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Posted on Monday, February 22, 2010
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Obama Health Care Plan
The Obama administration released a $950 billion health care proposal Monday as a “starting point” for a possible compromise with Republicans during this week’s planned health care summit.

The White House version tweaks the Senate and House health care reform bills, but it does not dramatically change them.

Within hours, however, leading Republicans firmly rejected the administration’s blueprint.

“The president has crippled the credibility of this week’s summit by proposing the same massive government takeover of health care based on a partisan bill the American people have already rejected,” Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, said in a statement.

President Obama made his move today, unveiling his own comprehensive health care plan.

Now comes two more days of back and forth, as Republicans and some Democratic members of Congress chew on Obama's proposal ahead of Thursday's big health care summit.

Things to look for in the coming week:

The summit itself: negotiation or negation?

Republicans generally blasted Obama's plan, calling it the kind of Big Government contraption they opposed last year as the House and Senate passed their separate bills.

"The president has crippled the credibility of this week's summit by proposing the same massive government takeover of health care based on a partisan bill the American people have already rejected," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Boehner has not RSVP'd to the Thursday meeting, but other Republican invitees plan to attend. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said his party "will continue to offer the kind of step-by-step reforms to lower costs that our constituents have been asking for."

Senate Advances Job-Creation Bill, But Not Without The Help Of The GOP

Aided by a handful of Republicans, Senate Democratic leaders on Monday kept alive a $15 billion job-creation measure and are poised to pass the measure later this week.

Five Republicans, including new Sen. Scott P. Brown (Mass.), joined 57 Democrats in voting to break a filibuster of the jobs bill, after a suspenseful buildup in which members of both parties wondered whether Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) could cobble together enough support to clear the legislative hurdle.

The bipartisan result marked a breakthrough for Democrats, who have been frustrated since President Obama came to office by their inability to attract much Republican support for their agenda. The vote was also a vindication for Reid, who is grappling with a tough reelection race in Nevada and faced questions in Washington over whether he mishandled the jobs issue.

Archaeologist Sees Proof For Bible In Ancient Wall

JERUSALEM – An Israeli archaeologist said Monday that ancient fortifications recently excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon and support the biblical narrative about the era.

If the age of the wall is correct, the finding would be an indication that Jerusalem was home to a strong central government that had the resources and manpower needed to build massive fortifications in the 10th century B.C.

That's a key point of dispute among scholars, because it would match the Bible's account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time.

While some Holy Land archaeologists support that version of history — including the archaeologist behind the dig, Eilat Mazar — others posit that David's monarchy was largely mythical and that there was no strong government to speak of in that era.

Speaking to reporters at the site Monday, Mazar, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, called her find "the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel."

"It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction," she said.

Based on what she believes to be the age of the fortifications and their location, she suggested it was built by Solomon, David's son, and mentioned in the Book of Kings.

Finally, A Glimmer Of Hope For US In Afghan War

KABUL – The arrests of key Taliban leaders in Pakistan and slow but steady progress on the battlefield of Helmand province have offered the first flicker of hope in years that the U.S. and its allies may be able to check the rise of an insurgency that seemed unstoppable only a few months ago.

That's a long way from victory — a word that has fallen out of favor within a U.S. military keenly aware of the complexity of Afghanistan and the dangers of elevated expectations among a war-weary public in the United States and Europe.

However, the events of the last few weeks suggest that failure isn't inevitable either.

For the first time in four years, the Taliban and their allies are on the defensive. Key leaders are in Pakistani custody, insurgents on the verge of losing their supply and logistical base in the Helmand town of Marjah and they face an expected showdown in the months ahead around their spiritual birthplace of Kandahar.

"The situation remains serious but is no longer deteriorating," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday.

New Credit Card Law Restricts Bank Tactics, But Sent Interest Rates Up And Credit Lines Down

NEW YORK (AP) -- Your next credit card statement is going to contain an ugly truth: how much that card really costs to use.

Now, thanks to a long-awaited law that goes into effect Monday, you'll know that if you pay the minimum on a $3,000 balance with a 14 percent interest rate, it could take you 10 years to pay off.

"Jaws will drop," said David Robertson, publisher of The Nilson Report, a newsletter that tracks the industry. "I don't doubt for a nanosecond that it's going to give a lot of people a sinking feeling in their stomachs."

That's not all that will make them queasy.

During the past nine months, credit card companies jacked up interest rates, created new fees and cut credit lines. They also closed down millions of accounts. So a law hailed as the most sweeping piece of consumer legislation in decades has helped make it more difficult for millions of Americans to get credit, and made that credit more expensive.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. The law that President Barack Obama signed last May shields card users from sudden interest rate hikes, excessive fees and other gimmicks that card companies have used to drive up profits. Consumers will save at least $10 billion a year from curbs on interest rate increases alone, according to the Pew Charitable Trust, which tracks credit card issues.

But there was a catch. Card companies had nine months to prepare while certain rules were clarified by the Federal Reserve. They used that time to take actions that ended up hurting the same customers who were supposed to be helped.

Consumer advocates say the law still offers important protections for the users of some 1.4 billion credit cards.

"We expected some rate increases; we expected some annual fees," said Ed Mierzwinski of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, an advocacy organization that lobbied for the law.

To be sure, the law takes effect while credit card companies are still reeling from the recession.