Gregg Withdraws, Health Care Rationing and the ‘Climate Crisis’
Sen. Judd Gregg withdraws his nomination to be President Obama’s Secretary of Commerce.
An obscure provision in the federal stimulus bill could lead to health care rationing.
The House Energy & Commerce Committee holds a public hearing on “The Climate Crisis.”
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1. POLITICS
Sen. Judd Gregg withdraws his nomination to be President Obama’s Secretary of Commerce.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews congratulates Gregg on his decision:
“Congratulations to Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) for standing on principle and withdrawing his name as U.S. Commence Secretary nominee. The easy path would be to stay in the job, and enter the history books as holder of one of the most prestigious titles in American government and society. While Congress seems recklessly bent on ‘stimulating’ this nation off an economic cliff, not just Gregg but the whole country should reject the idea that America can spend its way into prosperity.”
2. HEALTH
An obscure provision in the federal stimulus bill could lead to health care rationing.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Gregory Conko on the plan for “one size fits all” drug prescriptions:
“Tucked away in the stimulus bill is a provision providing $1.1 billion to fund a new government agency called the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Research. It’s goal, as Daschle wrote in his 2008 book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis, will be to evaluate medicines an decide which ones are effective enough for government health care plans like Medicare and Medicaid to purchase. So, if the Council decides Lipitor is the most effective cholesterol drug, Medicare recipients who…see better results with a different [drug] are out of luck.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
The House Energy & Commerce Committee holds a public hearing on “The Climate Crisis.”
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on the shabby treatment received by one skeptical scientist:
“[Rep. Jay] Inslee (D-WA) claimed (a) that [Dr. Pat] Michaels compared apples (observed temperatures) to oranges (model projections of future warming), and (b) that global warming is accelerating. He is wrong on both counts. Michaels compared observed temperatures with model projections over the same period. Finding a poor fit, he drew the only reasonable conclusion: Model projections of future warming are also likely to be erroneous. Also, global warming is not accelerating. Since 1976, the observed rate has been about 0.17 degrees Celsius per decade. So, on the basis of two falsehoods, Inslee essentially called Michaels a liar. Then, instead of letting Michaels respond, Inslee asked for commentary by Prof. [Daniel] Schragg. This left Michaels exactly 15 second to respond to 4-plus minutes of verbiage from Inslee and Schragg.”
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