Sebelius Takes a Bow
Outgoing HHS Sec Sebelius takes victory lap. McClatchy: "...Sebelius said Sunday that health insurance exchanges that are now up and running across the country have given uninsured Americans a true choice of insurance plans with price comparisons. 'People have competitive choices and real information for the first time ever in this insurance market,' Sebelius said on NBC's 'Meet The Press.'"
Leader Pelosi designs attack plan to emphasize House GOP budget, not health care. The Hill: "The strategy is designed to contrast the sharp differences between the parties' economic visions for the country, but also to steer the campaign debate away from President Obama's healthcare law ... The two-page document emphasizes Ryan's cuts to popular programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Head Start, while inviting individual members to quantify the effects of those changes in their districts in hopes of generating local press coverage during the two-week break."
"Democrats Need to Start Blaming the GOP for the Death of Charlene Dill" argues TNR's Brian Beutler: "On Wednesday, the Orlando Weekly published the explosive and infuriating story of Charlene Dill, a struggling, 32 year old mother of three who collapsed and died ... Dill suffered from a treatable heart condition. She also fell into what policy experts call the Medicaid coverage gap [because the Supreme Court] rendered the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion entirely voluntary ... [But] Democrats outside of Florida have been unusually reticent [to talk] about it ..."
NY's successful exchange involves trade-offs. NYT: "New York has signed up more than 900,000 people for commercial or government plans, lured 16 insurance companies onto its exchange, provided subsidies for most customers and reduced premiums across the board ... [But] most New Yorkers who are not insured through an employer are effectively barred from choosing any doctors or hospitals they want."
We Have 15 Years Left To Save The Climate
UN climate panel warns world governments clock is ticking. NYT: "Though it remains technically possible to keep planetary warming to a tolerable level, only an intensive push over the next 15 years to bring those emissions under control can achieve the goal ... The good news is that ambitious action is becoming more affordable ... the costs of renewable energy like wind and solar power are falling so fast that its deployment on a large scale is becoming practical..."
Secretary of State Kerry calls the report a "wake-up call about global economic opportunity." The Hill quotes: "So many of the technologies that will help us fight climate change are far cheaper, more readily available, and better performing than they were when the last IPCC assessment was released less than a decade ago."
Mother Jones investigates how Big Oil keeps its subsidies: "Over the past century, the federal government has pumped more than $470 billion into the oil and gas industry in the form of generous, never-expiring tax breaks ... Taxpayers currently subsidize the oil industry by as much as $4.8 billion a year, with about half of that going to the big five oil companies ... To protect these tax breaks, the oil industry doesn't have to convince lawmakers to do something; it has to convince them to do nothing."
2016ers Hit NH
Sen. Sanders stirs 2016 talk with NH address. The Nation's John Nichols: "The New Hampshire Institute of Politics on the campus of Saint Anselm College was packed Saturday for a town-hall meeting with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who roused the crowd with a condemnation of the money power that is corrupting American elections and governance. 'In the United States of America, billionaires should not be able to buy elections,' declared Sanders, to thunderous applause. 'If we do not get our act together, we are moving towards an oligarchic society ... We have got to fight to defend American democracy.'"
Cruz and Paul pledge to make inroads with youth and minorities at Koch-backed Freedom Summit: "Paul ... advised the GOP 'hit those who haven't been listening' by bringing civil liberties onto the party platform — stopping the war on drugs and pushing back against the National Security Agency — and reaching out the the young unemployed. 'Our movement has never been about plutocrats,' he said, but that is how 'the other side paints us.' Cruz mentioned that Hispanics, young people and single mothers were among those most affected by the recession, and that the party should reach out to these people."
