Grayson stands by criticism of Republican plan: ‘I would like to apologize to the dead.’
Grayson stands by criticism of Republican plan: ‘I would like to apologize to the dead.’
Yesterday, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said the Republican health care plan is “don’t get sick,” and if you do get sick, “die quickly.” After offering those facetious and sadly accurate remarks, Grayson came under criticism from Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), who demanded that Grayson apologize on the House floor. Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Grayson said, “Yes, it was tongue-in-cheek. I’m surprised I have to explain that, but that’s the way it goes these days.” He added that he’s “not taking any of it back” and will “stand by what I said.” When asked if he would apologize, Grayson offered this response:
“I would like to apologize,” he said. “I would like to apologize to the dead.”
Citing a statistic that 44,789 Americans die each year because they don’t have health insurance, Grayson said, “That is more than ten times the number of Americans who died in the war in Iraq, it’s more than ten times the number of Americans who died on 9/11. …It happens every year.”
Grayson added in another apparent dig at the GOP, “We should care about people even after they are born.”
Grayson apologized one last time.
“I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner,” he said.
“I don’t think the Democrats need to be on defense,” Grayson told reporters. “I think we should be on the offense and not the defense, and that’s where I plan to stay.”
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Hannity Cites Single Chicago Gang Violence Incident To Wonder If The City Doesn’t Deserve The Olympics
Hannity Cites Single Chicago Gang Violence Incident To Wonder If The City Doesn’t Deserve The Olympics
Conservatives have been piling on President Obama this week for his decision to take a short trip to Cophenhagen, Denmark, to pitch Chicago as the site of the 2016 Olympics. Yesterday on an RNC conference call, for example, chairman Michael Steele said that “at a time of war,” Obama’s trip was “not necessary.”
Last night on Fox News, Sean Hannity devoted his top segment to hitting Obama over the Olympics. He brought up a tragic incident in Chicago where an innocent 16-year-old boy died after getting caught in gang violence crossfire. Hannity said the murder had turned “political” in light of Obama’s Copenhagen trip — even though the two are completely unrelated and no one else has tied them together:
HANNITY: This is absolutely chilling. Well, now the story has turned political. This Thursday President Obama will travel to Denmark to support Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. But in light of this tragedy and all of the pressing issues facing the country, is the president making the right move?
One of Hannity’s guests was former Bush White House press secretary Dana Perino, who agreed that the killing had become “part of a political issue.” She admitted that “this type of school violence, unfortunately, happens all over America,” but quickly added, “But as I read today that this is not the first child that’s been murdered this school year in Chicago.”
Hannity also tried to compare Obama’s Copenhagen trip to sending more troops to Afghanistan, saying that since the President was able to make the first decision so quickly, he should similarly make a snap decision about the war. Watch it:
CNN’s Lou Dobbs made a similar argument yesterday, saying, “The president is heading off to Denmark later this week to try to sell Olympic officials on Chicago, but many say the president’s focus on Chicago should have more to do with stopping the worsening violence in that city.”
Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made a jab at Steele and the other Olympics critics, asking, “Who’s he rooting for? Is he hoping to hop a plane to Brazil and catch the Olympics in Rio? Maybe it’s Madrid.” Former Massachusetts governor and head 2002 Olympic Organizing Committee Mitt Romney also endorsed Obama’s decision to go to Copenhagen, saying “I think the people in the IOC want to understand the level of the commitment of the host country. … And nothing says that like having the presence of the leader of that country and, particularly, the case of Barack Obama.”
(HT: News Hounds)
Transcript: More »
EPA announces plan to regulate industrial global warming pollution.
EPA announces plan to regulate industrial global warming pollution.
Appearing at a climate summit in Los Angeles today, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson will announce the administration’s plan to regulate industrial global warming pollution, with or without the support of Congress. Today’s proposed rule limits regulation to large greenhouse gas polluters, from coal-fired power plants and oil refiners to methane-emitting landfills. The details of today’s proposed rule are explained further in the Wonk Room.
