Archive - Mar 1, 2010

Source: Reuters * U.S. determined to stick to withdrawal timetable

* Iraq not a top priority for Obama administration

* U.S. military making contingency plans

By Ross Colvin

WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - ...

Source: Reuters (For full coverage, click on [ID:nCHILE])

* Curfew extended as looting worsens

* Complaints rise over slow aid response

* Death toll at 723, coastal towns devastated.

* Financial market ...

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Just when you thought there was nothing left to discover about Hillary Clinton, it turns out she's part Welsh

Excellent news for the fine people of Wales: the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton reveals herself to be of Welsh descent. Yesterday the state department put out the following statement:

On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I congratulate the people of Wales as they celebrate St David's Day.... As an American of Welsh descent, I have always had a special place in my heart for Wales – both the beauty of its land and the determination of its people.

Secretary Clinton spent St David's Day in Argentina, or Yr Ariannin if you prefer. Which has a surprisingly rich Welsh heritage.

When primary voters go to the polls in Texas, it could serve as an early gauge of anti-Washington, D.C., sentiment in the 2010 elections and the potency of the “tea party” movement.

The grim faces said it all.

Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison insists she will quit her Senate seat this year, whether she wins or loses her challenge to incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in Tuesday’s Texas primary. She has remained adamant about her departure even though the primary, once billed as a battle of political titans, has shifted strongly in Perry’s favor.

The rush to fill the opening created by Rep. John Linder’s surprise weekend retirement announcement was immediately overshadowed in Georgia Republican circles by Rep. Nathan Deal’s unexpected decision to resign next week to run full-time for governor.

After a scant eight months in office, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is breaking out of his shell and positioning himself as an aggressive liberal presence in the Senate — especially when it comes to one of the most controversial topics in Washington: health care overhaul.

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:COMPROMISE ON HORIZON FOR DODD, FINANCIAL BILL? U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) spent months railing against the Federal Reserve for what he considered its failure to protect consumers from abusive financial institutions.Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and who isn't seeking re-election, now appears primed to compromise on his standing desire to create an independent "Consumer Financial Protection Agency" designed to protect consumer interests.Potentially in the offing: A bipartisan bill, crafted in part with Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), that the Washington Post's Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho report would "place a presidential appointee inside the Fed with an independent budget and a mandate to write rules protecting consumers. Those rules, however, would be enforced by existing banking regulators."Dodd, with $1.33 million, ranks fifth among all senators during the past two decades in terms of campaign money received from people and political action committees associated with commercial banks -- only competitive presidential candidates Barack Obama, John Kerry, John McCain and Hillary Clinton have received more.Using the same criteria, Dodd ranks highly among his Senate colleagues in terms of campaign donations from other, related industries: sixth for securities and investments ($6.22 million), third for finance and credit card companies ($442,080) and second for savings and loan interests ($204,670) and credit unions ($64,500).Read our recent coverage of Dodd's role in national financial reform here. And for full coverage of the money-in-politics angles of financial reform, read our recent Capital Eye series, "Crossing Wall Street."HAROLD FORD JR. HANGS UP ON SENATE RUN: In a New York Times op-ed piece Monday, former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) announced an end to his dalliance with a U.S. Senate bid -- in New York state -- after losing a close Senate race four years ago in Tennessee to Corker, a Republican.In the Empire State, he would have competed in a primary against a Democrat he once helped bankroll, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. She's only where she's at thanks to an appointment by the recently scandalized New York-Gov.-Eliot-Spitzer-sex-brouhaha-resignation-fill-in David Paterson after first lady-turned-Sen. Hillary Clinton, who moved to New York in 2000 after never before living there, herself ran for president, lost and resigned to became secretary of state to Barack Obama, who also resigned his Senate seat after defeating Clinton to win presidency -- and then watch as former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich attempted to sell his former Senate seat to the highest bidder, face impeachment, be removed from office, get indicted in federal court and land on "Celebrity Apprentice" with Donald Trump to, ostensibly, fight over whose bouffant is poofier.Whew.Writes Ford: "The cruel twist, of course, is that the party bosses who tried to intimidate me so that I wouldn't even think about running against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ... are the same people responsible for putting Democratic control of the Senate at risk."Had Ford run against Gillibrand, he would have likely done so with strong backing from financial institutions, labor unions and law firms, all his historical backers. During his years in the House that led to his 2006 Senate bid, Ford raised more than $19.2 million -- an impressive sum by any account.Would Ford rule out running at some point in the future? That's unclear. "I'm a Democrat," he said in his op-ed article. "But I am an independent Democrat." A NEW OPENSECRETS.ORG LOBBYING TOOL: If you're a frequent user of our lobbying database, you may have noticed a subtle change with great utility. Within our industry profiles, users may sort lobbying clients both by name and the amount the clients spent on federal lobbying. This is particularly useful when all you need is a quick, at-a-glance look at who the top players are within a given industry. Click here to experiment with, for example, our lobbying profile of the pharmaceutical and health products industry.Have a news tip or link to pass along? We want to hear from you! E-mail us at press@crp.org.

