NYT: President crafting his own health plan that he'll release Monday morning

NYT:

President Obama will put forward comprehensive health care legislation intended to bridge differences between Senate and House Democrats ahead of a summit meeting with Republicans next week, senior administration officials and Congressional aides said Thursday.

Democratic officials said the president’s proposal was being written so that it could be attached to a budget bill as a way of averting a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The procedure, known as budget reconciliation, would let Democrats advance the bill with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote supermajority.

Congressional Democrats, however, have not yet seen the proposal or signed on.

During a conference call on Wednesday night, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, that she could not agree to a proposal until rank-and-file lawmakers returned from a weeklong recess. A House Democratic caucus meeting is set for Monday evening.

And a senior Senate Democratic aide expressed doubts.

“It has been three weeks since the Massachusetts election, and we have not received a path forward from the White House on health care substance and process that can clear the House and Senate,” the aide said.

The president’s plan would require most Americans to obtain health insurance or face financial penalties; it would bar insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions, and it would give tax subsidies to help moderate-income people buy private insurance.

No mention of the exchanges. Barring pre-existing conditions may not help if costs keep rising 15% to 59% a year. I guess we'll see Monday. Read More......

FOX News is convinced the guy who crashed the plane into an IRS office is not a terrorist

After all, he isn't brown.

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Anti-govt anti-Obama nuts launch Facebook page to honor domestic terrorist who crashed plane into IRS office

And you could write this off as just a few nuts on the Internet, except that new GOP Senator Scott Brown said tonight that the same anger that convinced this man to crash a plane into an IRS office, 9/11 style, was the same anger that got Brown elected last month. Perhaps not such an aberration after all.





Mike Signorile turned me on to this. He was reading the comments on the air on his radio show. The initial page was taken down by Facebook - and I don't blame them from what Mike tells me. But a new page is up. It's pretty hideous. The page has the "Don't Tread On Me" flag that Tea party teabaggers like to use, and it has a wonderful Thomas Jefferson quote that domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh used. A lot of the nastiest stuff got deleted the first time around. Including a number of anti-Obama comments. Here are some examples of the comments on the page (now that the page is getting discovered, some negative comments are coming in, finally):

This is Emily Walters. We were the original ones who started this group. It grew to about 300 members and was deleted. They deleted my profile also. This is my boyfriends profile he made just to put it back on there because its sad when you don't have the right to freedom of speech or expression anymore.

Do we as americans have our head buried in the sand? is it time to pull it out? what will we really see.....? Abolish the IRS, lets go with a sales tax....ooohhh yea, how would big brother keep us in check.... it is time

I would call him a hero!!! I.m sure they will call him a terrorists.

WE DON'T HAVE REPRESENTATION IN GOVERNMENT WHATSOEVER

I'm sick and tired of our tax dollars supporting lazy old people with their free social security. Get a job or get out of our country!

They are not screwing with "Andrew Joseph Stack III is not a Hero" group.

Mr. Stack is a true American hero

JOSEPH STACK AN AMERICAN HERO!

There only deleting comments becouse there too true...

The IRS planned to eat him anyway, might as well serve a gourmet meal.

when does terrorism become patriotism???were the minutemen and anybody who revolted against king george terrorists or patriots?? im sure they were also perceived as terrorists

this country was founded on rebellion. history repeats itself. common sense.

Obviously you haven't heard Patrick Henry's quote, "Give me the politicians I want or give everyone else death"

So we should just sit there and take what Uncle Sam gives us in the ass? Joe Stack had the balls to make a point -and his point certainly received international attention.

sad thing for the folks who think this is going to be the only time we hear about something like this. this is not the way americans act UNLESS YOUVE FALLEN VICTOM OF THE IRS AND THEYRE UNBALENCED POLICIES!!!!. so get used to it--nuff said

It's not about who he killed or who he could have killed. It's about the undeniable identification of the common American with his letter and his frustration with our out of touch, detached government.

This poor man was hunted to insanity. I pray for his family.

This building did not contain any important files, I believe this might be the building were that S.O.B. worked that Joe thought was on his side and would help him save his ass yet he turned out to be on the gov's side instead. I dont know about you all but, if I were in that building when Joe struck it I would have been honored to die for a good cause that would finaly atleast open up some eyes.

I hear that there was already a hazmat team across the street before the plane stuck, how did they know to be there at that exact time???????????????????????????

