White House Continues Health Care Reform Push

March 11th, 2010

The push for the enactment of health care reform legislation continues this week, with President Obama making appeals to certain House Democrats, as well as general appeals to the public.  The two-step approach now being pursued calls for the House to approve a Senate-passed bill from last year, despite several House Democrats opposition to some of its provisions. Both houses then would follow by approving a companion measure to make changes in that first bill.

President Releases Health Reform Proposal

February 25th, 2010

President Obama has issued his health reform proposal in advance of a February 25th health reform summit.  The proposal is said to have merged some concepts from the previous House and Senate bills.  The proposal also includes a provision giving the federal government some oversight regarding insurance industry premium rate increases.  To view the President’s proposal, visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal.

The summit will begin at 10:00 a.m. today and will be streamed live at WhiteHouse.gov/live.

DEMOCRATS MEETING WITH PRESIDENT ON HEALTHCARE BILL

January 14th, 2010

President Obama and Democratic leaders met today to begin working on a final healthcare bill.  The President met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), and other Democratic leaders to narrow the differences between the House and Senate bills.  The Democratic leaders still have a few obstacles to overcome, one of them being a special election next week in Massachusetts to replace the late Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy.  The surprisingly close race for this Senate seat could cost Democrats the 60th vote they need to pass the final bill through the Senate.  Republican leaders believe that they may still be able to stop the bill because many House Democrats who supported the initial healthcare bill may not vote for the final version due to potential changes in provisions on abortion, Medicare cuts, and federal Medicaid aid to states.

To read this article in its entirety, please visit: www.msnbc.msn.com/ id/34839717/ns/politics-health_care_reform/.

President Signs Bill to Extrend Unemployment Benefits

November 12th, 2009

obama signing billLast Friday, President Obama signed a bill into law extending unemployment benefits from up to 79 weeks to up to 99 weeks.  The bill was signed the same day that the national unemployment rate was announced as 10.2%, the highest in 26 years.  This bill will extend unemployment benefits to people that would run out of benefits by the end of this year, according to Senate estimates, nearly  two million people.

To read this article in its entirety, please visit: money.cnn.com/2009/11/05/news/economy/Extending_unemployment_benefits/ index.htm?postversion=2009110612.