Graham Climbs Aboard Climate Change Bandwagon

By Ravi Bhatia - Talk Radio News Service

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has teamed up with Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to find common ground on creating bipartisan climate change legislation, with hopes of making progress before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next month.

“The green economy is coming. We can either follow or lead,” Graham said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Those countries who follow will pay a price. those countries who lead in creating a new green economy for the world will make money.”

Graham and Kerry wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times published on Oct. 11 that highlighted some of the goals of the legislation, which include acknowledging that climate change is real, investing in wind, solar and nuclear energy and breaking U.S dependence on foreign oil.

Republicans boycotted the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee markups of the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act on Tuesday and Wednesday in an attempt to urge the committee to submit the legislation to the Environmental Protection Agency for economic analysis. Ranking member Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) was the lone Republican to attend Wednesday’s meeting, although he departed after only 15 minutes.

“I do believe that all of the cars we have on the road and the trucks and the energy we use that produces carbon daily is not a good thing for the planet,” Graham said. “But if environmental policy is not good business policy you’ll never get 60 votes.”

According to Lieberman, the stakes are “too high” to wait on drafting climate change legislation.

“We will be held accountable by history unless we make every effort to find common ground,” he said.

Joe Wilson Announces Amendment To Force Congress To Use Public Option

By Ravi Bhatia, Talk Radio News Service

If the public option on health care is viable and sustainable for the American people, then members of Congress and the Senate should sacrifice their own federal health benefits and use it themselves, said Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and other House Republicans Wednesday.

“If this government-run plan is so good, why don’t members of Congress take the plan?” asked Wilson, during a press conference promoting an amendment to the Affordable Health Care For All Americans Act requiring all members of the House and Senate subscribe to the public insurance option offered by the legislation.

While Wilson admittedly does not support the public option, the proposed amendment is being interpreted as a way to make a point to Wilson's Democratic colleagues.

“We know why the majority of the 'Pelosi takeover bill' does not provide this,” Wilson continued. “They do know that the government-run option will not be in the interest of the American people, either individually or for the American citizens at large. I’m just very hopeful that they’ll reconsider, that they will understand if it’s good enough for the American people, it’s good enough for Congress.”

Wilson added that the House is “shoving this bill through.”

Wilson went on to say that the House is “shoving this bill through.”

“Speaker Pelosi still has not informed us about what the amendment process will be for this bill,” Wilson said in a statement released Wednesday. “An issue as important as a health care overhaul that will impact every American is much too important through rush through without transparency or a democratic amendment process.”

Wilson garnered controversy when he shouted the phrase "you lie" during President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress in September.

Small Business Owners Make Case For Insurance Reform Before Senate HELP Committee

By Ravi Bhatia-Talk Radio News Service

Small business owners testified in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Tuesday in an attempt by the committee to find methods for reducing the ever-increasing health insurance costs facing small businesses.

“Today, I’m announcing my own investigation into the pricing practices of health insurance companies that sell policies to small businesses,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), HELP Committee Chairman. “Health insurance companies should open their books, explain to the American people why they support a health insurance market for small businesses that is so dysfunctional and so lacking in transparency.”

Harkin argued that the legislation presented by the Senate would create health insurance exchanges that pool small business together and increase competition, also making health insurance more transparent.

“Small businesses pay 18 percent more then large businesses for exactly same insurance plan and coverage. The [exact] same policy,” he said.

Art Cullen, editor of the Storm Lake Times in Storm Lake, Iowa, accepted a $5,000 deductible on services provided by a hospital in order to keep costs manageable for his small business. The deductible forces cancer patients covered by the policy to pay $2,500 out-of-pocket for a shot at a local hospital - or to drive to the next town in order to pay $25 for the same shot at a clinic. The insurance prices, he said, drive down the potential revenue that the town could have earned from treating the patient at the local hospital.

“We need more insurance competition in the rural marketplace by knocking down state cartels,” he said. “We need to know that a single health catastrophe will not bankrupt us and bring down everything we have worked for over the past 20 years.”

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, Chair of the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners, said that the cost of health care is rising rapidly and that insurance companies have little ability to address the issues.

“The challenge moving forward will be to overhaul the delivery system to promote prevention, quality and results-based care to encourage healthy lifestyles and to eliminate waste and fraud in the system,” said Praeger. “The difficulties in the small group market, as in the individual market, are ultimately the result of medical spending that has outstripped the ability of most Americans to pay for it.”

VA Gubernatorial Race Not Indicative Of Changing National Mood

By Ravi Bhatia - Talk Radio News Service

Joseph Figueroa at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics says that today's Gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey and the Congressional election in upstate New York reflect little on national political trends. Figueroa's sentiment conflicts with Republicans who believe that GOP victories in the three races would serve as a referendum of sorts on the job performance of President Barack Obama.

“You really have to take the results for what they are, as a reflection of the campaign that the two candidates ran,” said Figueroa, referring to the race for governor in Virginia. “I don’t think you can really extrapolate a whole lot in terms of national or even state trends because Virginia is a purple state, and it’s gonna remain so for a while.”

In Virginia, polls suggest that former state Attorney General and Republican candidate Bob McDonnell holds a double-digit lead over Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds. In New Jersey, the race between incumbent Democratic Governor John Corzine and his challenger, Republican Chris Christie, remains deadlocked.

“New Jersey is a blue state - it’s dark blue,” Figueroa said. “It’ll be interesting to see because Christie did have a bit of an upswing in the polls at the very end there. But it is a deadlocked race. That’ll be the one to watch tonight.”

In New York’s 23rd Congressional District, Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava dropped out of the race after being outpolled by Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. She has since endorsed Democrat Bill Owens.

“A lot of the people who were inclined to support Scozzafava because she’s running under the Republican banner may not be so quick to vote for Owens because of their own ideals,” Figueroa continued. “It’s gonna be really interesting to see - they have a very difficult to decision to make.”

The polls close in Virginia at 7 p.m. tonight. In New Jersey, the polls close at 8 p.m. and in New York, they close at 9 p.m.

U.S. Should Not Scale Back Efforts In Afghanistan In Face Of Election Cancellation, Says Analyst

By Ravi Bhatia - Talk Radio News Service

Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., told Talk Radio News Service Monday that it would be a mistake for the United States to scale back its military efforts in Afghanistan after Hamid Karzai was declared President for another term by Afghanistan’s election commission.

“The whole election debacle was a setback for international efforts in Afghanistan,” Curtis said in a telephone interview. “That said, U.S stakes in the region are far too high to allow the imperfect election to cause us to think about scaling back the mission there.”

Karzai’s competitor, Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race Sunday, citing the risk of voter fraud.

General Stanley McChrystal has requested 44,000 more troops in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama is expected to adopt a military strategy in the coming weeks.