Legislation

Two business groups, Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) and Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), have released a web video game illustrating potential negative effects in the workplace should card check legislation become law.

The game, which is entitled "Card Checked," takes place in a stylized setting after the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. The player encounters several scenarios as an employee of a tattoo parlor.

The fictional International Body Art Designers Union is trying to unionize the parlor using strong-armed tactics.

"Unfortunately, the game ends much like real life in that EFCA is expected to cost 600,000 jobs in the first year if passed," AWF and ATR said in a release.

Some of the game's highlights (most happen if you do not sign the union membership card) :

• A tie-dye wearing hippie tells the player that all the tattoo artists should unionize, quoting the French revolutionary motto, "Liberty, fraternity, and equality!"


• Scruffy union organizers who look more like mafiosos hang around the workplace pressuring employees to unionize.


• If the players refuses to sign the card, a co-worker tells him that "union thugs told me that something might happen to my cat Min Min."


• If the player continues to refuse unionization the organizers smash the back window of his sports car. A slide says there have been 9,000 incidences of union violence since 1975.


• Once the store unionizes, union officials say they want to take dues from the player's paycheck to buy a "private Learjet so we can go to posh resorts for, uh... important conferences on defending worker rights."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had a stern message for his Republican colleagues today regarding the new 60 seat Democratic majority. He tweeted from Sen. Al Franken's (D-Minn.) news conference today:

Just welcomed Al Franken to Senate. That doesn't abdicate Republicans' responsibility to work w/us, address challenges facing our country.

The top Senate Democrat seemed to warn Republicans that the supermajority is not an excuse for Republicans to double down on partisan opposition to Democratic legislation.

Reid's comments were also intended to cover his bases because it is not guaranteed that the Democratic majority will stay intact on every vote.

The Nevada Senator may need Republicans support to push through controversial measures on healthcare reform, climate change, and a second stimulus if the Senate votes on these pieces of legislation.

Franken is set to be sworn into the Senate tomorrow after being declared the winner of the election versus former Sen. Norm Coleman last week

Cross posted to Twitter Room

The White House released a strong statement today backing the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee's healthcare reform bill. President Obama touted new Congressional Budget Office estimates that scored the legislation at a much lower cost to taxpayers than previously thought.

Obama said:

Today the Senate HELP committee has produced legislation that lowers costs, protects choice of doctors and plans and assures quality and affordable health care for Americans.

The Congressional Budget Office has now issued a more complete review of this bill, concluding that it will cost less and cover more Americans than originally estimated.

The CBO now estimates the bill will cost $611 billion as opposed to $1 trillion.

Obama also noted that the HELP committee version contains a public option, saying "The public option would make health care affordable by increasing competition, providing more choices and keeping the insurance companies honest." The president echoed remarks he made at yesterday's healthcare town hall meeting in Annandale, VA.

Two senior senators, Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), head the HELP committee. Dodd's office released a statement lauding the new CBO estimates today.

President Obama's release suggests that the HELP version will be merged with the Senate Finance Committee's version of the reform bill. The Finance Committee, however, has yet to issue a statement on the new legislation. Members of the committee chaired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had previously balked at the CBO's original cost estimate.

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Tex.) introduced legislation yesterday that seems almost certainly intended to honor the late Michael Jackson.

The bill, entitled "A Tribute to an American Legend and Musical Icon," was introduced yesterday, and full text is not yet available.

But in a bizarre twist, the legislation has been referred to the....House Foreign Affairs Committee? Huh? Is this a bilateral resolution with Canada to jointly honor MJ's contribution to North American culture or something?

Thus far, the legislation has garnered only one co-sponsor: Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.)

On Friday, the House observed a moment of silence in the King of Pop's honor. That effort was spearheaded by the Congressional Black Caucus, of which Jackson-Lee and Watson are both members.

"All those that stand with us send our condolences and heartfelt sorrow," Watson said on the House floor yesterday.

House Minority Leader John Boehner did his best impression of a senator Friday evening, invoking his privilege to unlimited debate to stall a final vote on the Democratic climate change bill.

Boehner had been speaking at length about the amendment he said was "filed at 3:09am," which spans 300 pages. Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Henry Waxman interrupted Boehner, asking the acting speaker Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) to stop Boehner's mock filibuster.

But under the rules, Tauscher let Boehner continue his speech. The official Twitter of the GOP Conference reported that Boehner will read all 300 pages of the amendment.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a key player in healthcare negotiations, laid down the gauntlet on Tuesday, saying there won't be a bipartisan healthcare reform bill that includes a public option.

In a thinly veiled swipe at Sen. Edward Kennedy's (D-Mass.) Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Grassley said on MSNBC that if reform is going to get bipartisan support "it is going to have to come out of the Finance Committee," of which he is the ranking member.

Asked what the criteria would be for bipartisan support Grassley said: "We need to make sure there is no public option."

The senator said that there could be a "co-op" but said that a pure public option or government run health program would have to stay out of the legislation.

Grassley was also asked about President Obama's most emphatic criticism on Tuesday of the Iranian crackdown on dissenters since their election.

