Politics – Political News

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said it will
take “many more months” for the U.S. to fully recover from the recession as employers continue to eliminate jobs.

The president said in his weekly address on the radio and
the Internet that yesterday’s government report on the gross
domestic product showed the recession was “even deeper than
anyone thought” when he took office in January. The stimulus
legislation passed by Congress in February and measures to stem home foreclosures have helped stem the slide, he said.

“Important steps that we have taken over the last six
months have helped put the brakes on this recession,” Obama
said. “But history shows that you need to have economic growth before you have job growth.”

Obama is putting the economy back at the forefront of his
remarks to the public as polls show it remains the top concern of Americans. Next week he’s heading to Elkhart, Indiana, for an event focused on his economic policies. Obama said earlier this week that the U.S. “may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession.”

The Commerce Department reported yesterday that the gross
domestic product shrank at a 1 percent annual pace in the second quarter, less than forecast, after a 6.4 percent drop in the first three months of the year. The economy has lost 6.5 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, and economists surveyed by Bloomberg this month forecast the jobless rate will exceed 10 percent by early 2010. The Labor Department is scheduled to release the July unemployment rate Aug. 7. The June rate was 9.5 percent.

Jobs and Recovery

“As far as I’m concerned, we will not have a recovery as
long as we keep losing jobs,” Obama said. “And I won’t rest
until every American who wants a job can find one.”

The GDP report is a “an important sign that we’re headed
in the right direction” as business investment stabilizes,
which may lead to more hiring.

“That’s when it will really feel like a recovery to the
American people,” he said.

The revised government data showed that GDP has tumbled 3.9
percent since the second quarter of last year — the biggest
drop since quarterly records began in 1947. GDP has fallen four straight quarters, the longest ever.

“I know that there are countless families and businesses
struggling to just hang on until this storm passes,” Obama
said. “But I also know that if we do the things we know we
must, this storm will pass. And it will yield to a brighter
day.”

In a July 24-28 poll by the New York Times and CBS News, 36
percent of Americans said the economy was the most important
problem facing the country. Twelve percent cited health care.

Republican Address

In the Republican address, South Dakota Senator John Thune
said the party is committed to an overhaul of the U.S. health-care system while criticizing Democratic proposals for being “government-run” and too expensive.

“The Democrats who control Congress have been spending
money and racking up debt at an unprecedented pace,” Thune
said. “Their plan for government-run health care would only
make things worse.”

Thune said the proposals being considered in the House and
Senate would cost more than $2 trillion. The Congressional
Budget Offices has estimated the Congressional proposals will cost around $1 trillion.

The Republican alternative, Thune said, would let small
businesses join together to buy health insurance plans for their employees, protect hospitals and doctors from lawsuits and extend tax benefits to people who don’t get insurance through their jobs.

“These and other commonsense solutions would provide real
reform for our health-care system rather than the dangerous and costly experiment that Democrats are proposing,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Nicholas Johnston in Washington at
Njohnston3@bloomberg.net

McALLEN, Texas – U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas explained to a ballroom of Hispanic small business owners Friday that she would not vote to confirm the country’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice next week out of concern for protecting gun ownership rights.

The National Rifle Association has dubbed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor “hostile” to the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Hutchison’s explanation that she could not approve anyone for the federal bench who left any doubt about their absolute support for the right to bear arms earned a smattering of applause during her speech to the Texas Association of Mexican-American Chambers of Commerce annual convention.

The tepid response was eclipsed when Hutchison noted that 30 percent of nominees she had submitted for federal judgeships were Hispanic.

The rest of her speech touched on key small business issues: low taxes and affordable health care options.

At least once, Hutchison began a sentence with “If I’m elected governor,” and directly criticized Gov. Rick Perry for his decision to not accept $555 million in federal stimulus money for the state’s unemployment fund. Hutchison said it was a “mistake” and that the money could have offset an unemployment tax increase.

Hutchison announced Wednesday that she would leave her Senate seat this fall to campaign full time for governor. She has said she will formally announce her candidacy in August. The Republican primary, in which she would face Perry, is in March.

Marianne Martinez, of Austin, said she supports Sotomayor, but was not upset by Hutchison’s decision not to vote for her confirmation.

“That’s her decision,” said Martinez, who had asked the senator for an autograph and posed for a photograph before the speech.

Alex Jimenez, chairman of TAMACC, said Hutchison’s chances of attracting Hispanic votes in the gubernatorial contest will largely depend on how far she moves to the right to win what is expected to be a bruising primary with Perry.

“They’ll be giving Democrats the best chance they’ve had in awhile,” if they move hard right, especially if they spout anti-immigrant rhetoric, he said. TAMACC wants “people who are more balanced, more moderate.”

