The Political Chase

McCain’s anything but universal health care plan

John McCain is scheduled to deliver a speech on health care today. Following are excerpts from his prepared remarks. As you can see, McCain makes no provision for the 47 million Americans that currently do not have health insurance. Instead, he says he will “work tirelessly to address the problem.” Has he already started? Does Quick Draw McGraw already have a bill pending?

Well, I suppose I overstated that a bit. If any of the 47 million uninsured have sufficient income to yield a $5,000 tax liability, they can get a $5,000 tax credit. Assuming they are fully employed, That will only put them about 18 months behind in the payment cycle, assuming they have the means to get started and an insurer that will accept them. And, if their premiums will be as expensive as mine are ($900+ per month w/high deductible for just me and that’s with only one family-physician visit in seven years), the $5,000 might be as useful as $0.05. The point is, $5,000 tax credits are realistically only applicable to middle- or higher-income brackets.

Moreover, he intends to have the A-Team (”insurers, businesses, state legislators”) and “patients” to hammer out a plan to “reach out” to “at risk people” and will ultimately be managed by the states, that is, if the “states consent.” That smells, at best, like No Child Left Behind, but with an option to say no and consequently block benefits from whatever special-interest-centric plan the A-Team and “patients” will develop.

I would also like to know how “patients” working on the A-Team will be determined. Will Ronald A. Williams of Aetna be an A-Team patient? Will any of the homeless veterans sleeping under bridges be included in the “patient” group? Will Donnie Ingram, who lost his job in January when his Lancaster County, SC textile mill employer outsourced its operations to Brazil, be an A-Team patient? And, of course, there is always the option of yanking that myocardial infarction patient out of Trauma Room No. 1 for a four-hour video conference.

Maybe Mr. Bush Mr. McCain will address it in his speech, but there is nothing in the advance excerpts about S-CHIP, which George Bush refused to sign. (If he has signed it over the past few months, I’m not aware of it.)

The key to real reform is to restore control over our health-care system to the patients themselves. Right now, even those with access to health care often have no assurance that it is appropriate care. Too much of the system is built on getting paid just for providing services, regardless of whether those services are necessary or produce quality care and outcomes. American families should only pay for getting the right care: care that is intended to improve and safeguard their health.

When families are informed about medical choices, they are more capable of making their own decisions, less likely to choose the most expensive and often unnecessary options, and are more satisfied with their choices. We took an important step in this direction with the creation of Health Savings Accounts, tax-preferred accounts that are used to pay insurance premiums and other health costs. These accounts put the family in charge of what they pay for. And, as president, I would seek to encourage and expand the benefits of these accounts to more American families.

Even so, those without prior group coverage and those with pre-existing conditions do have the most difficulty on the individual market, and we need to make sure they get the high-quality coverage they need. I will work tirelessly to address the problem. But I won’t create another entitlement program that Washington will let get out of control. Nor will I saddle states with another unfunded mandate. The states have been very active in experimenting with ways to cover the “uninsurables.” The State of North Carolina, for example, has an agreement with Blue Cross to act as insurer of “last resort.” Over thirty states have some form of “high-risk” pool, and over twenty states have plans that limit premiums charged to people suffering an illness and who have been denied insurance.

As President, I will meet with the governors to solicit their ideas about a best practice model that states can follow – a Guaranteed Access Plan or GAP that would reflect the best experience of the states. I will work with Congress, the governors, and industry to make sure that it is funded adequately and has the right incentives to reduce costs such as disease management, individual case management, and health and wellness programs. These programs reach out to people who are at risk for different diseases and chronic conditions and provide them with nurse care managers to make sure they receive the proper care and avoid unnecessary treatments and emergency room visits. The details of a Guaranteed Access Plan will be worked out with the collaboration and consent of the states. But, conceptually, federal assistance could be provided to a nonprofit GAP that operated under the direction of a board that included all stakeholders groups – legislators, insurers, business and medical community representatives, and, most importantly, patients. The board would contract with insurers to cover patients who have been denied insurance and could join with other state plans to enlarge pools and lower overhead costs. There would be reasonable limits on premiums, and assistance would be available for Americans below a certain income level.

House Passes Revised SCHIP Bill

In a 265-142 vote, the House passed a revised version of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill today — the first revision since the president’s veto.  Two Republicans voting for the bill last time, voted against the current version.

The changes as reported by Roll Call (sub. req.):

Democrats aimed to address Republican criticisms over the $35 billion measure intended to cover 10 million children via several last-minute “clarifications.”

Among those changes, Democrats agreed to rapidly phase out the inclusion of childless adults from the program within a one-year period. The bill also seeks to limit the program to low-income children by prohibiting participation by families with incomes within 300 percent of the federal poverty level. In addition, changes also aimed to strengthen prohibitions designed to prevent illegal immigrants from participating in the program by requiring the Social Security Administration to confirm a participant’s residency status.

Republicans criticized Democrats for "rushing the legislation to the House floor without allowing lawmakers to review the revised bill first."

