House Republicans Urge President To Hold Off On Climate Change Negotiations

By Marianna Levyash- Talk Radio News Service

House Republican Conference Chair Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and several other Republican members Tuesday touted a letter to President Barack Obama written by GOP leaders urging the president to restrain from making political agreements at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit that the administration may not be able to keep.

The letter expresses concern that such negotiations could spur “a negative impact on the American economy and specifically for small businesses and the manufacturing and agricultural sectors.”

In a statement released Monday, Pence said “the president must [...] address how reducing carbon emissions will affect our struggling small businesses, manufacturers and farmers. Further, developing countries have pledged to protect their growing economies from international carbon caps.”

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) took Tuesday's appearance to refer to a group of hacked emails in which scientists allegedly manipulated global warming data.

“The UN should step back until the ClimateGate scandal is over,” said Sensenbrenner.

Farm Union Leaders Advocate For Healthcare Reform

By Marianna Levyash - Talk Radio News Service

In a phone interview with Talk Radio News Service on Tuesday, National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson expressed his support for health care reform and explained why it is necessary for rural Americans working in agriculture.

“We have a system that we have long felt is broken,” said Johnson. “It is even more difficult for rural America because we have less access...fewer health care professionals and farmers and ranchers in particular are older and in a riskier occupation, and both of these things cost more.”

According to Johnson, the NFU has long supported a single-payer universal coverage system. Johnson said that the nation's current healthcare system fails farmers because policies are either too expensive for them to purchase, or they are denied coverage due to having pre-existing medical conditions.

“We are strong supporters of the public option because that’s the closest thing to what we actually want," he said.

Johnson added that he would like Congress to pass healthcare legislation that mirrors what other nations such as Canada and Great Britain have.

Experts Analyze Pros And Cons Of Health Care Reform

By Marianna Levyash - Talk Radio News Service

Sara Collins of the Commonwealth Fund and Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation shared their differences over the costs and benefits of health care reform during a briefing held Friday at the Alliance for Health Reform headquarters in Washington, D.C..

The Commonwealth Fund recently released a study on how effective the system reform provisions are in the House and Senate bills. They found that both bills are practical and contain key provisions that target cost and quality.

“Both bills substantially expand coverage to 94-96% of people...the major effect is on the uninsured,” said Collins.

Butler disagreed, arguing that both bills will create “troubling areas of affordability in legislation.” Specifically, Butler expressed disapproval over proposals involving higher taxes and employee insurance mandates.

“We will soon see pressures to afford other things in our economy,” said Butler. “The cost is squeezing out funds to have for our education and other goals that we have in our society.”

Legal Analyst Says Cyber-Bullying Legislation Needs Focus

By Marianna Levyash - Talk Radio News Service

In a phone interview with Talk Radio News Service Thursday, Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Research Fellow Brian W. Walsh said that language used in the federal cyber-bullying bill, introduced earlier this year by Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), is overly broad.

"The terms [in the bill]...don’t have a precise, clear, accepted, generally agreed upon definition in federal law,” said Walsh.

Sanchez drafted the “The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act” in response to the death of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl from Missouri who committed suicide in 2006 after being cyber-bullied on the social networking site MySpace by a woman named Lori Drew, the mother of one of Meier's classmates. Drew was indicted and convicted on charges stemming from the incident in 2008, but was later acquitted in 2009.

The bill has received mixed reviews from a handful of members of Congress who have argued that it uses vague terms and would cause potential violations of free speech rights.

“We need to be extremely careful before heading down this path,” said Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) during a House subcommittee hearing on the legislation back in September.

The bill would amend the federal criminal code to allow criminal penalties to be levied upon anyone that “transmits in interstate or foreign commerce a communication intended to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to another person, by using electronic means.”

“We are going to end up criminalizing conduct that shouldn’t be criminal in the first place...it’s easy to draft an overbroad criminal law,” said Walsh.

GOP Senators Worry About Cost Of Health Care Bill

By Marianna Levyash - Talk Radio News Service

Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) displayed concern over the high cost of the Senate health care bill during a press conference Thursday.

According to statistics Gregg obtained from the Senate Budget Committee, the bill increases federal spending by $1.2 trillion between now and 2019, and if fully implemented, it would cost over $2.5 trillion over the next ten years.

“This representation that it’s an $850 million dollar bill is simply wrong,” said Gregg.

Republicans opposed to the legislation say taxes will go up by nearly $500 billion, Medicare will be cut by $465 billion and that 24 million people will still be left uninsured.

“Revenues shouldn’t go to create a new entitlement, they should go to reduce the out-year already contingent unfunded liability that we have in Medicare,” stated Gregg.

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill this coming Saturday.