July 15, 2009

Pushing healthcare reform:

U.S. President Barack Obama scheduled a Rose Garden appearance to talk about healthcare reform, including support for the measure Democrats introduced in the House of Representatives.

The cost of the bill is $1.2 trillion, which would be covered by raising taxes on the people who make the most money. House Democrats seem to be on the same page as Obama on this issue; the Senate not so much. The tax increase wouldn't be as popular in the Senate, even with a 60-vote caucus.

But the White House said Tuesday the administration that getting reform passed quickly is more important than arriving at a broad consensus.

Business groups immediately came out against the Democrats' bill, although it's unlikely any of them, or the people in Congress considering it, have read the 1,000-page measure. Congress and the White House are working to get healthcare reform through soon because Democrats don't want that discussion during an election year.

Democrats want the federal government to make sure every person can get an affordable insurance plan. To ensure that, businesses and individuals would have to work to provide coverage or face penalties -- 8 percent of payroll for all but the smallest businesses and 2.5 percent of income for individuals.

Economic news:

In a sign global economic problems persist, Japanese officials downgraded that country's economic recovery and the United Kingdom said its unemployment is at a 14-year high.

The Japanese economy is predicted to shrink 3.4 percent in the fiscal year that ends next March 31. The figure represents a 0.3 percent drop from the previous estimate. On the bright side, a Bank of Japan statement said "conditions have stopped worsening."

The U.K. unemployment rate is 7.6 percent, better than the 9.5 percent rate of the United States. Especially troubling is that the U.K. data show 528,000 people have been out of work for more than a year. Officials also expressed concern about the number young people on unemployment rolls.

The unemployment rate in the United States is at a 26-year high. On Tuesday, Obama didn't offer much hope, saying, "My expectation is that we will probably continue to see unemployment tick up for several months."

Clinton on the podium:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sidelined with a broken elbow and her boss's own foreign travels, talks to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The speech is expected to be a recap of what the Obama administration has done on the foreign policy front these past six months and what the next steps are for relations with such hot spots as Iran, Iraq, the Middle East, North Korea and Pakistan, Politico said, citing an administration official familiar with a draft version of Clinton's speech.

Sotomayor Day 3:

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has a third day of Senate Judiciary Committee questions ahead of her.

She, by most accounts, has held up well under the sharp questioning from Republicans and supportive questioning by Democrats. She's said nothing that would jeopardize an expectation her appointment to the court will go through.

Sotomayor did backpedal from her "wise Latina" comment (that such a person could reach a better conclusion than a white male), saying it was a bad play on words. She said the line was meant to inspire, not reflect a judicial philosophy.

'Harry Potter' on the screen:

The sixth installment of the "Harry Potter" film franchise hit theater screens at midnight Tuesday. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is in wide release and promises to be a blockbuster.

The "Rotten Tomatoes" Web site, which averages reviews and issues an overall grade for films, has given "Half-Blood Prince" a 95 percent score. That is well above the scores for the previous franchise entries.

The final film installments are due in November 2010 and July 2011 as the seventh book in the series -- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" -- is broken into two movies.

The seven "Harry Potter" books have sold more than 400 million copies.