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Doctors back 'right to die' Consultation; But MDs oppose assisted suicide

Montreal Gazette

Euthanasia is already a reality in Quebec hospitals, the president of the federation of Quebec medical specialists, told a National Assembly committee yesterday.

Doctors know when death is "imminent and inevitable," Gaétan Barrette explained.

But doctors are aware they can be charged with murder if they administer a "palliative sedative" before a patient is on his or her last breath.

Geoffrey Kelley, chairman of the committee, explained that MNAs will hear about 30 expert witnesses on "dying with dignity" to prepare a paper for a travelling public consultation this fall.

Individual mandate: A sticking point in the healthcare debate

Los Angeles Times

Should the government force everyone to purchase health insurance? Few topics in the healthcare debate are more controversial than the so-called individual mandate, which would fine citizens without insurance and lies at the heart of the now-stalled healthcare bills in Congress.

President Barack Obama has said that a major goal of healthcare reform is to reduce the number of legal residents who are uninsured (currently estimated at 17% of adults).

U.S. Debt Will Keep Growing, Even With Recovery

Associated Press

It's bad enough that Greece's debt problems have rattled global financial markets. In the world's largest economic and military power, there's a far more serious debt dilemma.

For the U.S., the crushing weight of its debt threatens to overwhelm everything the federal government does, even in the short-term, best-case financial scenario -- a full recovery and a return to pre-recession employment levels.

Senate Democrats Scrap Bipartisan Jobs Bill for Pared-Down Version

Associated Press

Senate Democrats scrapped a bipartisan jobs bill in favor of one they say is leaner and focused solely on putting Americans back to work, and they're all but daring Republicans to vote against it.

The new, stripped-down proposal followed criticism that the bipartisan version wouldn't create many jobs.

McCain, Inhofe Oppose Repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell;' Lieberman Thinks Repeal Won’t Hurt Recruitment

CNS News

Two Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee told CNSNews.com that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy concerning homosexuals serving in the military has worked and should not be repealed at this time. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), however, said that his “intuition” told him that changing the policy would help military recruitment.

Under "don't ask, don't tell" the military does not ask new recruits (as it once did) to certify that they are not homosexual. However, it remains illegal and a cause for separation from the service to engage in homosexual activity while serving in the military.

Bailout panel cites commercial real estate danger

Associated Press

Over the next several years, failed commercial real estate loans could litter American cities with empty stores and office complexes, cause hundreds of bank failures and weaken the economy, a watchdog report says.

Banks face up to $300 billion in losses on loans made for commercial property and development, according to a report released Thursday by the Congressional Oversight Panel. The panel monitors the government's efforts to stabilize the financial system.

Anthem's parent company defends health insurance rate hike

Los Angeles Times

WellPoint says the 39% increase reflects rising medical costs and that its profit margin in California is 'in line with and below that' of competitors.

The parent company of Anthem Blue Cross on Thursday defended its 39% increase in premiums for individual policyholders in California, saying the rising rates reflect soaring medical costs but are "very competitively priced when compared with other California plans."

Republicans Come to Health Care Table Willing to Negotiate

Fox News

Republicans say they have no idea yet who will be invited to join President Obama later this month to discuss health care reform but they have plenty of ideas if Obama is sincere about wanting to work together.

"When you learn about it in a press event you have the suspicion it's going to be nothing more than a press event," said Sage Eastman, communications director for Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., who wrote the Republican alternative to the Democratic bill.

British Prime Minister Condemns Rise in Anti-Semitic Incidents

Associated Press

Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the record number of anti-Semitic incidents across Britain last year is deeply troubling and has called on Britons to exercise greater vigilance.

Brown's comments come as the Community Security Trust reported that 2009 was the worst year for anti-Semitic incidents in Britain since the Jewish group first began tracking them in 1984.

Senators Spar Over Jobs Bill

Wall Street Journal

Democratic and Republican senators struggled to hammer out a modest bipartisan job-creation package Thursday, reflecting how a turbulent political atmosphere is snarling even legislation with popular support.

The halting cross-party cooperation reflects intense public pressure for the parties to develop legislation designed to tackle the nation's high unemployment. But even if a jobs bill passes in the Senate next week, it faces skepticism in the House, which passed its own comprehensive jobs package in December. An array of more controversial job-creation proposals have been left for later, leaving their fate in doubt.

