Obama's Closing Gitmo Plan Hits A Financial Speed Bump

Plan To Move Guantánamo Detainees Faces New Delay


Rebuffed this month by skeptical lawmakers when it sought finances to buy a prison in rural Illinois, the Obama administration is struggling to come up with the money to replace the Guantánamo Bay prison.

As a result, officials now believe that they are unlikely to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer its population of terrorism suspects until 2011 at the earliest — a far slower timeline for achieving one of President Obama’s signature national security policies than they had previously hinted.

While Mr. Obama has acknowledged that he would miss the Jan. 22 deadline for closing the prison that he set shortly after taking office, the administration appeared to take a major step forward last week when he directed subordinates to move “as expeditiously as possible” to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center, a nearly vacant maximum-security Illinois prison, and to retrofit it to receive Guantánamo detainees.

But in interviews this week, officials estimated that it could take 8 to 10 months to install new fencing, towers, cameras and other security upgrades before any transfers take place. Such construction cannot begin until the federal government buys the prison from the State of Illinois.

The federal Bureau of Prisons does not have enough money to pay Illinois for the center, which would cost about $150 million. Several weeks ago, the White House approached the House Appropriations Committee and floated the idea of adding about $200 million for the project to the military spending bill for the 2010 fiscal year, according to administration and Congressional officials.

But Democratic leaders refused to include the politically charged measure in the legislation. When lawmakers approved the bill on Dec. 19, it contained no financing for Thomson.

The administration will probably not have another opportunity until Congress takes up a supplemental appropriations bill for the Afghanistan war. Lawmakers are not likely to finish that bill until late March or April.

Moreover, the administration now says that the current focus for Thomson financing is the appropriations legislation for the 2011 fiscal year. Congress will not take that measure up until late 2010.

Frustrated by the difficulties in obtaining financing from Congress, administration officials had discussed invoking a little-known statute that would allow the president to declare a national emergency and then use military funds allocated for other construction projects to buy and retrofit the Illinois prison.

That statute, however, has never been used for a project quite like this one. Fearing that lawmakers would be angered by such a move and could respond by erasing the statute, the administration decided not to invoke it.

Matthew Waxman, who was assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs in the Bush administration, said the Obama administration would need lawmakers’ support for its long-term post-Guantánamo plans. Invoking emergency powers to unilaterally buy Thomson, he said, would be “poking Congress in the eye in a way that would be very counterproductive.”

Still, it is not clear that Congress will be willing to approve money enabling the transfer of Guantánamo detainees to domestic soil — especially as the 2010 midterm election campaign heats up, with the likelihood that Republicans will pick up seats.

This year, Congress restricted the ability of the executive branch to transfer detainees into domestic prisons, a ban reiterated in the 2010 military appropriations bill.

The Thomson proposal enjoys strong support from Illinois Democrats, including Gov. Patrick J. Quinn and Senator Richard J. Durbin, who have hailed the idea as a means of creating jobs. More than 300 people turned out Tuesday in Sterling, Ill., for a hearing on the proposal, The Associated Press reported, and emotions ran high among people on each side of the proposal.

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The White House has argued that closing Guantánamo would enhance national security by removing a symbol used by terrorist recruiters. It also said the closing would save taxpayers money because the Defense Department pays $150 million a year to operate the Guantánamo prison on the naval base there, while running the Illinois prison would cost $75 million.

Ben LaBolt, a White House spokesman, said Mr. Obama remained committed to closing the Guantánamo prison, adding, “We will continue to work with Congress to ensure that we secure the necessary funds to purchase and upgrade the Thomson prison, which will operate at a substantially lower cost to taxpayers, next year.”

But many Republicans oppose closing Guantánamo, arguing that housing the detainees on United States soil would create unnecessary security risks. Some crucial moderate Democrats are also skeptical.

Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is said to have privately expressed doubts to administration officials about the plan. Another member of that committee, Representative Loretta Sanchez, Democrat of California, also raised security and legal questions about the proposal.

“Particularly making something on U.S. soil an attraction for Al Qaeda and terrorists to go after — inciting them to attack something on U.S. soil — that’s a problem, and we need to think it through,” Ms. Sanchez said in an interview Tuesday.

In the Senate, Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, has argued that the problem with Guantánamo has been its lack of due process rights, not its physical location. He said recently that terrorism suspects “do not belong in our country, they do not belong in our courts, and they do not belong in our prisons.”

Mr. LaBolt pointed out that the detainee population was now smaller than it had been at any time since 2002, and that on other fronts in the effort to close Guantánamo, “substantial progress has been made in recent weeks.”

For example, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. recently announced the first sets of civilian and military prosecutions for 10 detainees, and more such announcements are expected soon.

Last week, the United States transferred six detainees to Yemen in a trial program of repatriation to that country. About 91 of the roughly 200 detainees at Guantánamo are Yemeni; many are not considered “high value” suspects, but officials have been reluctant to repatriate them because of security conditions in Yemen.

Still, Congressional resistance to approving money for Thomson represents a steep hurdle toward dealing with the detainees who the administration has decided can neither be prosecuted nor safely transferred to the custody of other countries.

Indeed, Mr. Waxman said, the debate is certain to set off discussions on an issue that could drive away many civil-liberties-minded Democrats who have voiced initial support for Mr. Obama’s Thomson plan: the administration’s intention to imprison some detainees on United States soil without trials. “Some members of Congress may want to support rapid closure of Guantánamo but not to signal support for broad military detention powers,” Mr. Waxman said.



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Sources: NY Times, Politico, AP, MSNBC, Google Maps

Are Blue Dog Democrats "In Bed" With Health Care Companies?...Recieving Large Political Contributions

Huffington Post, Politico, The Hill, NY Times, TIME----


Members of the House of Representatives once again canceled a health care markup session on Thursday after negotiations with Blue Dog Democrats stalled.

The cancellation makes it unlikely that members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will be able to complete a bill before the House is scheduled to adjourn on July 31.

The Blue Dogs are a fiscally conservative Democratic coalition who have become considerably more powerful as of late. Their votes are key to advancing the Democratic agenda.

A report by the Center For Public Integrity recently found that the coalition raised a record-breaking amount in the first six months of 2009.

So far this year, the Blue Dog Political Action Committee is on track to shatter all its fundraising records; in fact, the total for the first six months of 2009 -- more than $1.1 million -- is greater than what was raised in the entire 2003-04 fundraising cycle. Furthermore, according to analysis by the Center for Public Integrity of CQ MoneyLine data, the energy, financial services, and HEALTH CARE Industries have accounted for nearly 54 percent of the Blue Dog PAC's 2009 receipts (up from 45 percent in 2004). These contributions poured in as President Obama and the Democratic Congress have been making a major push to reform health care, develop a new energy policy, and restructure oversight of the banking sector. Clearly, these Dogs are having their day.

However, as individuals, the Blue Dogs got the plurality of their 2009 campaign contributions from a traditional Democratic ally: organized labor.


Blue Dogs Delay Health Care Reform

"Got a lot of farms in your district?" In Washington, Representative Dennis Moore, a six-term Democrat, fields that question all the time. People see that he's from Kansas and they jump to certain conclusions. But Moore's district is USDA-prime suburbia, more John Updike than L. Frank Baum, mile after mile of trim lawns, Panera Breads, Best Buys and carpooling parents. "What we grow," Moore likes to answer, "is a lot of small business."

And this helps explain why Moore is now saying, in his laconic Kansas drawl, "Slow down!" to the leaders of his party as they push ahead with a $1 trillion–plus overhaul of the nation's health-care system. Already this year, Moore has supported a huge spending package to stimulate the economy and a bill to cap carbon emissions. That's an aggressive agenda for a Democrat in a Republican-leaning district. As he looks toward 2010, the last thing Moore needs is a revolt of small-business owners. Yet they are among the constituencies targeted to pony up for expanded health coverage through new payroll taxes and a surtax on high incomes.

