Why 'Armenian genocide' resolution may hurt US interests

Turkey's deep emotional reaction to the 'Armenian genocide' resolution passed by a US congressional committee yesterday could have far-ranging implications for US policy in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

A committee passed a similar resolution in 2007, leading Turkey to recall its ambassador to Washington – something it did again after the resolution passed yesterday – and warn of a serious rupture in relations with the US. A last-minute intervention by the Bush administration kept the bill from going any further.

This year was supposed to be different. The historic accords that Turkey and Armenia signed this past October to restore diplomatic relations and put in motion a process to examine the past were supposed to take the legs out from under any effort to tar Turkey with the “genocide” label.

But the stalling of that reconciliation process, and Turkey’s deep emotional reaction to the genocide issue have, once again, created a potentially damaging situation for Turkish-US relations. It could have far-ranging implications for US policy in the Middle East, where Turkey is one of Washington's most important allies and an increasingly influential powerbroker.

“Turkey will certainly feel impelled to take retaliatory action against the US, which will take the form of noncooperation in terms of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and possibly leading to restrictions on the use of strategic assets like the Incirlik air base – areas where there is important cooperation,” says Sinan Ülgen, chairman of the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), an Istanbul think tank.

“This is an area where identity and emotion are in a sense superseding pure interests," he adds. "On a topic like this, the national interest is trumped by a core question loaded with emotions that cuts deep to the issue of identity.”

Greek PM seeks EU debt pledge as protests grow

Obama does personal lobbying of House Democrats, insurance execs

The politics of presidential persuasion are well underway -- President Obama has added a string of meetings to his schedule today featuring key House Democrats in the health care debate.

And there are reports that Obama has invited more Democrats to a White House reception tonight, and the guest list just happens to include 10 members who voted against the House health care bill last year.

It's all part of the administration's efforts to get the House to adopt the Senate health care bill over the next few weeks, the first step toward final passage.

(UPDATE: In other lobbying news, Obama walked into a White House meeting between his health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius and insurance executives. He carried a letter from an Ohio woman "whose insurance will go up 40% next year," tweeted spokesman Robert Gibbs.)

At 1:30 p..m., Obama's guests are members of a House health care task force and chairs of various Democratic caucuses.

They include: Danny Davis, Ill,, of the Congressional Black Caucus; Raul Grijalva, Ariz., of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; Mike Honda, Cal., of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus; Dennis Kucinich, Ohio, of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; Barbara Lee, Cal., of the Congressional Black Caucus; Nydia Velazquez, N.Y., of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; and Lynn Woolsey, Cal., of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Later, at 2:30 p.m., the leaders of the New Democrat Coalition come to the Oval Office.

Those members include Jason Altmire, Pa.; Melissa Bean, Illinois; Lois Capps, Cal.; Joseph Crowley, N.Y.; Ron Kind, Wis.; Allyson Schwartz, Pa.; and Adam Smith, Washington.

Altmire is one of the members who voted against the House bill last year.

Others who have been invited to the White House include Allen Boyd of Florida; Lincoln Davis of Tennessee; Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin of South Dakota; Frank Kratovil of Maryland; Betsey Markey of Colorado; Jim Matheson of Utah; Scott Murphy of New York; Health Shuler of North Carolina; and John Tanner, Tennessee.

Obama to push health-care compromise

President Barack Obama gestures at the Blair House in Washington during a meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders last week to discuss health-care reform. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press)

U.S. President Barack Obama is unveiling at the White House on Wednesday a revised version of his health-care legislation that may include a number of Republican proposals.

Obama is expected to lay out his final package for long-discussed health-care reform in the U.S. and urge Congress to act swiftly to pass the legislation.

As with bills currently stalled before the House of Representatives and the Senate, the proposal is expected to require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage and bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more.

It would not include a publicly run insurance plan, however, but would allow the government to cap health insurance premiums "if a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified."

A version of the proposed legislation posted on the White House website on Monday says it will insure more than 31 million Americans who cannot afford health insurance and reduce the U.S. deficit over the next 10 years by $100 billion.

Obama's afternoon speech will come a day after he sent letter to congressional leaders saying he was open to incorporating four Republican ideas into his proposal.