Steele Dismisses Report That Obama Has Received 400 Percent More Threats Than Bush
Steele Dismisses Report That Obama Has Received 400 Percent More Threats Than Bush
On CNN’s American Morning today, host John Roberts asked RNC Chairman Michael Steele about the Facebook poll that asked “Should Obama be killed?” — which the Secret Service is investigating — and whether it was “spawned by racism.” “No, I don’t think,” replied Steele, adding that he’s “always very careful about going down that road, you know, so blindly and so quickly.”
Roberts followed up by asking Steele if he agreed with Tom Friedman’s column this morning, in which he wrote that “Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.” “Where do these nut jobs come from? I mean, come on, stop this,” replied Steele. He then said that America didn’t have “this kind of conversation” when people were “complaining and protesting” about President Bush.
“Not to say that it’s about the color of his skin or his background, ethnic background or whatever, but threats against this president are at a level 400 percent higher than they were against former President Bush,” replied Roberts. “What explains that?” Steele was skeptical of Roberts’ numbers, saying “how do we know that?” When Roberts said it came from the Secret Service, Steele largely dismissed the concern:
STEELE: Well, I don’t — I don’t know — I don’t know that because I don’t have a report to compare that to. The Secret Service has it. I haven’t seen that publicly put out there statistically to show that.
But even if it is, this is my point. You know, I think that we need to be very smart and very careful about jumping, making these leaps on race and connecting dots that may or may not exist there. We are engaged as a country right now in a very important public policy debate, whether it’s the war in Afghanistan or health care cap and trade or what happens to be. There are passions that run deep and long on both sides of the aisle.
Don’t necessarily jump to the conclusion that, because someone says something vitriolic or hot that that’s necessarily from the right or necessarily from the left. It’s reflecting deep-seeded frustrations that people have. We don’t excuse it but I just — I want us to be very careful because I just — I see ugly things happening down the road if we’re not smart approaching these types of issues.
Watch it:
Roberts’ 400 percent statistic comes from Newsmax correspondent Ronald Kessler’s book, In the President’s Secret Service, for which he had unprecedented access to the agency. “A lot of those threats are racially based,” Kessler told the New York Daily News. “So there is a real basis for concern.”
Transcript: More »
Health Insurance Stocks Rise After Defeat Of Public Option Amendments
Health Insurance Stocks Rise After Defeat Of Public Option Amendments
Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee voted down both the Rockefeller and Schumer amendments, which would have added a public insurance plan to the committee’s bill. As the Wall Street Journal reports, shares in health insurers Humana and UnitedHealth shot up following the votes:
Shares of companies that operate private health plans turned higher or trimmed losses in afternoon trading Tuesday after a Senate committee rejected an amendment that would have created a government-run insurance option. Humana Inc. (HUM) shares, which had been down earlier, were recently up 1% at $38.41. UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) shares gained 3 cents to $25.83.
Private health insurers have bitterly fought the creation of a public insurance option, fearing that such an option would cut into their profits. Yesterday, Life And Health Insurance News reported that the insurance industry has responded positively to the defeat of the public option amendments. “We are pleased by the rejection of both the Rockefeller and Schumer amendments,” said Tom Currey, president of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. Janet Trautwein, president of the National Association of Health Underwriters, also told the press that her organization is pleased by the failure of the Schumer and Rockefeller amendments.
Meanwhile, disgraced former CEO of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Rick Scott, who heads the anti-reform front group Conservatives for Patients Rights, released a video where he called yesterday’s vote “a great day.”
