DAY'S END ROUNDUP

FROM THE BLOGS:

On Washington's birthday, a lesson in self-government
The Foundry's Matt Grinney makes a plea for less government in the name of President George Washington.??

Just how much gas are we actually sitting on?
Policy Shop's Mijin Cha argues that actually obtaining shale gas is very complicated and time-consuming even if a large supply of it is available.??

If you like your plan, you can keep your plan, unless you can't, in which case we'll see
John Hayward discusses in Human Events Rep. Eliot Engel's (D-N.Y.) response when he heard a Congressional Budget Office report that projected millions of Americans would lose their healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act.

Why Black voters are critical for the GOP
The American Prospect's Jamelle Bouie argues that it may be strategically smarter for Republicans to focus their short-term outreach efforts on African-Americans rather than Hispanics.??

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

White House warns sequester will produce chaos at nation's airports.
The Hill's Keith Laing reports that sequester cuts could lead to major flight delays.??

GOP lawmakers call on Obama, Holder to enforce gun laws
The Hill's Jordy Yager reports on a letter both President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder received calling for stricter enforcement of current gun laws amidst talk of increased gun control.

View Comments

View the original article here

Meet The Congressmen Who Favor A Broken Plane Over Saving The Economy

As mandatory budget cuts loom, a group of Congressional Republicans has cheered the coming reductions in federal spending — so long as federal funding is maintained for a plane that is years behind schedule and doesn’t fly, that is.

The Department of Defense announced on Friday afternoon that it has grounded the entire fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in light of an issue with its engine. Grounding the fleet, in all three of its variations, is just the latest in a slew of setbacks to the troubled acquisition program. Produced by Lockheed Martin to the tune of $100 million per plane, the total cost of the project so far has climbed over $400 billion, making it the most expensive weapons system in U.S. history. By contrast, the Manhattan Project — which created the nuclear weapon from scratch — cost about $55 billion in today’s dollars.

The F-35 project as a whole is currently at least six years behind schedule, slated for delivery in 2015 at the earliest. Beginning on March 1, the Defense Department budget is poised to fall under the effect of mandatory budget cuts known as sequestration, cutting $1 trillion from the budget in military and domestic spending over the next ten years.

Enter the Joint Strike Fighter Caucus.

Formed in 2011, as talks to avoid sequestration were first ongoing, 49 members of the House of Representatives — hailing from both parties — signed on to protect the F-35. Several of the Republican members of the JSF Caucus, however, are among the most ardent supporters of slashing federal funding currently in Congress. Among their ranks are Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), each of whom have called for deep reductions to programs that actually work.

Broun, in a 2012 interview with Politico, estimated that he had proposed $4 billion in cuts in the House Science, Technology, and Commerce committee alone. Franks has made clear that he believes the only way to shrink the government “is to choke the monster.” Poe has compared Congress to “addicts” when it comes to spending, proposing a 12 step program to break the habit as he argued against the fiscal cliff deal.

While several Republicans have favored raising revenues to help offset sequestration, none of the Republicans listed above have joined in. Instead, the Representatives listed above all voted “aye” on a bill to replace the defense cuts in sequestration entirely with cuts on the domestic side. Cuts to defense can be made certainly made to military spending — if done smartly — making voting to protect a plane that doesn’t work in opposition to providing health care to millions of Americans near unconscionable.

View the original article here

13 GOP Pennsylvania Senators Introduce New Plan To Rig The Electoral College For Republicans

Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Domini Pileggi (R)

Earlier this year, Republican National Committee Chair urged Republican lawmakers in states “that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red” — i.e. blue states with Republican legislatures and governors — to enact a plan rigging the Electoral College so that it would be almost impossible for a Democrat to win the White House. Under these plans, a large chunk of blue state electoral votes would be allocated to the Republican candidate even if the Democratic presidential candidate won the state as a whole. Although some state lawmakers in key blue states such as Wisconsin or Michigan endorsed versions of this plan, the election rigging plans were widely derided as exactly what they are — cheating — and soon, even top Republicans like Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) or Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell wanted nothing to do with election rigging. The plans to rig the Electoral College appeared dead.

Except, that is, for Pennsylvania.

Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) was one of the earliest supporters of rigging the Electoral College, backing a plan to do so as early as 2011. Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi was one of the leading supporters of election-rigging the and late this week, he — along with a dozen other co-sponsors — introduced a new plan to rig the Electoral College votes in his blue state of Pennsylvania. Under this legislation, a large chunk of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes would be awarded to the Republican candidate even though Pennsylvania is a solid blue state that has supported the Democratic candidate for president in every election since 1992.

Of course, while the Republican election-rigging plan calls for blue states to give away electoral votes to Republicans, red states like Texas or South Carolina will continue to award 100 percent of their electors to the Republican:

The 13 co-sponsors on Pileggi’s bill amount to exactly half of the 26 votes he needs to pass the bill through the state senate. According to state Rep. Mike Sturla (D-PA), now that Pileggi has introduced his election-rigging plan, Republicans could conceivably ram it through both houses of the state legislature and have it on Corbett’s desk in just four days.

View the original article here

Michelle Obama dismisses 2016 speculation during 'Let's Move' TV tour

Michelle Obama laughingly dismissed speculation that she could run on a two-woman ticket with Hillary Clinton in 2016 during her appearance on the “Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon” Friday night.

The popular first lady – two-thirds of Americans have a favorable view of her – is on a TV tour to promote the third anniversary of her “Let's Move” initiative to combat childhood obesity. She told the comedian that she has other ambitions than the presidency.

"You know, I have my eye actually on another job,” she told Fallon. “And I hear that when Jay Leno retires that 'The Tonight Show' position is going to open and I'm thinking about putting my hat in the ring.”