But Nancy Pelosi "defended the decision to advance the legislation, asserting that the House must act expediently for the bill to reach the president’s desk before the end of the calendar year. "

‘We’re holding the vote today because it fits into our legislative calendar,’ Pelosi said."

I agree with the Republicans with respect to having sufficient time to review the bill. How can anyone vote on a bill they haven’t had time to review? But it happens all the time. My best guess is Pelosi did not want arguments; instead she probably intended to put Representatives on the spot with a roll call where a negative vote would likely be could be viewed negatively by constituents.

SCHIP Roll Call and Highlights

The Gavel has video highlights from today’s House debate on overriding President Bush’s veto of the SCHIP bill (H.R. 976)

Forty-four Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the override. Two Democrats —
Reps. Gene Taylor (MS) and Jim Marshall (GA) — sided with the president. You can read the Wall of Shame here.

Taking a swipe at the president, Speaker Pelosi said, “So when the President wants to have four or five million children instead of 10 million children in this initiative, is he the one, the ‘Decider,’ who wants to go to that family and say, ‘your child is out’?”

Rep. Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL) promised, "Democrats will not back down and we will insist on providing health care coverage to these 10 million children.” We’ll see how well Emmanuel sticks to his promises.

Bush SCHIP Veto Override Fails in House

The Irrelevant and Unpopular President continues to control the Spineless 

House Fails to Override Child Health Bill Veto

Supporters of a bill to provide health insurance for 10 million children failed this afternoon, as expected, to muster enough support in the House to override President Bush?s veto.

The vote to override the veto was 273 to 156, or 13 votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority of those present and voting; the bill was originally approved by a 265 to 159 vote on Sept. 25.

The main suspense before today?s vote was over how many Republicans would side against President Bush. Forty-four House Republicans voted for the bill today, compared to 45 on Sept. 25.

McConnell aide acknowledges boosting smear campaign of Graeme

Don Stewart, Communications Director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted in an interview with the Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) that he alerted reporters about the smearing of Graeme Frost by wingnut bloggers such as Michelle Malkin (here, here, here, here, and here).

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s spokesman acknowledged yesterday that he alerted reporters last week to questions bloggers raised about the financial circumstances of a 12-year-old boy Democrats had used to urge passage of an expanded children’s health insurance program.

ThinkProgress first reported having evidence that McConnell’s office was directly involved in the smear campaign, but there has been no public acknowledgment by the top Senator’s office until the Courier-Journal’s interview with Stewart.

Stewart said he called the dogs off when he later determined the allegations being made by the over zealous prevaricators were baseless, but having done so does not absolve him of his reckless, knee-jerk actions.

Hours later, he said, he sent two follow-up e-mails waving reporters off.

“Forgive me if I already told you this, but a blogger that I trust (and who hadn’t written anything on this issue yet) tells me that after spending a lot of time on this, they now believe there’s no story there, that the family is legit,” Stewart wrote in one e-mail, according to the text he provided to The Courier-Journal. “So I’m passing that along to the folks I wrote to this morning. Fair is fair.”

Only a dolt would characterize the situation as “fair is fair.” It is unconscionable and reprehensible that a top aide to the highest ranking Republican in Congress would not check the facts before bolstering a campaign. Moreover, the fact that Stewart obviously could not have cared less that his target was a 12–year-old boy, should be strongly rebuked by McConnell. Any punitive measure short of terminating Stewart would be a tacit approval by McConnell, and indicative of McConnell’s values and ethics.

Bush Vetoes SCHIP Bill

President Bush continued to obstruct Congress from carry out the will of the majority of Americans by vetoing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) today. There are enough votes in Senate to override his veto, but not in the House of Representatives, unless some Representatives change their original votes.

Suffer the little children

In today’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino gave about as lame excuse as could possibly be given on why President Bush will veto the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Perino said the bill Congress passed 67-29, did not provide for the neediest children, which to the best of my knowledge is inaccurate. Congress expanded the existing bill instead rather than reducing benefits currently provided.

As evidenced in the video, Perino’s spin is more of a “suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not” speech.

Click To Play

I have to wonder if Bush is somehow floating a trial balloon with this veto; a test run to determine how much control he has over his staunchest supporters. The closer it gets to election day, the greater the risk of defections by GOP members from the administration’s policies on Iraq and Iran. Although the issues are not remotely related, if he is successful here, the chances of Congress overriding his vetoes on future foreign policy matters will certainly be much less.

Senate Passes SCHIP and Hate Crimes Bill

In today’s briefing, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush stands by his threat to veto the children’s health care bill (SCHIP) that Congress passed yesterday.

Video to follow later.