I am watching CNN, and they keep bringing on Pyshc experts that keep painting this guy as paranoid, and deranged. I can't help but think that behind the scenes even psych professionals can understand this guy's frustration with our bloated, intrusive government, but yet on the air they say what's politically correct, and what's best for their careers. In no way do I condone killing innocent people, but I understand Joe's logic and frustration. Personally, I think he would be pleased that he was able to get our attention without causing a single death.

His name was Joseph Andrew Stack. He died serving project mayhem. In death we are all Joseph Stack.

One more:

It is heroic to set fire to your house with your wife and daughter in it then reenact what he called a horror in his manifesto with a miniature version of a plane? Please do tell me how that is heroic.

No, but it is heroic to fly your plane into the IRS building

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New GOP Senator Scott Brown links guy crashing plane into IRS office to his election - same anger

(H/t for the video, ThinkProgress)

Seriously. The new Republican Senator from Massachusetts went on FOX News this evening and was asked about the nut who crashed his plane into an IRS office building, because he hates the government. Here is what Scott Brown said, when asked about this possible act of terrorism:

"I don't know if it's related, but I can just sense, not only in my election, but since being here in Washington, people are frustrated, they want transparency, they want their elected officials to be accountable and open, and talk about the things that are affecting their daily lives. So I'm not sure if there's a connection, I certainly hope not, but we need to do things better.

The best part is what comes next. Cavuto says, gosh, can you imagine people (read: liberals) claiming that this is what happens when you build up populist rage - isn't that a bit extreme? Brown concurs. After suggesting that the populist rage that led this man to crash his plane into an IRS building was the same kind of thing that got him elected.

Which almost sounds like he's justifying the plane crash.

Had a Democrat said this during the Bush administration, VP Cheney would have come out and said that the comparison was unfortunate, un-American, and an endorsement of terrorism. That's how you take a story like this and blow it up to your partisan advantage. No, it's not nice. But we're not dealing with nice people. Clearly. Read More......

Joe Stiglitz on the stimulus

The Stiglitz interview is about 13 minutes in. (For those who don't know, Stiglitz won the Nobel for Economics in 2001, and is otherwise a very smart man we all ought to listen to a heck of a lot more.)
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Liz Cheney on Don't Ask Don't Tell: 'It's time for it to end'

Wow. Read More......

Utah Republicans want to rename MLK day after a gun manufacturer

In all fairness, they want Martin Luther King Day to share the glory with the gun manufacturer. Making it MLK/Gun day. Not kidding.

A plan is circulating under the radar in the Utah State Senate to share the holiday honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., shot to death in 1968, with one of the country's most famous gun makers.

The plan is to rename the holiday, which falls on the third Monday of January, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr./John M. Browning Day, adding the gun manufacturer whose birthday also falls in January.

The Utah Legislature has a contentious history with the holiday honoring King. After President Ronald Reagan signed the legislation creating the federal holiday, bitter debates resulted in a compromise, calling the holiday "Human Rights Day."

Utah changed the name to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2000, becoming the last state to do so.

I'm sure that had nothing to do with the Mormons history of racism. They used to block blacks from assuming leadership positions in their church, and only started permitting it in the late 70s after a boycott. Read More......

E.J. Dionne on 'What's holding the Democratic Party down'

Lots worth quoting in this piece, definitely worth a read:

Pause to consider where we would be if a Democrat had won the Massachusetts Senate race last month. In all likelihood, health reform would be law, Democrats could have moved on to economic matters, and Obama would be seen as shrewd and successful.

But that's not what happened, and Republican Scott Brown's victory revealed real weaknesses on the progressive side: an Obama political apparatus asleep at the switch, huge Republican enthusiasm unmatched by Democratic determination, and a focused conservative campaign to discredit Obama's ideas, notably his economic stimulus plan and the health-care bill.

The Obama administration argues that both the stimulus and the health bill are better than people think. That's entirely true, and this is actually an indictment -- it means that on the two big issues of the moment, Republicans and conservatives are winning an argument they should be losing.

Of course, I think the conservatives' argument is wrong. But at this point, I have to admire their daring and discipline. Moderate and progressive Democrats alike have eight months before this fall's elections to change the terms of the debate and prove they can govern. Otherwise, they'll be washed out by a tidal wave.

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Get a mirror, Rush

In addition to some pretty dangerous talk, Limbaugh proves, yet again, how conservatives and Republicans always accuse Democrats of being what conservatives and Republicans actually are.

