Morning News
Two powerful health care interest groups yesterday urged lawmakers constructing a sweeping health care overhaul to focus on cost containment and affordability.
The Business Roundtable, an association of top Buy Cialis US business executives, issued an analysis saying the right combination of changes Congress is considering could slow health care cost growth by 15 percent to 20 percent over the next decade.
But the group warned that its support for any final bill would depend on how aggressively it constrained costs.
But the savings could be even greater if lawmakers implemented cost-containment measures - such as initiatives to pay doctors for quality and efficiency, not just for the number of treatments provided - faster and more broadly, the group said.
The roundtable’s report found that the changes under consideration could reduce average premiums by $3,000 per employee by 2019…
President Obama, who was traveling to Asia yesterday, said in a statement that the report “underscores what experts and business people have told us all along - comprehensive health insurance reform is one of the most important investments we can make in American competitiveness.”
From the Washington Post
President Obama plans to hold a White House forum on job creation next month, an attempt to signal his concern about the growing ranks of the unemployed and build consensus on future action to stoke the economy.
The summit will bring together small-business owners, corporate executives, economists, financial experts and union leaders to discuss ideas for accelerating job creation during the worst labor market conditions in a generation, Obama said Thursday.
"We all know there are limits to what government can and should do even during such difficult times," Obama said at the White House before leaving on a nine-day trip to Asia. "But we have an obligation to consider every additional, responsible step that we can to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country…"
From Roll Call
"I think there is an incredibly compelling economic, moral and political case for a major jobs initiative," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research center. "I am glad the administration is now visibly acknowledging that. I think it is very encouraging…"
Organizing for America is dispatching volunteers to the local offices of 32 House Republicans whose districts supported President Barack Obama in the 2008 election to demand that they support Obama’s health care reform initiative.
OFA volunteers will begin to drop by the offices Friday and continue doing so through the middle of next week. Among Members slated for visits are Reps. Dan Lungren and David Dreier of California, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Frank Wolf of Virginia, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Bill Young and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, and Mike Castle of Delaware.
“The message was clear in these districts: Americans want change, and they expect their Representatives to work with President Obama and reach across the aisle to help deliver it,” OFA Director Mitch Stewart said in a statement.
From the New York Times
President Obama has not made a decision about his new military strategy for Afghanistan. And the White House is happy to say so.
As Mr. Obama convened his war council for 2 hours 20 minutes on Wednesday, the final session before he departs on a trip to Asia on Thursday, he suggested that he was not satisfied with his options. Officials said that in the meeting, the eighth in the Situation Room on Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last two months, Mr. Obama pressed for clarifications on a series of questions…
While much has been made of the four military options that are on the table — all turning on how many troops to send to Afghanistan and for how long — the president also made clear that he is not yet fully satisfied with these choices and will not approve an open-ended commitment. He has also asked, officials said, that some of the options be redrafted…
Drawing on studies of how decisions were made to escalate the war in Vietnam, Mr. Obama and his aides seem intent on showing the nation and the world that he is not being rushed by the military, nor making a judgment without considering the long-term implications.