Here's the news that seems to be causing issues today.
Healthcare:_____________________________________________________________________
"It's no secret that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been gauging how Sen. Edward Kennedy's death affects the health care debate.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave an unusually blunt assessment in an interview with a local newspaper.
"I think it's going to help us," the Nevada Democrat told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
...Reid made his comments Friday, the day before Kennedy was buried. He offered two reasons for the assessement. One, Kennedy's death clears the way for a new chairman on the Senate health committee. Two, Kennedy serves as an inspiration.
..."He hasn't been around for some time. We're going to have a new chairman of that committee. It'll be, I don't know for sure, but I think Sen. (Chris) Dodd," Reid told the news paper. "He has a right to take it. Either him or (U.S. Sen. Tom) Harkin, whichever one wants it can have it. I think he (Kennedy) will be a help. He's an inspiration for us. That was the issue of his life and he didn't get it done." -- Fox News
"Congresswoman Watson heaped praise on Cuba’s health care. Not stopping at admiring a system where access to simple everyday medications is often an epic struggle, Congresswoman Watson went on to extol Cuba’s former dictator Fidel Castro, a man who has murdered, tortured and exiled his own countrymen as "one of the brightest leaders I have ever met". It is no surprise that journalists and citizens alike have responded the Congresswoman’s remarks with shock and trepidation." -- www.speroforum.com
"WASHINGTON -- A top White House adviser said Tuesday he doubts two Senate Republicans at the center of health-care talks are negotiating seriously, as Democrats adopted a new, more confrontational tone accusing key Republicans of blocking change.
Senior adviser David Axelrod, responding to recent broadsides against Democratic health plans by Republican Sens. Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said Democrats would reach out to other Republicans to finish a deal this year. He added that President Barack Obama is considering laying out a more detailed vision of what he wants in a health-overhaul plan." -- Fox News
Education:_____________________________________________________________________
"Let those of us who are gathered here today read this poem as “The Teacher’s Obligation.” We, too, must move in and out of windows, we, too, must build a project of radical imagination and fundamental change. Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model of education– a humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are enlightenment and liberation. This World Education Forum provides us a unique opportunity to develop and share the lessons and challenges of this profound educational project that is the Bolivarian Revolution.
Viva Mission Sucre!
Viva Presidente Chavez!
Viva La Revolucion Bolivariana!
Hasta La Victoria Siempre!" -- Posted in: Bill Ayers, Education, -- MichelleMalkin.com
Showing posts with label Harry Reid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harry Reid. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Partners In "Change": Third Way and Obama
Ever heard of The Third Way? It's time to let you know what it is about.
Here is their About Us intro.
"Third Way is the leading think tank of the moderate wing of the progressive movement. We work with elected officials, candidates, and advocates to develop and advance the next generation of moderate policy ideas. Since our launch in 2005, our policy and communications products as well as our issue trainings have been used extensively in the House and Senate, by governors and by candidates ranging from Barack Obama to those running for Congress."
Notice the name dropping going on in this introduction?!!
Here are some highlights of their "Programs".
Economic Program: a new economic agenda including a new policy framework for the middle class, an agenda for Congress that includes stimulus for the middle class, launching the House Middle Class Working Group and the White House Middle Class Working Task Force, dealing with healthcare, and "Issuing a major study of the decline in public trust in government and the implications for progressive governance which offers the Obama administration and Congress a strategy to restore public trust.
National Security: building a new national security agenda, doing a year-long study for the Obama administration on the handling of terrorism, increasing the size of the Army, "issuing a major new strategy on combating terrorism with Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin", "devising framing guidance for Senate and House members and candidates to establish a new brand on national security", training of the government on national security issues.
The Culture Program: "pioneering a new approach on abortion", to "shore up the gun purchase background check system", using the approach of the Obama campaign on issues like religion, abortion and gay equality, recommending more than 100 specific policy solutions for state and federal lawmakers.
The Third Way Clean Energy Initiative: a major initiative to help choose policy and frame the issues for the leaders, "hosting major national energy forums with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, governors, business leaders and others", "one of the sole progressive groups championing the role of nuclear power".
Leadership: Here is the link to the Board of Trustees Click Here, the link to the staff... Click Here, the link to the Honorary Senate Chairs Click Here, the link to the Honorary House Chairs Click Here.
