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Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies released a new poll Thursday suggesting parallels between opposition to former President Bill Clinton’s failed health care plan and the opposition to President Barack Obama’s plan this year. In polls taken by the firm in June 1994 and August 2009, about a quarter of those surveyed supported the reform efforts and more than a third opposed them. “It’s déjà vu all over again,” McInturff told reporters. McInturff, who polled for the effective “Harry and Louise” television commercials that the insurance industry ran during the Clinton-era debate, counts insurance companies, hospitals, doctors and...

Phoenix, AZ – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) will hold a town hall to discuss health care reform Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 5:30 pm PT. Immediately following the town hall, Senator McCain will participate in a media availability. WHO: U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ)WHAT: Town hall on health care reformWHEN: Wednesday, August 26, 2009, (ALL TIMES LOCAL) Press check-in - 4:45 pm Town hall – 5:30 pm Media availability – 6:30 pmWHERE: North Phoenix Baptist Church 5757 North Central Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85012 ***Press attending the event should register with Leah Geach at leah_geach@mccain.senate.gov no later than 3:00 pm...

Below Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck explains the Apollo Alliance on his July 28 show. Beck mentions the Obama administration’s “stimulus” blueprint, “The New Apollo Program: Clean Energy, Good Jobs,” which you can read here.

The Daily Beast's Meghan McCain on why the far-right pundit, who says McCain needs to shut up, won’t be getting her wish—and why telling moderates to get out of the party is bad for the GOP. BY MEGHAN MCCAIN Michelle Malkin, the conservative pundit and author of the recent book Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies, was asked during a live chat on Politico’s The Arena on Friday which conservative political figure or commentator needs to shut up. Guess who her answer was? Yeah, that’s right—yours truly. So Michelle Malkin successfully rounds out...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is working behind the scenes to help Democrats craft a new version of former President Bush's immigration reform bill. Graham also supported the Bush/Kennedy/McCain bill back in 2007. As The Wall Street Journal reports: Wes Hickman, a spokesman for Mr. Graham, said in a statement that "Senator Graham is ready and willing to play a key role in immigration reform. He intends to work with many of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle." The new bill will most likely be introduced in September by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Graham has been working with...

(snip) Romney, who ran, in part in 2008 on his ability to forge consensus on health care in the Bay State, has generally avoided engaging Pawlenty on the issue. But, when asked about Pawlenty's repeated jabs at his boss, Romney spokesman Eric Fehnrstrom offered a subtle pushback on the idea that the Massachusetts plan is a recipe for health care disaster. "There's a reason why states and national health care reformers are copying the Massachusetts health care law, and that's because it works," said Fehrnstrom. "Mitt Romney is the only governor in history to get insurance coverage to nearly all...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – As negotiations over a health care reform bill drag on in the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. John McCain says he is not in favor of the approach most likely to be put forward by a bipartisan group of six senators negotiating on the committee. . . . . . McCain does not favor a pure public option run by the federal government and the Arizona Republican says he also does not favor insurance co-operatives – an alternative to government-run, single-payer insurance that has been proposed by North Dakota Democrat Sen. Kent Conrad who sits on the Senate...

In 2006, the state of Massachusetts required every single one of its residents to get health insurance, and every single one of its businesses to provide it. Otherwise, residents and employers would be fined. Some have asked, as national healthcare reform works its way through Congress, is there anything we can learn from the Massachusetts experiment? Yes, according to the state's treasurer, interviewed today on CNBC: Whatever you do, don't do what we did. In a blisteringly frank interview, treasurer Tim Cahill laid out some jaw-dropping stats, which eviscerated the plan and excited every conservative's worst fears about government getting...

Amid negotiations with leading Democrats over health-care reform, Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, commented, "The federal government is in the process of nationalizing banks, nationalizing General Motors — I'm going to make sure we don't nationalize health insurance, and the 'public option' is the first step to doing that." Grassley is correct, and conservatives are right to oppose Pres. Barack Obama's proposal to create a "Fannie Med." But when it comes to nationalizing health insurance, there is more than one way to skin the consumer. Indeed, there is talk on Capitol Hill that Grassley...

