In addition, the House passed (223-181) H.R. 5, the Protecting Access to Healthcare (PATH) Act, which would repeal a government board tasked with finding Medicare savings, and institute medical tort reform across the country. Several Democrats said they would have supported IPAB repeal because they feared the board could recommend Medicare cuts without having to gauge the opinion of Congress. However they objected to the tort reform language that imposed a nationwide limit of $250,000 in punitive damages in medical lawsuits. IT will now be interesting how or even if the Senate considers this bill.
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"The latest installment of the Obama theatre of the absurd plays out today in Cushing, Oklahoma, where Obama, who personally stopped the building of the pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas, is now attempting to take credit for the private company, TransCanada, decision to build the southernmost portion of the Keystone XL. . . . If Obama were a private company making similar claims as he is making today, he would be fined by the FTC for false advertising. But like any other con man, he knows he only has to fool some of the people for a short while longer." ~ Bill Wilson, Americans for Limited Government
Today in Washington, D.C. - March 22, 2012:
Yesterday, the Senate voted 76-22 to invoke cloture on the JOBS Act. Today, the Senate resumed consideration of H.R. 3606, the bipartisan House-passed JOBS Act.
At 12:30 PM, the Senate will begin a series of 7 roll call votes. The first two votes will be on amendments to the JOBS Act offered by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). Following those votes, the Senate will vote on final passage of H.R. 3606.
Then, the Senate will vote on cloture on the House amendment to S. 2038, the STOCK Act, prohibiting insider trading in Congress. Following that, the Senate will vote on 3 district court nominees.
The House is still addressing H.R. 5 - Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2011. Final vote on the bill may occur today.
Bloomberg News writes, “President Barack Obama’s promise to expedite review of the southern leg of TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL pipeline won’t speed up the timeline for the project, which already is slated to start construction as soon as June. TransCanada is awaiting permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the last it needs to begin construction on the phase of the pipeline that will carry crude from the oil storage hub at Cushing, Oklahoma, to Gulf Coast refineries, Terry Cunha, a spokesman for the Calgary-based company, said in an e-mail message yesterday. ‘We expect to receive the permits in time to begin construction in 2012 and be operational in 2013,’ he said.”
The Bloomberg story explains, “Obama in January denied a permit for the Keystone XL to bring oil-sands crude from Canada to the Texas coast, citing environmental concerns. TransCanada announced plans Feb. 27 to proceed with just the Cushing-to-Gulf segment of the pipeline. The project is expected to ease a supply bottleneck in Oklahoma by eventually bringing as much as 830,000 barrels of oil a day to Texas refineries. Since the Cushing phase doesn’t cross an international border, it doesn’t require permission from the U.S. Department of State and president, as the full project did. Nonetheless, the Obama administration immediately endorsed TransCanada’s Cushing plan and released a statement in February saying the White House will ‘take every step possible to expedite the necessary federal permits.’ Obama’s new designation of the pipeline as an infrastructure priority was dismissed by Republicans as political window dressing on a project that’s already well under way to deflect criticism Obama has received for refusing to approve the northern segment of TransCanada’s line.”
Indeed, Bloomberg notes, “Michael Brune, executive director of the San Francisco- based Sierra Club, the largest grassroots environmental group in the country, said the president’s decision to issue an executive order to speed up permitting for the southern portion of the Keystone pipeline ‘may have been a political calculation for the administration.’”
The White House is undoubtedly feeling pressure in the wake of the president’s rejection of the full Keystone XL pipeline, especially now given a new Gallup poll out today. Gallup finds, “A solid majority of Americans think the U.S. government should approve of building the Keystone XL pipeline . . . .” Fifty-seven percent of those polled say the government should approve the pipeline. Eighty-one percent of Republicans, 51% if independents, and even a plurality of Democrats agree that the pipeline should be approved.
Gallup goes on to note, “The pipeline would travel through the Midwest and the South, and Americans in those two regions are the most likely to approve of the project. Nearly 7 in 10 Midwesterners want the government to approve the building of the pipeline and 61% of those in the South do as well. There has been discussion in Washington and in the media about the potential new jobs the pipeline project would create, which may partly explain the higher support seen in those regions.” Further, Gallup writes, “Americans who say they are very closely following news about the Keystone XL pipeline overwhelmingly think the government should approve the building of it, 78% to 22%.”
So today, the president is going to attempt to take credit for a part of the pipeline that never required his approval and wasn’t really controversial in the first place. And yet he refused the permit for TransCanada to build the full pipeline, which would create tens of thousands of jobs, allow the United States to get more oil from our friends and allies in Canada, and get more oil from American oil fields in North Dakota to refineries. President Obama even personally lobbied Senate Democrats to reject a bill to authorize the full pipeline earlier this month.
A “solid majority” of Americans support the full Keystone XL pipeline, as do labor unions, various Democrats, and even the president’s own jobs council. As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Most Americans strongly support building this pipeline and the jobs that would come with it. And it’s incomprehensible to me that the President of the United States is lobbying against it. . . . [F]rankly, it’s hard to even comprehend how out of touch he is on this issue.”
Tags: US Senate, Jobs Act, STOCK Act, insider trading bill, US House, President Obama, Keystone, Gallup poll, America favors keystone To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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