The Wonk Room

“The US Congress must pass a ’strong’ climate change bill before the global warming summit in Copenhagen this December if it is to have a chance of persuading China and India to sign up to a new treaty,” Bill Clinton told the Financial Times.

Republicans “plan to nitpick” the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill “into legislative oblivion by introducing more than 100 amendments during the committee debate,” which is scheduled to begin next week.

Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee, which has jurisdiction over carbon pollution offsets and forestry, are attacking climate legislation as “the most amazing tax increase of all time” and “a pretty big hit on agriculture,” even though global warming could cost American corn growers $1.4 billion a year.

According to Pentagon records, “more soldiers have been unavailable for combat in the past year because of wounds or injuries than at any time since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, shrinking the pool of soldiers ready for deployment to those conflicts.”

The U.S. military “for the first time has provided Pakistan with a broad array of surveillance information collected by American drones flying along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

Sens. Joe Liebermann (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “applauded” President Obama’s decision yesterday to withhold the release of photos of military personnel mistreating detainees, “and announced they would introduce an amendment next week to prevent such photos from being shown to the public during war time.”

The New York Times is reporting that the Democrats are intimidated by Frank Luntz’s health care memo. Many Democrats feel “unease that we did not have a strategy,” Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) said. Yesterday, David Axelrod was on Capitol Hill helping Democrats develop one.

Health Care Czar Nancy-Ann DeParle is dubious about the health industry’s pledge to slow the rate of spending growth by 1.5 percentage points over the next 10 years. “Well, it hasn’t happened yet,” she told the Washington Post.

Will the cost of health care reform derail the effort?

According to the latest data from the Census Bureau, “the recession has reduced the growth rate of U.S. Hispanic and Asian populations…slowing the spread of diversity in American suburbs and exurbs.”

California Treasurer Bill Lockyer has asked Treasury Secretary Geithner “to authorize assistance for his state from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, warning that depressed tax revenues may cut into basic services and halt the building of infrastructure.”

The New York Times Magazine reveals how much your credit card issuer knows about you.