Obama Tweaks Grandfather Clause
WH proposal to loosen ACA grandfather clause has uncertain impact. TNR's Jonathan Cohn: "Insurers already had the right to extend existing insurance plans, for up to one year, even if those plans did not comply with Obamacare regulations. But they had to do so by the end of December—even if an insurance plan was scheduled to expire later next year. Under the new guidance the Administration is issuing on Thursday, plans can renew expiring plans at any time in calendar year 2014 ... The unknown here is whether insurers will revisit and renew policies they already cancelled. Insurance industry officials I’ve consulted don’t seem terribly interested in doing that..."
House expected to vote today on alternative designed to undermine law. AP: "Republicans said they intended to push ahead with their plan to permit companies to continue to sell the plans to new customers as well as existing ones ... While passage was expected in the GOP-controlled chamber, a combination of the president’s announcement and an as-yet-undisclosed Democratic alternative measure seemed likely to make the vote a clearly partisan one. The White House said late Thursday the president would veto the GOP legislation."
Some Senate Dems still want a vote on their plan. Politico: "Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) still want to see votes on their separate, alternative proposals aimed at helping Americans who lost insurance plans ... Other Democrats said they’d like to wait and see how the insurance companies respond before deciding whether Obama’s plan is a strong enough response to the problem. 'The president has honored his promise, I think it’s the right decision,' said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats."
Obama pledges ACA won't be gutted. WSJ: "While the president had been apologetic earlier in the day as he took responsibility for the problems that have hampered implementation of the Affordable Care Act, he struck a more upbeat tone in Ohio, saying that he knew this process would be hard but that he would see it through. 'We’re not going to go back to the old system because the old system was broken,' Mr. Obama said."
WH defends acting without Congress. W. Post's Greg Sargent: "David Vladeck, an expert in administrative law at Georgetown Law [said,] '[The Supreme Court has ruled] when it comes to using the various tools an agency has, it has very broad discretion, including refraining from enforcement actions, if the agency thinks this it will achieve its statutory goals.'"
Pressure On Boehner To Move Immigration Reform
Republican congressman slams fellow GOPers for inaction on immigration. HuffPost: "Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), who was the first GOP House member to sign on to a Democrat-led comprehensive immigration reform bill, said Thursday that the effort shouldn't be declared dead yet ... 'You're elected to be a leader. Then lead,' he said of fellow members of Congress. 'Show us what you're for, show us what you don't like, but we've got to come to a resolution ...' ... He told reporters after the event that he is hoping he can convince Boehner to hold a vote on either the Democrats' immigration bill, or other legislation that is at a standstill or yet to be released. He declined to say which members will soon announce their support for the comprehensive bill, but said they come from both parties."
While Biden slams Boehner. CNN: "Biden said that he was 'extremely disappointed that Speaker of the House of Representatives announced yesterday that he will not allow the process to work, he will not allow the House to play by fair play, the American way, and let Congress actually vote their conscience to fix a broken system,' calling it a 'step backward in the history of the country.'"
Rally To Protect Social Security In Budget Talks
Activists rally to keep Social Security cuts off the table, reports McClatchy: "...groups representing seniors and veterans were out in front of the White House Thursday afternoon, demanding that the president and Congress back off of the change [to the cost-of-living formula] ... Instead, some liberals want to raise taxes and increase spending on Social Security. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is floating legislation to raise the current $113,000 cap on how much of an individual’s income is subject to the tax that funds Social Security benefits. He’d also change cost-of-living adjustments to calculate them off of what now is the Labor Department’s experimental consumer price index for the elderly, which gives more weight to pharmaceuticals and other products bought by seniors and would increase their benefits.
"Dem demands tax reform in budget deal" reports The Hill: "[Sen. Sheldon] Whitehouse said that the federal government collects $1.13 trillion revenue from individual taxes but pays out $1.02 trillion in deductions and loopholes. He said that pool of money is just too large to ignore, considering the wealthy get to take the most advantage of those tax breaks. Both Ryan and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) have said they don't want tax reform to be part of budget negotiations."
Bipartisanship on Banks, Infrastructure
"Big Banks’ Use of Bailouts Show Need for New Rules, Senators Say" reports Bloomberg: "Big banks’ disproportionate reliance on U.S. aid after the credit crisis reinforces the need for additional steps to ensure the end of too big to fail, Senators Sherrod Brown and David Vitter said. Brown and Vitter, co-sponsors of a plan to impose a 15 percent capital requirement on the biggest lenders, commented after the release yesterday of a Government Accountability Office study that showed such firms made greater use of bailout programs introduced after markets collapsed in 2008."
Bipartisan infrastructure bank bill introduced. The Hill: "Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) are reviving a push to create a national infrastructure funding bank in a new bill unveiled on Thursday. Warner and Blunt's bill would create a 'infrastructure financing authority' that would receive $10 billion in initial funding ... The infrastructure funding would be used as leverage to lure private sector investments that could reap as much as $300 billion in new transportation projects ... The infrastructure funding bill has been co-sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.)."
