Welcome to The WonkLine, a daily 10 a.m. roundup of the latest news about health care, the economy, national security, immigration and climate policy. This is what we’re reading. Tell us what you found in the comments section below. You can also follow The Wonk Room on Twitter.
National Security
Yesterday President Obama issued a statement regarding the attempted Christmas Day terror attack: “This was not a failure to collect intelligence. … it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had. … That’s not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it.”
Bombing Iran is pointless, as the New York Times reports: “Over the past decade, Iran has quietly hidden an increasingly large part of its atomic complex in networks of tunnels and bunkers across the country.”
“Before detonating a suicide bomb in Afghanistan last week, a Jordanian militant was considered by American spy agencies to be the most promising informant in years about the whereabouts of Al Qaeda’s top leaders, including Ayman al-Zawahri, the terrorist group’s second-ranking operative.”
Immigration
The Arizona Republic predicts that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) support of the 2007 immigration reform bill will come back to “haunt” him during his reelection campaign, though others point out that anti-immigrant zealots are more bark than bite when it comes to electoral success.”
Countering a recent piece in Talking Points Memo, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) denies making any deal with the White House that would effectively involve trading votes on health care for the promise of immigration reform in 2010.
The Christian Science Monitor points out that “both sides are already rallying their grass roots in anticipation of a[n] [immigration] fight that, some say, could make the great immigration debate of 2007 look like a playground spat.”
Climate Change
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to announce today “that his agency will require oil and natural-gas companies to clear more regulatory hurdles before they are allowed to drill on federal lands.”
A report by the Center for Climate Strategies shows that “Michigan could gain a significant economic boost and thousands of new jobs by reducing emissions of gases that cause climate change.”
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) has “called for hearings on the use of intelligence satellites for gathering images of changing climate conditions, alleging that Central Intelligence Agency work with scientists on climate change is sapping the agency’s focus on preventing terrorism.”
Economy
Paul Volcker and Brad DeLong are displeased that Treasury Department nominees have yet to be confirmed. “The Administration is one quarter over, and it hasn’t manned the ramparts of government yet,” said Volcker.
Kevin Drum looks at the influence of finance lobby: “For three decades they had us convinced that the success of the financial sector should be measured not by how well it provides financial services to actual consumers and corporations, but by how effectively financial firms make money for themselves.”
Remember when Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s (D-AR) campaign manager was the anti-EFCA speaker? That was funny.
Health Care
“In a White House meeting Tuesday evening, Obama and Democratic leaders agreed on a fast-track alternative to the traditional House-Senate conference committee.”
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) doesn’t think the so-called Nebraska Medicaid deal should be in the final health care bill. “We’ll see what happens, whether it comes out or not. I think it’s appropriate that it should,” she said.
“House Republican Whip Eric Cantor has spotlighted 37 Democrats who backed the House health care bill but might vote “no” on the pending House-Senate compromise.”
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