TPC Roundup - Iraq Funding $520M Per Day

HEADLINES

• Washington: Bush Wants $190B to Fund War; Judge Strikes Patriot Act Provisions
• Congress: Senate Approves Biden Plan to Petition Iraq
• Iraq: Bombing Waves Continue
• Nation: GAO Finds Northern US Border Vulnerable
• World: Israelis Kill Seven Palestinians

WASHINGTON

• “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked Congress” on Wednesday “to approve an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the Bush administration’s 2008 war funding request to nearly $190 billion — the largest single-year total for the wars so far,” the Washington Post reports. “The move came as Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff and former top U.S. commander in Iraq, warned lawmakers that the Army is stretched dangerously thin because of current war operations and would probably have trouble responding to a major conflict elsewhere.”
• “A federal judge in Oregon ruled Wednesday that crucial parts of the USA Patriot Act were not constitutional because they allowed federal surveillance and searches of Americans without demonstrating probable cause,” the New York Times reports. “The ruling by Judge Anne L. Aiken of Federal District Court in Portland was in the case of Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer in Portland who was arrested and jailed after the Federal Bureau of Investigation mistakenly linked him to the Madrid train bombings in March 2004.”
• “President Bush said Wednesday that Afghanistan is becoming a safer, more stable country, thanks to the efforts of President Hamid Karzai,” AP reports. “‘Mr. President, you have strong friends here,’ Bush told Karzai after they met for about an hour at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel” in New York City. “‘I expect progress and you expect progress and I appreciate the report you have given me today.’”
• Bush and Karzai “agreed Wednesday on the need to work jointly to fight narcotics trafficking, terrorism and a resurgent Taliban, and on the necessity of international help with energy needs,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
• “Seeking to counter international pressure to adopt binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions, the Bush administration has been touting the success of three mandatory programs to curb U.S. energy consumption: gas mileage standards for vehicles, efficiency standards for home appliances and state laws requiring utilities to increase their use of renewable energy sources,” the Washington Post reports. “But for most of the Bush presidency, the White House has either done little to promote these measures or, in some cases, has actively fought against them.”
• “Despite signaling that he wants to see the controversial military prison at Guantanamo Bay shuttered, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that he has been unable to reach agreement within the executive branch on how to proceed with the closure,” The Hill reports. “In response to questions by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) during a Senate hearing, Gates said that disagreement is focused on where the United States should send the prisoners and what kind of legislation would be required to guarantee the rights of the most dangerous prisoners while protecting Americans.”

CONGRESS

• “The Senate found its first bipartisan consensus on the Iraq war Wednesday, dealing a minor rebuke to the Bush administration and a major boost to the long-shot White House run of Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.),” The Hill reports. “Biden’s amendment calling for a decentralized Iraqi government passed 75-23 and won over 26 Republicans, giving the Foreign Relations Committee chairman a shot in the arm as he headed to Wednesday night’s Democratic debate in New Hampshire.”
• “The Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday urging the Bush administration to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization,” the New York Times reports. “Since last month, the White House has been weighing whether to declare the Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group or to take a narrower step focusing on only the Guard’s elite Quds Force.”
• “Deferring a showdown with President Bush, the House on Wednesday approved a stopgap spending bill to finance the operations of the federal government, including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, through mid-November,” the New York Times reports. “Lawmakers of both parties said the step was necessary because Congress had not finished work on any of the 12 annual appropriations bills for the fiscal year that starts Monday.”
• “House and Senate Democratic leaders insisted Wednesday that no final decision has been made on the timing of the next supplemental spending bill to fund the Iraq War, one day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told liberal lawmakers that the measure is not likely to reach the House floor until 2008,” Roll Call  (sub. req.) reports. “‘While there has been discussion, there is no decision on that,’ Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said of the supplemental’s timing.”
• “Rep. Terry Everett, an eight-term Republican from an Alabama district with a focus on farming and military bases, said Wednesday he will retire when his current term expires,” AP reports. “Everett, 70, of Rehobeth, a former newspaper publisher and farmer, cited health reasons.”
• “Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho on Wednesday backed away from his earlier decision to resign on Sept. 30 and said he would await a judge’s ruling on a motion to reverse his guilty plea in an undercover sex sting,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Craig, a Republican, made the announcement after a court hearing on the motion.
• “Senate Democrats are trying to force President Bush to sign hate crimes legislation he has threatened to veto by attaching it to a massive bill funding the Defense Department and the Iraq war,” AP reports. “Writing violent attacks on gays into federal hate crime laws is related to the war because both are strikes against terrorism, according to a Republican senator and other supporters of the measure.”

IRAQ

• “Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday that the continued flow of weapons, suicide bombers and terrorism funding into his country would result in ‘disastrous consequences’ for the region and the world,” AP reports. “Al-Maliki, who met with President Bush Tuesday, urged the international community and countries in the region to support Iraq’s national reconciliation process to rid terrorism from the country and bring peace to the region.”
• “A wave of bombings and shootings swept Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people and raising fears that al-Qaida had launched a promised new offensive,” AP reports. “The U.S. military acknowledged that violence was on the upswing and blamed it on the terror movement.”
• Gates “has ordered U.S. military commanders in Iraq to crack down on any abuses they uncover by private security contractors in the aftermath of a deadly shooting involving American guards that infuriated Iraqis,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Gates took the step after concluding that the thousands of heavily armed private guards in Iraq who work for the Pentagon may not be adequately supervised by military officers.”
• “The American security contractor Blackwater USA has been involved in a far higher rate of shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq than other security firms providing similar services to the State Department, according to Bush administration officials and industry officials,” the New York Times reports. “Blackwater is now the focus of investigations in both Baghdad and Washington over a Sept. 16 shooting in which at least 11 Iraqis were killed.”
• “Pentagon officials suggested” on Wednesday “that U.S. civilian security contractors in Iraq fall under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice and could be prosecuted in military courts for offenses against Iraqis,” the Washington Times reports. “Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters that while U.S. civilians working in Iraq under Department of Defense contracts were not subject to Iraqi law, they could be held accountable under U.S. law.”
• “Iraqi and U.S. special forces have arrested at least 59 army officers and enlisted men accused in killings, bombings and kidnappings in the latest case linking elements of the Iraqi army to sectarian militias and criminal gangs, authorities announced Wednesday,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

