A2 Politics & The Nation
Humans not fail-safe plan to stop disasters ....................................A3 BWI says June was second-busiest month ......................................A4
The World U.S. planning new North Korea sanctions ......................................A6 Israel to take part in U.N.-led flotilla probe .....................................A7
Economy & Business
Geithner tells bankers not to fear ..................................................A10 Stock market surges after soothing reports ...................................A11 Stock market surges after soothing reports ...................................A11 Market Summary..............................................................................A11
The Fed Page
Fine Print U.S. looks to expand its media-building efforts in Afghanistan ..A13
Opinion Editorial: Maxine Waters’s troubling ethics case..........................A14 Eugene Robinson: The no-win war in Afghanistan.......................A15
CORRECTIONS
An Aug. 1 Page One article about the Pentagon’s plans for a missile defense shield in Eu- rope nearing reality misstated the first name of the command- er of the U.S. 6th Fleet. He is Vice Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr.
A July 30 A-section article about a study on racial dis- parities in Navy promotions in- correctly referred to petty offi- cers who might be considered for promotion as enlisted offi- cers. Petty officers are enlisted personnel and rank below war-
·· E-mail
corrections@washpost.com.
rant and commissioned offi- cers. The article also incorrectly said researchers found that the Navy advanced 3 percent of all sailors to middle officer ranks, referred to as E-4, E-5 and E-6. The correct figure is 31 percent.
A July 26 Metro article on re- strictions imposed on photog- raphers outside federal build- ings incorrectly referred to a federal courthouse in Silver Spring. The courthouse re- ferred to is a Maryland district court.
The Washington Post is committed to correcting errors that appear in the newspaper. Those interested in contacting the paper for that purpose can:
Call 202-334-6000, and ask to be connected to the desk involved —
National, Foreign, Metro, Style, Sports, Business or any of the weekly sections. The ombudsman, who acts as the readers’ representative, can be reached by calling 202-334-7582 or e-mailing
ombudsman@washpost.com.
KLMNO NEWSPAPER DELIVERY
For home delivery comments or concerns contact us at
washingtonpost.com/subscriberservices or send us an email at
homedelivery@washpost.com or call 202-334-6100 or 800-477-4679
TO SUBSCRIBE 1-800-753-POST TO ADVERTISE
washingtonpostads.com
Classified: 202-334-6200 Display: 202-334-7642 TO REACH THE NEWSROOM
Metro: 202-334-7300;
metro@washpost.com National: 202-334-7410;
national@washpost.com
Business: 202-334-7320;
business@washpost.com Sports: 202-334-7350;
sports@washpost.com
Ombudsman (reader representative for news coverage): 202-334-7582;
ombudsman@washpost.com
TO REACH THE OPINION PAGES Letters to the editor:
letters@washpost.com
MAIN SWITCHBOARD To contact any department: 1-202-334-6000 Published daily (ISSN 0190-8286). POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC. 20071. Periodicals postage paid in Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offi ce.