"ABOUT THIRD WAY: Third Way is the leading think tank of the moderate wing of the progressive movement. We work with elected officials, candidates, and advocates to develop and advance the next generation of moderate policy ideas."
Additionally, I uncovered a presentation from 2000 which I will summarize in my next post.
Here is their About Us intro.
"Third Way is the leading think tank of the moderate wing of the progressive movement. We work with elected officials, candidates, and advocates to develop and advance the next generation of moderate policy ideas. Since our launch in 2005, our policy and communications products as well as our issue trainings have been used extensively in the House and Senate, by governors and by candidates ranging from Barack Obama to those running for Congress."
Notice the name dropping going on in this introduction?!!
Here are some highlights of their "Programs".
Economic Program: a new economic agenda including a new policy framework for the middle class, an agenda for Congress that includes stimulus for the middle class, launching the House Middle Class Working Group and the White House Middle Class Working Task Force, dealing with healthcare, and "Issuing a major study of the decline in public trust in government and the implications for progressive governance which offers the Obama administration and Congress a strategy to restore public trust.
National Security: building a new national security agenda, doing a year-long study for the Obama administration on the handling of terrorism, increasing the size of the Army, "issuing a major new strategy on combating terrorism with Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin", "devising framing guidance for Senate and House members and candidates to establish a new brand on national security", training of the government on national security issues.
The Culture Program: "pioneering a new approach on abortion", to "shore up the gun purchase background check system", using the approach of the Obama campaign on issues like religion, abortion and gay equality, recommending more than 100 specific policy solutions for state and federal lawmakers.
The Third Way Clean Energy Initiative: a major initiative to help choose policy and frame the issues for the leaders, "hosting major national energy forums with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, governors, business leaders and others", "one of the sole progressive groups championing the role of nuclear power".
Leadership: Here is the link to the Board of Trustees Click Here, the link to the staff... Click Here, the link to the Honorary Senate Chairs Click Here, the link to the Honorary House Chairs Click Here.
"ABOUT THIRD WAY: Third Way is the leading think tank of the moderate wing of the progressive movement. We work with elected officials, candidates, and advocates to develop and advance the next generation of moderate policy ideas."
Additionally, I uncovered a presentation from 2000 which I will summarize in my next post.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Stimulus pared to $789 billion in race for deal - Associated Press
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON – House and Senate negotiators agreed to pare economic stimulus legislation below $800 billion and reached for a final deal with the White House on Wednesday on a bill designed to create millions of jobs in a nation reeling from recession.
"Time's getting short," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of a handful of Senate moderates whose votes are crucial to the bill's passage.
As if to underscore the urgency, President Barack Obama said executives at Caterpillar Corp. told him they would rescind some of the 22,000 layoffs they recently announced once the stimulus is signed into law.
Several Democratic officials said there was an informal deadline of Wednesday afternoon for at least tentative agreement on an overall bill, a time that coincided with a scheduled formal meeting of House and Senate negotiators.
The real decisions were made in Capitol office suites where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other key lawmakers, often joined by White House officials and their own aides, worked late Tuesday night and picked up again in the morning.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., one of the negotiators, said there was agreement to hold the bill to $789 billion, tens of billions below the cost of both the House and Senate bills that had cleared in recent days, and that 35 percent of the total would be in the form of tax cuts.
The reductions in the bill's size caused grumbles among liberal Democrats, who described them as a concession to the moderates, particularly Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who are under pressure from conservative Republicans to hold down spending.
The principal components of the emerging measure included money to help victims of the recession, as much as $44 billion in aid for states, which face cuts of their own as a result of lower tax receipts, and the president's proposed tax cut for lower and middle-income wage earners.
Officials said there was agreement to accept the White House's call to provide the tax break to workers who pay Social Security taxes but do not earn enough to owe income taxes, although it was possible the amount would be scaled back somewhat. The president sought $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples.
Working to accommodate the new, lower overall limit of the bill, negotiators effectively wiped out a Senate-passed provision for a new $15,000 tax credit to defray the cost of buying a home, these officials said. The agreement would allow taxpayers to deduct the sales tax paid on new car purchases, but not the interest on loans for the same vehicles.
It also appeared a compromise was in the works on the administration's demand for school construction funds. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, told reporters that $6 billion would be set aside, and officials said it would be limited to repair and modernization work.
With numerous demands for the funds in the bill, lawmakers worked to satisfy competing demands.
