The Senate Finance Committee “will hold a landmark vote on health-care reform” today “that is expected to underscore the deep partisan divisions that have” hardened over five months of debate. Since few, if any, Republicans are expected to vote for the bill sponsored by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), “Democrats have already begun their own internal negotiations aimed at reconciling the various measures passed by House and Senate committees.”
After releasing a disingenuous report claiming that health care premiums will skyrocket under health reform, the insurance industry is facing possible blowback. “They have opened themselves up,” said a senior Senate Democratic aide. “It is an incredibly stupid strategic blunder. If you are going to fire a shot like this, you fire a good shot.”
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) is warning that tens of millions of the world’s poor will have their food rations cut or canceled in the next few weeks as rich nations cut back on aid. “We are facing a silent tsunami,” said WFP director Josette Sheeran. “A humanitarian disaster is unrolling.”
The White House is in talks with key senators on a strategy to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. “On ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ this administration is talking directly to the Hill — we are in direct discussions with Senator Lieberman,” John Berry, the director of the White House’s Office of Personnel Management, told The Advocate.
A U.S. military spokesman said yesterday that American troop levels in Iraq will be 120,000 by the end of October, a decrease of 23,000 since January. After the January elections, the U.S. will drawdown troops from “somewhere between 120,000 and 110,000 by the election, and then getting at that 50,000 by August 2010,” he said.
In March, President Obama announced that “he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.” “But in an unannounced move, the White House has also authorized — and the Pentagon is deploying — at least 13,000 troops beyond that number, according to defense officials,” the Washington Post reports. “The additional troops are primarily support forces, including engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is “urging the Interior Department to drastically reduce plans to open the coast to offshore oil and gas drilling, citing threats to marine life and potentially devastating effects of oil spills in Arctic waters.” NOAA also recommended excluding parts of the Alaska coast, the Atlantic seaboard, and the Gulf of Mexico from offshore drilling.
Al Sharpton has written a letter urging the National Football League to reject Rush Limbaugh’s bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams franchise. Sharpton argued Limbaugh would be “bad for the league” because he has “demonized the NFL.” Limbaugh responded that his detractors are “just gonna go nuts.”
And finally: Happy Birthday, White House! On October 13, 1792, construction of the White House began with the laying of the cornerstone. “Then known as ‘the President’s House,’ it was the first public building to be erected in Washington and remained the largest residential edifice in North America until after the Civil War.”
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