Kennedy Death Cuts Broad Health Bill Odds, Hatch Says

By Nicole Gaouette

Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) — Congress is less likely to pass sweeping health-care overhaul legislation following the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, a leading Republican said.

“You’re not going to get this big, broad Democrat spending bill — you’re not going to get Republican support,” Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican and close friend of the Massachusetts Democrat, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

Hatch said Kennedy’s status as Congress’s leading liberal often convinced Democrats they could support deals he had struck with Republicans. “That’s why Senator Kennedy was so important,” Hatch said. “I don’t know if another Democrat has the same clout in Congress.”

Expanding coverage to nearly 50 million uninsured Americans and lowering health-care costs was Kennedy’s life’s work, colleagues said, and is now President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority. Lawmakers failed to get health-care bills through Congress before the August recess. Obama, who is pushing lawmakers to overhaul a health-care system that accounts for about 18 percent of the nation’s economy, said Aug. 20 that “we’re going to get this done one way or another.”

Hatch said Kennedy provided deep experience on health care, united factions within the Democratic Party and worked well with Republicans.

Kennedy’s Work

“Kennedy could bring together all of the base groups of the Democratic Party,” Hatch said on ABC’s “This Week,” recalling that Kennedy worked on health legislation for more than three decades. “In every case, he fought as hard as he could, but when he recognized that he couldn’t get everything he wanted, he worked with the other side. If he was here, I don’t think we’d be in the mess we’re in right now.”

Kennedy’s illness meant he was absent from Congress for much of the past year, though his staff said he kept abreast of the health debate through frequent phone calls. Senator Christopher Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who temporarily took over from Kennedy as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told the panel that Kennedy was watching their debate on C-SPAN television and calling him daily to offer feedback.

Four of the five congressional committees with jurisdiction over health have passed bills that would cost about $1 trillion over 10 years. The Senate Finance Committee has stalled over a number of issues, including whether to create a government-run insurance plan, require employers to provide workers with insurance, and impose new taxes that could range from taxing the richest Americans to levies on generous health plans.

Public Plan

Not all Democrats support the idea of a public plan, which Obama has said would be his preferred way to generate more competition among health insurers. Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu told CNN she would “tend not to” support a bill that included a public option. “I think we can do it without a public option,” the third-term Democrat said. “Hopefully we can keep working. That’s what Ted Kennedy would want us to do.”

John Kerry, now the senior Democratic senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Finance Committee, said he was confident a health-care bill would be passed and he urged Republicans to avoid being “bound by ideology.”

“When we get reality on the table we can have a good conversation,” Kerry said on the ABC program. “I believe we can do this. I think better judgment will prevail.”

Senate Bill

When the Senate returns in September, it will take up the bill the Senate health committee put together in July, Dodd said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He said the bill is “sitting there,” ready to be worked on with the Finance Committee.

“If we can get these bills together and sit down with each other, we can produce a strong, vibrant, vitally needed national health care legislation on accessibility, quality and affordability,” Dodd said.

Health-care costs now account for about 18 percent of GDP, according to the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, and are projected to rise to 34 percent by 2040.

“The country cannot afford this, Dodd said on CNN. “How we get there is the challenge before us.”

Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, said bipartisan cooperation on the issue was crucial. “Doing nothing and thinking that we’re going to get out of this expense is not an option,” Cantwell said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Getting true competition into the system and giving consumers choice is what the Democrats and Republicans should be joining ranks on,” Cantwell said.

Democrats Alone

Democrats including Senator Charles Schumer of New York have said that if Senate Finance negotiators — three Republicans and three Democrats — can’t reach a deal by Sept. 15, Democrats may have to pass the bill on their own.

The majority party could use a legislative maneuver called reconciliation which allows the Senate to pass a bill with 51 votes instead of the 60 typically needed for controversial pieces of legislation.

During the August recess, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus convened meetings of the six senators on the committee who are working on a bipartisan compromise.

Any agreement they reach would have to be coordinated with a plan passed by the Senate HELP committee. The three House committees with jurisdiction over health will meld their bills together after lawmakers return from recess. The House and Senate bills would have to be reconciled before being voted on by both chambers.

Protests at Meetings

The Senate adjourned on Aug. 7 and will reconvene on Sept. 8. Many of the town hall meetings lawmakers held to discuss health-care during the recess were disrupted by protests.

Administration officials have urged lawmakers to honor Kennedy by getting health reform passed.

