Welcome to The WonkLine, a daily 9:30 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
A Pentagon official told NBC News that “[a]n ongoing Pentagon review of the massive flood of secret documents made public by the WikiLeaks website has so far found no evidence that the disclosure harmed U.S. national security or endangered American troops in the field.”
Yesterday, British Prime Minister David Cameron called the Gaza Strip a “prison camp” for Palestinians living there. “Although he has made similar remarks before, his decision to repeat them on a world stage in Turkey, whose relations with Israel have deteriorated sharply since it mounted a deadly assault on the Gaza flotilla, gave them much greater diplomatic significance.”
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said today that France is “at war” with al-Qaida “after [the group] executed a French hostage in the Sahara.”
Economy
“Oil giant BP said it plans to offset the entire cost of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill against its tax bill, reducing future contributions to U.S. tax coffers by almost $10 billion,” MSNBC reports.
The White House yesterday “gave the strongest signal yet that it may pick Elizabeth Warren to head a new consumer bureau created by the Wall Street reform bill,” while The New Republic’s Noam Scheiber predicts that if she is nominated, Warren will likely be confirmed.
Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Charles Plosser said yesterday that “it’s too soon for the Fed to bolster record U.S. monetary stimulus in response to slower- than-forecast gains in economic growth and employment.” “Talk of new efforts to stimulate the economy are premature right now,” he said.
Immigration
Officials in Fremont, NE are considering suspending a ban on hiring or renting to undocumented immigrants, fearing the high legal costs that will come with defending the ordinance.
Only 43 percent of Latinos surveyed say Obama is adequately addressing their needs, though 57 percent of Latinos approve of the president’s overall job performance.
As the government expands a program to identify undocumented immigrants using fingerprints from arrests, some advocates are protesting the initiative arguing that crime victims will be reluctant to cooperate with police.
Health Care
“That fact that people don’t know a lot about what’s in the new health law isn’t exactly news. But a new poll that shows just how little Grandma and Grandpa know about it must be giving the new law’s supporters a serious case of heartburn.”
“A group of lawmakers, many of whom voted against the Democrats’ health care overhaul, are asking the administration to preserve a role in the renovated health system for insurance agents and brokers.”
“Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) this week continued his push to eliminate a controversial tax-reporting provision of the new healthcare reform law, vowing to offer his repeal bill at every turn.”
Climate Change
Monday was Moscow’s hottest day ever, a heatwave killed 66 and sent 15,000 to hospitals in Japan, New York City’s hottest July ever claimed its third victim, and Boy Scouts fainted in Washington, DC from the record heat that stretches throughout the southeast.
Catastrophic storms killed four people and knocked out power for tens of thousands in the Mid-Atlantic, spun off a tornado in the Bronx, and flooded Chicago and Las Cruces.
Sen. Jim Inhofe complained that the Environmental Protection Agency is working to regulate industrial pesticides.
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