"I know we're not supposed to talk about Adolf Hitler but this administration is making it really, really tough to ignore some facts out there. ... [T]he "Big Lie" was an expression coined by Hitler. And the "Big Lie" is exactly what all of liberalism is. ... This is how the OSS described Hitler's psychology: "His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or a wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong" -- hello, George W. Bush and the Republicans," - Rush Limbaugh, comparing Obama's touting of the stimulus to a "Big Lie."

Yes, hello George W. Bush and the Republicans. Read More......

Rachel Maddow: Video of Eric Cantor saying zero jobs created by stimulus, then bragging about 85k to 160k jobs stimulus will create for his state

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Insurance premiums going way up in 6 more states

New HHS study:

Recently, Anthem Blue Cross of California, an insurance company owned by the for-profit company WellPoint, Incorporated, announced that its individual market premiums would rise by as much as 39 percent in the coming months. This shocking increase isn’t unique. Across the country, families have seen their premiums skyrocket in recent years, and experts predict these increases will continue. Sandy Praeger, a leader of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, predicts that we will “see rate increases of 20, 25, 30 percent.”

These massive increases are disturbing examples of the problems that make reforming our health insurance system more important than ever.

Anthem Blue Cross of California announced that its individual market premiums would rise by as much as 39 percent in the coming months. After Secretary Sebelius and state officials asked for a public justification for these increases, Anthem Blue Cross delayed raising its rates for two months.

Anthem Blue Cross isn’t alone in insisting on premium hikes. Anthem of Connecticut requested an increase of 24 percent last year, which was rejected by the state. Anthem in Maine had an 18.5-percent premium increase rejected by the state last year as being “excessive and unfairly discriminatory” – but is now requesting a 23-percent increase this year.

In 2009, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan requested approval for premium increases of 56 percent for plans sold on the individual market. Regency Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon requested a 20-percent premium increase. UnitedHealth, Tufts, and Blue Cross requested 13- to 16-percent rate increases in Rhode Island. And rates for some individual health plans in Washington increased by up to 40 percent until Washington State imposed stiffer premium regulations.

Leading experts have predicted that, without reform, these increases will continue, and the federal government and most states don’t have the legal authority to block or reduce health insurance rate increases.

WellPoint and others claim that the premium increases are necessary given the rise in health care costs. While rising health care costs is a known problem with our broken health care system, some of the premium increases requested by insurance companies are 5 to 10 times larger than the growth rate in national health expenditures. All the while, insurance companies and their CEOs continue to thrive.

Recent economic data show that profits for the ten largest insurance companies increased 250 percent between 2000 and 2009, ten times faster than inflation.

Plans in Washington, DC have been going up the same amount. Read More......

Republican makes joke about Obama using teleprompter. Reads joke from a teleprompter.

UPDATE: Sam Stein of Huff Post tweets that there have now been six teleprompter jokes at the conservative CPAC conference, all read off of teleprompters.


Can't make this stuff up. Read More......

A Bad Idea

We see reports today that the President intends to make the Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, the overseer of "systemic risks" to the banking system. This used to be the job of the Federal Reserve, and in fact was the raison d'etre for creating the Fed in the first place.

This is a very bad idea. I know that many are less than happy with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, but it is important to look at this from a long term point of view rather than as a function of the personalities currently in the jobs in question.

The Fed Chairman has a key attribute - he is not part of the political apparatus, and once appointed can do as he thinks best, regardless of whether the politician who nominated him likes it or not. He is required to report what he is doing, but Congress and the President have no leverage over him to change his course of action.

The Treasury Secretary, on the other hand, serves at the pleasure of the President, and is a political animal dedicated to shepherding the President's political agenda. This is NOT who we want ensuring the viability of our entire financial system. Though I have my complaints about how Ben Bernanke managed the crisis, can you imagine what would have happened if, say, one of George Bush's cronies had the job of ensuring the viability of our nation's financial system?

To put an even sharper point on it, who would Sarah Palin appoint as Treasury Secretary?

The Republican party has shown itself to be completely beholden to Wall Street interests who clearly don't care what happens to the country so long as they get their bonuses. Are these the people who should be potentially put in line to ensure the viability of the world economy?

If, at some future date, saving the world's economy requires serious pain from Wall Street elites, would a Treasury Secretary really move ahead if contributions to his boss were on the line?

I doubt it. This is a bad idea, regardless of who's president. Read More......

Second City on climate change deniers

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What else should we expect from Utah Republicans?

Duh huh. Duh huh. They're such funny people.

Utah's heavily Republican state legislature has passed a new resolution which condemns climate change alarmism. The resolution lacks any legal authority, but vocally criticizes the anthropogenic global warming community for ignoring recent developments.

