Archive for November, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of debate, President Barack Obama will spell out a costly Afghanistan war expansion to a skeptical public Tuesday night, coupling an infusion of as many as 35,000 more troops with a vow that there will be no endless U….

WASHINGTON (AP) — Riven by partisanship, the Senate plunged into a widely anticipated debate Monday over sweeping health care legislation that President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have vowed to approve and Republicans have sworn to…

Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis (pdf) of the Senate version health insurance reform – and it contains more good news about what reform will mean for families struggling to keep up with skyrocketing premiums under the broken status quo.
Like other recent analyses, the CBO report finds that lower administrative costs, increased competition, and better pooling for risk will mean lower premiums for American families. Among the findings:

Americans buying comparable health plans to what they have today in the individual market would see premiums fall by 14 to 20 percent.
Those who get coverage through their employer today will likely see a decrease in premiums as well.
And Americans who currently struggle to find coverage would see lower premiums because more people will …

The Thanksgiving holiday is over, and attention now turns to the Senate floor debate on its health insurance reform. Today’s Washington Post explores one aspect of this debate– and that’s what the impact of health reform will be on our deficits and fiscal situation.
There are three things to keep in mind when assessing this issue.
First, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Senate bill (pdf) – and the House bill (pdf) – will reduce the deficit over the first 10 years, and then substantially reduce it by hundreds of billions of dollars in the second 10 years as well.  That would be up to ¼ percent of GDP. CBO scoring is, by design, conservative, and we should not take their assessment lightly. …

NEW YORK (AP) — A number of TV networks are announcing plans for live coverage of President Barack Obama’s speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Broadcast networks planning to broadcast the speech on Tuesday include ABC, CBS, Fox,…

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans who lost loved ones on Sept. 11 will watch with keen interest when President Barack Obama presents his new plan for the war in Afghanistan.

Obama plans to outline his strategy on Afghanistan in a televised speech Tuesday….

WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction spending likely fell in October as a surge in housing activity slowed and nonresidential construction remained in the doldrums.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect construction spending declined 0.5…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Faced with sluggish progress in its foreclosure-prevention effort, the Obama administration will spend the coming weeks cracking down on mortgage companies that aren’t doing enough to help borrowers at risk of losing their homes….