Quote
A top Obama ally predicted Wednesday in an interview with ABC News that Democrats will lose their congressional majority in next year's midterm elections if they fail to put a health-care reform bill on President Obama's desk.
"I think we're talking losing control of Congress," said Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union. "[The failure of health-care reform] would totally empower Republicans to kill all change."
"It's hard to imagine the Democrats convincing the public that Republicans are to blame for health-care reform going down when the Democrats have such large majorities," he added. "After last year's promise of change, voters will start feeling buyer's remorse."
...
Quote
...
"We need a union that truly represents us and gives us a voice to advocate for our patients," said Mell Garcia, a medical assistant at Kaiser Permanente-Hayward and an elected rank-and-file vice president of United Healthcare Workers (UHW). "We boycotted the election because both options on the ballot would mean the end of healthcare unions that are accountable to healthcare workers. While SEIU President Andy Stern advocates a free choice for workers across the country to become union members, he's denying a free choice to SEIU members in California."
The forced merger would result in the new union's leaders being appointed by SEIU President Andy Stern
...
Quote
...
The percentage of loans that were in foreclosure or at least one payment past due rose to 13.16 per cent, the highest increase since the MBA began keeping records in 1972 and a jump of more than a percentage point since the first quarter.
Jay Brinkmann, chief economist at the MBA, said signs were growing that mortgage performance is being affected more by unemployment than by the structure of risky home loans, indicating a new stage in the foreclosure crisis that may not be easily addressed by government loan modification programmes.
...
Quote
...
The Making Home Affordable effort, however, is geared toward borrowers who have jobs and income. The increased rate of delinquency and foreclosure on prime fixed-rate loans reflects massive job losses occurring nationwide. Workers losing jobs won't qualify for housing help.
"The reason people are defaulting on these (loans) is they simply don't have income, and there aren't any loan modification programs for someone who does not have income," said Rick Sharga, the vice president of the Irvine, Calif., firm RealtyTrac, which specializes in foreclosure research.
The trend will grow worse.
"The rising levels of unemployment will probably, over the next nine to 12 months, become the primary impetus for foreclosure activity," Sharga said. "That's the wave that is just starting to hit and we're just starting to see the problems now."
There was more bad news on the employment front Thursday, with the Labor Department reporting for a second consecutive week an unexpected rise in initial jobless claims. The 576,000 claims last week, following 561,000 the week before, likely sets up a bad employment report for August after a July reprieve.
...
Quote
...
Obama dropped in on a White House meeting with more than 100 immigration reform backers — and the message, according to some who were there, was that Obama would push for immigration reform even as the health-care debate continues to unfold.
“I think he’s more forward-leaning,” said Angela Kelley, an immigration reform expert with the liberal Center for American Progress think tank. “The takeaway from Mexico was that this is just kicking the can down the road. The takeaway from today is they’re rolling up their sleeves and leaning heavy into the issue.”
There was no indication that the president set a timeline for reform, though he said he expected Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to introduce and hold hearings on a major immigration bill this fall, participants said.
“He’s doing this and health care. He didn’t give an inkling that he’s going to back away from immigration reform. I think he’s ready to do the heavy lifting,” said Kelley.
...
Quote
...
“There’s no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option,” the California Democrat said, according to wire reports. "Unless someone comes up with a better idea, that's how we're going forth in the House."
Pelosi reportedly added: "If someone can come up with a better idea, let them put it on the table, we haven't heard that yet. ... So we're fighting very hard for the public option."
...
Quote
...
In recent weeks, Obama has delivered mixed messages that have bogged down the debate and sapped momentum from his top domestic priority.
He distracted attention during his own prime-time press conference last month on health care when he stated that Cambridge police acted “stupidly’’ when they arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr., which dominated the news for a week. He took several days to directly rebut charges that the health plan included “death panels’’ that would determine end-of-life care. This week, he and his top aides appeared to waver on the importance of creating a government-run plan to compete with private insurers.
...
Quote
...
Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman who has been critical of the White House’s equivocation about support for the public-option plan, said the White House is going through a catharsis as it tries to figure out how to transfer campaign tactics to winning one of the most difficult legislative battles in recent history.
“It is a learning experience, a major initiative like this in the first year,’’ Dean said in an interview. “It is a different kind of campaign and that’s why they had trouble with the message. I don’t think they were prepared for the vociferousness of the attack.’’
Bipartisan support Obama expected in Congress did not materialize, Dean added.
...
Quote
...
During the campaign, Obama marveled at the way many supporters viewed him as a clean slate onto which they could write their hopes and dreams. Obama talked in generalities about health care reform during the campaign and, for instance, barely mentioned the idea of a public-option plan. Now, as specifics about the plan replace campaign platitudes, it is inevitable that a certain number of supporters will be disappointed by the details, Jamieson said.
That has given Republicans an opening to go after elements of the plan while still saying they support an overhaul. “There is a big difference between health care reform, which everybody is for, and a bill that raises taxes and cuts Medicare and increases government involvement in your health care,’’ said Don Stewart, a spokesman for the Republican leader of the US Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. “Once you get into specifics, you are going to lose people.’’
...
Quote
...
Paul Begala, who was an adviser to President Clinton during the failed 1993 effort to overhaul health care, suggested that Obama should return to the campaign mode of explaining why the current system is bad and spend less time on the nuances of the various plans.
“This is heretical, but I would explain less,’’ Begala said. “When you get into the minute details of a 1,000-page bill, you lose people in the weeds.’’
...
Quote
...
But even if some conservative Republican critics are wrong about Section 1233, there is good reason to worry about Obama's nationalization scheme.
The reason can be found in Econ 101. Medical care doesn't grow on trees. It must be produced by human and physical capital, and those resources are limited. Therefore, if demand for health care services increases -- which is Obama's point in extending health insurance -- prices must go up. But somehow Obama also promises, "I won't sign a bill that doesn't reduce health care inflation".
This is magical thinking (http://tinyurl.com/5sznet). Obama, talented as he is, can't repeal the laws of supply and demand. Costs are real. If they are incurred, someone has to pay them. But as economist Thomas Sowell points out, politicians can control costs -- by refusing to pay for the services.
It's called rationing.
Advocates of nationalization hate that word because it forces them to face an ugly truth. If government pays for more people's health care and wants to control costs, it must limit what we buy.
So much for Obama's promise not to interfere with our freedom of choice.
This brings us back to end-of-life consultation. As the government's health care budget becomes strained, as it must -- and, as Obama admits, already is under Medicare -- the government will have to cut back on what it lets people have.
...
Quote
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration will raise its 10-year budget deficit projection to approximately $9 trillion from $7.108 trillion in a report next week, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday.
...
Treasury markets have been worried all year about the mounting deficit. The United States relies on large foreign buyers such as China and Japan to cheaply finance its debt, and they may demand higher interest rates if they begin to doubt that the government can control its deficits.
"It's one of those underlying pieces of news that is liable to haunt the bond market at some point in the future," said Kim Rupert, managing director of global fixed income analysis at Action Economics LLC in San Francisco, referring to the revised 10-year deficit projection.
Many economists think it is unlikely the government can curtail spending, which means taxes would have to go up to cover the rising costs of providing retirement and healthcare benefits to aging Americans.
...