Why Not?

John "Bronzer" Boehner Isn't Seeing Green.

From ThinkProgress:

Responding to the most recent findings by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office indicating that the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill will cost American families only a postage stamp a day, House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) is changing up his strategy on attacking the bill, with guidance by The Heritage Foundation.

With the CBO and EPA findings backing energy reform opponents into a corner on the household cost argument, Heritage is arming conservatives with a new strategy — smearing Waxman-Markey as a job killer:

An analysis of the Waxman-Markey bill (as reported out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce) by The Heritage Foundation found that unemployment will increase by nearly 2 million in 2012, the first year of the program, and reach nearly 2.5 million in 2035, the last year of the analysis.

After Heritage’s report was issued on Thursday, GOP Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) held a press conference to push the think tank’s job killer claims:

This bill will also cost 2.3 million to 2.7 million Americans their jobs. That’s because high energy industries, like the steel- making industry, won’t be located in the United States anymore.

Yes, Boehner actually seems to pine for the lack of environmental regulations in "China, India, South Korea..."

Ah, yes! A GOP plan for the environment is what's needed! They could brand it as "Meltdown NOW!"

More from ThinkProgress:

With the House debating the American Clean Energy & Security Act today, other opponents of reform can be expected to follow Heritage’s lead. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) already spoke on the House floor this morning, saying “there’s a lot of debate about what this bill will cost the average American household, from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars, but there actually is no debate over the fact that this legislation will cost millions of American jobs.”

A report by the Center for American Progress shows that investing $150 billion in clean energy will create an estimated 1.7 million new jobs — three times more jobs than a similar investment in fossil fuels. In Boehner’s home state alone, 67,356 new jobs would be created by a clean energy economy.

Bloomberg has more.

A New York Times editorial is here.

Bean Counters May Be Hazardous To Your Health Care.

From The New Republic:

Everywhere you look, health care reform seems to be chugging along. Insurers and drug companies are visiting the White House to show solidarity with President Obama. House Democrats are promising to pass a bill by July 31. But, if you talk to senior staff in the administration or on Capitol Hill, you'll detect anxiety over one tiny agency--an agency that helped kill health care reform in 1994 and has the power to do so again.

That agency is the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which is just now weighing in on the debate. When Congress writes a bill, the CBO is the agency that determines how much implementing it will likely cost. And that's no small matter. For every extra dollar in new expenditures that the CBO projects, Congress must find a new dollar in revenue--or learn to live with a new dollar in deficits. Back in 1994, the CBO decided that paying for universal health insurance under the Clinton plan would cost more than the administration thought it would. That forced Bill Clinton and his allies to propose additional regulations on insurance prices, incurring a political liability that helped seal the plan's fate. 

The CBO hasn't rendered an official verdict on health care reform this time around, because, officially, there's still no plan on which to render a final verdict. But the CBO began producing preliminary projections about three weeks ago, based on rough proposals that congressional staff have submitted. And, according to several sources familiar with the estimates, the news isn't quite what Obama and his allies were hoping to hear. 

Read the rest here and stay tuned...