NATION

• “A smuggler could easily carry radioactive material or other contraband across the northern border into the United States, government investigators have found,” AP reports. “The Government Accountability Office sent out investigators to test how easily they could transfer large red duffel bags at unguarded and unmonitored spots along the more than 5,000 miles of U.S.-Canada border.”
• “Facing pressure from religious groups, civil libertarians and members of Congress, the federal Bureau of Prisons has decided to return religious materials that had been purged from prison chapel libraries because they were not on the bureau’s lists of approved resources,” the New York Times reports. “The bureau had said it was prompted to remove the materials after a 2004 Department of Justice report mentioned that religious books that incite violence could infiltrate chapel libraries.”
• “More than half a year after disclosures of systemic problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals, the Pentagon’s promised fixes are threatened by staff shortages and uncertainty about how best to improve long-term care for wounded troops, according to a congressional report issued” on Wednesday, the Washington Post reports. “Army units developed to shepherd recovering soldiers lack enough nurses and social workers, and proposals to streamline the military’s disability evaluation system and to provide ‘recovery coordinators’ are behind schedule, according to the Government Accountability Office report.”

WORLD

• “Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in an airstrike and ground assault Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, retaliating for a barrage of mortar and rocket fire into southern Israel,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “On the bloodiest day in Gaza since Israel declared it a ‘hostile territory’ last week, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the military was ‘moving closer to a broad and complex operation’ in the enclave ruled by the Islamic movement Hamas.”
• “A year and a half after President Bush told top aides that he feared he might be forced someday to choose between acquiescing to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and ordering military action, the struggle to find an effective alternative — sanctions with real bite — is entering a new phase,” the New York Times reports. “The speech at the United Nations on Tuesday by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is already being used by American officials in an effort to convince European allies that Iran’s leadership will respond only to a sharp new wave of economic pressure, far greater than anything it has endured so far.”
• “Pakistan’s top judge has ordered the immediate release of dozens of detained opposition supporters who have been taken into custody since the weekend,” BBC News reports. “Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry made the ruling after summoning police and government officials to court. He did so shortly after papers were filed naming” President Pervez Musharraf “to contest presidential elections on 6 October.”

TPC Afternoon Roundup - Global Criticism

HEADLINES

• Washington: Press questions Bush’s language skills; Military tribunals to continue
• Congress: Iran sanctioned; Children’s health care program extended
• Supreme Court: Voter-ID laws and lethal injections to be reviewed
• Iraq: Pending legislation regulating private companies; Killing Insurgents via “Baiting Program”
• Nation: Violent crime increases
• World: Bush announces sanctions at U.N.; Monk demonstrations continue

TPC MOST POPULAR

Has anybody seen my nuke?
Anything but a mistake
Will Wes Clark be Hillary’s VP?
Video proves Blackwater attack unprovoked
Biden Breaks Away in Dems Iowa Debate

WASHINGTON

• “White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Tuesday called a question that indicated President Bush might have trouble pronouncing foreign countries’ names “offensive,” the Hill reports. “The issue arose after the United Nations posted a draft of Bush’s speech to the General Assembly on its website, complete with phonetic spellings of countries that the president spoke about.”
• “A special military appeals court, overturning a lower court ruling, on Monday removed a legal hurdle that has derailed war crime trials for detainees at Guantanámo Bay, Cuba,” the New York Times reports. “The ruling allows military prosecutors to address a legal flaw that had ground the prosecutions to a halt.”
• “The Bush administration took the gloves off Monday in its fight over immigration enforcement, suing the state of Illinois for banning use of a federal system that checks whether workers are in the United States legally,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “The United States of America vs. the State of Illinois is the latest court battle the administration is waging with immigrant advocates and business groups over its crackdown on workers here illegally and the companies that hire them.”

CONGRESS

• “Congress signaled its disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government and a call to designate his army a terrorist group,” the AP via TPM reports. “The overwhelming bipartisan vote of 397 - 16 “reflected lawmakers’ long-standing nervousness about Tehran’s intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel _ a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.”
• “Congressional Democrats unveiled legislation Tuesday to keep the government running until mid-November, giving them more time to bridge gaping differences with President Bush over the budget,” the AP via TPM reports. “the bill temporarily extends health coverage for children from low-income families as Congress and Bush wrangle over how much to expand the program, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP.”
• “Republicans are decrying what they say are changes to newly enacted Senate earmark rules eliminating a ban on new earmarks being inserted into authorizing bills during conference,” Roll Call reports (sub. req.). GOP Members also complain “that key disclosure requirements that mandate Members publicly disclose who their earmarks will benefit and what the purpose of the spending is have been seriously weakened.”

