Senate Dems Reach Deal on Abandoning Public Option
Senate Democrats appear to have finalized a deal on removing a government-funded public insurance option from their healthcare reform bill. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said a group of ten Democrats had reached “broad agreement” on a so-called “compromise” proposal. The plan would abandon a government-funded health plan to compete with private insurers. Instead, the federal Office of Personnel Management would hire the insurance companies to run the health plans. Uninsured Americans between the ages of fifty-five and sixty-four would also be able to obtain coverage through Medicare. Reid says he’ll unveil the plan after the Congressional Budget Office analyzes its costs.

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Study: US Lags in Life Expectancy, Health Costs
A new study of healthcare in wealthy nations, meanwhile, says the US ranks near the bottom in life expectancy despite spending more than double the average amount in healthcare costs. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says US healthcare spending averaged over $7,000 in 2007, nearly two-and-a-half times the OECD average. Life expectancy was 78.1 years, putting the US in twenty-sixth place out of thirty member nations.
Senate Dems Reach Deal on Abandoning Public Option
Senate Democrats appear to have finalized a deal on removing a government-funded public insurance option from their healthcare reform bill. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said a group of ten Democrats had reached “broad agreement” on a so-called “compromise” proposal. The plan would abandon a government-funded health plan to compete with private insurers. Instead, the federal Office of Personnel Management would hire the insurance companies to run the health plans. Uninsured Americans between the ages of fifty-five and sixty-four would also be able to obtain coverage through Medicare. Reid says he’ll unveil the plan after the Congressional Budget Office analyzes its costs.


US Reaches $3.4B Settlement in Native Land Trust Case
The Obama administration has reached a settlement in a long-running class action lawsuit over federal mismanagement of Native American land trusts dating back to the nineteen century. On Tuesday, the Interior Department announced it would pay $3.4 billion to settle claims by more than 300,000 Native Americans for unpaid royalties on seized lands. The settlement is a fraction of the estimated $176 billion Native Americans have maintained they’re owed. On Tuesday, the lead plaintiff in the suit, Elouise Cobell of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, said it was time to reach a compromise.

Elouise Cobell: “Although we have reached a settlement totaling more than $3.4 billion, there is little doubt this is significantly less than the full accounting to which individual Indians are entitled. Yes, we could prolong our struggle and fight longer, and perhaps one day we would know, down to the penny, how much individual Indians are owed. Perhaps we could even litigate long enough to increase the settlement amount. But we are compelled to settle now by the sobering realization that our class grows smaller each year, each month and every day, as our elders die and are forever prevented from receiving their just compensation.”


Obama Calls for New Economic Stimulus
President Obama has unveiled a new round of economic stimulus proposals to address unemployment. On Tuesday, Obama called for small business tax cuts, infrastructure spending and a “cash for caulkers” program that would provide incentives for home weatherization. Obama said an anticipated lower cost of the Wall Street bailout could help fund his plan.

President Obama: “TARP is expected to cost the taxpayers at least $200 billion less than what was anticipated just this past summer. And the assistance to banks, once thought to cost taxpayers untold billions, is on track to actually reap billions in profits for the taxpaying public. So this gives us a chance to pay down the deficit faster than we thought possible and to shift funds that would have gone to help the banks on Wall Street to help create jobs on Main Street.”


Leaked Climate Text Infuriates Developing Nations
Global climate talks here in Copenhagen have been shaken up with the news wealthy nations have drafted a secret agreement sidelining poorer countries and the United Nations. On Tuesday, The Guardian newspaper published details of a leaked agreement said to include the US, Britain, Denmark and a handful of others. The deal lacks binding emissions cuts and would allow rich countries to pollute nearly twice as much as poorer nations by 2050. After the document was revealed, dozens of African observers at the summit staged a protest inside the conference halls. Sudanese negotiator Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, the chair of the Group of 77 bloc of developing nations, said the proposals are unacceptable.

Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping: “G77 member states will not walk out of these consultations or negotiations in this late hour, because we cannot afford failure of Copenhagen. And let me just actually be very blunt. Ten billion dollars will not buy developing countries’ people enough coffins.”


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