Sotomayor is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate next week. Texas’ junior senator, John Cornyn, voted against Sotomayor on the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this week.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says former Philippines President Corazon Aquino “helped bring democracy back” to her country after years of authoritarian rule.

Clinton says Aquino showed “extraordinary courage” following the assassination of her husband, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., in 1983 when he returned to the Philippines to challenge the rule of Ferdinand Marcos. Aquino died early Saturday in Manila.

Clinton says Aquino’s “quiet strength and her unshakable commitment to justice and freedom” inspired her and former President Bill Clinton. Clinton is sending her condolences to the Philippines and the Aquino family.

SAN FRANCISCO – Mayor Gavin Newsom and the United Nations are eyeing a former naval shipyard contaminated by radiation, heavy metals and other industrial toxins as the future site of a sprawling new green technology complex and climate change think tank.

The proposal would turn a section of the Hunters Point Shipyard, one of the most polluted places in the nation according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, into a UN “Global Compact Center” meant to help solve the world’s pollution dilemmas and foster clean tech business.

The city hopes to start construction on the center in 2011 and open its doors in 2012. But the project faces many hurdles before it can be realized, including the completion of a complex environmental cleanup, the approval of the city’s Board of Supervisors and finding investors.

The U.S. Navy, EPA and state regulators have been working to clean up toxins from the site since the early 1990s and have spent more than $500 million so far. Once finished, the land would be transferred to the city.

“Our current schedule is that the land will be ready to transfer to the city of San Francisco in the middle of 2012,” said Mark Ripperda, EPA’s project manager for the site. “Timelines can always be changed, but that schedule is pretty solid.”

That makes the city’s planned 2012 opening unlikely, but officials said the Navy could allow some construction to start before regulators finish their work.

The parcel of land the UN center would occupy would have more than two million square feet of commercial space in a campus-like setting, with views across the bay and to downtown San Francisco. The site would feature a conference center, UN office buildings and have an estimated cost of at least $20 million.

“California, in general, and San Francisco, in particular, has been at the forefront of environmental sustainability and justice for many years and all of the right ingredients are here,” said Gavin Power, deputy director of the UN Global Compact.

The shipyard is located next to Candlestick Point, the current home of the San Francisco 49ers, who are planning to leave the city for a new stadium being planned down the peninsula, in the city of Santa Clara.

On Thursday, the same day the mayor announced the proposed UN center, Santa Clara released an environmental impact report for the 49ers’ new stadium, moving the team one step closer to leaving.

Newsom has been clear in his desire to keep the 49ers in San Francisco, and the timing of his proposal for a new, high-profile tenant at the site made clear the city is planning to move on with or without the team.

“If the Niners come, they are perfectly compatible,” said Michael Cohen, the mayor’s director of economic and work force development. “If not, the 25 acres dedicated to the stadium site can be used for a range of alternative purposes.”

The UN Center and a future stadium would be key parts of San Francisco’s plan to redevelop the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhoods, a project Cohen called “the most important development project in city history.”

Voters have approved the redevelopment plan, which is expected to create more than 10,000 new homes, parks and retail space.

The idea that the shipyard would finally be cleaned up led some members of the Hunters Point-Bayview community to greet the proposal with open arms.

“Environmental justice entails not just having the shipyard cleaned up, but also revitalizing to create jobs and parks and affordable housing,” Veronica Hunnicutt, chair of the mayor’s Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee, said in a statement.

WASHINGTON – A former U.S. attorney for Nevada who was forced to resign during the Bush administration could soon be getting his old job back.

President Barack Obama nominated Daniel G. Bogden on Friday to serve as the United States attorney for Nevada. Bogden was one of nine federal prosecutors told to resign by senior Justice Department officials during the Bush administration. The move led to resignations at the department and investigations into whether politics prompted the dismissals.

Bogden is a partner in the Nevada law firm of McDonald Carano Wilson. He served as the U.S. attorney for the District of Nevada from 2001 to 2007. U.S. attorneys are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president, but they cannot be fired for improper reasons.

In testimony before Congress, Justice Department officials cited no particular deficiency in Bogden’s performance, but said there was an interest “in seeing renewed energy and renewed vigor in that office.” The department’s inspector general said none of the senior officials they interviewed had recommended that Bodgen be removed.

Bogden’s nomination was not unexpected. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had recommended he replace Gregory A. Brower. Reid said he has not heard any negative comments about Brower’s work either, but he was pushing for Bodgen out of a sense of fairness. Brower is a former GOP assemblyman.

“Dan is a highly qualified and skilled lawyer who served Nevada well before being wrongly removed from office,” Reid said in response to the nomination. “I look forward to a speedy confirmation.”

