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.
Climate Change
President Barack Obama will announce today his plan to open “vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling” for the first time, but New Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future says it is just an “attempt by Obama to seduce the public” with window dressing.
President Obama yesterday declared a state of emergency as record levels of rainfall cause “100-year floods” in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Long Island.
U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said Tuesday that he does not believe a climate change bill will see the light of day in 2010. “You can’t do things too quickly, particularly something that is as big as climate change.”
Health Care
“Following an initially fractured response to the passage of President Obama’s health bill, the GOP is moving its message away from trying to repealing the bill and toward focusing on the law’s impact on businesses and jobs.”
“In 14 states across the country, attorneys general have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the recent federal health care overhaul. But here in Georgia, the Democratic attorney general has rejected such lawsuits as ‘frivolous’ and ‘a waste of taxpayer money.’”
“In a major push against the health overhaul, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to spend $50 million this summer and fall to sway election outcomes around the issue. It also plans to devote a team of staff members to shaping thousands of pages of new health regulations.”
Immigration
Yesterday, the White House rejected Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) assertion that the President has done little to advance immigration reform and suggested that GOP lawmakers must also take up the cause.
The murder of an Arizona rancher has prompted Gov. Jan Brewer (D-AZ) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to call on on the Department of Homeland Security to deploy the National Guard to the Arizona border.
A coalition of immigrant rights groups are demanding the ouster of top immigration official, John Morton, and accused the agency of “systematically deceiving the president and the American public” following a leaked memo citing deportation quotas.
Economy
Yesterday, President Obama pledged to work with French President Nicolas Sarkozy — who was visiting D.C. — to coordinate financial regulatory reform. Sarkozy called talked of tighter U.S. financial regulations “great news for the world to hear.”
The Obama administration said yesterday “that it expects financial regulatory reform to pass through the Senate — maybe even through Congress — by late May.” “I don’t think that is an unrealistic timetable at all,” said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
TaxVox’s Howard Gleckman looks at the other individual mandate: paying for tax preparation.
National Security
“The Serbian Parliament has officially condemned the 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. The resolution was approved by a narrow majority, with 127 out of 250 lawmakers voting in favor of issuing an apology to victims.”
“U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he wanted tougher U.N. sanctions in weeks against Iran over its nuclear program, and the world’s leading industrial nations expressed optimism that China will agree on possible next steps.” “My hope is that we are going to get this done this spring,” Obama said. “I’m interested in seeing that regime in place in weeks.”
“Terrorists will not be allowed to destabilize the situation in Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday following two double bombings in Dagestan and Moscow.” “The terrorists’ goal is to destabilize the situation in the country, destroy civil society and spark fear and panic among the population,” Medvedev said. “We will not allow this.”
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