The legislation, which resoundingly passed by a vote of 56-17, originally referred to global warming theory as a "conspiracy", but that term was stricken from the measure in favor of "climate data".

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Sen. GOPers will block jobs bill. House GOPers want reality show.

While everyone with a brain realizes we need to create more jobs in the U.S., Republicans in the U.S. Senate are going to block that chamber's jobs bill from even getting to the floor, via Roll Call (sub. req.):

Senate Republican leaders are hoping to persuade waffling members of their Conference to block Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) $15 billion jobs bill by arguing that Reid has brushed aside minority rights in bringing it to the floor, aides told a gathering of lobbyists Wednesday.

Yes, that strategy was laid out at a meeting with lobbyists. And, this is the only time you'll ever see Republicans worried about "minority rights." The sick part is that many in the GOP Senate caucus already support what's in Reid's jobs bill. So, they want to make this about "process, rather than policy." Because that's what the GOP Senators do when people need help.

The GOP is shameless. This is when Harry Reid needs to play hard ball. Make the Republican Senators spend every minute on the floor blocking the bill. Make it painful for GOP Senators from states with high unemployment. Make it painful for Scott Brown. And, the White House would be wise to use the bully pulpit to help inflict some of the pain.

Meanwhile, having been made to look like fools repeatedly, the House Republicans are still looking for a t.v. show that works for them. Their latest gambit is with jobs:

House Republicans are taking a page from the president's playbook by challenging Democrats to a televised debate about job creation.

The top two Republicans in the House sent a letter Wednesday daring their counterparts — Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer — to engage in a public discussion over ways Congress can provide a boost to the economy.

Here's an idea: If Boehner and Cantor are serious, which they aren't, they can save some time by lobbying the Senate Republicans to pass a jobs bill ASAP.

This is all fun and games for Republicans on the Hill. The party that gave us the economic crisis has done nothing to help dig out from it. And, you know that a lot of them think high unemployment helps their chances for election victories in the fall. Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

This morning, Obama is meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the Map Room of the White House. The Chinese government has been really cranky about this. In Beijing, they'll love the photo, which can be seen here after the meeting.

Later today, the President is heading out to Colorado to attend a fundraiser for Senator Michael Bennet. Then, he's heading to Nevada for a DNC fundraiser.

Have to say congrats to the Olympians who won big yesterday. Golds for Shani Davis, Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn. NBC's coverage is painful. But, the athletes are impressive.

Let's get rolling... Read More......

Greece former Finance minister: Greece not alone in EU with debt swaps

Not that it helps the troubled situation, but it would be interesting to hear the others explain their actions. There's surely a lot more of this going on than many would like to admit. Governments helped defer problems to the future, though when that day comes the problem will be considerably worse. Another example of why the Wall Street banks get easy treatment by troubled government. How many other countries will emerge in such transactions?

Goldman Sachs officials declined to comment as did Morgan Stanley. JP Morgan officials were not immediately available for comment.

Italy, France and Spain were among the euro zone members doing such swaps at the time, he added. Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, has asked Greece for explanations on these debt swaps by Feb. 19.

These types of debt swaps are destabilizing financial markets and the European Commission should thoroughly investigate the case, Simon Johnson, Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan School of Management, told CNBC.com Tuesday.

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Falklands Part II?

So far it doesn't appear as though the British battleships will be sent, but there's definitely friction. Argentina is being about as aggressive as they can be to deter the British from their dreams of oil in the Falklands. They estimate the oil reserves are on par with the North Sea oil, so someone is going to cash in.

The British military and the Foreign Office are stepping up surveillance of Argentinian naval action following the threat from Buenos Aires to blockade the Falkland Islands.

The imminent arrival of a British company’s oil rig in the area is an immediate source of friction between the two countries, which has reignited 28 years after the war with the discovery of rich petroleum and gas reserves around the islands.

The Argentinian government has declared that it was taking control of all shipping between its coastline and the disputed islands it calls Islas Malvinas and the adjoining South Georgia, a claim promptly rejected by the UK.

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Evicting a 92 year old?

Good grief. Throwing away her personal belongings only adds to the nastiness.

She survived the Holocaust. But a tenacious life story wasn't enough for 92-year old Eta Eckstein to keep her Brooklyn landlord at bay.

While out of her apartment in a rehab facility, the grandmother got evicted.

"It's unspeakable," says Eta's grandson, Idan. "They just threw her belongings onto the street." Eta's family got no explanation from the landlord, Morris Piller.

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