Environmental policy is not driven by tree-hugging activists, earnest liberal bloggers, or ecologically minded citizens.
Instead, it flows from the lobbyists and executives of well-connected multinational corporations and built-for-subsidy startups that see profit in the loan guarantees, handouts, mandates, and tax credits Congress creates in the name of saving the planet.
K Street is the epicenter of this green-industrial complex, and ground zero might be the firm founded by Democratic revolving-door earmark lobbyist Steve Mc
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President Obama said the United States was partially responsible for the drug wars that have
strained relations with Mexico and ravaged the border during an appearance with Mexican President Felipe Calderon
Thursday.
"We are very mindful that the battle President Calderon is fighting inside
of Mexico is not just his battle, it's also ours," Obama said. "We have to
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Nearly a year ago, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and his health care policy team came up with a simple way to save the state's Medicaid program a lot of money. Why not have Medicaid recipients and applicants handle their paperwork online? Using e-mail and a special Web site rather than paper, Herbert calculated, would save Utah about $6.3 million a year.
"It seemed like a no-brainer to us," says the governor.
The problem was, going paperless required a rules waiver from the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Imagine a crafty real estate developer who buys up a plot of land that's cheap, because zoning laws prohibit any development on it. But the developer is politically connected, and soon he quietly gets a special zoning waiver. Next thing you know, he's building a shopping mall on his lot.
You could count on some angry cries from the other developers in the town, who paid hefty sums for the land where they're building their malls.
That's the analogy to what's going on at the Federal Communications Commission these days.
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With a government shutdown averted for at least two weeks, the Obama administration is up against increasing pressure to put its stamp on a longer-term deal that would appease Republicans looking for significant cuts in coming months.
The Republican-controlled House overwhelmingly approved about $4 billion-worth of spending cuts in avoiding a government shutdown until at least March 18 -- a blueprint that would keep government running just half as long as Obama proposed Tuesday.
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Sometimes you get an idea of the way opinion is headed by the phrases you don't hear.
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Senate Democratic leaders have agreed to pass a short-term spending bill pushed through the House by Republicans Tuesday, ending the threat of a government shutdown at least until March 18.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., promised that the Senate will pass the bill to keep the government operating for two weeks beyond a March 4 deadline, when a stopgap spending measure runs out, then sent a plea for help to the White House, urging President Obama to get more involved in the budget negotiations.
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President Obama has endorsed a blueprint on health care that would allow states to implement their own plans in lieu of a federal mandate if they meet rigid coverage and cost guidelines, a key concession to governors opposed to Obamacare.
The president made the announcement at the White House on Monday before a gathering of the states' chief executives, including many with presidential aspirations who say his health care policy will envelop cash-strapped states in a sea of red ink.
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President Obama is staying mostly quiet about the union battle going on in Wisconsin. His labor secretary, Hilda Solis, is not.
"The fight is on!" Solis told a cheering crowd at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting over the weekend in Washington. Giving her support to "our brothers and sisters in public employee unions," Solis pledged aid to unionized workers who are "under assault" in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
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The United States must move swiftly to provide humanitarian aid to areas in Libya where opposition groups have gained control, reach out to influential rebel leaders and -- if necessary -- provide them with weapons and other aid or risk seeing the country fall into the hands of Islamic extremists, experts and officials said.
The Obama administration also must be willing to step up the military pressure to depose Col. Moammar Gadhafi's regime if he continues to escalate violence against the Libyan people, the experts said.
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