The top US Senate Republican predicted on Sunday that US President Barack Obama would pay a hefty price in upcoming mid-term elections if he forces his healthcare reforms through Congress.
Mitch McConnell warned Democrats, fearful of big losses in November from their majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, not to ram through reforms fiercely opposed by the Republicans.
“What the American people would like us to do is not make this gargantuan mistake,” McConnell told ABC television, portraying the reforms as costly for Americans in the short-term.
“The benefits don’t kick in for four years. Just looking at the politics of it, there’s nothing but pain for the next four years. Why in the world would they think that would be popular?” he asked.
Obama has piled pressure on Democratic lawmakers to sign on to his latest strategy, which calls for the House to abandon the legislation it approved in November and pass the Senate’s version, coupled with “fixes” to that bill.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a fresh call on Sunday to quickly pass the bill, pointing to a Goldman Sachs report that found competition drying up and profits rising among private health insurers.
“We know what doing nothing looks like, and it looks pretty scary,” Sebelius told NBC’s Meet the Press program, stressing that 15,000 Americans lose insurance every day and tens of millions have no coverage at all.
The health secretary said she expected there would ultimately be enough votes in Congress to pass the bill.
“Let’s get the job done, let’s finish what’s been talked about for the past year,” Sebelius said later on ABC.
Democratic congressional aides have said they hope to pass a final bill before the start of a two-week Easter recess at the end of the day on March 26.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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