S
KLMNO
TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2010 Serving up a bash for the base Democrats marking Obama’s 49th birthday with festivities designed to bring back the spirit of ’08
by Michael D. Shear and Philip Rucker
Save the date, America. Demo-
crats in Austin are throwing a Hawaiian-style luau Wednesday, complete with delicious “tropical fruit, desserts and side dishes.” There’s a “presidential potluck” in Phoenix, a “49 Candles for America” party in Des Moines and a “Yes We Cake!” celebration in Evanston, Ill. The reason: President Obama is turning 49. In need of an enthusiasm
transfusion, the president’s polit- ical operatives are staging a na- tionwide birthday extravaganza for the president; never mind that Obama’s big five-oh isn’t for another year. By then, the mid- term elections will be over and the opportunity to leverage Oba- ma’s birthday as a campaign fundraising tool will have passed. The president’s aides appar- ently hope that a frenzy of birth- day parties for the commander in chief will re-activate millions of Obama’s 2008 supporters, which will translate into millions of dol- lars and thousands of phone calls on behalf of Democratic candi- dates up for election this fall. The official iPad app Organiz- ing for America, Obama’s fund- raising operation, is calling on supporters to haul out their 2008 campaign T-shirts and hats and buttons — “YES WE CAN! YES WE WILL!” — and wear them proudly on Wednesday. Loyal activists are also being
deluged with e-mails. One of them, “from” Michelle Obama, includes the subject line: “Will you sign Barack’s birthday card with me?” “Every year, our family tries to come up with a fun way to wish Barack a happy birthday,” the first lady writes. “Together with other Organizing for America supporters — and me, Malia, Sasha, and Bo — we’ll wish him a happy birthday and let him know that we’re ready to take on the year ahead alongside him.” Michelle Obama might want
the nation to step in and cel- ebrate her husband’s birthday with him because she and their two daughters will be busy that day. Malia is away at camp, and the first lady and Sasha will be on a getaway in Spain. That leaves the Birthday Boy as
a bachelor, with only dog Bo, friend Reggie Love, and a few hundred staff members and Se- cret Service agents with which to celebrate.
“Since his family’s going to be out of town, the least we could do
JASON REED/REUTERS
President Obama waves as he greets donors during a Democratic Party fundraiser in Atlanta. At one point, some of those attending spontaneously sang a chorus of “Happy Birthday” to the president.
The Democratic National Committee says there are “well over 1 million” online birthday card signatures.
is to make sure there’s some par- ties and make sure a bunch of folks sign a card,” said Brad Woodhouse, communications di- rector for the Democratic Na- tional Committee, which is orga- nizing the events. The DNC-backed Organizing for America Web site is collecting the online birthday card signa- tures (otherwise known as fund- raising solicitations). Woodhouse says there are “well over 1mil- lion.” There’s also a Google map
tracking what they say are 545 birthday-themed events around the country. Example: In San Jo- se, Democrats are celebrating the day of Obama’s birth with a “Yes We CANvass” event aimed at knocking on doors to increase voter turnout. For those wondering how to best honor the president on his big day, a link on the OFA Web site points to “
yeswecake.com,” where visitors can find photos of Obama-themed pastries.
But no presents, please. In- stead, the president’s operatives request that well-wishers give Obama the gift of pestering their friends to vote for Democrats. “We’re asking people to make 49 calls to contact voters about this year’s elections. And just for good measure, to add one and make it an even 50,” said the DNC’s Woodhouse. In an unexpected turn, Repub- licans are mocking this national birthday celebration. Doug Heye, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said Demo- crats need to fire up their base voters. “Grass skirts and Don Ho records won’t do it,” he said. Heye said Republicans will provide their own birthday cards for voters to send to Obama. They will be similar to the valen- tines that thousands of Repub- licans sent online to Obama in February. Those e-cards offered photos of the president, as well as other Democratic politicians, along with messages criticizing them. The last president to turn 49 in
office was Bill Clinton, in 1995. He celebrated on the down low that August by vacationing with his wife in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Clinton was lucky enough to
have his 50th birthday fall in an election year, celebrating with a glitzy fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Pro- duced by Jeff Margolis, a veteran behind the Academy Awards show and “Miss America,” the
fundraiser was, as The Washing- ton Post reported, “a star-infest- ed gala” and “a bash of a lifetime” — with Whoopi Goldberg as host and Rosie O’Donnell and Tim Conway performing comedy rou- tines. The event was fed live on big screens in nearly 100 cities across the country. The celebration be- gan with a cocktail reception for 2,000 at the Sheraton New York Hotel, continued with the show for 5,100 at Radio City and was followed by dinner for 700 at the Waldorf Astoria. It brought in $10million for the DNC. But perhaps no presidential
birthday compared to the one celebrated in February of 1782, when George Washington turned 50.
