Archive for the ‘BILL BLOG’ Category
The President’s Mistake on Terrorism Trials
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
For many reasons, I think the Obama administration is making a big mistake on terrorism trials.
At first, Attorney General Eric Holder announced they were going to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in federal court in lower Manhattan.
Which was absolutely the right thing to do. That’s where the first World Trade Center bombers were tried and convicted. Zacarias Moussaoui was also tried in federal court, in Alexandria. And Richard Reid, in Boston.
In fact, over the last nine years, hundreds of terrorism suspects have been tried in federal criminal court – and 88 percent of them have been convicted and are now in prison.
Over the same period, by contrast, only three suspects have been tried in military tribunals – and only one of them is behind bars.
But, even though he was only following procedures established by George Bush and Dick Cheney, Republicans accused Obama of being soft on terror.
And now, instead of sticking to his guns and doing what’s right, it looks like Obama’s caving in: taking the case out of New York City, out of criminal court, and into some secret military tribunal.
If so, again, he’s making a big mistake. These terrorists are not soldiers in any army. They don’t deserve the honor of a military tribunal.
That’s my parting shot for today.
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Corruption is Bipartisan
Monday, March 8th, 2010
As a Democrat, it was a lot of fun taking pot shots at Denny Hastert, Tom Delay, and all their crooked cronies, when they were in power.
Remember? We used to call it the “culture of corruption.” And we made gladly the case for throwing the bums out and putting Democrats in charge, so they could clean up the mess in Washington and give the American people the cleanest government ever.
And now? Once Democrats are in power, we find ourselves having to defend Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards, David Paterson, Charlie Rangel, and Eric Massa.
Oh, my God! Corruption, it seems, is the only thing about politics that is, in fact, truly bipartisan.
Are we surprised? Not really. After all, knowing human nature, we realize that neither Democrats nor Republicans are angels.
But are we disappointed? Of course. Because we expect more of our friends and fellow Democrats. We count on them to adhere to a higher ethical standard than those no-good Republicans. And we’re embarrassed, and angry, when they don’t.
Which is not to condemn anybody. The jury is still out on David Paterson, Charlie Rangel, and Eric Massa.
But if, in fact, they are found guilty of allegations against them, then we have to be as hard on them as we were on Tom Delay.
Maybe even harder, because they were our friends.
That’s my parting shot for today.
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The Kid Friendly Skies
Friday, March 5th, 2010
OK, so it’s not the most important issue of the week. But it’s the one that bugged me the most.
And that’s the story of the air traffic controller at New York’s JFK airport who took his kids to work – and actually let them take over the microphone to direct traffic on a couple of outgoing flights.
There’s so much about this story I can’t believe.
For starters, how could that employee possibly be so clueless? What if there had been a sudden emergency, like another plane taxiing onto the same runway, where a split second decision had to be made?
And why did the pilots just laugh and go along, as if it was just a funny stunt? Are they that careless about proper safety procedures? Did they really want their flight operations guided by a 7-year old?
But my first concern is: Why should anybody, other than trained personnel, be allowed in an airport tower? Any outsider is an obvious distraction from what we are all told is the most stressful job in the world.
It’s hard to believe the FAA didn’t act sooner, but they’d better crack down quick – before somebody lets a 7-year old take over controls of a 747.
That’s my parting shot for today.
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Drawing the Battle Lines on Health Care
Friday, March 5th, 2010
By Bill Press
Tribune Media Services
At long last, the preliminaries are over and we’re entering the final rounds of the health care reform debate.
After making the mistake of staying on the sidelines for too long, President Obama stepped up to the plate on Wednesday, March 3, and took charge. Before a crowd of health professionals packed into the East Room of the White House, he laid forth his best attempt at a compromise solution — and dared Congress to act.
We’ve talked about it long enough, Obama said. While they disagree about what to do about it, both Republicans and Democrats agree that the current system is broken and must be fixed. So, he argued, it’s time to stop debating the issue and get something done. Legislation on health care in some form has already passed both the House and the Senate, so now it deserves a final vote.
It shouldn’t take 60 votes in the Senate, either, Obama noted. Health care, he insisted, “deserves the same kind of up or down vote that was cast on welfare reform, that was cast on the Children’s Health Insurance Program, that was used for COBRA health coverage for the unemployed, and, by the way, for both Bush tax cuts — all of which had to pass Congress with nothing more than a simple majority.”
Finally! If President Obama had only given that speech six months ago, we’d already have health care reform in the bank. But his speech does set the stage for final approval of health care before March 26, when Congress leaves town for a two-week Easter break. At which point the scene will shift dramatically from legislation to election-year politics.
Republicans, of course, have been playing politics with the issue from the beginning. In July 2009, South Carolina’s Jim DeMint let the cat out of the bag when he told conservative supporters “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” Ever since then, the goal of Republicans has been, not to push their own version of health care, but to use all available tools, including the filibuster, to kill anything Obama proposed.