Ill. medical malpractice caps unconstitutional

Forbes.com

A divided Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that caps on some awards in medical malpractice cases violate the state's Constitution. Trial lawyers and consumer groups applauded the decision to strike down the caps, which limited awards for noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering.

Doctors and hospitals expressed disappointment and said the decision highlights the need for President Barack Obama and Congress to embrace medical liability reform as part of health care overhaul legislation.

Public Health Tab to Hit Milestone

Wall Street Journal

For the first time, government programs next year will account for more than half of all U.S. health-care spending, federal actuaries predict, as the weak economy sends more people into Medicaid and slows growth of private insurance.

The figures show how federal and state spending is taking a bigger role while Congress hesitates over a health-care overhaul.

Over the next ten years, health spending is expected to balloon to $4.5 trillion. Despite this, the government's health overhaul has stalled, Peter Landers reports.

First-time jobless claims rise unexpectedly

Associated Press

The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce.

The rise is the fourth in the past five weeks. Most economists hoped that claims would resume a downward trend that was evident in the fall and early winter.

Clyburn: 'We've got to spend our way out of this recession'

The Hill

The U.S. government must spend its way out of the recession, the Democrats' third-ranking House leader stressed Monday.

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House majority whip, said that trying to find greater savings in the budget, which was released by President Barack Obama this morning, wouldn't help alleviate the recession.

"We've got to make some decisions here as to what's in the best interests of our country going forward," Clyburn said during an appearance on Fox News. "And I think the best interest is to invest in education, control these deficits, while at the same time trying to get people back to work."

Federal Watchdog: TARP Program Opens Way for Deeper Economic Meltdown

CNSNews.com

Neil Barofsky, the man tasked with overseeing the administration of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), told Congress in a report released Sunday that the bank bailouts have cleared the path to another financial crisis -- potentially even more grave than the 2008 crisis.

“(E)ven if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008,” Barofsky wrote, “absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car.”

The special inspector general for TARP added: “It is hard to see how any of the fundamental problems in the system have been addressed to date.”

White House to paint grim fiscal picture

Reuters

The White House will predict a record budget deficit in the current fiscal year and more big shortfalls for the next decade in its upcoming budget proposal, a congressional source told Reuters on Sunday.

In its budget proposal to be released on Monday, the White House predicts a record $1.6 trillion budget deficit for the fiscal year that ends September 30, the Capitol Hill source said.

According to the estimate, deficits will narrow to $700 billion by fiscal 2013 before gradually rising back to $1.0 trillion by the end of the decade, the source said.

President Barack Obama will seek to strike a balance between reducing the deficit over the long term and stimulating the economy in the short term to ease the pain of double-digit unemployment.

White House budget boosts market regulators' funds

Reuters

The White House proposed giving market regulators more funding to examine and police Wall Street as the government struggles to hold those accountable for the worst financial crisis in decades.

Under the Obama administration's fiscal 2011 budget, the Securities and Exchange Commission would get a 10.3 percent increase in funding and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's budget would increase by 28 percent.

The White House also proposed nearly $1 billion in additional funds for various regulators, contingent on Congress passing legislation to reform the country's financial regulation.

U.S. Democrats vow to move ahead on healthcare

Reuters

Democratic congressional leaders said on Thursday they would keep pushing for a stalled healthcare overhaul and would explore all options to pass it, but acknowledged the process would not move quickly.

The day after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress, leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives said they would not abandon the bill despite sharp Democratic divisions on how to proceed.

Wages and benefits rise weak 1.5 percent in 2009

Associated Press

Wages and benefits paid to U.S. workers posted a modest gain in the fourth quarter, ending a year in which recession-battered workers saw their compensation rise by the smallest amount on records going back more than a quarter-century.

The anemic gains have raised concerns about the durability of the economic recovery. The fear is that consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, could falter if households don't have the income growth to support their spending.

Spending Cuts – Not Revenues – Key to Solving Budget Shortfall, GOP Leaders Say

CNS News

Top House Republicans Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said that spending cuts, not increased revenues, were the key to resolving the nation’s projected $6 trillion in deficit spending over the next decade.

Speaking at different Capitol Hill press conferences Wednesday, Cantor – the GOP Whip – and Ryan – its ranking budget hawk – said that the federal government must enact major spending cuts if it is to prevent adding trillions of dollars to the national debt over the next decade.

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