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., had also recommended Bogden for U.S. attorney back in 2001, and he commended Obama for the nomination.

“I knew that he had a distinguished career of public service ahead of him and I was glad to see Senator Reid felt the same way when he recommended him this year,” Ensign said on Friday.

Bogden wouldn’t say whether he views the nomination as vindication.

But, he said, “I sincerely appreciate the opportunity that this nomination represents for me to return to public service.”

Obama also made three other U.S. attorney nominations: Deborah K. Gilg, District of Nebraska; Timothy J. Heaphy, Western District of Virginia; and Peter F. Neronha, District of Rhode Island.

WASHINGTON – Democrats sought to limit increases in the cost of insurance sold under a sweeping health care bill Friday as they labored to clear the final committee obstacle to a September showdown on President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

Several officials said a last-minute agreement among Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee also included authority for the federal government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices under Medicare.

The changes were part of an intensive effort Democrats have made in recent days to satisfy the conflicting demands of liberals and conservatives on the panel. “We have agreed we need to pull together,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the committee chairman. He said he hoped for a vote by early evening.

Under a draft amendment in circulation, the cost of insurance to be sold widely under the bill could not rise by more than 1.5 times the annual rate of medical inflation unless the government said otherwise.

The White House declined to state a position on the changes.

Passage in the committee would clear the way for a vote in the full House as early as September on Obama’s drive to remake the face of health care. The pace is far slower than the White House or Democratic leaders had hoped, but still faster than in the Senate.

There, one committee has approved legislation, and bipartisan negotiations in a second panel are scheduled to continue next week as three Republicans and three Democrats reach for a deal.

At their core, all the measures under consideration are designed to achieve Obama’s goal of extending health care to millions who lack it while slowing the growth of medical costs nationwide. Insurance companies would be required to sell coverage to all seeking it, without exclusions for pre-existing medical conditions. The federal government would provide subsidies for lower-income families to help them afford policies that would otherwise be out of their reach.

The bills would set up so-called exchanges, in effect national marketplaces where consumers both with and without subsidies could evaluate different policies and choose the one they wanted.

The main expansion of coverage would not come until 2013 — after the next presidential election.

The House bill also calls for the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry, a hotly contested provision.

A Republican attempt to strip out the government option was turned back on a vote of 31-28, an outcome suggesting that Democrats had a narrow working majority on a committee with 59 members.

A short while later, on a vote that crossed party lines, abortion opponents failed in an attempt to bar insurance plans that offer abortion services from accepting customers with government subsidies. The vote was 31-27.

On Thursday night, the panel agreed on a provision saying the government could neither require nor prohibit abortion services in insurance plans sold in the exchange.

On another heavily lobbied issue, the committee voted 47-11 to grant 12 years of market protection to high-tech drugs used to combat cancer, Parkinson’s and other deadly diseases. The vote was a setback for the White House, which had hoped to give patients faster access to generic versions of costly biotech medicines like the blockbuster cancer drug Avastin.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said the 12-year timetable would generate $9 billion in savings for the government over a decade.

The political stakes are enormous for Obama and the Democrats as they strive to pass legislation that has proven elusive for years. Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to the approach they chose, and outside groups on both sides of the issue arranged a heavy dose of television advertising over August.

“Let me assure you: There will be a health care reform bill passed and it will make a big difference in the lives of the American people,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview.

But the House Republican Leader, John Boehner of Ohio, countered that “Democrats are in for a long, hot summer once they return to their congressional districts, where Americans are lining up in opposition to a government takeover of health care. ”

Waxman’s announcement of a series of last-minute changes capped a tumultuous period that began more than two weeks ago when conservative and moderate Democrats on the panel sought changes.

Needing their votes, Waxman began negotiations that grew to include Speaker Nancy Pelosi and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. An agreement at midweek excluded more businesses from a requirement to offer insurance to their workers and reduced subsidies for lower-income uninsured.

It also swiftly triggered a counter-revolt among liberals, who demanded the subsidies be restored in full.

The final deal accommodated them without sacrificing the concessions made earlier to the conservatives, and included numerous other provisions.

Insurance plans sold in the exchange would need government approval before increasing premiums by more than one and half times medical inflation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculated that medical prices rose at an annual rate of 3.6 percent annually for the three months ending in June.

The provision giving the federal government the right to negotiate for better drug prices under Medicare has long been a goal of Democrats who say it could lower costs for seniors. Critics argue that is unlikely unless Congress also limits the drugs than can be sold, thereby giving the government the ability to play one company off against another.

That has long been viewed as politically unfeasible under Medicare, because it would limit the choice that seniors now enjoy.

But including restrictions in the government health insurance option would place it in line with Medicaid, the government program for the poor, as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs and many private plans that limit drug choice.

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Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.