The WonkLine: October 22, 2009

According to a new UN report, “Afghan opium is unleashing a ‘devastating’ impact across the world…funding the Taliban and other terror groups and killing thousands in consumer countries.”

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice “told Israelis on Wednesday that it was not enough to pay ‘lip service’ to peace and urged the government to restart negotiations immediately, without preconditions, aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state.”

The Iraqi Parliament announced yesterday “that it had reached a stalemate over drafting an election law. That could well delay the election, scheduled for Jan. 16, and might even slow down the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.”

Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s special paymaster, “will cut in half the average compensation for 175 employees at firms receiving large sums of government aid.” The Wall Street Journal reports that “the biggest cut will be to salaries, which will drop by 90% on average.”

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said yesterday that “he would place a hold on the confirmation of union lawyer Craig Becker to join the National Labor Relations Board, saying Becker might try to make labor laws more union friendly without congressional approval.”

Goldman Sachs CFO David Viniar told reporters that Goldman “enjoys no government guarantee. Not even an implicit one.” Bloomberg’s Jonathan Weil responds “are you laughing yet?”

“President Obama will try to push the Senate climate bill” — the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs Act — “forward Friday with an energy-themed speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, just days before the start of a marathon series of hearings featuring testimony from top administration officials.”

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Kit Bond (R-MO), working with the American Trucking Association and the American Farm Bureau, claimed clean energy legislation is a “giant new gas tax,” based on the National Black Chamber of Commerce‘s 40-year estimate of a “$3.6 trillion surtax on gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.”

According to a new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), “states are backing big energy-efficiency programs, spurred by the belief that they could hold down heating and electricity bills, as well as cut greenhouse-gas emissions.”

The Hill is predicting that health insurance reform will be a winner for D.C. lobbyists and keep their business booming for the foreseeable future. “Good God, think about the business that would be generated by this thing,” said one lobbyist.

Congressional Democrats moved yesterday to repeal the anti-trust exemptions for health insurers. “It’s a different universe today than it was in 1945, and this exemption is antiquated, out-of-date, and doesn’t belong,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).

According to a joint report by the World Health Organization, United Nations and World Bank, while “global efforts to immunize children against life-threatening diseases set a record high last year” they still “failed to protect millions of youngsters in the world’s poorest countries.”

Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce (R) has introduced the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” which “targets the undocumented immigrants themselves, the cities where they live and the companies and businesses that employ them” in support of Sheriff Arpaio’s controversial immigration enforcement.

US News & World Report claims that there is “growing common ground” between liberals and religious conservatives on the issue of immigration.

An immigrant who believes a US company kept him in forced servitude and an American who is angry the company hired foreign workers are “surprising allies” in a lawsuit that claims that the H2-B nonagricultural guest worker program hurts immigrant and US workers alike.

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