A Senate-passed provision giving $10 billion to the National Institutes of Health for research — a favorite of both Harkin and Specter, appeared likely to survive.
The officials who described the negotiations did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to disclose the details of the closed-door negotiations.
Obama has spoken out repeatedly in recent days to urge Congress to act quickly in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
"We're at the doorstep of getting this plan through Congress, but the work is not over," he said in Springfield, Va., where he visited a construction site.
Even after the measure becomes law, he said, the challenge will be to effectively make use of the funds in an "endeavor of enormous scope and scale."
Republicans, too, took note of the size of the bill, and they said it included billions that would be wasted.
The original House bill, with a price tag of $820 billion, passed without a single Republican vote.
The $838 billion Senate bill that cleared on Tuesday had the backing of only three of 41 Republicans — but that was enough to give it the 60 votes it needed.
Collins told reporters she hoped fellow GOP lawmakers would reconsider when the final compromise comes to a vote "rather than just reflexively oppose this."
She said the negotiators had "tightened and scrubbed it" to eliminate wasteful spending.
___
Associated Press Writers Andrew Taylor and Ben Feller contributed to this story.
WASHINGTON – House and Senate negotiators agreed to pare economic stimulus legislation below $800 billion and reached for a final deal with the White House on Wednesday on a bill designed to create millions of jobs in a nation reeling from recession.
"Time's getting short," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of a handful of Senate moderates whose votes are crucial to the bill's passage.
As if to underscore the urgency, President Barack Obama said executives at Caterpillar Corp. told him they would rescind some of the 22,000 layoffs they recently announced once the stimulus is signed into law.
Several Democratic officials said there was an informal deadline of Wednesday afternoon for at least tentative agreement on an overall bill, a time that coincided with a scheduled formal meeting of House and Senate negotiators.
The real decisions were made in Capitol office suites where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other key lawmakers, often joined by White House officials and their own aides, worked late Tuesday night and picked up again in the morning.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., one of the negotiators, said there was agreement to hold the bill to $789 billion, tens of billions below the cost of both the House and Senate bills that had cleared in recent days, and that 35 percent of the total would be in the form of tax cuts.
The reductions in the bill's size caused grumbles among liberal Democrats, who described them as a concession to the moderates, particularly Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who are under pressure from conservative Republicans to hold down spending.
The principal components of the emerging measure included money to help victims of the recession, as much as $44 billion in aid for states, which face cuts of their own as a result of lower tax receipts, and the president's proposed tax cut for lower and middle-income wage earners.
Officials said there was agreement to accept the White House's call to provide the tax break to workers who pay Social Security taxes but do not earn enough to owe income taxes, although it was possible the amount would be scaled back somewhat. The president sought $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples.
Working to accommodate the new, lower overall limit of the bill, negotiators effectively wiped out a Senate-passed provision for a new $15,000 tax credit to defray the cost of buying a home, these officials said. The agreement would allow taxpayers to deduct the sales tax paid on new car purchases, but not the interest on loans for the same vehicles.
It also appeared a compromise was in the works on the administration's demand for school construction funds. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, told reporters that $6 billion would be set aside, and officials said it would be limited to repair and modernization work.
With numerous demands for the funds in the bill, lawmakers worked to satisfy competing demands.
A Senate-passed provision giving $10 billion to the National Institutes of Health for research — a favorite of both Harkin and Specter, appeared likely to survive.
The officials who described the negotiations did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to disclose the details of the closed-door negotiations.
Obama has spoken out repeatedly in recent days to urge Congress to act quickly in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
"We're at the doorstep of getting this plan through Congress, but the work is not over," he said in Springfield, Va., where he visited a construction site.
Even after the measure becomes law, he said, the challenge will be to effectively make use of the funds in an "endeavor of enormous scope and scale."
Republicans, too, took note of the size of the bill, and they said it included billions that would be wasted.
The original House bill, with a price tag of $820 billion, passed without a single Republican vote.
The $838 billion Senate bill that cleared on Tuesday had the backing of only three of 41 Republicans — but that was enough to give it the 60 votes it needed.
Collins told reporters she hoped fellow GOP lawmakers would reconsider when the final compromise comes to a vote "rather than just reflexively oppose this."
She said the negotiators had "tightened and scrubbed it" to eliminate wasteful spending.
___
Associated Press Writers Andrew Taylor and Ben Feller contributed to this story.
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