Throughout Congress, moderate Democrats like Moore have been stomping furiously on the brakes as health-care reform has appeared to pick up speed. Some are freshmen from Western states, like Jared Polis of Colorado and Dina Titus of Nevada. Their victories in 2008, part of a possible regional shift in favor of the Democrats, could be erased next year if polls continue to turn against new taxes and mammoth spending plans.

Others are veteran members of the so-called Blue Dog Coalition, which consists of Democrats from less-than-liberal districts. Seven of the eight Blue Dogs on the crucial House Energy and Commerce Committee have threatened to block health-care legislation unless it puts a lid on costs. Resistance strengthened after the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office testified that the current House proposal would push costs up, not down, and would add some $240 billion to the federal deficit by 2019. That, in turn, has some Senators pushing back against the White House's early-August goal for passing health-care reform. With dissent spreading through his team's locker room, coach Obama was forced into pep-talk mode. "Now is not the time to slow down," he urged on July 17, "and now is certainly not the time to lose heart."

For Moore, it's not a matter of heart. He strongly favors reform. "The American people have spoken, and they clearly want a better health-care system," he says. "If we don't act this year, costs for everyone are going to rise." The problem is runaway spending. "Voters want us to get some kind of a lid on costs," he continues. "They aren't looking for a huge tax increase. Small businesses are struggling to make ends meet as it is."

Most members of Congress don't have to worry much about voters from the other party because most districts are designed to favor either liberals or conservatives. But some mixed districts remain, and the Kansas Third is one of them. Moore's survival depends on winning votes from both sides.

And so Moore spent one recent morning hosting a forum on small-business financing in an auditorium deep in the sprawl of greater Kansas City. Constituents weren't asked to declare their political affiliation, but given the audience demographics — Kansas business owners — Moore could be confident that a number of them were Republicans. For an hour, panelists demystified Small Business Administration paperwork and shared tips for landing loans from local banks. Then the Congressman invited questions.

Carol Nichols, a jewelry designer, stood up, clutched a microphone and launched in. "There's an incredible amount of spending that we are being asked to finance," she began, "and we are not seeing the benefit." The $787 billion stimulus plan, she declared, has produced "underwhelming" results. Energy costs will go up to fight global warming. And now health-care costs will increase to cover the uninsured. She closed with an admonition: "Part of living within a budget is spending within a budget." Heads nodded as she sat down.

For Moore, a former prosecutor with a tinge of Hal Holbrook's hangdog air, such speeches are painful. As he explains, he has been a deficit hawk since joining Congress in 1998. Moore and his fellow Blue Dogs tried to win the Bush Administration's support for a budget-balancing proposal they called pay-as-you-go. "President Bush and the Republicans in Congress refused to support us," Moore says. "And in eight years of the Bush Administration, our debt went up $5 trillion."

Obama, who huddled with a group of Blue Dogs on July 21, has embraced pay-as-you-go, at least in theory, but the sheer scale of his agenda puts Moore on the spot. Each individual item may be worthy; piled onto a single plate, it's a lot to swallow. "I think President Obama has correctly identified a number of crucial long-term issues facing our country," Moore says, "and I hope that he'll see that we can't tackle them all at once."

After the forum, I spoke with Nichols, the jewelry designer, and no surprise: she's a Republican — with a keen understanding of Moore's political situation. Republicans outnumber Democrats in Kansas, but in recent years they have been more interested in internecine combat than in fighting the opposition. Splits over issues like abortion and creationism opened the door for Democrats like Moore and former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius to win moderate GOP votes by focusing on education, the environment and economic development.

