The Wonk Room

Due to the economic downturn altering commuting patterns, “drivers are spending less time stuck in rush-hour traffic for a second straight year, the first-ever two-year decline in congestion.”

The Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein calls the small-business lobby’s argument against an employer health care mandate “100 percent Grade A hooey,” pointing out that “one of the most enduring lies in American politics is the myth of small-business job creation.”

Noam Scheiber writes that the fate of the Obama administration’s financial regulation plan may hinge on “the ever-shifting tactical alliances between banks and other interest groups.”

Today, a bipartisan task force will recommend “that the United States overhaul its immigration system in response to national security concerns, saying that the country should end strict quotas on work-based immigrant visas to maintain its scientific, technological and military edge.”

The State Department confirmed yesterday that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians “will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall.”

U.S. immigration police said yesterday that “Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc has reached a $40,000 fine settlement for violating immigration laws by hiring illegal immigrants.”

Democrats may have convinced hospitals to reduce health care spending by $155 billion over 10 years by guaranteeing that the public health insurance option would pay above Medicare rates. But as Maggie Mahar asks, how can anyone promise that a public sector plan “will not pay at Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement rates” when we don’t know what Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates will be in 2010 or 2011?

As a presidential candidate, “President Barack Obama endorsed re-importation, an idea the industry opposes.” But now, some are reporting that White House officials have told the drug industry that “if the larger health care bill passes, the cost savings will be so great that reimportation will be unnecessary.”

NYT’s David Leonhardt: “It’s become popular to pick your own personal litmus test for health care reform…My litmus test is different. It’s the prostate cancer test.”

“My thoughts are that he’s wrong,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) of President Obama’s questioning of greenhouse-pollution tariffs in clean energy legislation. “We only agree with the president 98 percent of the time,” added Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI). “Not on this one.”

“I just generally don’t like many things about the House bill,” added Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA). “But I’m open to discuss how we can move forward to make our energy grid greener. How we can move to the next generation of energy supply, and most importantly how to get American energy secure. That goal cannot be done without increasing traditional oil and gas production.”

“Powerful thunderstorms pummeled eastern South Dakota with ping-pong sized hail and up to two inches of rain Tuesday night,” and “close to 4,000 head of cattle died in the extreme heat across 23 counties in central and eastern Nebraska.”