If anyone knows how the insurance industry feels about protecting its profits from the introduction of a new public plan, it’s whistleblower Wendell Potter, who left Cigna last year over its opposition to health care reform. Potter appeared on Democracy Now! this morning and told host Amy Goodman that the Finance Committee advancing legislation without a public option marks the “first time” that a health reform bill has been put together that the industry supports:
POTTER: Yeah, this is the first time that the insurance industry has really seen great opportunity in healthcare reform, with an individual mandate, which would require all of us to buy insurance if we are not eligible for a public, government-run program, which, fortunately, many people are. We would have to buy it in the private market from insurance companies, many of whom—many of which are for-profit companies. … So billions and billions of taxpayers’ dollars will flow right into the treasuries of these big for-profit insurance companies. So we will be essentially paying a tax that will help support these insurance companies. It will be an enormous bailout of the health insurance industry.
Watch it:
Potter also told Goodman that while numerous members of Congress sought out his advice as they crafted health care legislation, “not once” did he ever hear from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’s (D-MT) office. He ended the interview by saying that there should be a debate about single-payer health care in the United States, and that he thinks “it will eventually take a social movement to get the kind of healthcare that we need in this country.”
VIDEO FLASHBACK: GOP Lawmakers Repeatedly Said Americans Would ‘Die’ Under Democratic Health Plans
VIDEO FLASHBACK: GOP Lawmakers Repeatedly Said Americans Would ‘Die’ Under Democratic Health Plans
UPDATE: Video is now working.
In a controversial speech on the House floor yesterday, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said that the Republican alternative health care proposals would force sick Americans to “die quickly.” Grayson’s sadly accurate statement wasn’t meant to say that Republicans want people to die, but rather, as Igor Volsky explained, their opposition to meaningful health reform would lead to those very unfortunate circumstances.
Republicans are outraged at his hyperbole — so outraged that Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to officially rebuke Grayson. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) initially said that he was going to introduce a resolution reprimanding Grayson, but recently took to the floor to instead request that he “apologize to our leader.”
The GOP outrage is empty. After all, neither Price nor McHenry called on their fellow Republican colleagues to apologize after making absurdly false comments about Democratic plans in the past few months on the House floor:
– “Last week Democrats released a health care bill which essentially said to America’s seniors: Drop dead.” [Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL), 7/21/09]
– “They’re going to save money by rationing care, getting you in a long line. Places like Canada, United Kingdom, and Europe. People die when they’re in line.” [Rep. Steve King (R-IA), 7/15/09]
– “The Republican plan will] make sure we bring down the cost of health care for all Americans and that ensures affordable access for all Americans and is pro-life because it will not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.” [Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), 7/28/09]
– “That’s exactly what’s going on in Canada and Great Britain today…and a lot of people are going to die.” [Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), 7/10/09]
– “One in five people have to die because they went to socialized medicine! … I would hate to think that among five women, one of ‘em is gonna die because we go to socialized care.” [Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), 7/15/09]
Watch a video compilation of their remarks:
In comments on the House floor today, Price said that Grayson’s remarks were a “breach of decorum.” “I call on all Democrat members of the House and all Democrat leaders to demand that he apologize. Just as one of our members did earlier.” Presumably, Price was talking about Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who infamously shouted “You lie!” during President Obama’s joint speech to Congress. Of course, Wilson never apologized to the House, despite Republican and Democratic requests that he do so.
National Review’s John Derbyshire: Women Should Not Have The Right To Vote
National Review’s John Derbyshire: Women Should Not Have The Right To Vote
John Derbyshire, a British-American conservative author and columnist for the National Review, has written a new book titled We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism. The book contains a section called “The Case Against Female Suffrage.” Yesterday on his radio show, Alan Colmes asked Derbyshire to articulate his argument.
“What is the case against female suffrage?” Colmes asked. “The conservative case against it is that women lean hard to the left,” Derbyshire responded nonsensically. “They want someone to nurture, they want someone to help raise their kids, and if men aren’t inclined to do it — and in the present days, they’re not much — then they’d like the state to do it for them.”