According to the Liberty Tree
and Valley Compatriot Newslet- ter, “Philadelphia, then the Capi- tol, awoke on Washington’s birth- day, February 22nd, to the sound of ringing bells and the firing of artillery. Schools were out, ser- vants given the day off; militia, in their uniforms, strutted through the streets.” Like Obama, Washington made his birthday a gift to the nation. The newsletter reported, “Similar celebrations were held in every city and town in the Country.”
shearm@washpost.com ruckerp@washpost.com
Staff writer Karen Tumulty contributed to this report.
U.S. judge allows Va. health-care lawsuit to move ahead by Rosalind S. Helderman
richmond — A federal judge refused Monday to dismiss a Vir- ginia lawsuit challenging the na- tion’s sweeping new health-care law, indicating the law represents a novel extension of Congress’s constitutional authority that should be tested in court and handing the law’s foes an early le- gal victory. U.S. District Judge Henry E.
Hudson rejected arguments from Obama administration lawyers that Virginia has no standing to sue over the law and would have no chance of ultimately prevail- ing.
Virginia’s suit, filed by Repub-
lican Attorney General Ken Cucci- nelli II, argues that Congress overstepped its constitutional au- thority with a provision mandat- ing that Americans buy health in- surance by 2014 or pay a fine. The ruling allows the suit to proceed to a full hearing on the le- gal arguments of the issue, to be held in the same Richmond court-
room Oct. 18. If Hudson had dis- missed the suit, his ruling would have provided powerful ammuni- tion for the law’s supporters, who believe such suits are frivolous political exercises. Hudson was appointed by President George W.
care law in court. A suit filed jointly by 20 states in Florida also contests the law’s constitutional- ity and says it infringes on the sovereignty of states by requiring them to expand their Medicaid programs. A federal judge in Flor-
“The federal government has
exceeded its powers . . . ” — Ken Cuccinelli II
Bush in 2002. “This is a convergence of poli- tics and law,” said Jonathan Tur- ley, professor of law at George Washington University.
“The
Obama administration had hoped they could get a quick reso- lution of this issue to avoid argu- ments before the November elec- tion. Now, you’re likely to have significant litigation shortly be- fore the election.” The Virginia suit is one of two major state-level, Republican-led efforts to kill the federal health-
ida is weighing a similar motion to dismiss that suit. The law’s opponents charac- terized Monday’s ruling as a ma- jor setback for the Obama admin- istration. Supporters downplayed Hud-
son’s opinion Monday as merely a preliminary and procedural step in a case that will probably last several years and ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. Hudson found that Virginia’s challenge is valid because Cucci- nelli’s suit was designed to defend
a newly enacted state statute that made it illegal to require state res- idents to buy health insurance. He wrote that the case involves is- sues of national significance with little precedent, which need a full hearing. He also said there are few precedents for the case and suggested the health-insurance mandate would push the bounds of Congress’s authority to reg- ulate interstate commerce and adopt laws necessary and proper for the general welfare. “Unquestionably, this regula-
tion radically changes the land- scape of health insurance cover- age in America,” Hudson wrote in the 32-page opinion. “The Com- merce Clause aspect of this de- bate raises issues of national sig- nificance. The position of the par- ties are widely divergent and at times novel. The guiding prec- edent is information but incon- clusive. Never before has the Commerce Clause and the associ- ated Necessary and Proper clause been extended this far.” Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDon- nell (R) called Cuccinelli’s lawsuit
Health-care law aids Medicare solvency, study says
Report predicts program will save $8 billion through 2011
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
The new health overhaul law will start producing savings for Medicare right away and, over time, will add 12 years of solvency to the program’s giant trust fund for inpatient care, the Obama ad- ministration says in a report to be released Monday. Medicare will save about $8 billion by the end of next year and $575 billion over the rest of
the decade, the report said. Release of the analysis comes ahead of the official annual finan- cial checkup for Social Security and Medicare from the program’s trustees, expected as early as this week. It provides support for the administration’s position that the health-care law secures and strengthens health care for sen- iors.
