memeorandum: Iran Simmers, America Moves On (Wall Street Journal)

4:05 PM ET, July 16, 2009

Top Items:

CBO Sees No Federal Cost Savings in Dem Health Plans — ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: — Here's a blow to President Obama and Democrats pressing health care reform. — One of the main arguments made by the President and others for investing in health reform now is that it will save …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Political Punch, Townhall.com, Hot Air, TPMDC, Weekly Standard, MoJo Blog Posts, KeithHennessey.com and AmSpecBlog

New York Post:

DEM HEALTH RX A POI$ON PILL IN NY — TERRIFYING 57% TAX LOOMS FOR BIGGEST EARNERS — Congressional plans to fund a massive health-care overhaul could have a job-killing effect on New York, creating a tax rate of nearly 60 percent for the state's top earners and possibly pressuring small-business owners to shed workers.

Discussion: neo-neocon, Right Pundits, JammieWearingFool, Don Surber, The Daily Dish, Atlas Shrugs, On Deadline, Concurring Opinions, The Awl, Gawker, JONATHAN TURLEY, Political Punch, Power Line, Cold Fury and Slate

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

CBO Chief Criticizes Democrats' Health Reform Measures — Director Says Proposed Changes Would Weaken Economy — Instead of saving the federal government from fiscal catastrophe, the health reform measures being drafted by congressional Democrats would worsen an already bleak budget outlook …

Discussion: The Hill, Matthew Yglesias, Washington Monthly, Ezra Klein, The Foundry, Wizbang, YID With LID and Arkansas News

New York Times:

Health Care Vote Illustrates Partisan Divide — WASHINGTON — A party-line Senate committee vote on legislation to remake the nation's health care system underscored the absence of political consensus on what would be the biggest changes in social policy in more than 40 years.

Discussion: The Politico, The Note, Time, Top Stories from CQ, The Hill, ABCNEWS, The Caucus, NewsBusters.org, Washington Monthly, Althouse, TigerHawk, Firedoglake, Cato @ Liberty, OpenSecrets.org, Wonk Room, ParaPundit, Washington Post and Political Punch

Jonathan Cohn / The Treatment:

BREAKING: AMA Endorses House Bill. — Via Health Care for America Now: The American Medical Association just sent a letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, endorsing the health reform proposal put forward by three House committees. — This is unexpected. Or, at least, I wasn't expecting it.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Paul Krugman, AmSpecBlog and MoJo Blog Posts

The Note:
They're baaack — New ‘Harry and Louise’ Ad Is for Health Care Reform

Discussion: Emaxhealth and Washington Wire

Erica Werner / Associated Press:
House Democrats set to vote on health care bill

Discussion: The Foundry, TPMDC, Say Anything and Associated Press

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Baucus: Bipartisan health deal close

Discussion: The Caucus, The Sundries Shack and The Page

Keith Hennessey / The Politico:
Wrong health reform will hurt economy

Discussion: American Power, Republican Leader John Boehner and Scared Monkeys

Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
Obama Wants Medicare Reimbursement Rates Out of Congressional Hands

Discussion: WSJ.com, Sweetness & Light, msnbc.com and Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal:
Big Pharma Gets Played

Discussion: Commentary

IBDeditorials.com:

It's Not An Option — Congress: It didn't take long to run into an “uh-oh” moment when reading the House's “health care for all Americans” bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal. — IBD Exclusive Series: Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For Failure

Mike Soraghan / The Hill:

Blue Dogs threaten to bring down Pelosi's healthcare bill — Centrist Democrats are threatening to oppose their party's healthcare legislation unless House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accepts changes that make the bill more to their liking. — Seven Blue Dogs on the House Energy …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, The Politico, The Anchoress, DownWithTyranny!, Wake up America, Open Congress, Gateway Pundit, A Certain Enthusiasm, The Strata-Sphere, Below The Beltway, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Jules Crittenden, Obsidian Wings, Shakesville and Riehl World View

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

Contradictory Objections from the Blue Dogs — One thing that's clear from reading today's news is that Representative Mike Ross (D-AR) is very upset about the House health care bill and is planning to lead a bloc of Blue Dog Dems on the Energy & Commerce Committee to vote against it unless major changes happen.