“The best possible legacy is to pass health reform this year,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said recently. “Hopefully every step along the way they’ll ask themselves ‘What would Teddy do?’”

Dodd said Kennedy’s death will push his colleagues to work harder at passing legislation.

“We don’t have the luxury of wallowing in our grief; we’ve got to get up and get this done,” Dodd said. “We’re going to roll up our sleeves and do what Teddy would have done and get health-care done.”

– With assistance from Jeff Plungis in Washington. Editors: Ann Hughey, Bill Schmick

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington at ngaouette@bloomberg.net.

Consumer confidence soars

Sentiment reading increased to 54.1 in August, well above economists’ expectations.

The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers

(CNN) — Facebook, for better or worse, is like being at a big party with all your friends, family, acquaintances and co-workers.

There are lots of fun, interesting people you’re happy to talk to when they stroll up. Then there are the other people, the ones who make you cringe when you see them coming. This article is about those people.

Sure, Facebook can be a great tool for keeping up with folks who are important to you. Take the status update, the 160-character message that users post in response to the question, “What’s on your mind?” An artful, witty or newsy status update is a pleasure — a real-time, tiny window into a friend’s life.

But far more posts read like navel-gazing diary entries, or worse, spam. A recent study categorized 40 percent of Twitter tweets as “pointless babble,” and it wouldn’t be surprising if updates on Facebook, still a fast-growing social network, break down in a similar way. Take a CNN quiz: What kind of Facebooker are you? »

Combine dull status updates with shameless self-promoters, “friend-padders” and that friend of a friend who sends you quizzes every day, and Facebook becomes a daily reminder of why some people can get on your nerves. Watch as Facebookers reveal bugbears »

Here are 12 of the most annoying types of Facebook users:

The Let-Me-Tell-You-Every-Detail-of-My-Day Bore. “I’m waking up.” “I had Wheaties for breakfast.” “I’m bored at work.” “I’m stuck in traffic.” You’re kidding! How fascinating! No moment is too mundane for some people to broadcast unsolicited to the world. Just because you have 432 Facebook friends doesn’t mean we all want to know when you’re waiting for the bus.

The Self-Promoter. OK, so we’ve probably all posted at least once about some achievement. And sure, maybe your friends really do want to read the fascinating article you wrote about beet farming. But when almost EVERY update is a link to your blog, your poetry reading, your 10k results or your art show, you sound like a bragger or a self-centered careerist.

The Friend-Padder. The average Facebook user has 120 friends on the site. Schmoozers and social butterflies — you know, the ones who make lifelong pals on the subway — might reasonably have 300 or 400. But 1,000 “friends?” Unless you’re George Clooney or just won the lottery, no one has that many. That’s just showing off.

The Town Crier. “Michael Jackson is dead!!!” You heard it from me first! Me, and the 213,000 other people who all saw it on TMZ. These Matt Drudge wannabes are the reason many of us learn of breaking news not from TV or news sites but from online social networks. In their rush to trumpet the news, these people also spread rumors, half-truths and innuendo. No, Jeff Goldblum did not plunge to his death from a New Zealand cliff.

The TMIer. “Brad is heading to Walgreens to buy something for these pesky hemorrhoids.” Boundaries of privacy and decorum don’t seem to exist for these too-much-information updaters, who unabashedly offer up details about their sex lives, marital troubles and bodily functions. Thanks for sharing.

The Bad Grammarian. “So sad about Fara Fauset but Im so gladd its friday yippe”. Yes, I know the punctuation rules are different in the digital world. And, no, no one likes a spelling-Nazi schoolmarm. But you sound like a moron.

The Sympathy-Baiter. “Barbara is feeling sad today.” “Man, am I glad that’s over.” “Jim could really use some good news about now.” Like anglers hunting for fish, these sad sacks cast out their hooks — baited with vague tales of woe — in the hopes of landing concerned responses. Genuine bad news is one thing, but these manipulative posts are just pleas for attention.

The Lurker. The Peeping Toms of Facebook, these voyeurs are too cautious, or maybe too lazy, to update their status or write on your wall. But once in a while, you’ll be talking to them and they’ll mention something you posted, so you know they’re on your page, hiding in the shadows. It’s just a little creepy.

The Crank. These curmudgeons, like the trolls who spew hate in blog comments, never met something they couldn’t complain about. “Carl isn’t really that impressed with idiots who don’t realize how idiotic they are.” [Actual status update.] Keep spreading the love.