That plan having apparently failed, Republicans have already switched tactics: predicting that passage of health care reform legislation will mean political ruin for Democrats in November. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Democrats this week: “If somehow this bill is passed, (in the next election) every Republican candidate will be campaigning to repeal it.”
To which, Democrats, borrowing a phrase from George W. Bush, should respond: “Bring it on!”
The idea that passage of major health care reform legislation will prove to be a political liability for Democrats is one of the biggest canards ever uttered in American politics. Indeed, all evidence is that the exact opposite is true. It wasn’t so long ago that we did have an election focused, in great part, on universal health care. One candidate was for it. One candidate was against it. And the pro-reform candidate now sits in the Oval Office.
Nor has the desire of Americans for health care protection for themselves and their families changed since. Americans still like health care. What they don’t like is the political bickering they’ve seen for the last 14 months. They like the product, in other words, they just don’t like the process. Whatever political unrest may exist today among voters will disappear once Democrats, with a strong health care bill in hand, focus on selling the product and not on defending the process.
And there are many good features to Obama’s bill. It expands coverage to 30 million Americans. It allows young people to stay on their parents’ plan until the age of 26. It prevents insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition. No, it’s not the perfect bill. It should contain a public plan option. But it’s still a lot better than the status quo. The truth is: Democrats will pay a political price, no matter what they do. Politically, it’s far better to do something than to have done nothing.
If, in fact, the choice facing voters in November is between Democrats who delivered on health care reform vs. Republicans who want to repeal it and turn things back to insurance companies, Democrats will have a great day. And Mitch McConnell and John Boehner will be out of a job.
© 2010 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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Obama’s Call To Arms
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Finally!
Finally, President Obama has taken a strong stand – and a final stand – on health care.
Speaking in the East Room of the White House yesterday, the President was direct, convincing, and forceful.
We’ve been talking about this issue long enough, he said. We all agree the status quo is unacceptable. So, no more debate. Now’s the time to act. The American people deserve an up or down vote on health care. So, let’s have it within the next two weeks.
Yes, yes, yes. Unless you are totally in the pocket of the insurance companies, you can’t argue with that logic. Every word of it is true.
The current system is broken. It’s hurting millions of American families and businesses, which now have or provide health insurance. And it’s excluding 30-40 million Americans from coverage.
So, we must fix the system, expand coverage, lower premiums, and prevent unfair practices by insurance companies. And we must do it now.
If some Democrats don’t like it, fine – vote against it. If Republicans don’t like it, vote against it. But we must have a vote – a majority vote – and we must have it now.
On health care, President Obama has issued a call to arms. Now it’s up to the Congress to act.
That’s my parting shot for today.
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Republicans Don’t Want Health Reform
Friday, February 26th, 2010
OK, what are we waiting for?
If it wasn’t clear before yesterday, it sure is clear now: Republicans don’t want health care reform and they’re never going to agree to any legislation.
That was evident from the very beginning of yesterday’s health care summit, when the designated Republican speaker, Lamar Alexander, took the floor.
He attacked the House bill, the Senate bill, and President Obama’s proposals, without mentioning one thing in either proposal he agreed with. He demanded that Obama drop all three proposals and start from scratch. And he insisted that, even before the debate begin, Obama promise that Democrats would never use reconciliation to pass a health care bill.
In other words, Alexander said, we didn’t come to play. We came to kill. And that’s pretty much all we heard from Republicans all day long.
Republican after Republican talked about starting all over again. About only taking baby steps. About not being too hard on insurance companies. About letting the private market system work. And all that garbage.
Well, now we know where Republicans stand. And now we know where we go from here.
Forget bipartisanship. Forget the filibuster. Follow the rules of the Senate. Pass health care legislation with 51 Democratic votes. And get the job done.
That’s my parting shot for today.
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Republicans Give Green Light For Reconciliation
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
By Bill Press
Tribune Media Services
History repeated itself this week at Blair House, the nation’s official guest house for former presidents and foreign dignitaries, across the street from the White House at 1651 Pennsylvania Avenue.
It was here in 186l that President Abraham Lincoln offered command of the Union Army to General Robert E. Lee. He refused. It was here on Feb. 25, 2010 that President Barack Obama offered Republican leaders of Congress the opportunity to join Democrats in offering basic, quality health care protection to all Americans. They also refused. Two opportunities lost.
The fact that the bipartisan health care summit didn’t achieve any bipartisan results should have come as no surprise. Republicans made it clear even before the event, they did not come to play, they came to kill. Four days earlier, President Obama posted his health care proposal online and invited Republicans to do the same. They refused. In the meantime, as reported by Huffington Post’s Sam Stein, they attacked the summit as illegitimate for seven reasons: Democrats weren’t willing to start from scratch; Obama had already put together his own proposal; his proposal was not long enough; no governors were invited; nor any state legislators; the summit was funded by taxpayers; and the whole thing was designed to make Republicans look bad.