Colmes then pressed Derbyshire on whether women should have the right to vote. “Ah…” Derbyshire sighed, attempting to dodge the question initially. “I’m not putting forward a political program here,” he said. But then Derbyshire slowly began to open up:
DERBYSHIRE: Among the hopes that I do not realistically nurse is the hope that female suffrage will be repealed. But I’ll say this – if it were to be, I wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep.
COLMES: We’d be a better country if women didn’t vote?
DERBYSHIRE: Probably. Don’t you think so?
COLMES: No, I do not think so whatsoever.
DERBYSHIRE: Come on Alan. Come clean here [laughing].
COLMES: We would be a better country? John Derbyshire making the statement, we would be a better country if women did not vote.
DERBYSHIRE: Yeah, probably.
Derbyshire reasoned that we “got along like that for 130 years.” Colmes countered by asking if he also wants to bring back slavery. No, Derbyshire responded, “I’m in favor of freedom personally.” Colmes noted that freedom didn’t extend to women’s right to vote, however. Derbyshire said, “Well, they didn’t and we got along ok.” Listen here:
Later in the interview, Derbyshire said there’s also a case to be made for repealing the 1964 Civil Rights Act because you “shouldn’t try to force people to be good.”
If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.
People reluctant to book Palin for speaking engagements because ‘they think she is a blithering idiot.’
People reluctant to book Palin for speaking engagements because ‘they think she is a blithering idiot.’
Since Sarah Palin resigned as Alaska’s governor, she has signed on with the Washington Speakers Bureau, hoping to cash in on her fame. While Palin did do one speech — to mixed reviews — in Asia recently, she is reportedly having trouble getting booked for more:
Palin’s bookers are said to be asking for $100,000 per speech, but an industry expert tells Page Six: “The big lecture buyers in the US are paralyzed with fear about booking her, basically because they think she is a blithering idiot.”
Many big lecture venues are subscription series, “and they don’t want to tick people off,” said our source. “Palin is polarizing, and some subscribers might cancel if she’s on the lineup.” Other lecture buyers are universities, which have a leftist slant, and corporations, which dislike controversy.
“Palin is so uninteresting to so many groups — unless they are interested in moose hunting,” said our insider. “What does she have to say? She can’t even describe what she reads.“
Grayson’s Right: Under The Republican Plan, ‘Don’t Get Sick’ (Or You Might Have To ‘Die Quickly’)
Grayson’s Right: Under The Republican Plan, ‘Don’t Get Sick’ (Or You Might Have To ‘Die Quickly’)
Last night, in a controversial speech on the House floor, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) announced that the Republican alternative health care proposals would force sick Americans to “die quickly”:
It’s my duty and pride tonight to be able to announce exactly what the Republicans plan to do for health care in America… It’s a very simple plan. Here it is. The Republican health care plan for America: “don’t get sick.” If you have insurance don’t get sick, if you don’t have insurance, don’t get sick; if you’re sick, don’t get sick. Just don’t get sick. … If you do get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: “die quickly.”
Watch it:
No Republican wants Americans to die, but the party’s efforts to stonewall meaningful health care reform perpetuate a status quo in which 45,000 Americans die every year because they lack health care coverage and thousands more see their policies canceled or denied by private insurers that are beholden to Wall Street’s profit expectations and not patient health.
Grayson intentionally over-stated his case. It’s not that Republicans want to kill people; it’s that their opposition to meaningful health care reform and their “free market” alternatives would further deregulate insurers and allow companies to continue pushing individuals into high deductible policies that don’t provide adequate coverage and actually harm Americans who can’t afford their medical bills:
“Don’t get sick.” Under the Republican alternatives, private insurers will deny coverage to Americans who suffer from chronic illnesses like cancers or asthma and lure healthier applicants into high deductible policies that provide limited coverage once they become sick.
“Die quickly.” If Americans in these policies do fall ill, they will go bankrupt paying off their medical bills and join the 78 percent of bankruptcy filers burdened by health care expenses who had health insurance but “still were overwhelmed by their medical debt.” Grayson is facetiously suggesting that Americans would be urged to skip the “bankruptcy” part, avoid being a financial burden on their family, and simply pass away.