During the show, Obama also participated in a comic dance routine - “Evolution of Mom Dancing” - with Fallon, who was dressed as a woman.

The TV appearance is one of several planned over the next week, the Associated Press reports, including segments to run Tuesday on ABC's “Good Morning America” and Thursday on “The Dr. Oz Show.” She is scheduled to travel to Mississippi, Missouri and her home town of Chicago on a two-day tour starting next Wednesday.

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010, almost 18 percent of children between the ages of six and 11 were considered obese – up from 7 percent in 1980.

View Comments

View the original article here

Oklahoma May Deny Women Affordable Birth Control Because It ‘Poisons Their Bodies’

Oklahoma already prevents women from using their insurance plans to help cover abortion services, but Republicans aren’t stopping there. One state lawmaker wants to continue stripping insurance coverage for reproductive health services, advancing a measure that would allow employers to refuse to cover birth control for any reason — based solely on the fact that one of his constituents believes it “poisons women’s bodies.”

Under State Sen. Clark Jolley (R)’s measure, “no employer shall be required to provide or pay for any benefit or service related to abortion or contraception through the provision of health insurance to his or her employees.” According to the Tulsa World, Jolley’s inspiration for his bill came from one of his male constituents who is morally opposed to birth control, and wanted to find a small group insurance plan for himself and his family that didn’t include coverage for those services:

Jolley said the measure is the result of a request from a constituent, Dr. Dominic Pedulla, an Oklahoma City cardiologist who describes himself as a natural family planning medical consultant and women’s health researcher. [...]

Women are worse off with contraception because it suppresses and disables who they are, Pedulla said.

“Part of their identity is the potential to be a mother,” Pedulla said. “They are being asked to suppress and radically contradict part of their own identity, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they are being asked to poison their bodies.”

The bill has already cleared a Senate Health committee and now makes it way to Oklahoma’s full Senate. It is unlikely that either Jolley and Pedulla themselves rely on insurance coverage for hormonal contraceptive services — but if the measure becomes law, the two men could limit the health insurance options for the nearly two million women who live in Oklahoma.

Of course, contraception does not actually poison women. The FDA approved the first oral birth control pill in 1960, and that type of contraception is so safe that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends making it available without a prescription, as it is in most other countries around the world. Furthermore, considering that over 99 percent of women of reproductive age have used some form of birth control, the Oklahoma women who rely on insurance coverage for their contraception would likely disagree with Pedulla’s assertion that it “suppresses and radically contradicts part of their own identity.”

In reality, access to affordable birth control is a critical economic issue for women. When women have control over their reproductive choices, it allows them to achieve economic goals like completing their education, becoming financially independent, or keeping a job. But birth control can carry high out-of-pocket costs, and over half of young women say they haven’t used their contraceptive method as directed because of cost prohibitions. Nonetheless, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly pushed measures to allow employers to drop coverage for birth control.

View the original article here

Wind, Solar, Biomass Provide All New U.S. Electrical Generating Capacity In January 2013

This represents a nearly three-fold increase in new renewable energy generating capacity compared to the same month in 2012 when wind, solar, and biomass provided 431 MW of new capacity.

In January 2013, wind accounted for the largest share of the new capacity with six new “units” providing 958 MW followed by 16 units of solar (267 MW), and 6 units of biomass (6 MW). No new generating capacity was reported for any fossil fuel (i.e., natural gas, coal, oil) or nuclear power sources.

Renewable sources now account for 15.66 percent of total installed U.S. operating generating capacity: hydro – 8.50 percent, wind – 5.17 percent, biomass – 1.29 percent, solar – 0.38 percent, and geothermal – 0.32 percent.*

By comparison, oil accounts for 3.54% of total operating generating capacity, nuclear for 9.23 percent, coal for 29.04 percent, and natural gas for 42.37 percent.

Once again, renewable energy sources have dominated the new electrical generation market. And once again, their rapid expansion demonstrates that the U.S. can meet its future energy needs without resorting to dirtier sources such as nuclear power or the Keystone XL pipeline.

*Note: Generating capacity is not the same as actual generation. Actual net electrical generation from renewable energy sources in the United States now totals about 13% according to data provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

View the original article here

Top House Democrat To Introduce Bill Authorizing Arms To Syrian Rebels

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY)

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Sunday that he plans to introduce legislation to allow the Obama administration to transfer weapons to Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Reporting from the region, ABC’s Terry Moran said on the network’s Sunday program “This Week” that the U.S. faces a choice, either arm the rebels or work with Russia, and perhaps Assad himself, on a potential peace deal between the two warring factions. When asked about that choice, Engel said he thinks “it’s time” to allow President Obama to provide the rebels with direct military assistance:

TERRY MORAN: The United States has a choice: arm the rebels, engage even more deeply in what is becoming a chaotic and dangerous war to this region or broker a peace, probably with Russia, give the Syrian people an opportunity to determine their future and at least in the first stages, Bashar Assad is likely to be part of that process.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman Engel is that the choice?

ENGEL: I think it’s the choice and I will be introducing legislation to allow the President to arm the rebels. I think it’s time to do that. I think the Free Syria Army needs help. We know who they are and I think it’s time we make that move.

Watch the clip:

The United States has been providing training and logistics and communications assistance to the rebels but thus far, the Obama administration has been reluctant to provide arms, instead preferring to allow other regional allies to send weapons to the rebels fighting Assad. But with recent revelations that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey supported a plan to arm the rebels, and now with the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to introduce legislation backing that plan, momentum may be gaining to persuade the Obama administration to shift course.

View the original article here