Discussion: Arkansas News, NOW! Blog, Taylor Marsh and Grasping Reality …

Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit:
UH OH: … Read the whole thing. — UPDATE: Reader Patrick Ying disagrees:

Discussion: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Dday / Hullabaloo:
The Blue Dogs Go To Work

Discussion: CNN, Ezra Klein, Roll Call and Zandar Versus The Stupid

John Yoo / Wall Street Journal:

Why We Endorsed Warrantless Wiretaps — The inspectors general report ignores history and plays politics with the law. — Printer — Friendly — It was instantly clear after Sept. 11, 2001, that our security agencies knew little about al Qaeda's inner workings …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Anonymous Liberal, The Washington Independent, Emptywheel, No More Mister Nice Blog, Think Progress, The Note, At-Largely, Power Line, The Opinionator, TalkLeft, ATTACKERMAN and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Romney Edges Palin, Huckabee in Early 2012 GOP Test — Palin's favorable rating stable after announcement of her resignation — PRINCETON, NJ — About one in four Republicans and Republican-leaning independents make Mitt Romney their top choice for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination …

Discussion: The Note, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Plum Line, The Fix, Washington Wire, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Newsweek Blogs, race42008.com, GOP 12, The Swamp, msnbc.com, The Page and Swampland

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

Video: Witness rips Boxer for racial condescension — Red meat by the slab, folks! Barbara Boxer wound up getting reamed by Harry Alford, the chair of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, after attempting to challenge his testimony on energy policy. When Boxer started waving position papers …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Townhall.com and Say Anything

Michael O'Brien / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Black Chamber head slams Boxer words as ‘racial,’ ‘condescending’ and ‘God awful’

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and Weasel Zippers

Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:

Up Next: Biden vs. Cantor — Vice President Biden plans a political broadside this afternoon in the home district of Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), accusing the senior Republican lawmaker of joining in his party's smear of the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Washington Monthly and Weekly Standard

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
REDEFINING BIPARTISANSHIP.... At a White House event yesterday …

Discussion: Slate and WhiteHouse.gov Blog

Buzz Aldrin / Washington Post:

40 Years After Apollo 11 Moon Landing, It's Time for a Mission to Mars — On the spring morning in 1927 when Charles Lindbergh set off alone across the Atlantic Ocean, only a handful of explorer-adventurers were capable of even attempting the feat. Many had tried before Lindbergh's successful flight …

Discussion: Boston Globe, Climate Progress, Reason, Below The Beltway, Liberal Values, American Power, Right Wing Nut House, Newshoggers.com, Guardian and Balloon Juice

Ned Potter / ABCNEWS:
Apollo 11: Was This Trip Necessary?

Discussion: The Sundries Shack, Sweetness & Light and Global News Blog

Wall Street Journal:

Iran Simmers, America Moves On — Hillary says it's time to engage Mahmoud. — Printer — Friendly — That didn't take long. President Obama last week gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an autumn deadline to negotiate over Iran's nuclear program. “We remain ready to engage with Iran …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Gateway Pundit and CNN

Zahra Hosseinian / Reuters:
Ahmadinejad: Iran will “bring down” Western foes

Discussion: Guardian, The New Editor, LewRockwell.com Blog, Truthdig and Weasel Zippers

Lisa Lerer / The Politico:

AIG: Where's the outrage? — After American International Group paid out $165 million in bonuses to top executives in March, Congress exploded in a political orgy of outrage. — “How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?” asked President Barack Obama.

Discussion: Think Progress

Andy Borowitz / The Huffington Post:
Goldman Sachs in Talks to Acquire Treasury Department

Discussion: Concurring Opinions and MyDD

Sarah Van Schagen / Grist:

How should you talk to your cab driver about cap-and-trade? 16 — TWITTER - NEWSVINE - GOOGLE BOOKMARKS - STUMBLEUPON — During my travels to the Rothbury Music Festival, I ended up in a cab in Grand Rapids, Mich., with a very cranky driver who wanted to talk ... about cap-and-trade …

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias: Cap, Trade, and Taxis

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Sotomayor hearings: Word count — Senators out-talk her 2 to 1 — Yada yada yada. According to some politics blog — we'll call it Top of the Ticket — that's been publishing the entire transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, MN Progressive Project and DISSENTING JUSTICE

CNN:
Sotomayor told she's no radical

Discussion: Above the Law, Wonkette, Room for Debate and SCOTUSblog

Carol E. Lee / The Politico:

Obama losing his cool? — It's been a tough week for President Obama's cool factor. — Not only is he weathering criticism of his policies, but the Cool One has also taken a few dings to his immaculate image in recent days. — It started on Monday. Speaking at the White House …

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

US Unemployment Benefits in International Context — Gary Burtless has an interesting paper reviewing the social safety net measures in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. If you read the paper you'll see that even though these elements of ARRA have gotten less discussion …

Discussion: Economist's View

Brookings Institute: Social Protection for the Economic Crisis: The U.S. Experience

CNN:

Hillary Clinton almost out of the red — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Hillary Clinton is almost debt free from her failed bid for the presidency. — According to reports filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, Clinton's 2007-2008 campaign for the White House is now only $1.5 million in the red.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Wonkette and Salon

Aram Roston / The Huffington Post:

CIA Supervisor Claimed He Used Fire Ants On Detainee — A recently released legal memo describing interrogation techniques showed that Bush Administration lawyers had approved the use of “insects” in interrogations. “You would like to place [Abu] Zubaydeh in a cramped confinement box with an insect …

Discussion: Wonkette and The Washington Independent