In other words, the Republican alternatives harm Americans by placing our fate in the hands of the very same private for-profit corporations that have created the health care crisis in the first place.
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.
Nike Resigns From The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Board Of Directors Over Global Warming Disagreements
Nike Resigns From The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Board Of Directors Over Global Warming Disagreements
In the past couple weeks, three energy companies have ditched the reeling U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its opposition to global warming action. Although Nike has publicly expressed its frustrations with the Chamber’s anti-science positions, it hasn’t started to sever ties with the organization — until now.
Facing increasing pressure from activists, Nike today announced that is resigning from the Chamber’s board of directors:
It is important that US companies be represented by a strong and effective Chamber that reflects the interests of all its members on multiple issues. We believe that on the issue of climate change the Chamber has not represented the diversity of perspective held by the board of directors.
Therefore, we have decided to resign our board of directors position. We will continue our membership to advocate for climate change legislation inside the committee structure and believe that we can better influence policy by being part of the conversation. Moving forward we will continue to evaluate our membership.
The New York Times has an editorial today criticizing the Chamber for being “way behind the curve“:
The United States Chamber of Commerce’s Web site says the group supports “a comprehensive legislative solution” to global warming. Yet no organization in this country has done more to undermine such legislation. [...]
The chamber has now declared war on the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to use regulatory means to control emissions — beginning with one official’s ill-advised (and since apologized-for) demand for a “Scopes monkey trial” questioning the science behind the agency’s preliminary finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health.
As the Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson has noted, the Chamber is beginning to feel the heat and is trying to rewrite the history of its denialism. Enviroknow writes that two questions remain: 1) “When will Nike formally end its membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?” and 2) “Which of the following 17 corporations — which are on the record in support of federal climate legislation yet sit on the Chamber’s Board of Directors — will be the next to part ways with the chamber?”
Newsmax removes column that called for military coup to resolve the ‘Obama problem.’
Newsmax removes column that called for military coup to resolve the ‘Obama problem.’
In a column published on the right-wing site Newsmax yesterday, John L. Perry writes that a military coup against President Obama is possible. Newsmax appears to have taken down the column from its website this morning. Media Matters has archived it, however:
There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama problem.” Don’t dismiss it as unrealistic. [...]
Military intervention is what Obama’s exponentially accelerating agenda for “fundamental change” toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama’s radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.
Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don’t shrug and say, “We can always worry about that later.”
In his Washington Post column, former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson acknowledges that “military leaders seem impressed” with President Obama’s decision-making process. “Obama’s engaged, deliberate style has fans in the military,” he writes.
Newsmax strongly believes in the principles of Constitutional government and would never advocate or insinuate any suggestion of an activity that would undermine our democracy or democratic institutions.
ThinkFast: September 30, 2009
ThinkFast: September 30, 2009
President Obama will convene “an array of high-powered advisors” today to discuss whether to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Afghanistan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Gen. David Petraeus, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen, and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair were expected to be among the participants.
A new poll by NPR, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that the public believes its voice is not being heard in the health care debate. 71 percent of respondents said Congress was “paying too little attention” to what they were saying.
Last night, filmmaker Michael Moore sent a message to leading Democrats blocking health care reform: “I want to offer a personal pledge. I — and a lot of other people — have every intention of removing you from Congress in the next election if you stand in the way of health care legislation that the people want.”
Most Americans are willing to pay higher taxes to fund health care reforms that provide the best quality of care. “78 percent of Democrats willing to accept higher taxes, as well as 64 percent of independents and 48 percent of Republicans.”
Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA) will unveil global warming legislation today that would require a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The bill would go even further than House legislation passed in June, which required a 17 percent decrease. Joe Romm says it is “environmentally, economically and politically stronger” than its House counterpart.
