled the AMA to rethink its position. The organization is now concerned that media reports are portraying them as “opposed to reform” and too favorable towards the insurance industry:
On Tuesday, the American Medical Association considered a resolution that would have opposed any new public plan that would “risk the elimination of a healthy competitive market for private health insurance.”
Before its delegates moved toward final passage, AMA president Nancy H. Nielsen intervened and asked delegates to focus on what they could support. […]
“I do not believe it’s the position of this House of Delegates of the American Medical Association to protect the health insurance industry,” Nielsen said, prompting loud applause from the members.
“I think the health insurance industry pays a lot of money to people who can protect them.”
“That was about creating an impression that we are not part of the problem, we are part of the solution,” said Ted Epperly, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
REPORT: Key Terror Detainee Acknowledged ‘I Make Up Stories’ In Response To Torture
REPORT: Key Terror Detainee Acknowledged ‘I Make Up Stories’ In Response To Torture
The Bush administration has long justified its use of torture by claiming that it obtained valuable information from torturing 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Late last year, former Vice President Dick Cheney said, “Did it produce the desire results? I think it did.” He explained:
I think, for example, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was the number three man in al Qaeda, the man who planned the attacks of 9/11, provided us with a wealth of information.
But according to documents released by the Obama administration in response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, Cheney was lying. Mohammed told U.S. military officials that he gave false information to the CIA after withstanding torture:
“I make up stories,” Mohammed said, describing in broken English an interrogation probably administered by the CIA that concerned the location of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
“Where is he? I don’t know. Then he torture me,” Mohammed said. “Then I said, ‘Yes, he is in this area.’”
The torture of Mohammed, who we know was waterboarded 183 times in one month, “underscores the unreliability of statements obtained by torture.”
In an interview with Fox News’ Brit Hume earlier this year, President Bush admitted that he personally authorized the torture of Mohammed. He said he personally asked “what tools” were available to use on him, and sought legal approval for waterboarding him:
BUSH: One such person who gave us information was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. … And I’m in the Oval Office and I am told that we have captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the professionals believe he has information necessary to secure the country. So I ask what tools are available for us to find information from him and they gave me a list of tools, and I said are these tools deemed to be legal? And so we got legal opinions before any decision was made.
Watch it:
Obama tells doctors: ‘The public option is not your enemy, it is your friend.’
Obama tells doctors: ‘The public option is not your enemy, it is your friend.’
Last week, the American Medical Association (AMA) registered its opposition to a key plank of President Obama’s health reform efforts — the creation of a public health insurance plan. At the same time, Senate Democrats have begun backing away from a public plan and instead gravitating towards a proposal to create a non-profit co-operative. Media reports have suggested that the White House may be warming to the idea of dropping the public plan. But today, in a speech before the AMA convention, Obama reiterated his strong support for a truly national public health insurance plan:
OBAMA: If you don’t like your health coverage or don’t have any insurance, you will have a chance to take part in what we’re calling a Health Insurance Exchange. … And one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market so that force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.
Obama told the physicians, “The public option is not your enemy, it is your friend, I believe.” Watch it:
Dean Rejects Conrad’s Health Care Co-Op Proposal: ‘This Is Not A Real Compromise’
Dean Rejects Conrad’s Health Care Co-Op Proposal: ‘This Is Not A Real Compromise’
Last week, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) floated a health care proposal intended to mollify conservatives who are upset over the possible creation of a public health insurance plan. Instead of offering consumers a government-run option similar to Medicare, Conrad suggests giving individuals and very small businesses the option to buy into a plan that would be run by a non-profit cooperative. The idea has gained the support of Democratic senators, including Max Baucus (D-MT).
The idea would be to create multiple state or regional non-profit co-operatives, operating through members who choose a board of directors and a CEO. Unlike Medicare, this model “would lack the market leverage to bargain for lower prices.”
This morning on MSNBC, former Gov. Howard Dean rejected Conrad’s proposal, saying it is “not a real compromise.” “This is a fix for the Senate problem,” he said, “this doesn’t fix the American problem.” After heaping praise on Conrad, Dean explained:
He’s wrong about this. The co-ops are too small to compete with the big, private insurance companies. They will kill the co-ops completely by undercutting them, using their financial clout to do it. In the small states like mine and like Senator Conrad’s, you’re never gonna get to the 500,000 number signed up in the co-op that you need to in order for them to have any marketing [power].
This is a compromise designed to deal with problems in the Senate. But it doesn’t deal with problems in America. And I think it’s time for the Senate to stop playing politics, do what has to be done. … If the Republicans don’t want to get on board, then we can do this without the Republicans.
Watch it:
The Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky also notes that Conrad’s co-op proposal will lack the inherent advantages of a new public option. “Thus, co-ops should be considered as a supplement to — not a replacement for — a public health plan,” Volsky writes.
CIA Director says Cheney sounds like he is ‘wishing that this country would be attacked again.’
CIA Director says Cheney sounds like he is ‘wishing that this country would be attacked again.’
