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.
Immigration
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said yesterday that immigration reform “has no chance in hell of passing” and that bringing it up this year “is nothing but a political stunt that will divide the country.”
Senators are expected to question Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about the ramifications of Arizona’s tough new immigration law when she appears for a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing.
Following the passage of Arizona’s immigration law, civil rights attorney Randy Parraz (D-AZ) announced his candidacy for the Senate seat that has been occupied for 24 years by John McCain (R-AZ).
Health Care
“Rep. Daniel Lungren (R-CA) has introduced legislation to repeal a provision in the new health reform law that he believes will place a huge tax-reporting burden on small businesses.”
“When major companies declared that a provision of the new health care law would hurt earnings, Democrats were skeptical. But after investigating, House Democrats have concluded that the companies were right to tell investors and the government about the expected adverse effects of the law on their financial results.”
“Montana’s insurance regulator told lawmakers Monday that the state’s first role in implementing federal health care overhaul will go into place shortly.”
Climate Change
Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL) and Sen. Richard Lugar told E&E News they want to work on energy next, as Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) promoted the energy-only bill as “pretty darn good.”
CAP previews the jump in profits expected for the big five oil companies — BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell — while BP’s killer oil rig is leaking thousands of gallons of oil into the Louisiana gulf every day.
Glenn Beck teaches climate policy: ” You’ve got your big evil rich company in a big evil rich country and there’s invisible gas . . . and this evil rich company takes their money and gives it to the not evil small company and they sell them clouds, invisible gas.”
Economy
Republicans Senators — joined by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) — blocked Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) financial reform bill from coming to the Senate floor last night. “We shouldn’t put in place a regulatory regime that overly reacts,” said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH).
President Obama’s deficit commission begins work today, fully aware that “the most obvious solutions, higher taxes or fewer government benefits, are the most toxic.”
According to a new report from the College Board, “during the 2007-08 school year, 53 percent of bachelor’s degree recipients at for-profit four-year institutions accumulated $30,500 or more of total debt, compared to 24 percent at private nonprofit four-years and 12 percent in public four-years.”
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