Gibbs reacts to Steele’s Olympics criticism: ‘Who’s he rooting for?’
Gibbs reacts to Steele’s Olympics criticism: ‘Who’s he rooting for?’
As ThinkProgress reported earlier today, RNC Chairman Michael Steele held a conference call to criticize President Obama’s Copenhagen trip later this week, where he will make a pitch for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics. “If the priority is the Olympics in seven years, okay, then tell the nation that’s the priority and that’s what we should be focused on because we’ll create jobs then and we won’t worry about it between now and 2016,” Steele said. Today in the White House press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained that Obama wanted to “talk directly with voting members of the IOC and make the strong case for the American side.” Asked about Steele’s criticism, Gibbs took a jab at the RNC Chairman:
QUESTION: Your response to Chairman Steele’s criticism about the President going to Copenhagen?
GIBBS: Who’s he rooting for? (Laughter.) Is he hoping to hop a plane to Brazil and catch the Olympics in Rio? (Laughter.) Maybe it’s Madrid.
Watch it:
Obama is taking only 18 hours out of his schedule to travel to Copenhagen to make a pitch for an event that could generate $22.5 billion in economic activity and the equivalent of 315,000 new full-time jobs in America. Regardless of how explicitly Obama is acting in America’s best interests, Republicans are anxious to take a political shot at him.
Arab Media Correspondent Trashes White House Press Corps: They’re ‘Arrogant’ And ‘Obnoxious’
Arab Media Correspondent Trashes White House Press Corps: They’re ‘Arrogant’ And ‘Obnoxious’
Yesterday, ThinkProgress attended a roundtable with members of the Arab media at the Middle East Institute. Discussing the differences between covering the Bush and Obama administrations, Nadia Bilbassy, White House correspondent for the Dubai-based satellite TV network MBC, complained that she has not been called on once in these first eight months of the Obama presidency. The foreign press are “treated like a fifth-class citizen in the briefing room,” she said.
Later in the discussion, ThinkProgress asked about the reporters’ experiences working with the American journalists covering the White House (a.k.a. “The Village”) and about their knowledge of Arab and Middle East issues. They are “the most arrogant, obnoxious group of people,” Bilbassy charged, adding, “They don’t know jack-squat” about the Middle East. The MBC journalist continued:
BILBASSY: I found that I think they really think that if you make it to cover the White House then you must be bigger than God, therefore, you know, you have to be treated as such.
So for them the foreign media is invisible. … So I think they’re opportunistic, rude, as I said, really self-centered. … I find them, not even on like a – people again, the people at the State Department, it’s a different story altogether. But what I’m talking to now are the people in the White House that occupy the first two, three rows, with exception to two or three people you know. I’m talking about all the networks and all the organizations. So I find the relationship is a bit strange.
Watch it:
Bilbassy then said that many of the American journalists covering the White House ignore her and other foreign journalists unless they suddenly become useful:
BILBASSY: Normally they ignore you. You can go to the White House all the time, it’s not just like, I saw you before I would say like, “Hi,” not even “Hi,” not even a smile, nothing. […]
They’re interested in you, like, […] if you know something and they don’t know who you are, you become important for example, …[y]ou know during the Bush administration, when I have interviews with Bush, then all of the sudden [they] come up and goes like, “Oh can we have the transcript before it goes on air?” or “Can we, you know, what did the President say?” Then the next day they forget who you are. So I think it’s really more opportunistic.
“I think they must have been tortured as kids,” Bilbassy concluded. Either that, she said, or “something happened to them as adults. That can’t be normal behavior, honestly.”
Chamber Of Commerce Rewrites History: ‘We’ve Never Questioned The Science Behind Global Warming’
Chamber Of Commerce Rewrites History: ‘We’ve Never Questioned The Science Behind Global Warming’
Tom Donohue, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO
Energy companies are abandoning the sinking ship of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in droves over its opposition to clean energy action, whether by the EPA or by Congress.