(snip) Since Democrats have enough votes to shove almost anything they want through the Senate, why suddenly all this talk about seeking "bipartisan reform"? Because Democrats can't tell the truth. They know socialized medicine will cost enough billions to lower the standard of living for millions of Americans, but they have to pretend they believe otherwise, that it will somehow "save money." They can't run for re-election in 2010 -- any more than they could run in 2008 -- on an honest platform of, "We'll raise your taxes to the sky and borrow the nation into bankruptcy to get to...

Fund Expected to Be Exhausted in 2037. BY ELLEN E. SCHUTZ The nation's wealth gap is widening amid an uproar about lofty pay packages in the financial world. Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Social Security Administration data -- without counting billions of dollars more in pay that remains off federal radar screens that measure wages and salaries.

How much does the House Democrats’ health care overhaul cost? Is it $1 trillion or $1.6 trillion? Democrats argue the number should be $1 trillion, a number provided by the Congressional Budget Office for the net cost of the portion of the bill affecting health insurance, and they boasted in press releases that the bill actually creates a $6 billion surplus over the coming decade. But the gross cost of the bill is much higher, more than $1.6 trillion, according to a Roll Call analysis of the CBO data. And despite more than $800 billion in tax and fee hikes,...

In 2006, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was hailed as a visionary for signing one of the most expansive health reform bills in the country. "MassCare" aimed to expand health insurance, achieve universal coverage, and bring down costs through a complicated set of government controls and subsidies. Just over three years later, many lawmakers are pointing to the Bay State as a model of success -- and pushing for similar policies at the national level. The reform packages put forward by both the President and Democrats in Congress contain many of the essential elements of MassCare, including an individual mandate requiring...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict called on Tuesday for a "world political authority" to manage the global economy and for more government regulation of national economies to pull the world out of the current crisis and avoid a repeat. The pope made his call for a re-think of the way the world economy is run in a new encyclical which touched on a number of social issues but whose main connecting thread was how the current crisis has affected both rich and poor nations. Parts of the encyclical, titled "Charity in Truth," seemed bound to upset free marketeers because...

No excerpt allowed from Bloomberg.com, story here .

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Sen. Olympia Snowe, a key figure in shaping federal health care legislation, said Monday that a government-run plan that would take effect if the private insurance market fails to deliver affordable coverage could bridge the partisan divide that threatens to derail President Barack Obama's efforts to reform the system. Snowe, R-Maine, said she's working with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to establish that kind of a framework in the bill expected to emerge next month from the Senate Finance Committee. In an Associated Press interview in Portland, Snowe said it would be unfair to include a government-run...

Grand Strand marketers turn eyes toward Europe. BY MIKE CHERNEY MYRTLE BEACH — When it comes to attracting foreign visitors to the Grand Strand, some local tourism leaders are looking to Congress for help. The Travel Promotion Act of 2009, which has been introduced in the House and Senate, would create a nonprofit corporation to advertise the U.S. as a travel destination in foreign countries. The campaign would be funded by industry contributions and a $10 fee on foreign travelers who do not have to pay for a visa. The travel industry, including the U.S. Travel Association and the American...

Washington -- President Barack Obama's landmark bill on energy and global warming squeaked through the House this week only after the White House made dozens of concessions to coal, manufacturing and other interests. As the battle moves to the Senate, Obama faces demands for more concessions, including to open the coastline to offshore oil and gas drilling. The Senate will take up issues that were glossed over or omitted from the House bill. Among them is giving the government sweeping new powers to overcome local objections and approve thousands of miles of new transmission lines to carry electricity to coastal...

When President Obama announced on June 9 that some financial institutions would be allowed to repay Troubled Asset Relief Program dollars, he said the massively expensive TARP bailout had made money for the federal government. "It is worth noting that in the first round of repayments from these [TARP recipients], the government has actually turned a profit," the president said. Indeed, TARP supporters have long held out the hope that the program might be profitable. But now Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has come up with a proposal to spend any TARP profits before...

7 more banks fail as FDIC seeks stronger rules for buyers of failed banks. BY STEPHEN MANNING and DAVID PITT WASHINGTON (AP) -- Six Illinois banks and one bank in Texas were shuttered Thursday as government regulators proposed new rules for private equity firms seeking to take over failed banks. That brought the number of U.S. bank failures this year to 52. That's more than double the 25 which failed in all of 2008 and the three closed in 2007. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of all seven. The total cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund from...