Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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A Busy Week in Washington

Rich Galen

Wednesday January 19, 2011

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Here's the essence of the gulf between House Republicans and Democrats on the Obama health care bill: According to Kelly Kennedy writing in USA Today:

"Republicans say the law will add $701 billion to the deficit in its first 10 years, while Democrats say repealing it will add $230 billion to the deficit."

That's a difference of $931 billion. Even in Washington that adds up to high stakes.

The reason for the disagreement on how much each course of action would take is because the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh) earlier this month saying that repealing the law would add $230 billion to the deficit.

House Dems, naturally, seized on that number.

Republicans say that the law is chock full of accounting gimmicks (tax hikes begin earlier than benefit increases, for instance) and the CBO can only "score" what is put in front of them.

The House will vote today on repealing the bill but, according to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, the debate has taken a significant turn for the better with Members avoiding the "K" word (as in Job-Ki**ing) and being somewhat kinder and gentler to one another in the aftermath of the shootings in Arizona last week.

Speaking of the Washington Post, the paper released a poll to coincide with the opening of the debate on the repeal and found that

"Republican claims that the new health-care law will hurt the country's fragile economic recovery and inflate the deficit resonate with the public."

In the poll, the public was split 42-42 between Obama and Republicans in Congress on the question "Who do you trust to do a better job handling health care reform?" Ten percent of those asked said, "Neither."

As recently as last month Obama led that question by 51-38, so the Boehner-led House Republicans have made their point with the public.

Overall the respondents opposed the Obama health care bill by 45-50 which has not changed appreciably in the ten previous times the Post has asked that question (or a prospective variant of it) dating back to August 2009.

Finally, 71 percent of those responding thought the new health care law goes too far in changing the health care system. Only 25 percent thought the law "doesn't go far enough."

Oh, and on that business of whether the Obama health care law will increase or decrease the deficit? I'm not sure how they know this, but 62 percent said it would increase the deficit, and only 29 percent thought it would decrease the deficit.

The bill will pass the House and lie around in the Senate waiting for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) to figure out a way to sneak it onto the floor as an amendment to something else.

If that happens, then many of the Democrats in those 23 Senate seats they have to defend in the 2012 elections will be on record - again - supporting Obama's unpopular health care program.

By today, two of those 23 - Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Joe Lieberman (I/D-CT) - will have announced their retirements. Conrad announced his retirement yesterday. Lieberman is expected to do so today.

While all that was going on on Capitol Hill, President Obama was welcoming China's President Hu Jintao to a state visit. The Wall Street Journal described the U.S. and China as "wary powers" and the summit as coming "at a time when their bonds have been frayed by mutual suspicions and an ideological gulf."

Not clear whether the Journal thinks Hu is ideologically to Obama's left or his right.

The two are expected to play nicely with one another during this visit unlike the state visit to China during which, according to the Financial Times:

"US officials say Mr. Obama was frustrated on his 2009 trip to Beijing by the heavily scripted meetings with Mr. Hu, [Including] the press event they held together in Beijing in 2009, when there were no questions for the leaders."

All in all there is a lot going on in Your Nation's Capital this week.

On the Secret Decoder Ring today: Links upon links upon links to everything above. Also a pretty interesting Mullfoto and an ironic Catchy Caption of the day.

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