TPMDC Saturday Roundup
Obama Calls For Consumer Financial Protection
In this weekend's Presidential YouTube Address, President Obama advocated for a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, to crack down on complicated and deceptive lending practices:
"This new agency will have the responsibility to change that," said Obama. "It will have the power to set tough new rules so that companies compete by offering innovative products that consumers actually want - and actually understand. Those ridiculous contracts - pages of fine print that no one can figure out - will be a thing of the past. You'll be able to compare products - with descriptions in plain language - to see what is best for you. The most unfair practices will be banned. The rules will be enforced."
McConnell: Democrats Are "Rush And Spend" On Health Care -- Like With Stimulus
In this weekend's Republican YouTube, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned that Democratic proposals on health care will spend too much money -- and compared it unfavorably with the stimulus:
"If the stimulus bill taught us anything, it's that we should be wary anytime someone in Washington says the sky's going to fall unless Congress approves trillions of dollars immediately," said McConnell. "Yet once again in the health care debate, it's rush and spend, rush and spend. Americans want health care reform, but they want the right health care reform. And that means taking the time and the care necessary to get it right."
No Obama Or Biden Public Events
President Obama and Vice President will each ben in Washington, DC, this weekend. They do not have any scheduled public events.
Drug Firms To Lower Prices To Medicare By $80 Billion
Pharmaceutical manufacturers have reached a tentative deal with the government to lower the prices that they charge under the Medicare drug plan, saving the government $80 billion. As the Washington Post points out: "The move by drugmakers may have been intended to forestall more severe cuts. In his radio and Internet address last week, Obama called for extracting $75 billion in savings, though industry sources said at the time that the White House initially set a target of $100 billion."
NYT: Sotomayor Objectively Not An Activist
The New York Times reports that empirical studies measuring an objective standard of "activism" by judges -- the number of times they move to strike down decisions by the elected branches of government -- puts Sonia Sotomayor slightly below the average. Professor Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago took issue with the whole debate. "'Judicial activism' tells you nothing," said Epstein. "The term ought to be scrapped. In today's world it's just a synonym for bad decisions."
Sotomayor Quits Belizean Grove
Sonia Sotomayor has resigned her membership in the Belizean Grove, an elite all-female networking club, in the wake of Republican criticism. In a letter to Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Sotomayor said she does not believe the group practices "invidious discrimination" that would conflict with judicial ethics -- but that she does not want the issue to "distract anyone from my qualifications and record."
Coleman Likely To Get FEC Nod On Legal Fees
Roll Call reports that the Federal Election Commission appears ready to grant former Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) request to use campaign funds to pay his legal fees associated with the Nasser Kazeminy case, involving an allegation that a donor sought to funnel money to Coleman via his wife. Two alternative draft opinions propose that Coleman be allowed to use campaign money for much of -- though not all -- the associated costs.
Vegas Newspaper Rejects "Discreet Affair" Ad Featuring Ensign's Image
The Las Vegas Review-Journal has turned down an ad from a dating site, which would have used John Ensign's image to appeal to readers "looking to have a discreet affair." Review-Journal publisher Sherman Frederick rejected the accusation that his paper is protecting Ensign. "I simply didn't think the Web site was appropriate for our daily newspaper," Frederick told the Associated Press. "The Ensign story was our lead Page 1 news story for the last two days. Any suggestion we are protecting the senator is simply a PR stunt on behalf of an adultery Web site."
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
No more distraction... Health care reform... NOW!
June 20, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
No McConnell, the first bailout last fall was "rush and spend".
June 20, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, Mitch, the problem with the stimulus bill is that its happening too fast.
This video is a case study in how the Republicans found themselves stuck so deep into a mass delusion that they are incapable of either governing or winning elections. First they start with a big fat lie invented for purely partisan purposes. ("The stimulus bill is full of pork and isn't really needed because the economy is doing fine.) Next, the more the lie is debunked by objective reality, the more they believe their own bullshit. Finally, the "lessons" taught by the lie that they now treat as an article of faith becomes the underlying assumption for an entirely new set of lies.
Yeah Mitch, we're totally rushing into this healthcare thing, because no one has been thinking about it at all until just this minute. If only we'd slow things down so that calmer heads could prevail, I'm totally confident that you and your Republican colleagues would work in good faith to fix this newly discovered problem. This totally isn't just a cynical ploy to kill it by delaying it until it's too close to an election year for anyone to have the balls to pass it.
June 20, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
How can he even criticize the healt care reform bill Obama wants when the Repubs just submitted one that does not have a cost? There are no details whatsoever.
June 20, 2009 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
When did repu.glicans ever rely on details?
June 21, 2009 10:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Geez, I knew conservatives were philosophically opposed to all change, but calling something that we've been working on for sixty years a "rush" is still a bit of a stretch.
"Conservative dinosaurs stall response to meteor, claiming they just want to make sure that we 'get it right'..."
June 20, 2009 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Several points on McConnell's latest canard.
First, the Democrats in the White House and elsewhere have to get over this "bipartisanship" trap. With RARE exceptions, the Republicans on every important contested issue ARE the party of "no", and the price of their 'yeses', as with the huge and increasingly obviously damaging cuts (as in aid to states) to the stimulus bill, come with a high price tag -- one to pay ONLY to the extent ABSOLUTELY essential to pass the best bill possible.
