Report: Obama to urge rate increase curbs
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama plans to propose allowing the federal government to block some health insurance premium increases, administration officials said.
Obama is to release details Monday on his proposal for health insurance reform, four days ahead of a scheduled White House meeting on healthcare with Democratic and Republican members of Congress.
Citing administration officials, The New York Times reported Sunday the president's proposal will include provisions intended to tighten regulation of health insurance costs.
The report comes after members of Congress and the public expressed outrage at an announcement by Anthem Blue Cross of California that it planned to increase premiums by 39 percent for some policyholders. The proposal to rein in excessive rate increases is intended to position the Democrats' healthcare reform policy as an effort to protect U.S. consumers from predatory practices, the Times said.
Administration officials told the newspaper the Obama proposal would give new authority to the health and human services secretary to block premium increases by private health insurance providers. The proposal would establish a Health Insurance Rate Authority responsible for defining reasonable premiums increases based on market conditions.
McConnell: GOP may back jobs bill
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Republican lawmakers may back a $15 billion job-creation bill this week.
The bill is a much pared-down version of an $85 billion bipartisan-negotiated bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pulled from consideration after expressing concern Republicans would slow its progress.
McConnell, R-Ky., was asked on "Fox News Sunday" if Republican senators would back the smaller bill, set for a vote Monday.
"We may well," McConnell replied, adding it was a "mystery" to him why the larger bill was shelved.
"I thought it was moving along a bipartisan path," McConnell said. "Many of my members were going to support it. And all of a sudden the majority leader decided to skinny it down."
On other matters, McConnell said the 2009 federal stimulus package designed to jump-start the economy saved some state jobs but did little or nothing to simulate job creation in the private sector.
"Tiger Woods and John Edwards had a better year than the stimulus did," McConnell said, referring to the golfer and the former Democratic U.S. senator from North Carolina who have been embroiled in sex scandals.
Petraeus: Military faces tough casualties
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus says the U.S. military will face "tough" casualty losses in Afghanistan during the next 12 to 18 months of combat.
"They'll be tough. They were tough in Iraq," Petraeus said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Taliban forces remained formidable, though "a bit disjointed," as NATO-led forces entered a second week of fighting to win control of the southern Afghan town of Marja, said Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command.
That assault is the beginning of 12 to 18 months of combat operations designed to eliminate havens for the Taliban and other Islamic militants. About 4,500 of 30,000 additional U.S. troops are on the ground now in Afghanistan in what will be a "hard" effort to gain control of the country, Petraeus said.
"I don't use words like 'optimist' or 'pessimist'. I use 'realist.' And the reality is that it's hard but we're there for a very, very important reason and we can't forget that," he said.
Two arrested in series of church fires
TYLER, Texas, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Two suspects arrested Sunday and charged with arson in a fire at a Texas church may be connected to a series of church fires, authorities said.
Jason Robert Bourque, 19, and Daniel George McAllister, 21, were each charged with one count of arson in a Feb. 8 fire at the Dover Baptist Church in Tyler. Investigators believe the suspects may be responsible for nine other church fires since Jan. 1, CNN reported.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McGraw said at a news conference Bourque and McAllister are also suspected in attempted break-ins at three other churches this month.
"East Texans can rest easier tonight," he said.
Federal agents released sketches and descriptions Feb. 12 of three men seen around churches that have burned in Texas since New Year's Day. The sketches were based on eyewitness descriptions of men seen near the churches that were burned.
The series of fires began Jan. 1 when Faith Church in Athens was gutted. Grace Community Church and Lake Athens Baptist burned Jan. 11.
A total of 10 church fires are being investigated as arson in the area. In addition to Athens, fires have been set in Tyler, Lindale, Wills Point and Carroll.
