By Julianne LaJeunesse, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) spoke with reporters Friday about the newest Democrat health care plan, saying the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” should go to vote by 7 or 8 PM Saturday night.

The bill, which spans nearly 2,000 pages, has garnered the support of the AARP, the American Medical Association, and now, Families USA, a group who joined Hoyer in a teleconference with the press.

Hoyer said the bill is economically sound, despite some Republicans’ impression of the legislation. He said Rep. John Boehner (R- Ohio), who’s been a leader against the costs of the Democrat plan, “would not be for this bill.”

“We have a disagreement, but I think that his proposition is simply that he’s not for the program, irrespective of the economics.”

Hoyer went further on the topic of economics, and said that in light of today’s U.S. Department of Labor announcement of a 10.2 percent unemployment rate, “we’re all disappointed with the job numbers that were released today.” Hoyer added that financial progress has been made in the past few quarters, but said “very frankly, we need to focus on jobs, jobs creation, and jobs sustainment.”

Soon after Hoyer’s remarks, and just after signing a $24 billion bill that will extend unemployment benefits among other measures, President Obama addressed the country, saying, “I’m confident that our economy will recover,” he said. “I’m confident that we’re moving in the right direction. And I promise that I won’t rest until America prospers once again.”

President Barack Obama responded Thursday to the shooting at the Fort Hood military post that left 12 dead and 31 wounded.

“My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded, and the families of the fallen, and those who live and serve at Fort Hood,” Obama said during an appearance at the Department of the Interior. “There is no greater honor, but also no greater responsibility for me than to make sure the extraordinary men and women in uniform are properly cared for, and that their safety and security when they are at home is provided for.”

 

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By Marianna Levyash- Talk Radio News Service

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Thursday re-introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill aimed at ensuring employment opportunity for all Americans and banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

According to Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), about 20 states have already enacted laws banning discrimination on sexual orientation, some of which include gender identity.

“Qualified workers should not be turned away or have to fear losing their livelihood for reasons that have nothing to do with their capabilities, skills or performance. Such practices are un-American and it is time for them to stop,” Harkin stated.

Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) also showed their support for the legislation.

“We are on the path for a struggle … to have full equality under the law.” said Merkley.

Harkin said he hopes the bill will be signed by President Barack Obama by 2010.

By Marianna Levyash- Talk Radio News Service

A Health and Human Services official attributed the H1N1 vaccine shortage to manufacturing delays during a briefing Wednesday with the House Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.

“While modest amounts of vaccine have been made ahead of schedule, poor production yields with the initial vaccine strains, late completion of seasonal influenza vaccine manufacturing, equipment failures on new production lines have caused significant delays,” said Nicole Lurie, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at HHS.

Lurie also added that a handful of the countries producing vaccines have decided to give their population priority.

The Assistant Secretary assured the committee that HHS is doing everything in its power to assist the manufacturers to accelerating production.

Ranking Member Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) took a somewhat different stance on the vaccine delay, attributing it to domestic political policies.

“We have fewer [manufacturing companies] than we did a decade ago … some of that is based on what barriers the federal government has placed in front of creating businesses and keeping jobs in America.”

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Republican Senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee Tuesday are boycotting the first session of the committee’s markup of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, or Kerry-Boxer bill, in an effort to urge the committee to submit the legislation to the Environmental Protection Agency for economic analysis.

Democrats on the committee expressed their displeasure with the absence of the Republican members, with Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) dubbing the missing Republican members as being “AWOL.”

“Frankly, I’m shocked these Republicans have evaded this markup,” Lautenberg said.

The only Republican Senator who appeared with the committee was Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio). The Senator spoke as a “mock spokesman,” as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) put it, explaining that he, along with his Republican colleagues, are ready to work with the committee and the EPA in a bipartisan fashion under proper circumstances.

“As the leader of this committee, I hope you will make the right decision, for the sake of my constituents, for the sake of bipartisanship and for the future of this country,” Voinovich told Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

Voinovich stressed the importance of putting the bill through a full economic evaluation with the EPA before the markup process continues.

“While I believe that S.1733 will likely move forward with policies that I oppose, I can’t imagine why we would move ahead without the best information possible from the agency that will be charged with implementing the legislation,” said Voinovich.

At the close of Voinovich’s remarks, in a sign of bipartisanship, Voinovich shook hands with Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and offered to work with the majority party through the markup process.

Boxer reiterated throughout the markup that Republicans will be more than welcome to join the committee later today and through the rest of the process.

“The door will be open, and I encourage the Republican members to join us at work to get the job done,” said Boxer

The committee will stop the markup at 2:30 to allow testimony to be heard from EPA officials.

By Leah Valencia – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin said Monday that the House health care legislation is not deficit neutral and will not be fiscally sustainable over time.

“The heart of this bill is to repeat two of the greatest policy errors this country has made: To create large unfunded entitlement spending programs and to have a tax law that is not politically viable over the long haul,” said Holtz-Eakin.

Holtz-Eakin said the bill is on track to produce over one trillion dollars of debt in the first ten years. He argued that Democrats are using gimmicks to balance the bill in the eyes of the Congressional Budget Office.

