Acknowledging that they lack the votes to block health care reform, Senate Republicans “have implemented a comprehensive political strategy to delay, define and derail.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Republicans are going to “insist” on several weeks of debate.
A new Harris Poll reports that Obama’s approval ratings have slipped for the third month in a row. Only 45 percent gave the president positive ratings. On the economy, Obama’s approval ratings slipped further to 40 percent.
White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said that while President Obama supports the public option, he is “not demanding that it is in” the final health reform legislation. “He’s pushed for it, certainly, but he’s also realistic to say we’ve got to look at all options,” she reiterated.
In a closed-door speech to financial industry lobbyists in Washington in September, National Economic Council director Larry Summers “told the executives they were beneficiaries of an unprecedented government bailout and should brace for a regulatory overhaul.” He said the Obama administration “will not be lectured” by opponents of a proposed consumer-protection agency.
“The White House and congressional Democrats are working to marginalize the Chamber of Commerce” by going around the group and dealing with major CEOs directly. “There’s a strong, very conservative ideology there,” said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). “They’re more like The Heritage Foundation then [sic] they are like an economic association.”
White House officials Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod yesterday criticized Wall Street’s exorbitant compensation packages and banks’ lobbying against financial regulation plans. Axelrod said the big financial firms could help by “increasing lending…and by standing down” from their lobbying efforts, while Emanuel called the bonus practices “very frustrating.”
The administration announced today that the Recovery Act has saved or created at least 250,000 education jobs across the country. “This is one more indication of how the Recovery Act is helping soften the blow of tough times, by keeping educators on the job and teachers in the classroom,” said Vice President Biden.
A new study by PayNet Inc finds that the recent wave of bankruptcies were largely unforeseen by lenders. “Approximately half the lenders never saw it coming,” PayNet President Bill Phelan said. “They were blindsided.”
While Obama administration officials have said that elements of the Afghan Taliban insurgency can be bought off, “many analysts, particularly in the CIA, do not believe that a substantial” number of Taliban fighters are reconcilable. ”As a general matter,” one offical said, “our view is that it would be a very difficult thing to accomplish,” adding that reconciliation prospects are “dim and grim.”
And finally: Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has joined LinkedIn, the website known as the “Facebook for professionals.” Her resume lists “Vice Presidential Candidate” as one of her positions and “goes back to 1992 where she was the Council Member for the Wasilla City Council.” Her profile also says she is interested in “Job inquiries, expertise requests, business deals, reference requests, and getting back in touch.”
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