SUPREME COURT

• “The Supreme Court agreed today to consider whether voter-identification laws unfairly keep poor people and members of minority groups from going to the polls,” the New York Times reports. “The justices will hear arguments from an Indiana case, in which a federal district judge and a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in January upheld a state law requiring, with certain exceptions, that someone wanting to vote in person in a primary or general election present a government-issued photo identification.”
• The Court also “agreed today to hear constitutional challenges brought by two death-row inmates in Kentucky, who assert that the state’s lethal-injection procedures amount to cruel and unusual punishment, the New York Times reports. “The step could have the effect of postponing executions across the country scheduled to be performed by lethal injection, the method is used by nearly all states with a death penalty, as well as by the federal government.”

IRAQ

• “The Iraqi interior ministry has said it has drafted legislation regulating private security companies following a shooting allegedly involving a US firm,” the BBC reports. “The new code would require contractors to be subject to Iraqi law and to be monitored by the Iraqi government.”
• “Under a program developed by a Defense Department warfare unit, Army snipers have begun using a new method to kill Iraqis suspected of being insurgents, using fake weapons and bomb-making material as bait and then killing anyone who picks them up, according to testimony presented in a military court,” the New York Times reports. “The existence of the classified ‘baiting program,‘ as it has come to be known, was disclosed as part of defense lawyers’ efforts to respond to murder charges the Army pressed this summer against three members of a Ranger sniper team.”
• “Sunni extremists appear to have begun a systematic campaign to assassinate police chiefs, police officers and other Interior Ministry officials throughout Iraq, with at least 10 attacks in the last 48 hours,” the New York Times reports. “Eight policemen have been killed, among them the police chief of Baquba in Diyala Province.”

NATION

• “Violent crime in the United States rose more than previously believed in 2006, continuing the most significant increase in more than a decade, according to an FBI report released yesterday, the Washington Post reports. “The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program found that robberies surged by 7.2 percent and homicides rose 1.8 percent from 2005 to 2006. Violent crime overall rose 1.9 percent.”
• “Investigators used a ruse to question a man later charged with aiding terrorists, an FBI agent testified Tuesday at a hearing over admissibility of the conversation and a search of the defendant’s luggage,” the AP reports. “FBI agent Michael Scherck said he and another law enforcement officer approached Ehsanul Sadequee as he got off a flight from Atlanta to New York on Aug. 18, 2005, and told him they wanted to talk to him about passenger complaints that he had acted suspiciously on the plane.” Instead, “Scherck said that in fact there were no complaints, but investigators wanted biographical information from Sadequee as part of a terrorism probe involving him.

WORLD

• Addressing the United Nations General Assembly today, President Bush “chided nations to live up to the rights and freedoms the United Nations promised six decades ago, announced new sanctions on Myanmar and denounced the governments of Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Zimbabwe as ‘brutal regimes,’ ” the New York Times reports. The president “called on members of the United Nations to do more to support nascent democracies and to oppose autocratic and tyrannical governments.”
• “Tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and supporters today defied a government warning in Myanmar and returned to the streets for an eighth day of peaceful antigovernment protests, the New York Times reports. “For the first time since protests began on Aug. 19, the government began to issue warnings and to move security forces into positions in Yangon, the largest city and former capital.”
• “Iranians on Tuesday called the combative introduction of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by the head of Columbia University “shameful” and said the harsh words only added to their image of the United States as a bully,” AP reports. “In a region where the tradition of hospitality outweighs personal opinions about people, many here thought Columbia University President Lee Bollinger’s aggressive tone — including telling Ahmadinejad that he exhibited the signs of a ‘petty and cruel dictator’ — was over the top.”
• Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto criticized U.S. support for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf as a strategic miscalculation,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Backing Musharraf, a close U.S. ally who seized power in a 1999 coup, makes the fight against extremists operating along the Pakistani-Afghan border more difficult, she said today.”

SCANDALS

• A Minnesota judge will be hearing Sen. Larry Craig’s petition to overturn his guilty plea on a disorderly conduct charge in Minneapolis on Wednesday, but the Idaho Republican will not be at the hearing,” CNN reports. ” ‘I have been advised not to. I will not be attending,’ Craig said.”