The Republican said it is about time Obama made such remarks.

"I think if those statements had been made a week ago they would have set the tone that Americans expect," Grassley said. Read more...

A majority of Americans believe that the healthcare system needs fundamental changes or needs to be completely rebuilt and trust Democrats more than Republicans to deliver that change, according to a new poll.

The New York Times/CBS News poll, released Sunday, found that more than eight in 10 said the current system needs either "fundamental changes" or a complete overhaul. More, nearly three quarters of respondents said it is a very serious problem that many Americans do not have health insurance.

And respondents appeared to trust Democrats more than Republicans to reform the system. Nearly six in 10 said Democrats are more likely to improve the healthcare system. Just under two in 10 said the same of Republicans.

The poll also found that respondents are paying close attention to the debate over healthcare. Nearly three quarters said they have read or heard a lot or some about the current proposals.

There appears to be some support for a government run or public option healthcare program. Half said the government would do a better job providing medical coverage than private insurance companies. Read more...

The Democrats' hopes to pass healthcare reform this year got a boost on Friday when drug manufacturers approved a measure that would produce billions in savings on drug purchases with government programs like Medicare if the Democrats can pass healthcare legislation.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) approved a measure on Friday that would provide $80 billion in price reductions on drugs in the next 10 years, the Washington Post reports.

The news comes as Democrats are struggling to come up with ways to pay for sweeping reforms. This week the Congressional Budget Office said the two leading Democratic proposals in the Senate would cost well over $1 trillion. That led Republicans to criticize such spending in a recession and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (Mont.), the author of one of the Democratic proposals, to vow to cut billions from his bill.

The Post reports that PhRMA's measure would provide significant relief to seniors if the Democrats are able to pass healthcare legislation. In particular, it would help 3.4 million elderly and disabled Americans who pay the full price for drugs once they pass the $2,200 $2,700 threshold in expenses but before they hit the $5,100 $6,200 mark - otherwise known as the "doughnut hole."

PhRMA's measure would provide the drugs for those in the doughnut hole at half price.

UPDATE: President Obama issued a statement Saturday evening calling the agreement a "turning point in America's journey toward healthcare reform."

Obama said the so-called "doughnut hole," or seniors whose drugs are not covered by Medicare when they total between $2,700 and $6,200, is a "continuing injustice" that this agreement will end.

"This deal will provide significant relief from that burden for millions of American seniors," Obama said.

In a statement, PhRMA president and CEO Billy Tauzin and Chairman David Brennan also noted that the agreement means that medicine purchased in the coverage gap "would count toward the beneficiary's out-of-pocket costs, thus lowering their total out-of-pocket spending."

"PhRMA is committed to working with the Administration and Congress to help enact comprehensive health care reform this year," the PhRMA executives added.

In a statement, Baucus said the agreement would give Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the authority to create a new Medicare Prescription Drug Discount Program on July 1, 2010. That program would be administered by an independent third party.

"The Medicare prescription drug benefit we created helped address the problem of skyrocketing prescription drug prices for millions of seniors. Today, we helped fill the gap in coverage and finished the job," Baucus said. "This new coverage means affordable prices on prescription drugs when Medicare benefits don't cover the cost of prescriptions."

Obama also noted that he still plans to sign health care reform legislation into law in October.

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The independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that President Obama's policies will do more to boost the economy over the next five years than current policies, but Obama's plans would do less to help the economy in the years after.

The president's policies would increase GDP by as much as 1 percent more than the baseline policy from 2010 to 2014. But the baseline policy would boost GDP more than Obama's proposals by anywhere from 0.3 percent to 1.9 percent from 2015 to 2019.

CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf, however, noted that the CBO's economic models aren't "well-suited" to projecting the effects of policy changes beyond five years.

The estimates came in a paper released Tuesday that slightly revised the budget office's deficit projections.

The deficit under Obama will reach $1.8 trillion this year and $1.4 trillion next year. It will fall to $633 billion in 2013, but will then rise in the years beyond, CBO's latest projections said. The CBO
said that the deficits over 10 years will add up to $9.1 trillion in debt, though that number is approximately $130 billion lower than the estimate the office gave in March.

Read the whole CBO study here.

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), the ranking member of the HELP Committee, says he's optimistic about the possibility of bipartisan healthcare reform, according to the AP.

The article doesn't directly quote Enzi, but I'll trust this characterization:

Sen. Mike Enzi said he's still optimistic about the possibility of a bipartisan health care bill--even as he accused Democrats of not involving Republicans in the legislation.

Enzi has said that Democrats are "locking Republicans out of the process."

[snip]

But Enzi likes an idea proposed by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., to set up nonprofit cooperatives that would enable groups to put together their own health care plans.

The HELP Committee will share jurisdiction over healthcare with the Finance Committee, making Enzi one of the two most important Senate Republicans on the issue (along with Chuck Grassley, RM of Finance.)

The co-op idea is gaining momentum with centrists as a politically palatable alternative to a public option (or "government run healthcare," if you prefer.) The administration still wants a public plan, so the test is how hard they can push for it without falling below 50 votes.