Charles Rangel to quit key tax post

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The embattled chairman of the tax-writing House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, Charles Rangel, said on Wednesday he will step aside temporarily as chairman after being admonished by a House ethic panel.

"I have this morning sent a letter to Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi asking her to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work," Rangel told a news conference at which he took no questions.

The House ethics committee publicly admonished the New York Democrat last week for taking corporate-paid trips to the Caribbean in violation of the chamber's gift rules.

The panel, composed of three Democrats and three Republicans, is still looking into other matters involving Rangel, including his use of a rent-controlled apartment and his fund-raising for the Charles Rangel Center for Public Service in New York.

U.S. media, citing unnamed sources, said Rangel was encouraged to step aside before the House could vote on a Republican measure to strip him of his chairmanship, which could have happened as early as on Wednesday.

Democratic Representatives Sander Levin of Michigan or Pete Stark of California may temporarily take over as chairman, according to media reports.

Desserts to blame for Obama's elevated cholesterol

WASHINGTON - Poll results, congressional head counts and US government deficits are not the only numbers President Barack Obama has to worry about. Now, he's trying to walk off a marginally high cholesterol count.

Although Obama took the presidential motorcade to a speech yesterday morning, he decided to walk back to the White House through a park. A day earlier, his doctor recommended that he lower his cholesterol.

The president told reporters he needed to "make sure that I'm walking off some of that cholesterol. That's a year of campaigning right there".

Obama had a physical exam on Sunday morning and learned that his total cholesterol and so-called bad, or LDL, cholesterol had both spiked into the borderline high range since his last reported exam in 2007.

The culprit, according to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, is too many cheeseburgers and desserts, a surprising revelation given Obama's reputation as a health nut.

"You guys thought he carried arugula in his pocket to snack on," Gibbs joked with reporters yesterday.

Gibbs chalked up the president's sweet tooth to easy access now that Obama has a kitchen staff and a pastry chef at his disposal.

"If it's more available, you're more likely to eat it," Gibbs said, adding that the president remains a big fan of the pastry chef and hasn't ordered a menu change at the White House.

Sunday's physical, Obama's first as commander-in-chief, also revealed that the president hasn't kicked his smoking habit.

Obama has talked about his struggles to quit smoking in the past, and Gibbs said the president does occasionally fall off the wagon. Still, Gibbs said Obama is aware of the example he sets for America's youth.

"He understands that what he struggles with is not a good thing for his children to see or anybody's children to see," Gibbs said.

Pelosi Confident on Health Vote

WASHINGTON—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday expressed confidence she will have enough votes to pass a health overhaul, but acknowledged it could come at a political cost to lawmakers who back the measure.

Monday kicks off a critical week for Democrats to push ahead with their overhaul. President Barack Obama is expected to announce his preferred way forward for the bill. The White House has already laid the groundwork for Congress to complete the legislation using a process known as budget reconciliation that requires a simple majority in the Senate.

That process would start in the House. Ms. Pelosi said Sunday the House could unveil specific legislative language for the measure in a matter of days. Those would give more detail to the president's proposed changes to the Senate bill designed to appeal to House lawmakers.

Democrats seem poised to move forward without any support from Republicans, who say they see no way to work from the existing bill. That leaves Democrats with two critical challenges: figuring out how to maneuver through the reconciliation over Republican objections, and how to rebuild sliding public support for the bill.

Asked on ABC's "This Week" whether Democrats would have the votes to pass the bill in the House, Ms. Pelosi (D., Calif.) offered a one-word "Yes." She said Democrats in both chambers were working out details.

The health-care bill stalled in Congress after Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts race to replace the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy. It cost the Democrats their 60-vote supermajority and their ability to block Republican filibusters.

Republicans warned Sunday that Democrats were trying to force an unpopular measure that would hurt them in the midterm elections.

"If Speaker Pelosi rams through this bill through the House using the reconciliation process, they will lose their majority in Congress in November," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Democrats said that while certain polls show opposition to the legislation, the public supports individual components of it. "I think when you talk to the American people about whether it's fair for them to get knocked off their coverage when they get sick, I think they agree that no, we need some common-sense rules to help regulate that market," White House Office of Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Ms. Pelosi acknowledged the political risks on ABC. Democrats "know that this will take courage," she said. "Why are we here? We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress. We're here to do the job for the American people."

