Think Progress

HEALTH CARE -- BAYH: 'I'M AGNOSTIC' ABOUT HAVING A PUBLIC PLAN AS PART OF HEALTH CARE REFORM: On Fox News Sunday yesterday, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) trashed the idea of including a new public health insurance plan as part of health care reform, saying it was "exactly the opposite way" to improve health care in America. "We don't need more money," said Coburn. "What we need is true markets that will allocate this resource and create a way for everyone to have access." Host Chris Wallace then asked Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) about "private sector" concerns that a public option would mean "that everybody will end up in the government program." Bayh replied that he was "agnostic" about including a public plan in reform. "It's a debate we need to have," said Bayh. Coburn argued that the main problem with health care in America is that "we haven't allowed market forces to allocate resources." But as former Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) told The Progress Report recently, "the free market does not work in health care, except in very perverse ways. So, you have to find a system that works better in addition to the free market." This is why Dean has argued that health reform "rises and falls on whether the public is allowed to choose" a public option. Indeed, as Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Peter Harbage and Director of Health Policy Karen Davenport recently wrote, "there's no question a public plan within a public exchange is necessary." By saying that he is "agnostic" about a public plan, Bayh appeared to be aligning himself with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), who told The Wonk Room's Igor Volsky last month that he believes health care reform can be accomplished "without" a public plan. "But we may have to have it, [Dean] may be right. Just don't know yet," conceded Baucus.

JUSTICE -- OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DEFENDS ABILITY TO IMPRISON DETAINEES INDEFINITELY: Early this month, a federal judge ruled that "some prisoners held by the United States military in Afghanistan have a right to challenge their imprisonment," citing the legal right to habeas corpus that the U.S. Supreme Court granted to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison. However, on Friday, the Obama administration said it would appeal the ruling, signaling that it "was not backing down on its efforts to maintain a the power to imprison terrorism suspects for extended periods without judicial oversight." In an editorial slamming the Obama administration's position, the New York Times today wrote, "In the absence of a fair review process that complies with international and military law, there is no reason to feel confident that everyone detained at Bagram deserves to be there." Salon's Glenn Greenwald remarked on Obama's evolution on the issue, noting that when the Supreme Court granted habeas rights to Guantanamo prisoners last fall, Obama praised the Court's "rejection of the Bush Administration's attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo." In fact, speaking on the Senate floor in 2006, Obama declared, "But restricting somebody's right to challenge their imprisonment indefinitely is not going to make us safer. In fact, recent evidence shows it is probably making us less safe."

ECONOMY -- KRUGMAN CALLS OUT GOP HYPOCRISY ON JOB CREATION AND DEFENSE CUTS: In February, only three Republican senators broke party ranks to vote for the economic recovery package. Zero House Republicans voted for passage. Part of their opposition centered around their supposed belief that an increase in government spending would do nothing to create jobs. "Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job," RNC Chairman Michael Steele declared. "Instead of focusing on three major issues -- job creation, housing and compassion for Americans who have lost jobs through no fault of their own -- to boost the economy, this bill has morphed into a bloated government giveaway," Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said similarly. However, when Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced plans to freeze production of the F-22 at the current 187 planes -- down from the 381 planes the government was expected to order -- many of these same conservatives were up in arms over the jobs they said would be lost. Chambliss, in particular, said that he was concerned people in his state would lose jobs if F-22 production was cut, because "when it comes to stimulating the economy, there's no better way to do it than to spend it in the defense community." Yesterday on ABC's This Week, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called out this hypocrisy. "What's so wonderful is watching Republican congressmen saying, 'But this will cost jobs!' The very same Republican congressmen who were denouncing the stimulus, saying government spending never creates jobs, but cutting defense spending costs jobs," he explained. Military correspondent David Axe has pointed out that very few workers are likely to lose their jobs because of Gates's announcement.

The Obama administration plans to "ratchet up pressure on Congress to pass climate change legislation this year by declaring its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the Environmental Protection Agency." In 2007, the Supreme Court said the EPA could regulate CO2 emissions, and Obama "has given the EPA the green light" to declare them a danger to public health and welfare.

In Afghanistan, Ahmad Wali Karzai, a female provincial legislator, "was shot dead Sunday in the restive southern province of Kandahar." A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred as she was heading home from work.

Prosecutorial misconduct in former Alaska senator Ted Stevens's case does not mean he is "innocent." One of the jurors in the case, Colleen Walsh, wrote on her blog as if speaking to Stevens: "You may be innocent on corruption charges which were never brought up. But you are still guilty of not disclosing some of your major gifts to the public."

"The private student lending industry and its allies in Congress are maneuvering to thwart a plan by President Obama to end a subsidized loan program and redirect billions of dollars in bank profits to scholarships for needy students." The private loan industry "has begun lobbying aggressively to save a program that has generated giant profits with very little risk."

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) is pushing the House Republicans' message through a coordinated and disciplined group of committee-level communications staffers. Boehner's spokesman said the communications meetings were part of his '"entrepreneurial insurgency' tactics to communicate Republicans' better solutions to the American people." "The committee communicators are in the vanguard of that effort," he said.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, laid-off workers over the age of 45 “were out of work 22.2 weeks in 2008, compared with 16.2 weeks for younger workers." Further, after finding new employment, "they typically experience a much steeper drop in earnings than their younger counterparts."

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said on CNN yesterday that the U.S. is on track to withdraw combat troops by August 2010 but the pace could adjust depending on stability. He added that U.S. troops may have to remain in Iraqi cities after the June 31 deadline but said "ultimately it will be the decision of Prime Minister Maliki."