ExpatSingapore - Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

I am very proud of our President. He has finally DONE something with health care and I applaud his going out on a limb re: resolution of the Israel-Palestine situation. He has the makings of a great leader!

Democrats near victorious end of health care fight

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
34 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Capping an epic struggle, congressional Democrats applied the final touches Thursday to historic legislation enshrining health care as the right of every citizen. Republicans vowed to campaign for repeal in the fall election season, drawing a quick retort from President Barack Obama: "I welcome that fight."
The president spoke in Iowa as the Senate voted 56-43 for legislation making changes, including better benefits for seniors and lower- and middle-class families, to the bill he signed with a flourish at the White House on Tuesday. That cleared the way for a final, confirming vote in the House, which Democratic leaders hoped for by evening.
Passage of the two bills was the culmination of what Obama called "a year of debate and a century of trying" to ensure coverage for nearly all in a nation where millions lack it. Taken together, the two bills also aim to crack down on insurance industry abuses, and to reduce federal deficits by an estimated $143 billion over a decade. Most Americans would be required to buy insurance for the first time, and face penalties if they refused.
The second of the two bills also presented Obama with another victory, stripping banks and other private lenders of their ability to originate student loans in favor of a system of direct government lending.
Apart from their impact on nearly every American and an estimated one-sixth of the American economy, the week's events marked Obama's biggest political triumphs since he took office more than a year ago. A pending arms control agreement with Russia, announced on Wednesday, added to his resume, and White House officials said they hoped the momentum would translate into further political successes in the run-up to the midterm elections.
After a months-long battle in Congress, the political struggle was morphing into a new phase, where public debate was tinged with violence — and politicians accused one another of seeking to exploit it for their own advantage.
More than 10 lawmakers in the House said they had received threats or worse as a consequence of the health care debate, most of them Democrats who voted in favor of the legislation. There were reports of bricks through windows, a cut propane line to a grill and numerous obscene and threatening phone calls and faxes. An undisclosed number of lawmakers were under increased police protection.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the GOP leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, both denounced the threats and incidents of violence. But Democrats said Republicans had been too slow to respond, drawing an outraged response in return.
"By ratcheting up the rhetoric, some will only inflame these situations to dangerous levels," said Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia. "Enough is enough. It has to stop."
An aide to Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, head of the Democratic 2010 campaign effort, responded: "This is straight out of the Republicans' political playbook of deflecting responsibility and distracting attention away from a serious issue."
"Repeal and Replace" was the new slogan for Republicans as they pivoted away from earlier attempts to kill the health care legislation. Officials said it was meant to appeal to tea party activists — who staged an occasionally unruly demonstration outside the Capitol over the weekend — as well as to independent voters eager for changes in the health care system but fearful the Democrats went too far.
"Republicans fought on behalf of the American people this week and will continue to fight until this bill is repealed and replaced with commonsense ideas that solve our problems without dismantling the health care system we have and without burying the American dream under a mountain of debt," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Repeal was far-fetched in the extreme, since Republicans are now deep in the minority in both houses and would need a two-thirds majority to overcome a certain veto by Obama.
But Republicans circulated polls showing public backing for the overhaul at no better than 40 percent, despite months of Democratic efforts to rally support. Attacking the bill as a government takeover of health care paid for in higher taxes and Medicare cuts, they taunted House Democrats who voted for it, saying those lawmakers had cleared the way for their own defeat this fall.
Democrats said any unease was the result of months of Republican distractions — as far back as last summer's debunked charges of "death panels" — and predicted the public would warm to the new law once its first benefits take effect.
That was Obama's pitch in Iowa, where he touted a "set of reforms" that will take effect before the elections.
He said small businesses would be eligible for tax credits to help them cover the cost of insurance for employees, including a $250 rebate from the government for seniors with high prescription drug costs.
"This year, insurance companies will no longer be able to drop people's coverage when they get sick, or place lifetime limits or restrictive annual limits on the amount of care they can receive," he said.
"This is the reform that some folks in Washington are still hollering about. And now that it's passed, they're already promising to repeal it. ... Well, I say go for it," he said.
Senate passage of the follow-up measure was nearly along party lines. Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska joined 39 Republicans in opposing the legislation. Republican Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who is hospitalized, did not vote.
The day's events marked the final stages of a rescue mission that Obama and Democratic leaders mounted more than two months ago, after Republicans unexpectedly won a Massachusetts Senate seat, and with it, the ability to slow final action on health care legislation.
Under a revised strategy, the House agreed to approve a Senate-passed bill despite numerous objections, on the condition that both houses would follow quickly with a fix-it measure. The one finally brought to a vote on Thursday added more than $20 billion to subsidies for lower- and middle-income individuals and families who will be required to purchase insurance, and about $8 billion over a decade for states that already provide more generous than average Medicaid benefits.
The Senate vote took place with Vice President Joe Biden presiding, a symbolic gesture since his vote was not needed.
Moments before approving the legislation, the Senate paused for a moment of silence in memory of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who died last year after a career of more than 45 years in which he relentlessly pursued legislation to enact national health care.