Democrats control the House by a 255-178 margin with two vacancies. On CNN, Ms. Pelosi predicted Democrats will retain their majority in November.

The math for passing the health bill is tight. With the vacancies, Democrats need 217 votes to pass a bill in the House. The House passed an earlier version of the health overhaul by a 220-215 margin in November.

Some "yes" voters have indicated they will vote "no" this time. The main obstacles are the Senate bill's more-lenient rules about insurance coverage of abortion and a general unease among centrist Democrats with the scope of the legislation.

Biden announces retirement savings safeguards

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Friday proposed new regulations aimed at protecting workers' retirement savings from unethical financial advisers.

The safeguards would protect workers from conflicts of interest on the part of advisers who manage their 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts. The administration estimates that the protections would affect 15 million workers.

The proposed regulations would require retirement investment advisers and money managers to either base their investment advice on objective computer models certified by independent experts, or refrain from steering workers into funds they are affiliated with or from which they are receiving a commission.

Vice President Joe Biden and Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris announced the proposal during a meeting of the White House Middle Class Task Force. Biden said the regulations meet the task force's goal of helping middle class families plan for a secure retirement.

"A lot of folks are not getting the best treatment, the best advice and the most help in figuring out how to deal with their retirement plans," Biden said.

If the Labor Department enacts the proposed regulations, the rules would apply to all financial institutions that offer 401(k) programs to employers and offer financial advice to their employees.

Obama launches health-care summit

U.S. President Barack Obama and politicians from both parties began a televised summit on Thursday in an attempt to kickstart legislation to overhaul the health-care system.

The purpose of the daylong policy discussion at Blair House, the White House guest residence, was to suggest ways to move forward with the legislation. The group was to consider ways to control health-care costs and expand coverage, as well as deficit reduction and insurance reform.

"We all know this is urgent. And unfortunately over the course of the year, despite all of the hearings that took place and all of the negotiations that took place and people on both sides of the aisle worked long and hard on this issue, you know, this became a very ideological battle," Obama said, as he led off a meeting with House leaders and Democratic and Republican senators and members of Congress.

"It became a very partisan battle and politics, I think, ended up trumping practical common sense. But what I'm hoping to accomplish today is for everybody to focus not just on where we differ, but focus on where we agree, because there actually is some significant agreement on a host of issues."

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, speaking on behalf of Republicans, said that lawmakers should scrap the health-care bill Senate Democrats passed on Christmas Eve and start from scratch.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi countered that it's too late to start over and that it is not an option.

Although the Democrats control both the House and the Senate, the two chambers have been unable to agree on health-care legislation, and Republicans have uniformly opposed it.

Obama's plan to reform health care was dealt another blow following the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown to the Senate, which gave the party enough votes to filibuster bills.

Earlier this week, Obama unveiled his own compromise health-care plan that attempts to bridge the differences between the stalled House and Senate bills. It would not include a publicly run insurance plan, but would allow the government to cap health insurance premiums "if a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified."

It would also require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage and bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more.

The proposal claims it will insure more than 31 million Americans who cannot afford health insurance and reduce the U.S. deficit over the next 10 years by $100 billion.

Obama urges repeal of insurers antitrust exemption

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to strip health insurers of their decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws - hardening his stand against the industry as he tries to revive his stalled health care overhaul.

The White House announced Obama's support for a House bill that would repeal the industry's antitrust exemption, saying that would foster a more competitive marketplace that benefits consumers. The announcement follows Obama's call for new federal rate-setting powers that would give the Health and Human Services department the power to deny excessive increases in health insurance premiums.

"Removing this exemption will allow appropriate enforcement and examination of potential policies that might prove uncompetitve, or might stifle competition," spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Obama has scheduled a health care summit with congressional leaders of both parties for Thursday, in a bid to rescue Democratic health care plans passed by both chambers that stalled after Democrats lost their 60-seat majority in the Senate. On Monday, he unveiled a proposal that sought to bridge the differences between the House and Senate bills.

Health insurance premiums have been climbing even as general inflation remains low. A spate of double-digit increases for people who buy their own policies has infuriated consumers, and the president is trying to tap the outrage to build support for his comprehensive remake.

