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.
Immigration
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told The Hill yesterday that Congress “ought to take a look at” changing the 14th Amendment and denying the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants citizenship.
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AK), who previously warned of the costly lawsuits SB-1070 would spark, dismissed Judge Susan Bolton’s enjoinment as “just another example of an activist judge putting their ideas ahead of the law.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that a “record number of criminal aliens have been deported so far this year, reflecting a shift in emphasis by the Obama administration.”
Economy
“Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner stopped short on Tuesday of promising that President Obama would veto any legislation that extends tax cuts for top earners,” during an interview on Good Morning America.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair “has taken herself out of the running to lead the new U.S. consumer-protection agency after her name was put forward by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd.”
“Facing pressure from critics of Wall Street to limit its role in elections, Goldman Sachs has pledged not to spend any of its vast corporate reserves on political advertising,” the New York Times reports.
Health Care
“Missouri voters go to the polls Tuesday for the first-in-the-nation referendum on President Obama’s health care plan. It is likely to give Republicans a chance to brag about the unpopularity of Obamacare, but the vote will be largely symbolic.”
Humana’s “second-quarter profit jumped 21% as the health insurer increased its Medicare Advantage membership and benefited from patients’ recent lower demand for health-care services.”
“Don’t bother trying to count up the number of agencies, boards and commissions created under the new health care law. Estimating the number is ‘impossible,’ a recent Congressional Research Service report says, and a true count ‘unknowable.‘”
Environment
“The worst floods in memory in Pakistan have devastated the lives of more than 3 million people” and are threatening its fragile government, while “China’s worst flooding in more than a decade may cut production of rice, cotton and pork in the largest producer, boosting prices and hampering government efforts to keep inflation under 3 percent.”
Deadly heat across the planet has killed two people in Kansas City and the ninth person this year in Memphis, broken records in Birmingham, and killed power in Texan cities, and caused wheat prices to stage the “most drastic rise in more than 50 years,” because of drought across Russia and Europe.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) wants to attack the Obama administration’s attempts to limit global warming pollution “on all fronts.”
National Security
“Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire on the border Tuesday in the most serious clashes since a fierce war four years ago, and Lebanon said at least two of its soldiers and a journalist were killed in shelling.”
“On the eve of his meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari warned the international community that it had ‘lost the battle to win hearts and minds.’”
“Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said Tuesday that Iran has prepared defensive plans to face any threats by the enemies and to make them regret attacking Iran…The U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen said Sunday the United States has a plan in place to attack Iran, if it is necessary.”
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