Together, those complaints added up to a “pre-existing condition” against constructive dialogue, which proved true, 10 minutes into the summit, when the first Republican speaker took the floor. Senator Lamar Alexander opened the discussion by denouncing Obama’s plan, asking him to jettison all the work done in the House and Senate on health care over the past year and start from scratch, and demanding that Obama and Democrats begin the summit by promising never, never to use reconciliation to pass health care reform legislation in the Senate. When Republicans start there, you know they’re not serious about reaching any agreement.
Nonetheless, even without a bipartisan compromise, the summit was still a worthwhile exercise. For two reasons. Because, on national television, it exposed Congressional Republicans for who they really are: a bunch of naysayers with no ideas of their own to offer. And because it gives Democrats, finally, the excuse they need to give up any idea of trying to make a deal with Republicans and pass health care reform the only way possible: with Democratic votes only.
Of course, mere mention of the word “reconciliation,” is enough to make Republicans apoplectic. They condemn it as anti-American when, in fact, it’s nothing but majority rule. You might even call it old-fashioned democracy. Indeed, amid all the confusion over reconciliation today, we almost forget: The rules of the Senate require only 51 votes to pass legislation. The filibuster, requiring 60 votes, is supposed to be a rare exception, not the rule. By invoking reconciliation to enact health care legislation, Democrats would be doing nothing other than following guidelines for the Senate laid down by the Founding Fathers. It is abuse of the filibuster, not use of reconciliation, which is un-American.
Republicans are particularly hard-pressed to condemn reconciliation, since they themselves have used it so many times on so many important issues. Among other GOP senators, Kit Bond, Judd Gregg, Orrin Hatch and Jon Kyl have been most vocal in demanding that Obama not employ reconciliation to get health care reform passed. Yet all four senators enthusiastically supported President Bush’s use of reconciliation to enact the 2001 Bush Tax Cuts, the 2003 Bush Tax Cuts, the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 and the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Senator Gregg even campaigned unsuccessfully to invoke reconciliation to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling.
As Majority Leader Harry Reid noted in his opening remarks at the summit, since 1981, reconciliation has been used 21 times in the Senate on budget-related issues, including health insurance. And mainly by Republicans. For example, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, enacted through reconciliation, established so-called COBRA rules, allowing workers who lose their jobs to carry forward their employer-sponsored health insurance at the same group rate for a limited period of time.
So, whatever the results, call the summit a success. Now the whole world knows: Democrats are serious about health care reform, Republicans are not. And now Democrats know what to do next: Forget about Republicans. Use reconciliation. And get the job done.
© 2010 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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Health Care Summit: Don’t Hold Your Breath
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
On health care, it’s High Noon at the OK Corral.
Actually, it’s 10 a.m. at Blair House. That’s when top Congressional Democrats will sit down across the table from top Congressional Republicans – with President Obama as referee – to see if they can hammer out a bipartisan agreement on health care reform.
Don’t hold your breath. This is one event for which there are no high expectations.
President Obama put his proposal on the table, four days ago. But, as yet, Republicans have put forth nothing. Because they have no ideas. They don’t want any health care reform. They are coming to the summit only to find fault with anything suggested by Democrats.
In which case, the summit is a waste of time. Except to oppose Republican leaders of Congress as the good-for-nothing bunch they are.
Which leaves no doubt on what Democrats should do next. Forget about the Republicans. Take the President’s plan, add a public plan option to it, and then push it through the Senate with 51 votes.
Then let Democrats take credit for extending health care to 30 million Americans.
And let Republicans explain why they opposed it.
That’s my parting shot for today.
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Following up on Peter’s Gumbo Recipe
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
——– ———— ——————————–
1 large onion — chopped (1 cup)
1 medium green bell pepper — chopped (1 cup)
2 medium celery stalks — chopped (1 cup)
3 garlic cloves — finely chopped
1 can diced tomatoes — (28 oz) undrained
2 cups chopped fully cooked smoked sausage – andouille is best
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper sauce (more or less to taste)
3/4 pound uncooked peeled deveined medium shrimp — thawed if frozen
4 cups hot cooked rice
Stir in shrimp. Cover and cook on low heat setting about 1 hour or until shrimp are pink and firm. Serve jambalaya with hot, cooked rice.
– Lynn G.
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Obama’s Plan is Not the Best We Can Get
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
So, finally, President Obama has put his cards on the table – unveiling his own health care reform plan. With no public plan option.
Is that the best we can get? Hell, no!
Clearly, Republicans will oppose any health care plan, no matter what compromises the president makes. The only way Democrats can pass a bill is through reconciliation, with Democrats only.
So, since we’re going to use reconciliation, we might as well make it the strongest bill possible. Put the public plan option back in. And here’s how.
So far, 22 Democratic Senators have signed a letter circulated by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee supporting the use of reconciliation to pass health care legislation. If we can get 51 Senators to agree, we’re in business.
So, there’s really no need to settle for the Obama plan. As good as it is, it doesn’t go far enough.
Since, without any Republican votes, Democrats are going to have to resort to reconciliation anyway, they might as well use it to deliver something the American people need: a public plan option to free them from total dependency on insurance companies.
And you can help: go to whipcongress.com.
That’s my parting shot for today.
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