According to a new Pew survey, 55 percent of Muslim Americans say life in the U.S. has become more difficult since 9/11, up from 53 percent in 2007. As a new CAP report explained, an Islamophobia network has been producing propaganda to cast aspersions on Muslim participation in American civic life.
Just a week before his much-anticipated jobs speech, President Obama has yet to finalize the major tenets of his jobs plan. Obama is reportedly considering a combination of tax cuts and new spending as well as targeting long-term unemployment and the nation’s housing crisis, while Obama says it will contain “bipartisan ideas that ought to be the kind of proposals that everybody can get behind.”
After police seized his constituents cameras at his town hall last week, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) held another town hall yesterday — “this time with cameras allowed.” Chabot also agreed to answer questions directly from the audience, “rather than having them pre-screened, as has been his policy at prior events.”
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said yesterday that the new health care reform law is already beginning to save consumers money but could ultimately give them fewer plans to choose from. According to interviews with insurance companies and regulators about the early impact of the law, some insurers are decreasing premiums or leaving their rates unchanged in order to comply with certain requirements.
Yesterday, GOP presidential contender Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) pledged that he will approve no new stimulus if he’s elected president. “You won’t have stimulus programs under a Perry presidency. You won’t spend all the money,” he said. Instead, Perry said he would simply rely on the country’s “entrepreneurial spirit” to “get America working again.”
House Republicans will introduce legislation today that would restrict the nation’s U.N. contributions “to only the specific purposes outlined by Congress” and would withhold any funding for a U.N. agency that “helps Palestinian refugees.” Noting that the U.N. has never promoted American interests more, a Better World Initiative said the bill would “severely erode America’s leadership role” and “undermine our nation’s security.”
And finally: The GOP presidential front runner Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) is laughing off backlash to her “joke” that the recent earthquake and Hurricane Irene were a message from God. “Of course I was being humorous when I said that. It would be absurd to think It was anything else,” said the GOP’s comedienne-in-residence yesterday. “I am a person who loves humor. I have a great sense of humor,” she insisted, apparently, with a straight face.
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