TPC Roundup - Congressional Bombs and Syrian Bombs

HEADLINES

• Washington: Bush No Comment on Syria, Will Veto Child Health Bill
• Washington: Bush “Received B in Econ 101, A in Keeping Taxes Low”
• Congress: Iraq War Funding Bill Fails, Senate Condemns MoveOn.org
• Iraq: Blackwater Unprovoked According to Iraq Probe
• Nation: Thousands March Protesting “Jena 6″

TPC MOST POPULAR

Will Wes Clark be Hillary’s VP? (on the top all week)
Biden Breaks Away in Dems Iowa Debate
Gates Doesn’t Know if Iraq Invasion Was Good Idea
Clinton Video: ‘Darth Vader Emerges’
Give me, Give me, Give me

WASHINGTON

• “Israel’s decision to attack Syria on Sept. 6, bombing a suspected nuclear site set up in apparent collaboration with North Korea, came after Israel shared intelligence with President Bush this summer indicating that North Korean nuclear personnel were in Syria, U.S. government sources said,” the Washington Post reports. “The Bush administration has not commented on the Israeli raid or the underlying intelligence.”
• President Bush threatened yesterday, “to veto a bill expanding a popular children’s health insurance program, calling it “a step toward federalization of health care,” the New York Times reports. “The program expires Sept. 30, and Congress is on the verge of renewing it by providing coverage to an additional 4 million children over the 6.6 million already enrolled — at an additional cost of $35 billion over five years.”
• “President Bush pointedly declined on Thursday to discuss an Israeli airstrike in northern Syria,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Bush did, however, warn North Korea that the United States expected it to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs and to stop selling weapons or expertise abroad, as it promised to do this year.”
• “Sidestepping the turmoil in the housing market and the credit problems associated with it, President Bush said Thursday that the nation’s economy was strong and would remain so if Congress steered clear of tax increases,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “But he would not rate the risk of recession, saying, ‘You need to talk to economists. I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A, however, in keeping taxes low.’”
• “President Bush acknowledged “some unsettling times” in the country’s troubled housing and credit markets, while Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke offered more assurances steps would be taken to curb the fallout,” the Boston Globe reports. “The housing slump, the worst in 16 years, is likely to drag on well into 2008, when the nation will be voting for a new president. Home foreclosures - now at record highs - and delinquencies are likely to get worse, Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee yesterday.”
• Bush “plans to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York on Monday during the U.N. General Assembly meetings, the White House said,” Reuters reports. “The meeting will be to ‘continue discussions on helping the Palestinian Authority and on issues related to an eventual two-state solution of Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security,’ White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said on Thursday.”

CONGRESS

• “Underscoring his resolve,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid “revived a proposal to cut off funding for most U.S. military operations in Iraq by next summer — the most drastic antiwar measure in the legislative mix, and the biggest long shot for passage,” the Washington Post reports. “With only a few votes changing since May 16, when similar language died on a 67 to 29 vote.”
• “Congress gave final approval Thursday to legislation designed to transform the Food and Drug Administration from a passive monitor to an active detective seeking out medications that have been approved for sale but turn out to be hazardous — a problem linked to an estimated 15,000 deaths a year,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “The drug-safety provisions were the centerpiece of a massive bill that also would renew industry user fees that fund the FDA’s review of medications and medical devices submitted for approval.”
• “Democrats are disappointed they have been unable to force President Bush to change course in Iraq, but they will keep pushing — with or without Republican help,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Thursday, CNN reports. “GOP senators have filibustered every Democratic-led push to bring troops home from Iraq.”
• The Senate on Thursday “overwhelmingly condemned the liberal anti-war group MoveOn.org for its newspaper ad that last week accused the top U.S. general in Iraq of lying and misrepresenting the situation on the ground, a measure on which Democratic leaders had refused to allow a vote last week,” the Washington Times reports. “The nonbinding measure, offered by Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, passed by a vote of 72-25, with 24 Democrats and one independent, Bernard Sanders of Vermont, voting against it.”
• “The FBI has taped conversations between Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska and an oil company executive who has pleaded guilty to bribery, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation,” CNN reports. “The calls were between Stevens, who is up for re-election in 2008, and Bill Allen, then CEO of oilfield services firm VECO Corp., the source said Thursday.”
• “A Washington watchdog group on Thursday asked the Justice Department to investigate Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) for possible tax violations and improper use of his House office and staff,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) filed the complaint here just two days after declaring Scott among the 25 ‘most corrupt’ congressmen here for mingling personal and campaign interests, failing repeatedly to pay personal and business taxes and, as one of his former aides claimed, using his House staff to work on his campaign.”

IRAQ

• “Iraq’s Ministry of Interior has concluded that employees of a private American security firm fired an unprovoked barrage in the shooting last Sunday in which at least eight Iraqis were killed and is proposing a radical reshaping of the way American diplomats and contractors here are protected,” the New York Times reports. “In the first comprehensive account of the day’s events, the ministry said that security guards for Blackwater USA, a company that guards all senior American diplomats here, fired on Iraqis in their cars in midday traffic.”
• “Iraq wants to tighten control over security contractors after a deadly shooting incident involving the U.S. firm Blackwater, ending their long immunity from Iraqi prosecution, the Interior Ministry said” today, Reuters reports. “Spokesman Major-General Abdul-Kareem Khalaf said the ministry had drafted legislation giving it wider powers over the contractors and calling for ’severe punishment for those who fail to adhere to the…guidelines on how they should operate.’”
• “Military officials said Thursday that contracts worth $6 billion to provide essential supplies to American troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan–including food, water and shelter–were under review by criminal investigators, double the amount the Pentagon had previously disclosed,” the New York Times reports. “In addition, $88 billion in contracts and programs, including those for body armor for American soldiers and materiel for Iraqi and Afghan security forces, are being audited for financial irregularities, the officials said.”
• “The first cases of cholera appeared in Baghdad on Thursday, in a sign the epidemic that has already sickened thousands in northern Iraq is now spreading more widely in a population made vulnerable by war to a normally preventable disease,” the New York Times reports. “The World Health Organization and Iraqi Red Crescent Society reported two cases here and Iraqi television reported another case, in a 7-month-old baby, in Basra, far to the south.”