“The best we could do with the health care reform is break even,” said Holtz-Eakin “Genuinely be honest about how much new spending they are proposing and genuinely be honest about raising the revenue to cover it. [Democrats] are doing neither of those things.”

He said the actual gross cost to expand Medicaid would be $1.055 trillion, and other spending provisions in the bill would add up to a gross figure of $230 billion, totaling well over the $900 billion promised by House leaders.

“I think as a result, that these are reforms that are not durable in any deep sense and are not desirable from the point of view of policy.”

The race to replace 35th District Delegate and Democratic Attorney General candidate Steve Shannon is within a 2-point margin – or at least it was two weeks ago, according to polls conducted for Republican candidate Jim Hyland.

Hyland’s margin, described by his campaign manager Kevin Conroy as “within the margin of error,” reflects a tightening of the race since a July benchmark poll, when pollsters Barry Zeplowitz and Bill Lee of TelOpinion Research indicated in a confidential memo posted on Hyland’s website that Hyland held a 7-point lead 43 percent to 36 percent lead, with 21 percent undecided. The memo did not indicate the size of the sample or whether “likely voter” filters were used.

Read more at Collins on Politics

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The average Pakistani citizen has little to almost no understanding of the al-Qaida network or the Afghan Taliban organization, according to Georgetown University School of Foreign Service Professor Christine Fair.

“Many Pakistanis don’t know what al-Qaida is…Sure enough we went around a room and asked if people knew al-Qaida: Few knew,” said Fair of a survey she conducted in Pakistan earlier this year.

According to Fair, one woman that openly responded to the survey correlated the Taliban and al-Qaida with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

By Travis Martinez – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce voted 33-19 on Thursday to pass H.R. 3126, otherwise known as the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009. The legislation would oversee mortgages and other financial products and would strengthen the Federal Trade Commission’s role in the financial industry.

Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to make two major changes to the bill. The first amendment, offered by Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), would first rename the agency, as written in the mark, as a new government commission. The amendment also provided a restructured panel of five members to the commission, with a limit of three commissioners from any particular political party. This would give the commission the same structure as the Federal Trade Commission, or Federal Communications Commission.

Several businesses, either in full or in part, would be exempt from the legislation. This list includes auto dealers, credit, mortgage and title insurers, banks with less than $10 billion in assets, and credit unions with less than $1.5 billion in assets.

Waxman acknowledged the long list of exemptions as a possible problem, but said that he would wait to address any issues he had.

“I am concerned that too many exemptions and exclusions were put into the bill… I will want to examine them closely as we move toward consideration on the floor,” said Waxman.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) offered numerous amendments that were subsequently shot down after discussion with the panel. However, in a show of bipartisanship, Waxman offered to work with Barton on re-wording the offered amendments so that they could be possibly brought to the floor at a later date for full consideration.

Waxman recognized the original bill’s sponsor, House Financial Services Committee Chair Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) for his committee’s work on promoting the expanded authority of the FTC over the financial sector.

“I am pleased that he made many essential changes, particularly in regard to the impact of the FTC, which will preserve the FTC’s authority to provide and aggressively enforce against financial fraud,” said Waxman.

Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, and speakers from the Heritage Foundation and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) launched a new book today which calls the current UN system “broken”.

The book, “ConUNdrum: The Limits of the United Nations and the Search for Alternatives,” underscores that billions of US tax dollars are invested in the UN yearly and produce little effect. The authors, including Bolton, offer new ideas to make the UN system viable including switching from the current mandatory assessment of dues to a system where monies would generate on a voluntary basis.

“In its current state, the UN system is broken,” said Austin Ruse, President of C-FAM.

The Ambassador of Fiji, who hosted the event, said “For those of us who come from small populations, it is quite frightening when you listen to some of the debates in the General assembly. There has been a great loss of family values.”

John Bolton said there must be a closer examination of the Mitchell-Gingrich report of 2005, a bi-partisan effort which attempts to illustrate the “right” approach to UN reform including a revamp of the Human Rights Council, peacekeeping efforts, and a simplification of UN funding and financing of programs.

Bolton also emphasized there is still no clear agreement on how the Security Council should be reformed. Many skeptics believe the five members (US, UK, France,  Russia and China) hold too much power and want to increase membership to African and Middle Eastern nations.

“To change the membership to reflect increased numbers  like ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council), well, then I don’t see any possibility for change at all. The Security Council was originally set up post WWII and the powers were given to the victors,” added Bolton.

Bolton outlined the Goldstone report of the Human Rights Council, criticizing Israel of human rights abuses in Gaza, has “undercut” peace efforts in the region.

He also said the Obama Administration is making a big mistake in “halting the UN reform effort.”

Little was mentioned of the restrictions imposed by the Bush Administration to investigate US human rights abuses in Guantanamo and Iraq and the elimination of massive amounts of funding to developing countries which administered family planning programs through the WHO and UNICEF, and on induced abortions if the woman/girl was raped or too young to deliver a healthy baby.