SOTU Highlights Dem Divisions
"Obama Under Pressure From Divided Democrats on Economic Message in State of the Union" reports National Journal: "The party's centrist wing, which generally backs entitlement reforms and free-trade agreements that appeal to the more affluent, wants Obama to use the speech to convey an economic-growth message. The liberal wing is urging a more confrontational approach toward Wall Street and higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans ... The White House has been holding private meetings with senators up for reelection, betting that red-state Democrats can benefit from economic initiatives framed in a populist manner ..."
WH presses Dems on fast-track. The Hill: "A flurry of meetings has taken place in recent days ... with U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman meeting with approximately 70 lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate ... White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough has also been placing calls and meeting with key Democratic lawmakers ... Democratic aides predict that the legislation, which Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called 'controversial' last week, will have to be completely redone to gain traction among lawmakers in their party."
Supreme Court to hear arguments in case that could weaken unions. The Hill: "...the high court will hear oral arguments in Harris V. Quinn, a case that could upend agreements with state governments that allow taxpayer-funded home-care workers to unionize. Those deals have helped boost public sector unions in several states at a time when overall union membership is declining. Business and conservative-leaning groups are pushing the Supreme Court to overturn the deals, arguing they violate the Constitution by requiring workers to punch a union card."
Clean energy group to offer Obama 200 ways to combat climate change without Congress. National Journal: "Nearly a year in the making, a report from green-energy leaders will make recommendations for executive-branch actions in six areas: energy efficiency, renewable markets, renewable-energy financing, alternative-fueled vehicles, new business models, and natural-gas rule-makings ... said Bill Ritter, a former Colorado governor who spearheaded the report as part of his work directing the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University ... The report stems from a 90-minute meeting Obama held with Ritter and other energy experts last March ..."
Medicaid Expansion Already Making Impact
Obamacare's Medicaid expansion sparking sign-up "surge." NYT: "Enrollment in private insurance plans has been sluggish, but sign-ups for Medicaid, the federal insurance program for the poor, have surged in many states. Here in West Virginia, which has some of the shortest life spans and highest poverty rates in the country, the strength of the demand has surprised officials, with more than 75,000 people enrolling in Medicaid. While many people who have signed up so far for private insurance through the new insurance exchanges had some kind of health care coverage before, recent studies have found, most of the people getting coverage under the Medicaid expansion were previously uninsured. In West Virginia, where the Democratic governor agreed to expand Medicaid eligibility, the number of uninsured people in the state has been reduced by about a third ... It is still an open question whether access to health insurance will improve the health of the disadvantaged in the long run, experts say, but the men and women getting the coverage here say the mere fact of having it has drastically improved their mental health."
Obamacare exchange won't be undermined by expanded grandfather clause. W. Post: "'We figured that enrollment would go down about 4 percent, or about a half a million, for 2015,' said Evan Saltzman, the study’s lead author and a project associate at Rand, a nonprofit research organization. Rand projects that 12.2 million people will be enrolled in private health insurance plans by 2015, a figure that closely tracks the prediction of the Congressional Budget Office, which forecast that 13 million would be enrolled by 2015. The Rand study also projects a 1 percent increase in premiums that year due to Obama’s pledge."
