Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, criticized Republicans for feigning indignation over House Democrats’ possible use of a self-executing rule to pass health reform. Noting that House Republicans used the rule more than 35 times in one session of Congress, Ornstein writes, “Is there no shame anymore?”
In a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 46 percent of Americans “say it would be better to pass the president’s plan and make changes to the nation’s health care system, versus 45 percent who would prefer not to pass it and keep the system as it is now.” “Americans are also split” on whether a vote for the overhaul bill would be better or worse for their congressional representative’s re-election chances.
Israel has rejected Washington’s demand to halt a recently announced settlement project in East Jerusalem and has expressed “anger over the public upbraiding of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the Obama administration.” A Jerusalem municipality spokesman said the city was moving ahead with construction. “For us, it is business as usual,” he said.
As Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki “saw his political coalition’s lead in Iraq’s parliamentary elections slip” yesterday, “he charged that the national electoral commission was manipulating results and demanded a recount in Baghdad.” “The election commission has been hit by hundreds of fraud accusations, but Tuesday’s action marked the first time the incumbent prime minister had weighed in.”
U.S. employers “won’t hire enough workers this year to lower the jobless rate much below the level of 9.7 percent reached in February.” Unemployment figures are likely to “remain elevated for an extended period,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, White House budget director Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers said in a statement.
On March 1, President Obama issued an executive order revising “the sequence in which Pentagon civilian officials would take command” if something happens to the Defense Secretary. The order “does away with a system for Pentagon succession” instituted by President Bush, “which played down the service secretaries and elevated positions held at the time by trusted aides to Donald H. Rumsfeld.”
Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano has decided to “put the brakes on SBInet, the $3 billion plan to build a virtual fence along the U.S. border with Mexico.” “The system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border known as SBInet as been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines,” explained Napolitano.
Fifteen Republican senators joined almost all Democrats in voting down Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-SC) amendment that would have established “an earmark moratorium for fiscal years 2010 and 2011.” The 68-29 vote rejected a two-year moratorium on spending provisions that include members’ pet projects.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) headlined a fundraiser for Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) last night. Cao’s fundraising has dipped ever since he voted for the House’s health care bill last November. Cao has indicated he will vote against the health reform package in the coming days.
And finally: It’s a full house: The Olsen twins were “spotted” visiting the White House on Monday. Both were “casually dressed.”
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