Hillary Clinton not attending convention
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination four years ago, won’t attend the Democratic convention in September.
The State Department says it wouldn’t be right for the nation’s top diplomat to attend such a partisan event, and it wouldn’t be legal either.
“Given her current position, she will not be attending, consistent with her not engaging in any political activity whatsoever,” Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines told The Charlotte Observer newspaper in North Carolina.
Charlotte is hosting the Democratic National Convention. The secretary of State is viewed as a non-political position.
The Observer points out that federal law also prohibits the attorney general (now Eric Holder) and Defense secretary (Leon Panetta) from attending political gatherings, including conventions — and campaign appearances.
But that won’t stop Clinton’s husband — former president Bill Clinton — from being in attendance.
Hillary Clinton lost a fierce battle for the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama in 2008, then helped unite the party behind him. The Observer notes that some Democrats say they hope she may run again in 2016.
Reines told the newspaper it will be the first Democratic convention she will miss in many years, “possibly all the way back to ’68 in Chicago.” — David Jackson
Study: Health law to add $340B to deficit
Reigniting a debate about the bottom line for President Obama’s health care law, a leading conservative economist estimates in a study to be released today that the overhaul will add at least $340 billion to the deficit, not reduce it.
Charles Blahous, who serves as public trustee overseeing Medicare and Social Security finances, also suggested that federal accounting practices have obscured the true fiscal impact of the controversial legislation, the fate of which is now in the hands of the Supreme Court.
Officially, the health care law is still projected to help reduce government red ink. The Congressional Budget Office, the government’s non-partisan fiscal umpire, said in an estimate last year that repealing the law actually would increase deficits by $210 billion from 2012 to 2021. The CBO, however, has not updated that projection.
The White house dismissed the study in a statement late Monday. Presidential assistant Jeanne Lambrew called the study “new math (that) fits the old pattern of mischaracterizations” about the health care law.
Blahous, in his 52page analysis, said, “Taken as a whole, the enactment of the (health care law) has substantially worsened a dire federal fiscal outlook.”