Roundup

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | October 15, 2009, 9:00AM

Obama Making First Presidential Visit To New Orleans
President Obama is making his first trip as President to New Orleans today, to review the continued reconstruction process from Hurricane Katrina. While this is the first trip by Obama himself, there have also been 17 other trips by administration officials to the city, and a total of 35 trips to the Gulf Coast region overall since March.

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama will depart from the White House at 9:25 a.m. ET, arriving in New Orleans, at 12:25 a.m. ET. He will visit with students at the Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School at 1 p.m. ET, and he will hold a 2:15 p.m. ET town hall at the University of New Orleans. He will depart from New Orleans at 4:10 p.m. ET, arriving in San Francisco at 8:20 p.m. ET, speaking at a 10:20 p.m. ET DNC fundraising dinner and a 10:35 p.m. ET reception.

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Health Care

TPMDC Morning Roundup

Eric Kleefeld | August 12, 2009, 9:02AM

Dem Talking Points: We Won't Kill Old People
The Hill reports that Senate Democrats have circulated a set of talking points, entitled "Responding to Opponents of Health Insurance Reform." One criticism that Dems are to rebut is, "The government will kill old people because they're too expensive to keep alive," responding that this is "outrageous and absolutely false."

Obama's Day Ahead
President Obama and the First Lady will host a reception in the East Room at 10:15 a.m. ET, honoring Justice Sonia Sotomayor. At 3:10 p.m. ET, the President and First Lady will host the Medal of Freedom ceremony.

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Barack Obama

Obama: Entitlement Reform May Begin With Social Security

Brian Beutler | July 22, 2009, 6:35PM

President Obama suggested today that, when health care reform is behind him, he may set his sights on Social Security:

"I think we're in a position to be able to, either at the end of this year or early next year, start laying out a broader picture about how we are going to handle entitlements in a serious way," Obama said. "It may start with Social Security because that's, frankly, the easier one."

In a long and technical interview with the Washington Post, Obama addressed several of the challenges health reform faces, including the question of financing. Though he's all but ruled out the possibility of covering the cost of legislation by capping the tax exclusion on current employer provided health care benefits, Obama said he's open to the possibility of taxing part of the additional, future cost of those benefits as the price of health insurance inflates.

But for the most part, editorial page editor Fred Hiatt stuck to the famous Hiatt hobby horse of entitlement reform.

CBO and other economists say that, as you say, you can't solve the fiscal problem if you don't solve the health problem. But they also say that solving the health cost problem is not sufficient, that a big part of the issue is demographics and aging. And so -- and as you know, the 10-year budget shows the government raising 18 or 19 percent of revenue in 2019, and spending 24 or 25 percent.... So can I ask you how you think about the timing and politics of closing that structural gap?

Aging is crucial, but mainly because providing health care to the elderly is expensive, and right now a huge percentage of elderly people in the country are on Medicare--a single payer, government-guaranteed risk-pool. And it's a very risky pool. Critics say that's the key to entitlement reform, which can't happen in absence of broader, systemic health care reform. And Obama's suggestion that Social Security should be on the block for the sake of political expediency could set off a storm among progressives.

PA-SEN

Former Rep. Chocola Heading Club For Growth; Toomey Pursuing 'Other Opportunities'

Eric Kleefeld | April 13, 2009, 1:47PM

The Club For Growth, the economic right-wing political group known for backing staunch anti-tax candidates in GOP primaries, has selected a new chairman, replacing Pat Toomey: Former Rep. Chris Chocola (R-IN).

Chocola was first elected to Congress in 2002, picking up an open seat for the Republicans, but later lost re-election in 2006 by a 54%-46% to Democrat Joe Donnelly. From his first unsuccessful campaign in 2000 and through his career in Congress, he at times strongly favored total privatization of Social Security, and at others didn't support privatization.

Another thing here is that the real news isn't so much Chocola signing on to the Club For Growth, as it is Toomey signing off. Toomey, a former Pennsylvania Congressman, is widely believed to be about to challenge Arlen Specter in the Republican primary for Senator from Pennsylvania, after he'd previously run in 2004 and lost in a 51%-49% squeaker. Toomey is officially leaving the Club to pursue "other opportunities."

Barack Obama

The Liberal Entitlement Conference

Matthew Cooper | February 23, 2009, 1:28PM

There are plenty of reasons liberals should like today's entitlement summit. My colleague, Elana Schor, notes them here and TAP's Ezra Klein here. Bob Greenstein, head of the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, made the liberal case for alarm in his remarks. He notes that the problem is primarily a health care problem If health care costs could just be brought in line with economic growth we'd be largely okay. "We will need to act before mounting debt and interest payments make this problem worse than it already is. The mere fact that Greenstein has such a prominent role addressing the conference ought to be of comfort to liberals. If that wasn't enough, OMB Director Peter Orszag made it clear that "health care reform is entitlement reform."

Social Security

The Story Behind That Scrapped White House Social Security Task Force

Elana Schor | February 23, 2009, 1:00PM

The New York Times reports this morning that the White House had abandoned plans to unveil a Social Security "task force" at today's fiscal summit, raising the question of whether the Obama administration is ready to conduct separate debate over the long-term health of Social Security and Medicare -- or whether the tired canard of "dangerous entitlement spending" will continue to rule the political roost.

One liberal activist who weighed in against the proposed task force told me that some within the administration are ready to attempt "one more fix" for Social Security, thinking of the 70-year-old benefits program "as an equation to be solved" and the Obama team as the mathematicians on the case.

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Social Security

Will the White House Avoid the 'Entitlement Spending' Trap?

Elana Schor | February 23, 2009, 10:45AM

As President Obama's "fiscal responsibility summit" consumes much of Washington's oxygen today, a critical question is being largely ignored in the mainstream media: Will this administration dispense with the notion of an overall "entitlements" crisis and begin treating Social Security and Medicare like the separate issues they are?

The New York Times raises the issue, in a back-handed fashion, by reporting that congressional Democrats are warning Obama against attempting to shore up Social Security's long-term fiscal health. Per the Times:

Those who oppose action said Mr. Obama must focus on his bigger priority -- health care legislation to expand access to insurance and reduce the costs of care. They argue that success there would help control the unsustainable growth of Medicare and Medicaid, the government's other major benefit programs, which together pose a far greater fiscal problem.

It's not clear which Capitol Hill Democrats helped quash the idea of announcing a "Social Security task force" during today's fiscal summit -- but Obama would be well-served to heed their advice.

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