Bipartisan jobs bill advances past GOP filibuster

WASHINGTON—A bipartisan jobs bill cleared a GOP filibuster on Monday with critical momentum provided by the Senate's newest Republican, Scott Brown of Massachusetts.

The 62-30 tally to advance the measure to a final vote on Wednesday gives both President Barack Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats a much-needed victory -- even though the measure in question is likely to have only a modest boost on hiring.

Brown and four other Republicans broke with GOP leaders to advance the measure. Most other Republicans voted in favor of the filibuster because of strong-arm tactics by Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. The bill is likely to enjoy far broader GOP support on Wednesday when it's put to an up-or-down vote.

The bill featured four provisions that enjoyed sweeping bipartisan support, including a measure exempting businesses hiring the unemployed from Social Security payroll taxes through December and giving them another $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year.

Though employers seldom make hiring decisions based on tax breaks, economist Mark Zandi says the measure could potentially create 250,000 new private-sector jobs. That's less than 4 percent of the 8.4 million jobs lost in the recession.

Obama Details Plan to Expand Health Care to Uninsured

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday laid out for the first time a detailed legislative proposal for overhauling health care. His plan sticks largely to the approach passed by the Senate with unified Democratic support, but it makes concessions to the House version, which was more expensive and would have covered more people.

Mr. Obama’s proposal is the opening act to a week of high drama around health care that will culminate on Thursday, when the president convenes Democrats and Republicans at an all-day televised health care “summit” at Blair House. The White House is hoping the session can jump start the stalled health bill.

“We view this as the opening bid for the health meeting,” Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama’s communications director, told reporters Monday morning, adding, “We took our best shot at bridging the differences.”

The bill is intended to achieve Mr. Obama’s broad goals of expanding coverage to the uninsured while driving down health premiums and imposing what the White House calls “common sense rules of the road” for insurers, including ending the unpopular practice of discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions. The measure is posted on the White House Web site.

The White House projects that the bill would extend coverage to 31 million people who are currently uninsured, at a cost over 10 years of $950 billion — more than the $871 billion the Senate would have spent, but less than the $1.05 trillion for the version passed by the House. The administration estimates that its plan would reduce the federal deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years — and about $1 trillion over the second decade — by cutting spending and reining in waste and fraud.

But the measure has not yet been evaluated by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, and White House officials said they were open to adjusting it if it cost substantially more than they have estimated.

The proposal would provide more money to help cash-strapped states pay for Medicaid over the next four years and eliminate the unpopular “donut hole” coverage gap in the Medicare prescription drug program.

In many respects, Mr. Obama’s measure looks much like the version the Senate passed on Christmas Eve — and indeed, senior White House officials acknowledged on a morning conference call that they had used the Senate bill as a template. But there are several critical differences that appear designed to appeal to House Democrats, who have voiced deep concerns about the Senate measure and its effects on the middle class.

To begin with, Mr. Obama would eliminate a controversial special deal for Nebraska — widely derided by Republicans as the “cornhusker kickback” — that called for the federal government to pay the full cost of a Medicaid expansion for that state. Instead, the White House would help all states absorb the cost of the Medicaid expansion from 2014, when it begins, until 2017.

And while the president adopts the Senate’s proposed excise tax on high-cost, employer sponsored insurance plans, Mr. Obama makes some crucial adjustments based on an agreement reached in January with organized labor leaders, while also trying to avoid the appearance of special treatment for unions. Most crucially, the president would delay imposing the tax until 2018 for all policies, not just for health benefits provided through collectively-bargained union contracts.

Obama to tout housing help Friday in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- President Barack Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.

Obama's move, detailed by aides in advance of his town hall here Friday, is the latest by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession. The downturn is taking an election-year toll on Obama's party as voter frustration builds.

Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.

The policy wrinkle comes during a two-day Western trip with different agendas for the president. He will be back in town-hall mode, a venue that aides say allows him to connect with people and distance himself from the messy process of Washington governing.

The president is also out to help vulnerable senators protect their seats and, in turn, gain as much legislative leverage as he can.

At the town hall and a business speech he will be lending his support to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a top 2010 election target of Republicans.

Obama's political involvement comes as the Democrats' command of the Senate grows shakier, jeopardizing the president's agenda. The tide of change that Obama rode to office is threatening to slam against his own party.

