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...shortsighted." A week later, the President said essentially the same thing at a meeting of congressional leaders. And while it could be argued that McChrystal overstepped by dissing one possible course of action in the midst of a presidential strategy review, it could also be argued that the option dissed was not under consideration...
...fact, most of the hoo-hah about Obama's Afghanistan strategy review has been a matter of smoke and mirrors. In a recent issue of this magazine, for example, Leslie H. Gelb - a prominent "opponent" of the current strategy - came out against the military's all-in option in Afghanistan, favoring instead a plan that would add three brigades, about 15,000 additional troops, this year. But the military's all-in option, a request for 40,000 more troops, is just that: an option. It is the upper end of three options that McChrystal has offered the President...
...paint the President as flaccid on national security. McCain has been going around for the past few weeks telling all comers - heatedly, at times - that Obama's strategy review is essentially a waste of time, that the President has to, has to, go with the 40,000-troop option in Afghanistan. The Obama Administration, unnecessarily defensive, added fuel to the fire by having National Security Adviser Jim Jones and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates obliquely chastise McChrystal for public lobbying...
...bill. Most important, the all-important exchanges - Web-accessible marketplaces in which individuals and small groups could compare and shop for private insurance - would be established state by state. By contrast, the House bill would create a national exchange. Instead of a national public insurance plan - the controversial "public option" that is included in both the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Finance Committee bill and the House bill - the Baucus bill calls for the establishment of state or multistate nonprofit health-insurance cooperatives. (Read "Health Reform's Public Option: Down...
...such a lack of uniformity across the country has only recently become apparent. Just last week, during the markup of the bill, at least two amendments were tacked on to the legislation giving states further latitude. Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington drafted an amendment that would allow states the option of pooling residents earning 133% to 200% of the federal poverty level into a group outside the exchange. States would get money from federal subsidies that are available to these low-income earners - who wouldn't be poor enough to qualify for Medicaid even under the proposed expanded guideline...