In her profile of CIA Director Leon Panetta in this week’s New Yorker, Jane Mayer reports that Panetta believes former Vice President Dick Cheney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s approach to terrorism almost suggests “he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again”:
Panetta, pouring a cup of coffee, responded to Cheney’s speech with surprising candor. “I think he smells some blood in the water on the national-security issue,” he told me. “It’s almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that’s dangerous politics.”
The language Cheney has chosen to use has suggested he is anticipating another attack. In a CNN interview earlier this year, he explicitly fear-mongered that Obama is “making some choices” that “raise the risk..of another attack.” And in an interview with Politico, Cheney “warned that there is a ‘high probability‘ that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.”
Lieberman Says He’s ‘Pleasantly Encouraged’ By Obama, But Disagrees With His Middle East And Health Care Agenda
Lieberman Says He’s ‘Pleasantly Encouraged’ By Obama, But Disagrees With His Middle East And Health Care Agenda
In an interview with Bloomberg’s Al Hunt, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) — who campaigned hard against President Obama during the 2008 election and supported his Republican challenger John McCain — said that he’s impressed with how Obama is handling the job.
“Put me down now as pleasantly encouraged by the first five months,” Lieberman said. “He has been strong, particularly on foreign policy. I think President Obama is off to a very, very good start in a very difficult time in our nation’s history.” Lieberman lauded Obama’s recent Cairo speech to the Muslim world, saying it was a “significant step overall. … My guess is he opened some minds in the Muslim world.”
Despite the laudatory comments of Obama’s foreign policy vision, Lieberman offered criticism of the president’s efforts to urge Israel to stop its settlement activities. “I thought the focus on the President’s direct call in that speech in Cairo for the Israelis to freeze all settlement activity — including the ‘natural growth‘ of settlements that everybody agrees are no longer settlements — …that was risky in the sense that it may lead listeners to believe that the main reason there is not an Arab-Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is the Israeli settlement policy,” he said:
HUNT: Do you disagree then with the President and Secretary Clinton that there ought to be a freeze — no growth in those settlements now?
LIEBERMAN: I do. I disagree.
Watch it:
On Obama’s domestic agenda, Lieberman announced his opposition to a public health insurance option. “I don’t favor a public option, and I don’t favor a public option because I think there’s plenty of competition in the private insurance market,” he argued. (He’s wrong.) Lieberman warned that political pressure in favor of the public option may thwart efforts at achieving health care reform. “Let’s get something done instead of having a debate,” he said.
Separately, Lieberman said he “could support” the Waxman-Markey clean energy legislation in the House. “It’s a great act of legislative leadership,” he added, saying the critical issue is convincing “people from states that get a lot of their electricity from coal-burning power plants that we can make this change without skyrocketing the cost of living and the cost of doing business.”
Boehner: Republicans ‘took it in the shorts with Bush-Cheney.’
Boehner: Republicans ‘took it in the shorts with Bush-Cheney.’
In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) pinned the blame for his party’s current failures on the Bush presidency:
“We’re digging ourselves out of a deep hole,” he admitted. “We took it in the shorts with Bush-Cheney, the Iraq War, and by sacrificing fiscal responsibility to hold power.”
Boehner has only to blame to himself. He voted to authorize use of military force against Iraq, and voted against a House-approved Iraq withdrawal in 2007. He also voted for the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, which were largely responsible for turning our nation’s surplus into a massive deficit. As Boehner himself said in 2006, “I think that Republicans ought to stand up and support George W. Bush for the job that he’s done.” (HT: Political Wire)
Laura Bush: ‘I’m proud’ of Obama’s pick of Sotomayor, she sounds like ‘a good nominee.’
Laura Bush: ‘I’m proud’ of Obama’s pick of Sotomayor, she sounds like ‘a good nominee.’
In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, former First Lady Laura Bush offered her endorsement of President Obama’s pick of Sonia Sotomayor to sit on the Supreme Court. “I think she sounds like a very interesting and good nominee,” Bush said. She added:
As a woman, I’m proud there might be another woman on the Court. So we’ll see what happens, but I wish her well.
Watch it:
The right-wing base has not been nearly as gracious about Obama’s pick of a woman to sit on the Court, taking the opportunity to propagate insulting sexist attacks. RNC Chairman Michael Steele said, “God help you if you’re a white male coming before her bench.” Karl Rove likened her to a “schoolmarm.” And G. Gordon Libby said, “Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something.”
Sen. Grassley writes nonsensical tweets attacking Obama.
Sen. Grassley writes nonsensical tweets attacking Obama.
In his weekly radio address, President Obama declared “it’s time to deliver” on health reform. The White House is sending the message to lawmakers and the American public that it “is preparing an intense push for legislation that will include speeches, town-hall-style meetings and much deeper engagement with lawmakers.” Apparently over-sensitive to the White House’s public calls to deliver on health care reform (or upset that the President is visiting Paris), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) wrote these nonsensical tweets against Obama today:
While Grassley was popping off, White House officials were showering him with praise. Senior adviser David Axelrod said on CBS: “I would hope people of both parties would get together. I was encouraged by Sen. Grassley’s comments in the last few days suggesting that he thought we could get there.” The AP notes, “Grassley’s attitude is significant because any hope for bipartisan consensus on health care rests on an alliance between Grassley and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.”
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