Healthcare Changes Happening Tomorrow

The White House has posted on its website a list of healthcare reforms that will take effect nationwide starting tomorrow…

Summers To Leave White House

The White House announced today that National Economic Council Director Larry Summers will step down at the end of the year. Summers, assistant to the president for Economic Policy, will return to teach at Harvard University.

In a statement today, Obama praised Summers for his service.

“I will always be grateful that at a time of great peril for our country, a man of Larry’s brilliance, experience and judgment was willing to answer the call and lead our economic team.  Over the past two years,  he has helped guide us from the depths of  the worst recession since the 1930s to renewed growth.  And while we have much work ahead to repair the damage done by the recession, we are on a better path thanks in no small measure to Larry’s wise counsel.  We will miss him here at the White House, but I look forward to soliciting  his continued advice and his counsel on an informal basis, and appreciate that he has agreed to serve as a member of the President’s Economic Advisory Board.”

Said Summers, “I will miss working with the President and his team on the daily challenges of economic policy making. I’m looking forward to returning to Harvard to teach and write about the economic fundamentals of job creation and stable finance as well as the integration of rising and developing countries into the global system.”

Summers becomes the third prominent member of the president’s economic team to leave, joining recently resigned OMB Director Peter Orszag and Council of Economic Advisors Chief Christina Romer.

Specter Would Rather Not Comment On Sestak

When asked today what he thought of Rep. Joe Sestak’s (D-Pa.) campaign to replace him in the Senate, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) didn’t have much to say.

“I’m late for the squash court so I’m gonna defer that to when I can answer in one spot.” When pressed on the matter, Specter paused before replying, “Ah, I’m late for the squash court.”

Specter was in Philadelphia this afternoon to greet President Barack Obama, who will appear at two fundraising events for Sestak this evening. Sestak, who faces conservative Republican Pat Toomey in November, is one of only a handful of Democratic candidates who are embracing Obama this campaign season.

A new poll out today shows Sestak trailing Toomey by a nearly double digit margin.

The White House endorsed Specter over Sestak in the primary, but insiders say the relationship between Obama and the Senate hopeful is now strong. Earlier this summer, Sestak famously alleged that the administration offered him a job to keep him from running against the 80-year-old Specter…

Van Hollen Blasts Boehner’s Economic Plan

A top Democrat in the House released a statement today assailing House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) proposal to fix the economy.

“One of the key pieces of the Washington Republican agenda is repealing the remaining funds of the Recovery Act. This plan will terminate over 60,000 contracts and awards and extinguish more than $200 billion in economic activity at a critical moment. The result will be to put the brakes on the fragile recovery, kill thousands of new jobs, and create massive new uncertainty when the economy needs stability,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

“Repealing this funding – which has created millions of jobs and brought our economy back from the brink of collapse – would mean taking contracts and grants back from small businesses and other entities that will use it to create jobs, rebuild our infrastructure, and provide necessary services. It will also put on the chopping block millions of dollars to support injured veterans,” Van Hollen added.

White House Denies New York Times Report

A story published late Sunday night on the New York Times’ website about the Obama administration’s plans to unleash an ad assault on the GOP this fall is “100% inaccurate,” according to a White House official.

“The Times is just flat-out, 100 percent wrong,” the official said. “The first time Obama’s advisers heard about a national ad campaign is when the story showed up on the Times’ website last night.”