Health Care And Student Loan Reform Could Be Passed By Reconciliation

By Sofia Sanchez University of New Mexico/ Talk Radio News Service

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Thursday that the Senate could couple a student loan bill with health care reform legislation and pass both by reconciliation.

“We are entitled to do both health care and education by reconciliation,” Reid said. “But ... I want the [Democratic] caucus to make that decision. I don’t want to do it on an arbitrary basis.”

The student loan reform bill, pushed by House Education Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), would limit the authority that banks have over student loans.

Reid declined to speculate whether members of the lower chamber were concerned that the Senate would not act on a reconciliation package if members were to approve the Senate’s unpopular health care legislation.

“I have a lot of difficulties doing what I can to maintain the Senate as an orderly body. I am not going to get into the House and how they are going to vote,” said Reid.

Powerful Tandem Urges Passage Of Global Health "Bill"

By Sofia Sanchez
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Former President Bill Clinton along with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday in favor of legislation that would increase support for President Barack Obama’s Global Health Initiative (GHI).

The President’s FY2011 budget calls for $9.5 billion to be designated for the GHI. Although this number would make the U.S. the world's largest contributor financially to fighting global health issues, it may not be a realistic endeavor for the administration to take on right now.

Clinton and Gates recognized the country has a tight budget to work with next year, but stressed the importance of adequately funding the GHI.

“It is a very good bill, and I think it is the next logical step,” said Clinton. "But it reflects the budget constraints under which Congress labors.

The GHI would focus on worldwide HIV/AIDS prevention, family health, life-saving vaccines, science and technology innovation and tackling poverty.

Clinton said developing nations need to be able to get on “their own two feet, and move away from being dependent," in order to address their own health needs.

“24 percent of the world's health care problems are in Africa and only three percent of medical personnel are [there],” said the former President.

However, recruiting and training medical personnel in developing countries is one of the goals within the GHI. “Its purpose is to help the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of hunger and poverty,” said Gates, who recently reclaimed his title of world's richest man.

Immigration Advocates To Obama: Stop Deportations Now!

By Sofia Sanchez
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

As President Barack Obama meets tonight with U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over comprehensive Immigration reform, advocates for the issue called on the President and Congress to stop the deportation of Illegal immigrants until a bill is passed.

Representatives of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement are disappointed with the Obama administration over the number of deportations from the U.S. since he took office.

There have been 387,790 deportations of illegal immigrants under Obama averaging out to 1,000 per day, this number is significantly larger to President Bush's average of 650 deportations per day during his second term.

“Many of us celebrated the historic election of Barack Obama, and believed that this election would bring justice to immigrants and their families,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “We believed when he promised to fix our broken immigration system. He said he would do this in his first year in office, yet in his first year the Obama Administration has deported 387,000 people.”

The administration is in danger of losing the Latino vote, said Nitza Segui Albino with the National Alliance of Latin Americans and Caribbean Communities. “The Democrats think they have us... they don’t, if you do the right thing you have us, if you don’t do the right thing you don’t have us,” she said.

Pramila Jatapal is the executive director of One America. “We are out of time and out of patience and we are ready to push forward all of the power we have collected in the states across our country to make sure that we really are going to get this change we were promised,” she said.

February Job Numbers: Caused By Heavy Snow, Or A Blizzard Of Bad Policy?

By Sofia Sanchez -University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

While the White House says last month's 'snowpocalypse' helped keep the nation's unemployment rate at nearly 10%, a Republican from Texas attributed the numbers on Friday to a "blizzard of bad policy proposals."

“The administration attempted to spin these numbers as a result of storms in the northeast, but in truth it is a blizzard of bad policy proposals, higher taxes, health care mandates [and] dangerous levels of debt that is the real reason businesses are delaying key investments in hiring,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), during a Joint Economic Committee hearing on the newly-released statistics.

Brady's remarks disputed those of White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Dr. Christina Romer, who said Friday that the snow did play a factor in keeping businesses from operating, and people from working.

“As many analysts have discussed in recent weeks, the large snowstorms in the Mid-Atlantic region in mid-February likely had a substantial negative impact in this number,” she said.

In a statement released Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) agreed with Romer's assessment.

“It’s widely acknowledged that this number [36,000] would have been better except for the snowstorms that hit the Northeast last month."

Administration officials and Democrats in Congress contend that the weather forced individuals to miss work, thereby keeping them off monthly payrolls. Brady, however, said he doesn't buy that argument.

“I know the President and Congress are well-intentioned in all these efforts [to restore jobs], but I am puzzled by the President's economic approach. I don’t know what you call it, maybe ‘Blame-onomics?'"

Democratic Party Not In Crisis, Health Care Bill Will Satisfy Members, Says Pelosi

By Sofia Sanchez
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Despite the fact that the recently-resigned head of the House Ways and Means Committee and his possible replacement are both engulfed in controversy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) downplayed any concerns that she may be leading a party in crisis.

“I feel very strong, we have been very effective in terms of passing the full Obama agenda in 2009. The House Democrats stepped up to the plate," said Pelosi on Thursday.

The Speaker said she and other top Democrats in the House have put the scandal involving Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) -- who earlier this week, after being found guilty by an ethics committee of accepting corporate junkets to the Caribbean, announced that he would be taking a temporary leave from his chairmanship of the tax writing committee -- “behind us." Pelosi promised that work on health care reform and a jobs bill would continue to be a top priority for the House.

“Our members are strong, and they know that we have to be stronger on our message as to what it is we’ve done,” she said. “We have a new chairman of the Ways and Means committee, that is a big change.”

Pelosi, however, was not referring to Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), the number two on the committee before Rangel stepped down. Stark, who has also faced ethics inquiries in the past, announced on Thursday that he would decline the job of committee chair, deferring to the committee's number three person Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.).

When asked if she still intended to honor her 2006 pledge to preside over the most ethical Congress in history, Pelosi responded by saying, “the public trust will always be honored.”

On healthcare reform, Pelosi said she was optimistic that she had the votes necessary to pass the bill in the House.

“I feel very confident that the up or down vote on the majority rule proposal that will come to the House will satisfy Members' concerns about the Senate bill…This is not about doing health care reform under reconciliation. This is about doing corrections to the Senate bill under reconciliation. The bulk of the bill, 75 to 80 percent of it, is already in the Senate bill."