Morning News

post from Obama HQ on 06 November 2009 10:03:55 AM. © Obama HQ

An Army psychiatrist set to be shipped overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post yesterday, authorities said, a rampage that killed 12 people and left 31 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States...
President Obama called the shooting at the Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening, “a horrific outburst of violence.’’
“It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas,’’ Obama said. “It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.’’

From USA Today

As the U.S. House prepares to vote on the most sweeping expansion of health care coverage in four decades, President Obama heads to Capitol Hill on Friday to make a push for a bill that now has the support of powerful groups representing retirees and doctors…
The legislation got important last-minute support from the nation's largest association of retirees, AARP, and the American Medical Association…
Obama celebrated with an impromptu appearance before White House reporters. "I am extraordinarily pleased and grateful," he said. "We are closer to passing this reform bill than ever before."
Pelosi on Thursday called the bill "historic," and said it will provide coverage for 36 million more Americans.

From The New York Times

House Republican leaders have produced their own health care reform bill. Here is the first thing you need to know: It would do almost nothing to reduce the scandalously high number of Americans who have no insurance. And it makes only a token stab at slowing the relentlessly rising costs of medical care…
The Republican bill is an amalgam of market-oriented and state-based reforms that conservatives have long proposed, including enhancement of tax-sheltered accounts to help pay premiums and allowing people to buy insurance in other states that might permit skimpier benefits than their home state.
It has some good provisions, such as prohibiting insurers from imposing annual or lifetime caps on what they will pay and automatic enrollment of workers in employer-sponsored group coverage. But it would not prevent insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums based on pre-existing conditions...

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