Republicans have argued that spending cuts called for in the law will undermine Medicare, and the government’s own non- partisan analysts have ques- tioned whether some of the re- ductions are unrealistic. Polls show that seniors are more skep- tical of the health overhaul than
are younger people, a political di- lemma for Democrats in the fall congressional elections. The Obama administration re-
port says Medicare will be stron- ger as a result of the health-care law. “The passage of the Affordable
Care Act marks a turning point in the unsustainable rate of cost growth in our health-care sys- tem,” said an advance copy of the administration’s analysis. The new law “reforms the Medicare program’s payment and delivery systems to incentivize high-qual- ity care, appropriately price ser- vices, modernize the health-care sector and fight waste, fraud and abuse.” The spending cuts will
help to lower seniors’ monthly premiums by nearly $200 an- nually by 2018. Medicare spending will keep increasing, only not as fast. Un- der the law, spending will rise by 5.3 percent a year on average over the next decade, compared to 6.8 percent without the cuts. The Medicare trust fund will remain solvent until 2029, a gain of more than a decade from 2017. However, critics say trust fund solvency will only improve on pa- per, since actual savings from the Medicare cuts would have been spent to provide coverage for more than 30 million uninsured Americans. The single biggest slice of the
“meritorious and constitutionally correct” and applauded the opin- ion. “The federal government has exceeded its powers, powers of al- legedly limited government, in this matter,” Cuccinelli said. “We hope the courts ultimately will rein that in and return the bal- ance of power between states and the federal authority.” The Obama administration re- sponded that it is confident the law will be found constitutional — and said challenges are an at- tempt to settle a political dispute. The administration emphasized that the insurance mandate is critical to the law’s interlocking reforms, including popular meas- ures such as requiring insurers to cover everyone regardless of pre- existing health conditions. “That just means there will be a full hearing on the arguments,” Health and Human Services Sec- retary Kathleen Sebelius said in a conference call with reporters. “We remain confident that the case is solid and there is full con- stitutional backing for the pass- ing of the Affordable Care Act.”
Medicare cuts is from reductions in projected payment increases to hospitals and other providers over the next 10 years. That’s fol- lowed by cuts to private insur- ance plans that now cover about 1 out of 4 seniors. Nonpartisan gov- ernment experts say those so- called Medicare Advantage plans are overpaid when compared to the cost of care in traditional Medicare.
But the insurance industry
says the cuts will mean steep pre- mium increases for millions of seniors in the plans. That could trigger an exodus, with seniors returning to traditional Medi- care.
Cuts to the private insurance plans start right away, while re- ductions to providers phase in more gradually. The report says Medicare Advantage cuts ac-
RICHARD A. LIPSKI FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) filed the lawsuit, saying Congress overstepped its authority.
Hudson heard two hours of
oral arguments in July. Cuccinel- li’s legal team argued that a per- son who has chosen not to buy in- surance is not engaged in eco- nomic activity and, therefore, Congress cannot regulate his ac- tions as interstate commerce. The administration countered that an insured person will eventually re- quire health care. Going without health insurance is not inactivity — it’s simply choosing not to pay for health care, a decision that shifts a $43 billion-a-year burden from the uninsured to the in- sured, their lawyers contended.
heldermanr@washpost.com
count for $5.3 billion through 2011, more than 60 percent of the total estimated two-year savings of $7.8 billion. Some of the savings are expec- ted to come from efforts to im- prove quality and combat fraud. For example, a program to re- duce hospital readmissions due to preventable infections and other problems is estimated to save $8 billion over 10 years. And a new, team-based approach to providing medical care for sen- iors is estimated to save $5 billion over the same period by keeping patients with chronic health problems healthier and avoiding hospitalization. Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has scheduled a teleconference Mon- day to discuss the report. — Associated Press
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54