The first day of the trip was all politics. Obama campaigned Thursday for Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado in Denver, then held a $1 million fundraiser for Democrats in Las Vegas.

Reid is one of Obama's allies, despite a flap over the president's tendency to refer to Las Vegas as a symbol of imprudent spending, which has the city's mayor fuming at the president.

For Obama, slowing the foreclosure rate is a key step in the recovery of the overall economy. Millions of people have lost their homes because they couldn't afford the mortgages anymore, and millions lost jobs because of the associated slowdown in new home building.

Reid's state leads the nation in home foreclosures; Las Vegas was the metro area with the highest foreclosure rate in January, with one in every 82 homes receiving such a filing.

The money for the new rescue effort will come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout program, according to a senior administration official who spoke anonymously Thursday night because the formal announcement had not been made.

Economic issues, such as unemployment or reduced income, are expected to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, subprime mortgages were mostly the culprit, but homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.

Obama will cap his Las Vegas trip with a speech to the city's Chamber of Commerce before returning to Washington later Friday.

Obama creates panel to tackle deficit, debt

With several strokes from several pens, President Obama created a fiscal commission this morning that's supposed to begin erasing $14.3 trillion in government red ink.

Well, not so fast. First the panel, headed by Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, must be fleshed out with 16 more members: four appointed by Obama, six by congressional Democrats and six by congressional Republicans (who have yet to say whether they'll play ball).

Then it must spend most of the year coming up with ways to slash the $1.6 trillion federal budget deficit and $14.3 trillion national debt. After that, it must get at least 14 of 18 "yes" votes to send any recommendations to Congress -- a process that guarantees bipartisanship or gridlock.

Obama optimistically called it a "thankless task" in thanking the two men who will take it on. He singled out Simpson, who at 6'7" should be able to take on any tall order, as "flinty" -- an understatement for those who covered the Wyoming lawmaker in the Senate before he abdicated for the ivory towers of Harvard.

"If you look in the dictionary, it says 'flinty' and then it's got Simpson's picture," the president said. Simpson, wearing a wild tie, just grinned.

Obama was more reverential in noting that Bowles, as White House chief of staff for Bill Clinton, helped broker the 1997 deficit reduction law that was followed by four years of budget surpluses.

The two men "are taking on the impossible," Obama said. "They're going to try to restore reason to the fiscal debate."

The panel is Obama's second choice, following the Senate's defeat of a tougher one that could have assured congressional action. This one, like countless others in the past, can be ignored if lawmakers -- even after the 2010 elections -- don't have the nerve to cut spending and, possibly, raise taxes.

Mayor Bloomberg's approval rating at lowest in more than 4 years: poll

Mayor Bloomberg's approval rating has fallen to its lowest point in the last 4-1/2 years - just one of the elected officials to feel the wrath of New York voters.

Voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, support Bloomberg's plan to balance the budget by freezing city workers' wages, but are mixed on his push to trim city services instead of raising taxes.

Just 43% of voters would raise taxes to balance the budget, down 10 points from a year ago.

About 45% would cut services, up 6 points from a year earlier. While 63% of voters would support a wage freeze, 63% are also opposed to laying off city workers.

Bloomberg's proposed budget eliminates raises for most city workers, and lays off 834 of them.

Just 61% of New Yorkers surveyed approve of the job Bloomberg is doing, down from 67% in September and 75% in October 2008.

The last time he was at that level was July 2005, when he had a 60% approval rating heading into his first re-election bid.

Bloomberg won re-election last fall by a 4.4-point margin, and said he was hurt by the same anti-incumbent sentiment that has tossed pols from office around the country.

Quinnipiac pollster Mickey Carroll said the voter dissatisfaction is real - and Bloomberg has suffered from it.

"For Mayor Mike, 60 is the new 70," Carroll said. "The man who cruised through his second term with 70 percent approval ratings should be happy if he can stay above 60 percent in his third term."

Other city leaders don't even fare that well.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has a 44% approval rating after four years of running the Council.

New Controller John Liu also is at 44%, and new Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has 37%.

Controversial schools Chancellor Joel Klein is the only one in the poll more loathed than loved: 39% of voters approve of the job he's doing, and 40% disapprove.

The declines mirror a similar decline for President Obama, whose approval rating in the five boroughs is 72% - an enviable number for other pols, but the lowest since he took office.