Chinese President Hu Jintao has faced his critics in the U.S. Congress for talks on human rights, economic policy and North Korea, VOA reports. House speaker John Boehner said he and his colleagues raised their “strong, ongoing concerns” of reports of human rights violations in China, including the denial of religious freedom, and the use of coercive abortion as a consequence of the “one child” policy.
Posts Tagged ‘John Boehner’
Macca refuses to apologise for Bush gag
June 26th, 2010 |
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Sir Paul McCartney has refused to apologise for a joke he cracked on former President George W. Bush during an appearance at the White House earlier this month. The Beatles legend poked fun at the ex-leader”s intellect as he became the first non-American to collect the Gershwin Prize for ‘Popular Song’ from Bush”s successor, President [...]
Obama call for support on health plan
July 23rd, 2009 |
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President says changes needed to guarantee healthcare for tens of millions of Americans without insurance
Barack Obama yesterday stepped up his fight for a healthcare overhaul, using a nationally televised news conference to seek support from the US public.
With the Republicans on the attack over the issue, Obama said changes were needed to guarantee healthcare for the tens of millions of Americans without insurance and to help the financial stability of the US.
The healthcare debate now towers above many of the other issues facing the president.
The US is the only major industrialised nation to lack a comprehensive health care plan.
The stakes are high for Obama, who is putting much of his credibility on the line to gain passage of legislation.
But the president said the debate was not about him, and instead cited examples of Americans whose insurance would not cover cancer treatment or who had gone into debt after emergency surgery.
“This debate is not a game for these Americans, and they cannot afford to wait for reform any longer,” he said.
Obama has argued that making health coverage affordable and sustainable is so vital that anything less would erode the economic stability of families, businesses and even the government.
He said Americans “spend much more on healthcare than any other nation but aren’t any healthier for it”.
He wants Congress to vote on comprehensive healthcare bills before it breaks for the summer recess next month.
Republicans say Obama’s push and emerging congressional bills are rushed and risky, and some conservative members of the president’s Democratic party are also uncertain.
John Boehner, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, said of the healthcare legislation: “Mr President, it’s time to scrap this bill. Let’s start over in a bipartisan way.”
The healthcare debate may have dented Obama’s popularity. His approval rating stands at 55%, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, down from 64% in late May and early June.
Around 50% approve of his handling of healthcare, but 43% disapprove, and that number has risen sharply since April.
Obama has said the US is moving in the right direction, pointing to legislation from his first six months in office including a huge economic stimulus bill that is ultimately designed to work over two years.
“As a result of the action we took in those first weeks, we have been able to pull our economy back from the brink,” he added.
However, unemployment is at 9.5% and rising, and Obama’s approval rating on handling the economy has been slipping as impatience grows.
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Peter Dreier: GOP Liars on Health Costs
July 21st, 2009 |
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“Democrats’ government-run plan will make health care more costly than ever,” Ohio Representative John Boehner, the House Republican leader, told the Wall Street Journal…
Arianna Huffington: Why Visiting Pompeii Has Me Thinking About the Smoke Billowing Out of Our Economic Mt. Vesuvius
July 21st, 2009 |
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POMPEII — Walking around the ancient city of Pompeii, reading up on its history, and thinking of its people — wiped out in 79 A.D. by a volcanic eruption — got me thinking about unheeded warning signs. In the case of Pompeii, these signs included a severe earthquake, dogs running away, and columns of smoke belching out of Mount Vesuvius. But these warning signs were ignored, and the volcano blew its top, burying the city and its inhabitants under 60 feet of ash and volcanic rock. There is currently plenty of alarming smoke pouring out of our economic Vesuvius — including rising unemployment, record bankruptcies, record credit card defaults, and record home foreclosures. But the warning signs are once again being ignored.