Obama Administration Must Pay For Afghanistan Mission Says Liberal Think Tank

By Leah Valencia - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Several Center for American Progress (CAP) officials said during a conference call Monday that the United States must find a sustainable method to fund the cost of the war and military aid in Afghanistan.

“It is important, and I can’t stress it enough, that we do not continue to accumulate more debt and borrow more money to deal with this situation,” said CAP Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb.

The CAP discussion took place on the day before President Barack Obama is scheduled to reveal his new strategy in Afghanistan. With military operations expenditures in Afghanistan on the rise - current costs amount to an average of $3.6 billion per month - Obama has been under pressure to explain how the U.S. will continue to fund future efforts there.

“It has been a disgrace that we have fought these two extended conflicts, in Iraq and Afghanistan, without paying for them; it is time to stop that now,” Korb said. “This is the first extended conflict we fought, where we have basically borrowed money.”

Obama is expected to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, 10,000 fewer than were requested earlier this year by NATO Commander General Stanley McChrystal.

White House budget director Peter Orszag has estimated that sending an additional 30,000 troops there will cost the U.S. an additional $30 billion dollars a year.

House Democrats Call For Reform Of U.S. Trade Agreements

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Members of the House Trade Working Group called on the Obama administration Wednesday to review current U.S. trade agreements and push for a trade overhaul in the upcoming World Trade Organization ministerial meeting.

“We want to work together to develop a trade agenda that we can all be proud of,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) during a press conference.

Rep. Michael Michaud (D-Maine) and Slaughter said they want Obama to live up to campaign promises on trade by dismissing the Doha round trade liberalization talks, agreements aimed at lowering trade barriers for developing countries, and start a compete overhaul that focuses on labor rights for American workers.

“As our nation's representatives prepare to head to Geneva, we want them to know that the trade act not only represents a way here at home, it also mirrors calls from many WTO countries to turn around the WTO,” said Michaud. “This represents exactly what many nations have called for at WTO: a review of the existing views and the will to fix what is broken.”

Earlier this year Michaud introduced a legislation that calls for a review of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central Free Trade Agreement. The bill has support from nearly half of the House Democratic Caucus.

“Even our trading partners are astonished that all these years we have watched our country away decline without making a peep,” said Slaughter. “We have just gave away, gave away, gave away.”

Though President Barack Obama has not addressed trade agreements recently, he will meet with the WTO general council in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the WTO trading system and the global economic climate on Nov. 30.

Reducing Trade Barriers Critical To Spreading Green Technology, Says Experts

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Rapid advancement of technology coupled with reduced trade barriers are the most important factors in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, witnesses told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing Tuesday.

“An agreement that focuses on technology offers a path forward that developed and developing countries can embrace, “ said Karen Harbert, President and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy.

Harbert said during her testimony that an effort to reduce global tariffs and non-tariff barriers on clean energy goods and services is essential in ensuring that alternate energy technologies can penetrate the global marketplace.

“Future growth of the U.S. clean energy economy will depend on access to foreign markets,” Jake Colvin, Vice President of the National Foreign Trade Council said in his testimony. “Demand for environmental goods and services is growing rapidly in developing countries, which offer significant opportunities for U.S. companies.”

Colvin explained that U.S. exporters are currently facing disproportionally high tariffs that impede their ability to sell environmental goods and services abroad.

“Reducing these impediments would allow U.S. companies to capture a larger share of the the more than $600 billion environmental goods and services market,” Colvin said.

President Barack Obama expressed reservations earlier this year about tariff provisions included in the House climate legislation, the House bill would levy tariffs beginning in 2020 on environmental goods and services from countries that have not committed to control greenhouse gas emissions.

Senate Democrats who represent states dependent on manufacturing have said they will not vote for a bill that does not include “border adjustments” to safe-keep U.S. presence in the market.

Agreements regarding trade policy will be a critical component as to what the U.S. will commit to during the United Nation's climate conference in Copenhagen in December, where 190 nations will draft an agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Pro-Choice Religious Leaders Denounce Stupak Amendment

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service


Leaders of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice urged U.S. Senators Monday to remove language from the final health care reform bill that restricts federal funding for abortion.

“Health care reform that attacks the rights of more than half of the population by subjecting some of their most basic and intimate decisions to a large and powerful church’s governing body is not reform at all,” said Barry Lynn, Executive Director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, during a morning press conference hosted by the National Press Club.

While the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, an organization with members from a variety of religious backgrounds, advocated women's reproductive rights, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pushed House leaders to amend their bill to prohibit abortion coverage.

The Stupak-Pitts amendment, included in the House bill, restricts abortion coverage in a government-run insurance plan as well as in private plans funded by government subsidies.

“How surprising and appalling to see that a provision designed to curtail women’s right to abortion was slipped into the health care bill at the behest of a powerful religious group, a provision that reflects the doctrine of that group,” Lynn said.

President Barack Obama has remarked that he does not believe health care reform should change the “status quo” in regards to abortion. However, many moderate Senate Democrats say they will urge firm restrictions on abortion funding in the final health care bill.

Obama has not commented as to whether he will sign a bill with language that prohibits abortion funding.

State Department Spokesman Says Progress Has Been Made Toward Closing Gitmo

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

State department spokesman Phillip Crowley said Friday that International efforts to relocate detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility is progressing.

“We remain committed to close Guantanamo,” Crowley said in a briefing at the Foreign Press Center. “We‘re gratified at the cooperation and support that we have received from a variety of countries over the last couple months.”

Crowley did not specify how many detainees have been moved, but said the State Department is working to find a place for all detainees that are cleared to be removed.

“There are still significant blocks of detainees that we are still trying to determine what we might be able to do with them,” Crowley said.

Closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has been a priority of the Obama administration since the president took office in January, but Obama has been criticized by progressive Americans for working too slowly to move the prisoners.

“Obviously, it has become more of a challenge than might have been anticipated, but clearly we are committed to the closing of Guantanamo as soon as we can.”

Crowley also commented on last week's Fort Hood shooting, saying that, though the suspected shooter has been identified as a Muslim man, the military will not start to discriminate based on religion, and he does not expect it to affect enlistment.

“I certainly do not think that the fact that the suspect is of a particular faith should in any way effect the willingness of American citizens, regardless of their ethic background or faith, to want to serve in the United States military,” Crowley said.