Under pressure, Chamber president Tom Donohue today claimed the Chamber “continues to support strong federal legislation and a binding international agreement to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change.” And spokesman Eric Wohlschlegel recently argued that the Chamber respects the science of climate change:
We’ve never questioned the science behind global warming.
This is a blatant falsehood, by any definition. Just last month, the Chamber’s Senior Vice President William Kovacs called for the “Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century” to put “the science of climate change on trial.” The Chamber, dominated by pollution-industry skeptics such as Don Blankenship, Harry Alford, and Fred Palmer, has questioned climate science since at least 1992:
2008: Chamber President Tom Donohue Says ‘Scientific Inquiry’ Into Climate Change ‘Should Continue’ Because Of ‘Cooling Trend.’ [U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 3/4/08]
2001: Chamber Claims Global Warming ‘About One Percent From Human Activity,’ Says ‘Things Just Change.’ [CNNFN, 7/16/01]
1992: Chamber Sponsors Global Warming Denier Pat Michaels To ‘Refute The Global Warming Warnings.’ [Chicago Sun-Times, 5/13/92]
In addition to being the Chamber of Commerce president, Tom Donohue works for Union Pacific, a company opposed to climate regulation.
If you want a clean energy future with millions of clean energy jobs, this is the bill. If you want a chance at a global climate deal and hence a chance at preserving a livable climate, this is the bill. . . . This bill is key to taking back control of America’s future from Big Oil, the corporate polluters and their lobbyists, and you can be sure they are going to fight as hard — and as dirty — as possible to kill it.
Grassley praises Medicare as part of ‘social fabric’ of America, but also criticizes it as a ‘predator.’
Grassley praises Medicare as part of ‘social fabric’ of America, but also criticizes it as a ‘predator.’
During this morning’s debate over Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-WV) public plan amendment, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) challenged Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) claim that the public option would lead to single payer health care. The exchange flustered Grassley. He admitted that Medicare is part of the “social fabric” of America and praised the competition between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage, but then said moments later that the government is a “predator.” “So you don’t want Medicare?” Schumer asked. Grassley concluded, “Medicare is part of the social fabric of America, and I think there’s a lot wrong with it.” Watch it:
According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of Rockefeller’s amendment — which establishes a plan that reimburses providers at 5% above Medicare rates for the first two years — the public option would save the government an estimated $50 billion. Only eight million Americans would sign-up for the program, leaving the overwhelming majority of Americans to private coverage. Rockefeller’s amendment ultimately failed by a vote of 15-8.
Schumer amendment on public option fails by 13-10 vote.
Schumer amendment on public option fails by 13-10 vote.
A public option amendment offered by Sen. Chuck Schumer, which would have allowed for negotiated reimbursement rates, failed by a 13-10 vote in the Senate Finance Committee moments ago. Sens. Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, and Blanche Lincoln voted with the Republicans to defeat the amendment. Today’s votes on the Schumer and Rockefeller amendments mean it is unlikely the Senate Finance version of the health care bill will contain a public option. The Senate HELP Committee and the House versions all include a public option, however.
Ensign On Why Gun Deaths Shouldn’t Be Factored Into Survival Rates: ‘We Like Our Guns In The United States’
Ensign On Why Gun Deaths Shouldn’t Be Factored Into Survival Rates: ‘We Like Our Guns In The United States’
Today in the Senate Finance Committee markup of health care legislation, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) tried to make the case that the U.S. system is the best in the world and bristled at data that the country lags in halting preventable deaths compared to other industrialized nations. Ensign argued that those comparisons are unfair because they include deaths from auto accidents and gun violence, which are unique “cultural factors”:
ENSIGN: When you take into account cultural factors — the fact that we drive cars a lot more than any other country; we are much more mobile.