Second, if McConnell is complaining that the health bill is too rushed, that means that his tactic of stalling it is precisely what needs to be combatted. "It's not a zero sum game" we hear over and over again, ad nauseum, from Clinton Democrats (and no doubt Obama ones too, who seem at this point to be only ever so slightly better, which is a disappointment to me). Well, there's SOMETIMES a zero sum game, and SOMETIMES not, and SOMETIMES a MULTIPLICATIVE ZERO SUM GAME where it is worth, say, many millions of dollars to the creep machine to prevent some interest from even getting $100,000 (not that they ever have to pay that, only that they get a pliant government to do their corrupt bidding, like clockwork).
Now, on health, Reich seems to have the generally right idea -- Obama must get on TV in a MAJOR national address (at least as much ballyhoo as the Cairo address, at minimum) and draw a political line in the sand: ANY HEALTH BILL THAT DOES NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL PUBLIC OPTION, not one with some kind of trigger or all kinds of conditions, but a national system really able to negotiate with big pharma and other big health corps in ways that the latter will in fact find burdensomely effective will get his veto. Period. The public will rally to such a show (FINALLY) of real guts on a progressive issue, for a HUGE change. That's the kind of building of a bipartisan consensus that Reagan Republicans did which Obama cited structurally but not in content as a model. Then Obama needs to apply that approach to some more difficult issues, like aid to states/further stimulus and especially to clean energy and environment. I know that the 'line in the sand' on health isn't much of a line in the sand, falling way short of single payer, but it at would show big business that Obama really means business, and not just as against progressives (like Clinton and most other mainstream Democrats have been).
Enough already with this kind of 'laissez faire' politics of letting the powers that pee set the equilibrium, and only stepping in to defend the big banks and other like causes (like Clinton on NAFTA). The vast majority of those who voted for Obama did NOT vote for such a politics of letting the interests that dominate Congress, including the Democrats in Congress, dominate America -- we voted for progressive LEADERSHIP!
And that's what progressives need to extract from the power system, including in particular in ways that those in power don't like
June 20, 2009 7:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
We are going to see more and more hysterical rants on health care from the Republics after the new NYT/CBS poll that shows 72% of Americans favor a public option. There is NO good news in this poll for the Republics. The poll shows that even 50% of Republics favor a public option.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/health/policy/21poll.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
June 20, 2009 10:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
wow! ;)
June 21, 2009 4:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Any chance Obama will reconcile his own past positions and call for consumer protection in the form of single payer health care? Maybe drive the cost down for all people in this country and increase the effectiveness of the care delivered at the same time? Relieve businesses from the crushing burden health care creates? Show some moral backbone?
No, I thought not.
Will I be voting for Obama in 2012?
June 21, 2009 1:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thumbs the only way to get to single payer, a position Obama expressly did not campaign on during the campaign last year btw, is to push congress toward the strongest public option we can get this year. A strong plan will be the Republicans worst nightmare as millions of people, and hundreds of thousands of businesses and doctors see joining it and dropping private insurance as a no brainer. Competition and choice is the American way.
For profit insurance corporations have to show profits or they go out of business. Even though their costs will also go down as everyone adopts the cost controls in the public plan they still won't be able to justify keeping their shares above water by charging higher premiums than the public plan. There's just no value added there and they know it.
Obama has the power of the bully pulpit and the veto pen. We have the power to throw politicians out of work if they don't give us what we want. Instead of sitting on the sidelines moaning about Obama and letting him do all the work put some grassroots pressure on your senators and house rep. You can start at Organizing for America or downloading the petition at my township Dem organization's website:
http://www.dgdemocrats.com/
Anyone is welcome to use it. You can even delete our name at the bottom and put your name or your organization's name in it's place or just leave that part blank. You can write letters to the editor, your House rep, organize a rally, there's any number of things you can do. But the point is do something to let politicians know what you want. Doing nothing and blaming Obama in the middle of the battle is self defeating. We only have a few weeks. Everybody needs to get to work on this.
June 21, 2009 9:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
So, Obama won't get your vote in 2012 unless he quixotically fights for a non-starter single-payer bill which will absolutely ensure that our health care system stays the same? Do you work for big pharma, or is it the insurance companies?
Seriously, get a grip.
June 22, 2009 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
The chicken neck McConnell still can not find purchase along with the rest of the repub's!
No plan - No cost- No solutions
June 21, 2009 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
What would happen ... IF ... as the legislative bickering winds down to a final vote in both House and Senate and looked as if single payer was not in the cards - do you think mass demonstrations by the public all across the nation would send a message that perhaps the elected representatives and senators should rethink their positions? How else can, WE THE PEOPLE let our elected officials know what our desires are in terms that can't mistake?
June 21, 2009 11:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
The problem is that single-payer just doesn't enjoy the same widespread public support of a "public option." The informed among us (on both sides) recognize that the public option is just a slower way to getting to single-payer, but to the lay public having the choice between public and private sounds like the best option.
June 22, 2009 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
correction:
line read - can't mistake
line should have read - can't be mistaken
error caused by
consumption of Chimay Grande Reserve 2009 Ale, Alc 9% vol.
Have a happy Summer Solstice! I am !
June 21, 2009 11:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
As usual we speak bleaks of truth. The world is watching us and the lies are destroying us. We conservative has to change the game. We are beginning to look obselete each and everyday.
June 21, 2009 9:53 PM | Reply | Permalink