A GOP Freshman's First Weeks

Host Scott Simon visits Capitol Hill to check in with freshman Rep. Bill Huizenga, a Republican from Michigan, who was interviewed on Weekend Edition Saturday at the beginning of the session. Huizenga talks about his first weeks on the job and his vote against funding the F-35 jet engine project that was favored by House Speaker John Boehner.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/19/133893953/A-GOP-Freshmans-First-Weeks?ft=1&f=1003

George P. Bush Julián Castro Nathan Daschle Jennifer O\'Malley Dillon

Obama Advisers Report Income: They're Rich

President Obama's new chief of staff Bill Daley and incoming senior adviser David Plouffe have filed financial disclosure forms. Daley reported getting more than $20 million in salary, bonuses and other income last year. Plouffe's salary and speaking fees topped $1.5 million in 2010.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/18/133885180/obama-advisers-report-income-theyre-rich?ft=1&f=1014

MIKE MURPHY MARC THIESSEN R. EMMETT TYRRELL LIZ CHENEY

New Contraception Rules Spark 'Conscience Clause' Debate

Religious exemptions that allow health care workers to decline certain services to patients if they have a religious exemption should not include contraception. That's the bottom line of the administration's new regulations on the "conscience clause."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/02/18/133877729/new-rules-on-contraception-spark-conscience-clause-debate?ft=1&f=1003

Chris Ruddy Jim DeMint Frank Luntz Jeff Flake

Somalia's U.N. Mission: Pirates Capture 4 Americans

Omar Jamal, first secretary at the Somali mission, said the hijacking raises "serious concern" as it follows the sentencing Thursday of a Somali pirate who kidnapped and brutalized the captain of a U.S.-flagged merchant ship off the coast of Africa in 2009.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/18/133882863/somalias-u-n-mission-pirates-capture-4-americans?ft=1&f=1004

Justin Amash Nick Ayers Jeremy Bash George P. Bush

Incentives & ObamaCare: The Looming Failure

Warren Meyer, Forbes
Last week, I discussed information problems that were fundamental to third-party payer health care systems like Obamacare.  By eliminating the prosaic act of shopping, the government has cut themselves off from critical information about the preferences and tradeoffs made by three hundred million Americans.  As a result, any attempts to set pricing top-down are doomed to failure, as evidenced by the impossibility of implementing the “doc fix” to change Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors.

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/02/18/incentives_amp_obamacare_the_looming_failure_250743.html

Jim DeMint Frank Luntz Jeff Flake Huma Abedin

Somalia's U.N. Mission: Pirates Capture 4 Americans

Omar Jamal, first secretary at the Somali mission, said the hijacking raises "serious concern" as it follows the sentencing Thursday of a Somali pirate who kidnapped and brutalized the captain of a U.S.-flagged merchant ship off the coast of Africa in 2009.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/18/133882863/somalias-u-n-mission-pirates-capture-4-americans?ft=1&f=1004

MIKE MURPHY MARC THIESSEN R. EMMETT TYRRELL LIZ CHENEY