Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Today, President Obama is meeting with a group of health care industry officials and SEIU, among others. They're all committed to reducing the growth rate of health care spending by 1.5% per year over the next ten year, which will result in savings of $2 trillion. That is apparently an indicator that health care reform will happen this year. On a conference call yesterday, a "senior administration official" said the Obama administration views this development as a "game-changer." We'll have more on this later. John and I are trying to figure out what it really means. Although, we were told on the call that Obama is still committed to a public plan in the health care reform package.

So, health care will be on the front burner this week. The Senate, which has taken the side of the banks over consumers, is taking up credit card reform. And, both the House and Senate are doing energy.

Maybe, one day soon, we'll actually get an answer from the Obama administration about whether they're sticking with Obama's promise to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" or if they're abandoning that commitment. They've been really weird about it. Although they're usually pretty adept, I don't think the White House understands the way the dynamics of LGBT-related issues have changed -- and continue to change rapidly. Someone over there should look at the polls, especially the breakdown by age. And, someone should do that soon. Because the Obama administration is looking out of touch on this. It's not good.

Okay, let's get this week started...