NATION

• “Tens of thousands of chanting marchers descended on the small Louisiana town of Jena on Thursday to protest the treatment of six black teenagers who allegedly beat a white classmate after a series of racially tinged incidents at the local high school,” the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. “Hailing from as far as England, protesters arrived at sunrise by the busload to rally behind the ‘Jena Six,’ as the accused teens have come to be known, in a legal case that has drawn worldwide attention.”
• “Prominent Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu violated federal election laws by reimbursing several donors for the political checks they wrote, and extracted campaign donations from others by threatening to cut their ties with a highly lucrative Ponzi scheme he oversaw, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department” on Thursday, the Washington Post reports. “A federal fraud case that the U.S. attorney for New York’s Southern District unsealed against Hsu suggests for the first time why he in a short period of time became one of the nation’s most prolific bundlers of campaign funds.”
• “A big overhang of property will bring U.S. house prices down further, but it is too early to say if the economy will plunge into recession, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan was quoted as saying” today, Reuters reports. “Greenspan said in an interview with Austrian magazine Format that low interest rates in the past 15 years were to blame for the house price bubble, but that central banks were powerless when they tried to bring it under control.”
• “A federal grand jury has subpoenaed House records connected to a one-time aide to” former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, “who has been caught up in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal,” AP reports. “The subpoena involving Ed Buckham was issued to the chief administrative officer of the House by a grand jury in Washington.”

WORLD

• “Hundreds of Islamists chanting slogans against Pakistan’s military leader rallied outside the Supreme Court” today “as judges heard petitions challenging President Gen. Pervez Musharraf right to run for re-election,” AP reports. “Opposition parties have promised to stage anti-Musharraf street protests across Pakistan” today, “claiming it would be illegal for the general, who seized power in a 1999 coup, to run.”
• “A bomb attack” today “against a convoy of French troops killed one soldier and caused many casualties among Afghans near the blast, while heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan killed about 75 Taliban fighters, officials said,” AP reports. “The attack in western Kabul blew the windows out of a civilian bus and set at least one vehicle on fire.”

Today’s Lunch - Hillary’s ‘Burger King’ Health Care Plan

Today on The Lunch, Clinton unveils her much anticipated healthcare plan, and receives much criticism for being much like the Edwards and Obama plans. As for the GOP, McCain is rebounding and sinking at the same time, Romney has a painful trip to the hospital, and yet another horse enters the race.

Click To Play

Have it your way. “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us.” That’s what Hillary Clinton’s new health care plan is all about - choices. She appears to be more interested in choices than the substance of the plan as indicated in the WaPo, her Webcast last night, and the plan’s details.

TPC Roundup - White House v. Congress

HEADLINES

• Democrats Threaten to Delay Mukasey Confirmation
• Congress Continues Negotiation on Children’s Health Bill
• Clinton Releases Health Care Plan
• Iraq Withdraws Blackwater USA License
• Muslim Charity Trial Ends
• National Foreclosures Up 36%
• Musharraf Military Command in Limbo

TPC MOST POULAR

(updated 11:41 AM ET)

Telegraph: Bush-Cheney Planning War with Iran
Will Wes Clark be Hillary’s VP?
Bush Selects Mukasey for Attorney General
Judge Mukasey and the rule of law

WASHINGTON

• “Two Senate Democrats warned Monday that the Judiciary Committee would delay confirmation of President Bush’s choice for attorney general unless the White House turned over documents that the panel was seeking for several investigations,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Bush announced the selection of Michael B. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York who has presided over several high-profile terrorism trials, during a morning Rose Garden ceremony.”
• “The White House on Monday rejected demands by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) that the administration release thousands of documents related to the U.S. attorneys scandal and other Justice Department controversies before hearings begin on” Bush’s nomination of Mukasey, Roll Call  (sub. req.) reports. “A showdown between Leahy and President Bush over largely procedural matters could turn what is widely seen as a relatively noncontroversial nomination into a political lightning rod for both parties.”
• “The White House in recent days told nearly a dozen Cabinet secretaries to send letters to Capitol Hill rejecting Democrats’ proposed new funds for their agencies, escalating a confrontation between lawmakers and President Bush over domestic spending priorities,” the Washington Post reports. “The Democratic Congress is considering 2008 spending bills that increase funding for politically popular programs including health care for veterans, education, medical research and infrastructure improvements.”
• “The top U.S. intelligence official is asking Congress for even more changes to a law that he says limited the government’s ability to eavesdrop, not just on terrorists but also on more traditional potential adversaries,” AP reports. “Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, says China and Russia are aggressively spying on sensitive U.S. facilities, intelligence systems and development projects, and their efforts are approaching Cold War levels.”
• “The White House threatened on Monday to veto a bill that would add 15 years to a post-Sept. 11 government insurance program that supporters say is critical for major projects like the new World Trade Center,” the New York Times reports. “The legislation, known as the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, was originally passed by Congress after the 2001 attacks. It is due to expire this year, and the House had planned to vote this week on a 15-year extension.”