NEW YORK TIMES March 24, 2010

U.S. Presses Israel on Housing as Dispute Widens

By HELENE COOPER and ISABEL KERSHNER

WASHINGTON — With Israeli officials saying that construction on a contentious Jewish housing project in East Jerusalem could begin at any time, President Obama pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to give a written commitment to rein in any further building and to move ahead on peace talks with the Palestinians.

Israeli and American negotiators huddled in Washington for a second straight day, after two sessions at the White House on Tuesday night ended in an impasse.

Mr. Netanyahu continued to balk at American demands that he find a way to reverse another East Jerusalem housing plan: the one in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood that was announced during Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s trip to Israel this month, igniting a diplomatic storm.

The Obama administration also wants Mr. Netanyahu to allow scheduled negotiations with the Palestinians to focus on substantive issues like borders and security.

After a session with Mr. Obama in the Oval Office on Tuesday night that lasted an hour and a half, Mr. Netanyahu met with his own negotiators for another hour and a half in the White House Roosevelt Room.

Then he returned to the Oval Office for a final 30-minute session with Mr. Obama before returning to his hotel.

Having delayed his departure, Mr. Netanyahu on Wednesday continued the talks, which included a session with Mr. Obama’s Middle East envoy, George J. Mitchell.

United States and Israeli officials said they would continue to negotiate.

“The president has asked the prime minister for certain things to build confidence,” the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said.

In a sign of how hard it may be to resolve the dispute, Israeli officials confirmed Tuesday that another East Jerusalem project was under way, this one for 20 residential units in the Shepherd Hotel compound in a neighborhood populated mostly by Palestinians.

Jerusalem City Hall gave the project the final go-ahead on March 18, days after city officials said the landowners had paid the required fees.

Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said Wednesday that the United States was seeking clarification on the building project.

In New York, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, told the Security Council, “All settlement activity is illegal, but inserting settlers into Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem is particularly troubling.”

“This leads to tensions and undermines prospects for addressing the final status of Jerusalem,” Mr. Ban said.

News of the latest project was first published by an Israeli news Web site, Ynet, on Tuesday night, shortly before Mr. Netanyahu was scheduled to begin his meeting with Mr. Obama.

In Israel, officials described the Ynet report as “distorted” and intended “to stir up a provocation” during Mr. Netanyahu’s visit. The plan received final approval last July, the officials said.

Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war, but its annexation was never internationally recognized. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

The Obama administration had been close to starting indirect talks, called proximity talks, between the Israelis and Palestinians, with an American envoy shuttling between the two sides, but the talks were put off after the row over the 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Mr. Netanyahu has apologized for the bad timing of the announcement during the vice president’s visit but continues to insist publicly on Israel’s right to build anywhere in Jerusalem. The Obama administration, for its part, is now insisting on public assurances from Israel that it will take constructive steps to resuscitate the peace talks.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Wednesday in a statement that “Israel is digging itself into a hole that it will have to climb out of if it is serious about peace.”

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, will decide whether he is willing to go through with the proximity talks after he receives a report from the White House about the discussions with Mr. Netanyahu, Palestinian officials said.