If you take out accidental deaths due to car accidents, and you take out gun deaths — because we like our guns in the United States and there are a lot more gun deaths in the United States — you take out those two things, you adjust those, and we actually better in terms of survival rates.
Watch it:
Basically, Ensign is proud of U.S. “cultural factors” that, as he admits, kill thousands of Americans each year. Instead of trying to improve the health care system to better address injuries from cars and guns, Ensign would like to just wipe them off the books and ignore them because they’re so unique to America.
As Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) responded, anyone can “rack and stack” the figures all they want, but the bottom line is that “other countries that do have universal care and do a much better job of controlling costs than we do, on metric after metric, finish ahead of us.”
The United States health care system isn’t going to take care of everyone except gunshot and automobile collision victims, so it’s unfair to exclude such data. Comapred with Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, the United States ranks last in all dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives. The United States currently ranks 50th out of 224 nations in life expectancy, with an average life span of 78.1 years, according to 2009 estimates from the CIA World Factbook.
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Senate Finance Committee votes 15-8 against Rockefeller amendment on public option.
Senate Finance Committee votes 15-8 against Rockefeller amendment on public option.
The Senate Finance Committee just voted 15-8 against an amendment offered by Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV), which would have established a self-financing robust public health insurance option. Democratic Sens. Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Blanche Lincoln, Bill Nelson, and Tom Carper voted with the Republicans to defeat the provision.
Right-Wing Panel Agrees Obama Is The ‘First Muslim American President’
Right-Wing Panel Agrees Obama Is The ‘First Muslim American President’
At the How to Take Back America conference last weekend, attended by several Republican lawmakers, former Reagan official and prominent neoconservative Frank Gaffney, right-wing historian Bill Federer, and Christian activist Walid Shoebat hosted a panel on “How to understand Islam.” An attendee of the panel asked the three speakers if they would consider President Obama a Christian or a Muslim, given his “roots.” While Gaffney gave a now familiar response linking Obama to the Muslim Brotherhood, Federer and Shoebat provided new theories, which elicited praise from the crowd:
GAFFNEY: If Bill Clinton, on the basis of special interest pandering and identity politics, was properly called the first Black American President, on that same basis, Barack Obama should be called the first Muslim American President. […] But there is evidence that a lot of Muslims think he is Muslim. But whether he is or whether he isn’t, the key to me, is is he pursuing that is indistinguishable in important respects from that of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose mission ladies and gentlemen, we know from a trial in Dallas last year, is to quote to destroy Western civilization from within by its own miserable hand. That’s what we need to keep our eye on.
FEDERER: In Islam, if your father is a Muslim, you’re automatically a Muslim. Since Barack’s father, stepfather, and grandfather were all Muslim, the Muslim world views him as Muslim. Mohammad allowed his warriors to say they’re not Muslim to gain advantage and um, but he’s uh, Islam permits you to lie to advance Islam, Saul Alinsky allows you to lie to advance your communist agenda, you can put them together.
SHOEBAT: I came from an American mother, Obama came from an American mother. I came from a Muslim father, Obama came from a Muslim father. […] Did you know that your President knows how to do the call to the prayer in eloquent classical Arabic? […] No one can do this in classical Arabic language unless he grew up and was raised as a Muslim.
Watch it:
During the panel, Shoebat advocated entering Arab countries and converting Muslims to Christianity. He also went on a rant about how Muslims in meat packaging plants are contaminating America’s food supply because their hands are unclean.
Gaffney has a record of comparing Obama to Hitler — a major theme of the conference — and spreading other absurd reasons for why he thinks Obama is Muslim. As Matt Duss has noted, although it may be difficult to take Gaffney as a serious analyst, his “transparently bigoted” attacks are given a platform on major media outlets. This reason alone is why Gaffney’s smears shouldn’t be ignored.
In the past week alone, Gaffney has appeared as a pundit on Fox News and MSNBC, has been featured in an article in NewsMax, and wrote an opinion column for the Washington Times.
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