CONGRESS

• Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday “unveiled a proposal to provide health insurance to all Americans, placing herself at the center of an issue that provided perhaps the greatest setback of her political career,” the Washington Post reports. “In a speech in Des Moines, the Democratic front-runner said she would expand insurance to the 47 million people who do not already have coverage and would attempt to reduce costs for others without spawning a massive new bureaucracy.”
• “Key lawmakers in the House and Senate negotiated into the night” on Monday “on a deal that would expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by $35 billion over the next five years,” the Washington Post reports. “That would set up a clash with President Bush, who has promised to veto such a plan.”
• “Three senators who are considered potential swing votes on war policy said Monday that a weekend visit to Iraq left them discouraged about prospects for political reconciliation there and convinced that the United States must quickly shift more responsibility for security to the Iraqi Army,” the New York Times reports. “‘We must take decisive action to force the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people to secure the peace for Iraq,’ said Senator Ken Salazar, Democrat of Colorado, as the Senate opened a pivotal debate on the war.”
• “Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) are among the biggest winners in the 2008 Appropriations defense bill, according to data gathered by The Hill and the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS),” The Hill reports. “Senate appropriators disclosed about 936 earmarks worth a combined $5.1 billion in the 2008 defense-spending bill, with top committee members in both parties securing the highest dollar amounts.”

IRAQ

• “At least 12 people were killed and 37 wounded today after Baghdad was hit by two parked car bombs and two roadside bombs, police said,” the Guardian reports. “A car bomb blew up in the centre of the Iraqi capital at 9.30am in a car park near the health ministry and the so-called Medical City complex of buildings, which includes several hospitals and a forensic institute.”
• “Blackwater USA, an American contractor that provides security to some of the top American officials in Iraq, has been banned from working in the country by the Iraqi government after a shooting that left eight Iraqis dead and involved an American diplomatic convoy,” the New York Times reports. “A spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, said Monday that authorities had canceled the company’s license and that the government would prosecute the participants.”
• “Despite efforts by U.S. forces to recruit and train women for jobs in the Iraqi security forces, just over 1,000 have been trained, many have quit and those who remain say they are struggling for acceptance,” the LA Times reports. “We’re in our posts because the Americans are here,” the army commander said. “Once they leave, we will all be out.”

NATION

• “As the government’s signature terrorism-financing trial moved toward a close here Monday, federal prosecutors reaffirmed their charge that the largest Muslim charity in the United States was not simply trying to help poor Palestinians but was in fact an arm of the radical Islamic group Hamas,” the New York Times reports. “The charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, and five of its officers have been on trial here since July 16, charged with conspiracy, money laundering and providing financial support to a foreign terrorist organization.”
• “National foreclosure filings in August were up 36 percent from July and 115 percent from August 2006, according to a market forecast out today,” the Boston Globe reports. “Nevada, California, and Florida posted the top state foreclosure rates in August, and Massachusetts was ranked 12th, said RealtyTrac, which defines foreclosure filings as default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions.”

WORLD

• “In a controversial step, election officials Monday announced a rule change under which President Pervez Musharraf would be allowed to stand for reelection while still serving as head of Pakistan’s military,” the LA Times reports. “At the same time, though, the Supreme Court began hearing legal challenges to Musharraf’s plan to remain army chief as he seeks reelection by lawmakers as head of state early next month.”
• “France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, sought Monday to tone down remarks he made in a radio and television interview the day before that the world had to prepare for possible war against Iran,” the New York Times reports. “Attacked verbally by Iran and quietly criticized within his own government, Mr. Kouchner shifted the focus away from the threat of war and back to a call for hard negotiations as the way to force Iran to abandon key nuclear activities.”
• “Every effort should be made to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but failing that, the world could live with a nuclear-armed regime in Tehran, a recently retired commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Monday,” AP reports. “John Abizaid, the retired Army general who headed Central Command for nearly four years, said he was confident that if Iran gained nuclear arms, the United States could deter it from using them.”
• “The Sept. 6 attack by Israeli warplanes inside Syria struck what Israeli intelligence believes was a nuclear-related facility that North Korea was helping to equip, according to current and former American and Israeli officials,” the New York Times reports. “Details about the Israeli assessment emerged as China abruptly canceled planned diplomatic talks in Beijing that were to set a schedule to disband nuclear facilities in North Korea.”

Eating steak, turning Baptist, and cleaning up the mess

For Lunch today, Iowa democrats serve up fried steak a la Tom Harkin, McCain gets pressed for a little straight talk, Giuliani tries to blend in (again) on race day, and we ponder the claims of Hillary’s healthcare critics.

You’ll enjoy Mitt Romney cleaning up and John “the Baptist” McCain.