Now it's the Democrats who must worry about party splits. If a health-care compromise isn't reached in August — an increasingly likely possibility — then the first significant setback for the new Administration will have come from the inside, not from the opposition. An age-old truth reasserts itself in Washington: The only thing harder than building a majority is holding one together.


Sources: The Hill, Huffington Post, Politico, MSNBC, Think Progress, NY Times, Public Integrity

Pres. Obama Seems Ok with HC Reform Delay?...Oh, Oh! Watch Out G.O.P. & Blue Dogs

Huffington Post, MSNBC, Politico, Whitehouse.gov----



(MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn, and Politico’s Roger Simon discuss Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s announcement that a Health Care Reform bill will not be passed before the August recess.)

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Thursday's announcement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nev.) that the full U.S. Senate would not consider health care legislation until after the August recess will likely make the next month even more heated and critical in the reform process.

August is normally Washington's off month, but in the hours after Reid's comments, partisans on both sides of the debate were pressing forward.

The Democratic National Committee released an ad targeting Republicans from trying to "kill" reform, while Rick Scott, head of Conservatives for Patients Rights, was reading the last rites for the public option. "I am very confident, after meetings on the Hill this week, that if Congress does not pass a health care bill with the public option before Labor Day, the public option is dead," Scott wrote in a memo to allies.

While Reid's announcement was interpreted by some as a political setback, operatives had been preparing themselves for the deadline to be missed for several weeks.

Democratic groups pushing for reform are set to execute a massive campaign -- involving media buys, grassroots efforts, and other traditional political functions -- designed to give lawmakers cover for a more progressive bill.

"We'll have targeted campaigns in states across the country, from Indiana and Maine to Washington and Michigan," said Lori Lodes, a spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union. "We'll be knocking on doors, going to town halls, writing letters, making phone calls -- everything possible to make sure the members of congress know that health care reform must happen this year."

The Progressive-Leaning Health Care for American Now has a major push planned too, and is hinting that it will up its efforts during the recess.

"We'll just knock on more doors, make more phone calls, send more letters and emails, hold more events, and set up more delegation visits," said Jacki Schechner, National Communications Director for the group. "That's what we built this campaign to do. A little extra time is just the chance for the grassroots to get a lot louder."

The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, will continue its ad campaigns, an aide said, "call[ing] out conservatives for fighting against the concept of reform, regardless of the cost to our lives and our future."

The other side of the aisle is gearing up as well. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has a multi-million dollar ad campaign planned against Democratic-constructed reform.

"The basis behind the campaign is the issue of the public plan and there is still a good chance that the public plan will be in the legislation," said Blair Latoff, a spokesperson for the Chamber. "It is still in the House bill. So we are going to continue our efforts in August expressing our opposition to the public plan both in rallies and ad campaigns."

The conservative grassroots effort has been equally robust. An aide to Sen. Mark Warner, (D-Va.), confirmed that the Virginia Democrat has received far more communiqués opposing the president's plan and specific proposals than he has received in support.

"Our 'con' column is a lot more than the 'pro,'" the aide said. "There have been hundreds of people who are against the plan or any specific part of it compared to dozens for it. And that was only in the last week."

There won't be an absence of specifics to fight over in the coming weeks. Reid said the Senate Finance Committee will mark up its legislation before the August break -- so the Senate can vote on it once its members return to town. Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber remains on schedule to consider a bill before the break.

Going forward, strategists predict that attention will center on the House bill, which is widely considered not quite ready for prime time specifically because of insufficient cost-cutting measures.

One thing that remains to be seen is how long Blue Dog Democrats will continue to withhold their support, particularly within the Energy and Commerce Committee. And progressives aren't entirely enthused with the current legislative outlines, either, although for the time being they are taking solace from the commitment the House bill makes to wellness, prevention and new frameworks for negotiations with pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment makers.



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Sources: Huffington Post, MSNBC, Politico, Whitehouse.gov, Google Maps