ROBERT BOROSAGE Your Health Care May Decide The 2008 Election Americans will begin to tune into the election again around the conventions. And in the fall, they'll start to take a closer look at who the candidates are and what they believe. Iraq will be big no doubt; the economy bigger. But health care may just be the pothole that cracks up Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express Bush Drops Housing Bill Opposition hosted.ap.org — President Bush dropped his opposition to legislation aiming to calm the chaotic housing market despite his objections to a $3.9 billion provision for neighborhoods hit hardest by the housing crisis. The House was expected to vote on the bill, and it could become law as early as this week. Under the bill, the government would help struggling homeowners get new, cheaper loans and would be allowed to offer troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a cash infusion. Bailout Cost: Who knows? washingtonpost.com — The U.S. Treasury's rescue plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could cost the government $25 billion. The Congressional Budget Office, which calculates the fiscal impact of proposed legislation, said there was more than a 50 percent chance the U.S. would not have to intervene to save Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next 18 months. However, it added there was a 5 per cent chance that the Treasury would have to plug about $100 billion in additional losses at the ailing mortgage giants if conditions in the housing market worsened. The combination of these probabilities, as well as other factors, resulted in the $25 billion estimate. Problems Push Mortgage Rates Higher iht.com — Mortgage rates are rising because of the troubles at the loan finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, threatening to deal another blow to the faltering housing market. Even as policy makers rushed to support the two companies, home loan rates approached their highest levels in five years. Loan rates are rising because of concern in the financial markets about the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee nearly half of the nation's $12 trillion mortgage market. Senate Curbs Oil Speculation npr.org — Congressional Democrats who want to lower gas prices by curbing speculation in oil futures saw their legislation survive a key vote in the Senate. GOP lawmakers are seeking a vote on lifting a longstanding moratorium on oil and gas exploration in the U.S. outer-continental shelf. Speculation in the oil futures markets has exploded over the past few years, ever since a Republican-led Congress changed the rules so anyone could buy oil futures — not just those who actually intended to use that oil. As a result, the number of futures contracts has increased nearly 12-fold since 2001. Democrats cite estimates that speculation is responsible for between 20 and 50 percent of the recent spike in oil prices. Russia, Venezuela Coordinate on Energy nytimes.com — MOSCOW — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia declared Tuesday that their countries would more closely coordinate their actions on global oil and gas markets and that they would work together on foreign policy, a sphere in which both countries have sought to counter American influence. Mr. Chávez, who was also expected to sign contracts to purchase more than $1 billion worth of Russian arms, called for the two nations to become "strategic partners" to defend against what he called an American threat to his country. White House Blocked Emissions Plan washingtonpost.com — A former Environmental Protection Agency official contradicted EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson's congressional testimony on one of the administration's key global warming decisions, saying the White House ordered Johnson to block California's bid to regulate vehicles' tailpipe emissions. Former EPA deputy associate administrator Jason K. Burnett — who resigned last month and has since divulged key details about how President Bush and his deputies have influenced the agency's decisions on climate policy — testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that Johnson had concluded that California's request was legally justified — until White House officials ordered him to reverse the decision. White House to Increase Toxins washingtonpost.com — Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins. The agency did not disclose the proposal, as required, in public notices of regulatory plans. Instead, the rule first surfaced when the Office of Management and Budget posted on its web site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its title. The proposed rule would call for reexamining the methods used to measure risks posed by workplace exposure to toxins. The change would address long-standing complaints from businesses that the government overestimates the risk posed by job exposure to chemicals. FEMA Seeks Immunity msnbc.msn.com — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is requesting immunity from lawsuits filed on behalf of Gulf Coast hurricane victims who claim they were exposed to dangerous fumes while living in government-issued trailers. Lawyers for Gulf Coast storm victims accuse FEMA of negligence for sheltering them in trailers with elevated levels of formaldehyde, a preservative used in construction materials that can induce breathing problems and is believed to cause cancer. In court papers, FEMA's lawyers told the judge the agency is entitled to immunity from such claims challenging its response to disasters such as Katrina.   DEAN BAKER Wanted: Legitimate Reasons to Bail Out Fannie and Freddie Stockholders tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — Okay, we all know the argument for bailing out Fannie and Freddie bondholders. But, why are we bailing out the stockholders? After all, aren't stockholders supposed to lose their shirts when they invest in a bankrupt company? JIM SLEEPER Intellectual Usury Feels Good, at First tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — Blame the culture. Blame the individual decision makers. Blame both. Step back and remember that the individual and the society are interdependent. This is a shell game on the edge of an abyss. DAVID MOBERG Let Them Eat Free Markets inthesetimes.com — The current food crisis ultimately stems from over-reliance on deregulated global markets and increasingly concentrated corporate control of an ecologically unsound world food system. Pushing free-market fundamentalism harder will only intensify the fault lines, setting the stage for even more serious crises in the future. KATE SHEPPARD Shale We Dance? gristmill.grist.org — The Bush administration's effort to spur oil shale production won't do much for consumers in short run. BENJAMIN BREWER, M.D. Tough Times Prompt Patients to Skip Care online.wsj.com — Rising deductibles, stiff drug co-payments and increasing prices for just about everything are forcing some hard choices about health. Care that doesn't strike patients as critical is getting delayed. As the economy squeezes my patients, they are showing up sicker. MIKE LUX A Big, Broad Movement openleft.com — To build a big, powerful, effective, and truly diverse progressive movement — one capable of actually winning — all of us need to do our best to step back and remember some things.   HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA NOW Insurance Astroturf Campaign Confronted A Service Employees International Union organizer confronts Karen Ignagni, the CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans at a public forum in Columbus, Ohio, July 22. TERRANCE HEATH Wall Street Welfare Reform By the time a good idea makes it to Congress — and actually gets some serious consideration — it is no longer an idea whose time has come, but one whose time is way overdue. Such is the case as Congress takes up the issue of CEO pay, in the face of yet another expensive, and all but inevitable, taxpayer-financed corporate bailout. DAVID SIROTA CNN on Progressives Pressuring Obama Movement psychology — the kind that is going to take the populist uprising and turn it into a movement — requires us to focus on making that wind blow in our direction before the election and after. RICK PERLSTEIN Let Them Eat Rubble Bipartisan Push to Fix Infrastructure Horrifies Conservatives Let Them Eat Cake It's not an accident that there are so many scandals every time the right rules Washington. Conservatives basically see it as their duty to loot the government — or, at the very least, they cannot help it. Duck! Pat Buchanan's latest column just slapped me right upside the head: You go hunting where the ducks are," said Barry Goldwater," it begins. Deep Question If John McCain thinks we shouldn't leave Iraq until we "win" does that mean he thinks we should fight to the last man like the Japanese on Iwo Jima? more from our bloggers >> What they are talking about is nothing but socialized medicine. Conservatives opposed great reforms like Social Security and Medicare by screaming socialism. They were wrong then, and they're wrong now. Guaranteed affordable health insurance would not make doctors and other health care professionals work for the government. The progressive plan is about making sure you have good health insurance you can afford and the ability to go to the doctors you want. more pro vs con >>