Welcome to The WonkLine, a daily 10 a.m. roundup of the latest news about health care, the economy, national security and climate policy. This is what we’re reading. Tell us what you found in the comments section below, and subscribe to the RSS feed.
Health Care
Confirmation of Gov. Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services “probably won’t take place until after the coming two-week recess because at least one senator has objected to an expedited procedure to move the nomination.”
Harold Pollack points out that this time around, doctors are embracing comprehensive health care reform: “The medical profession is coming to see what many others have also seen. Our existing, increasingly dysfunctional healthcare system doesn’t just work poorly for patients. It works poorly for doctors and for many others, too. That’s one reason I am hopeful we will see a major reform, this year.”
Did FRONTLINE slant the ‘Sick Around America‘ documentary?
National Security
The Washington Independent’s Daphne Evitar reports on the potential consequences of a U.S. district court’s decision that some prisoners held by the United States military in Afghanistan have a right to challenge their imprisonment.
President Barack Obama called for a world without nuclear weapons on Friday after arriving in France for a NATO summit, where he won French endorsement of his new Afghanistan strategy.
The final hours may be ticking away to a long-range rocket launch by North Korea. International leaders are preparing a diplomatic response even as their governments focus on tactical matters of safety in the final hours of countdown before the potential liftoff.
Economy
The Financial Accounting Standards Board altered the mark-to-market accounting rule yesterday, “to give banks more discretion in reporting the value of mortgage securities.” James Kwak and Willem Buiter explain why this was a bad idea.
In 2008, “the median salaries and bonuses for the chief executives of 200 big U.S. companies fell 8.5% to $2.24 million“; this was the first drop in seven years and just the second since 1989.
CQ reports that “if a Thursday budget vote is any indication, the future of the estate tax — and President Obama’s long-term proposal to deal with it — looks murky.”
Climate
In Bonn, White House climate negotiator Jonathan Pershing said Obama’s plan to lower greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020 is in the overlap of pragmatism and science.
Calling on developed nations to cut greenhouse emissions by “at least 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2020,” small island states say current targets are “going to destroy their countries.”
On Wednesday, 15 Democrats joined every Republican senator to preserve the filibuster against green economy legislation, even if “the Senate finds that public health, the economy and national security of the United States are jeopardized by inaction on global warming.”
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