The Paparazzo. Ever visit your Facebook page and discover that someone’s posted a photo of you from last weekend’s party — a photo you didn’t authorize and haven’t even seen? You’d really rather not have to explain to your mom why you were leering like a drunken hyena and French-kissing a bottle of Jagermeister.

The Maddening Obscurist. “If not now then when?” “You’ll see…” “Grist for the mill.” “John is, small world.” “Dave thought he was immune, but no. No, he is not.” [Actual status updates, all.] Sorry, but you’re not being mysterious — just nonsensical.

The Chronic Inviter. “Support my cause. Sign my petition. Play Mafia Wars with me. Which ‘Star Trek’ character are you? Here are the ‘Top 5 cars I have personally owned.’ Here are ’25 Things About Me.’ Here’s a drink. What drink are you? We’re related! I took the ‘What President Are You?’ quiz and found out I’m Millard Fillmore! What president are you?”

You probably mean well, but stop. Just stop. I don’t care what president I am — can’t we simply be friends? Now excuse me while I go post the link to this story on my Facebook page.

All AboutFacebook Inc.

Find this article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/20/annoying.facebook.updaters/index.html?iref=newssearch

Emergency small business loans coming in June

To kick off National Small Business Week, the government announced its timetable for a hotly awaited assistance program.

The news came during a speech by SBA head Karen Mills kicking off the SBA’s annual National Small Business Week program of publicity and networking activities. Known as America’s Recovery Capital (ARC), the emergency loans were authorized in February’s stimulus bill. The SBA has been working since then to pull together guidance for the new program, which will back short-term loans of up to $35,000 that business owners can use to temporarily cover their payments on existing debt. No repayment on the ARC loans will be due for 12 months, and owners will have up to five years to repay them.

The SBA plans to release guidance to banks by June 8 and will be ready to accept lender loan packages by June 15. Business owners will need to apply directly to banks for the loans, but the SBA will offer those banks a 100% guarantee on the ARC loans they make. If the business owner defaults, the SBA will pay off the loan.

SBA Administrator Mills called the ARC loans “risky” and very different than the loans her agency typically backs. Aimed at businesses with “immediate financial hardship” but a past track record of financial success, the loans are intended to aid companies that “are in a situation where they just need a little extra help to bridge the troubled waters,” she said.

Right now, many small businesses find themselves struggling against the economic tides. Mills acknowledged that her constituents are in trouble and looking to the government for help.

“I have started to think of the SBA not just as a backbone for small business, but as an entire bone structure,” she said before a crowded audience at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington.

Sworn in last month as the SBA’s leader, Mills’ talk on Monday marked one of her first public speeches in her new role. In her remarks, she said that the top three priorities for her agency are more progress on fulfilling the small business provisions of the American Recovery Act, revitalizing the agency, and “making the SBA the strongest possible voice for small businesses in the U.S.”

The Recovery Act, better known as the stimulus bill, allocated $730 million for initiatives aimed at shoring up the country’s small business. So far, “the results are good,” Mills said. Since one stimulus provision took effect in mid-March, offering banks higher guarantees and waived fees on SBA-backed loans, the average weekly loan volume is up more than 25%, she said.

But that increase comes against a dismal backdrop for small business lending. In the quarter ended March 31, the number of loans made through agency’s popular 7(a) loan program dropped 57% compared to the prior year, and several major lenders have sharply reduced their activity.

Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., the chair of the Senate’s small business committee, joined Mills in a small press conference after the public speech. Landrieu told reporters that it’s a top priority for the committee and the agency to determine why 50% of the nation’s banks aren’t partnering with the SBA. The SBA itself does not directly loan money, but works with partner banks to offer government-backed loans.

“I would love to see any small business owner just walk around the corner to their local bank and say they’re looking to expand their business,” she said. “That bank should ask the SBA – would you be a partner with me?”

Landrieu also said that finding a better health care solution for small businesses is a top priority for her.

As for the agency, which employs 2,000 full-time workers, Mills said she plans to invest in “training, planning and better communication across the SBA … and for repeated calls to break down silos, to give up sacred turf.”

Internal reform was also a priority for Mills’ predecessor, Steven Preston, who served as SBA chief from July 2006 to April 2008. After a 2005 government survey found that the SBA had the lowest employee morale of any major government agency, Preston devoted much of his energy to streamlining the agency and improving morale. To top of page
First Published: May 18, 2009: 4:33 PM ET