Igor Volsky at the Wonk Room writes:

The study [published at Psychological Science] found that "taxes were more effective in reducing calories purchased over subsidies. Specifically, taxing unhealthy foods reduced overall calories purchased," while "subsidizing the prices of healthy food actually increased overall calories purchased without changing the nutritional value at all. It appears that mothers took the money they saved on subsidized fruits and vegetables and treated the family to less healthy alternatives":

Taxing foods had the dual benefit of reducing purchases of HCFN [High-Calorie-for-Nutrient] foods while increasing purchases of LCFN [Low-Calorie-for-Nutrient]foods with lower energy density. From a public-policy standpoint, this strategy had the additional benefit of generating significant tax revenue. If policymakers aim to reduce consumption of HCFN foods to control rising rates of obesity, then taxing these foods may be more effective than subsidizing LCFN foods. In our experiment, a tax that increased the price of HCFN foods by 10% reduced total calories purchased by 6.5%, as a result of a reduction in fat and carbohydrate calories of 12.8% and 6.2%, respectively.

Lawmakers have taken food taxation off the table, but raising additional revenue by taxing consumption of public health hazards would reduce consumption of less healthy foods and offset the costs of poor eating habits (or help fund other priorities). For instance, in 2005, the federal government "pulled in about $8.9 billion from alcohol excise taxes." By comparison, the economic and social costs of drinking burden "society with an estimated $184 billion per year in health care, criminal justice, social services, property damage, and loss of productivity expenses."

Source: Reuters * Inquiry committee split over bank bailout, gives 2 options

* Split shows rifts in Yudhoyono's coalition

* Top reformers still expected to keep their jobs

* Some members of parliament call for ...

State of Reform
By Lauren Daley | Pittsburgh City Paper

State Sen. Jim Ferlo likens his quest for health-care reform to breaking a concrete wall with a five-pound sledgehammer: Hit the wall once, it shakes. Strike it 10 times, it cracks. Twenty times and it crumbles.

"This is like the sledgehammer against the Berlin Wall," Ferlo says of his effort to create a statewide single-payer health-care plan. Such a measure would bypass insurance companies entirely, having a government agency reimburse doctors and hospitals for medical treatment. "But it's doable."

During much of 2009, debate over the health-care system focused on Washington, D.C., but Democratic efforts at a nationwide reform stalled after a Massachusetts election placed Republican Scott Brown in the late Democrat Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat. That deprived Democrats of the 60-vote majority they need to head off a Republican filibuster of the bill.

But with efforts in Congress faltering, advocates see an opportunity for change at the state level.

"The chance of anything of substance happening in Washington, D.C. ... is less than zero," says Chuck Pennacchio, executive director of Health Care for All Pennsylvania. "We've been saying that for more than three years. Now people are finally listening."

In fact, this month the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee called for the passage of a single-payer system. Pittsburgh City Council and Allegheny County Council also previously passed resolutions supporting various single-payer initiatives.

Ferlo says he's not sure the most viable Democratic candidate ran against Brown in Massachusetts, and he believes Brown's victory was voter reaction to the Democratic Party. "We finally win power in the House, Senate and White House and we're sitting on our hands. That's why I think a lot of people are frustrated," Ferlo says. "They want decisive action.

"I hate to criticize my own party," Ferlo adds -- but "[w]hat great things have they done?"

Ferlo's own initiative is Senate Bill 400, known with a companion measure in the House [HB 1660] as the Pennsylvania Family and Business Health Care Security Act of 2009. The legislation proposes a statewide, publicly funded health-insurance system to replace what Ferlo calls "profit-driven insurers." Read more.

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