REPUBLICAN IDEAS: “WhipCast” Advances Republican Messaging From The Floor Of The House To The Palm Of Your Hand

Whip Team Launches 'WhipCast' Application. The new application - which was tested by Cantor's new media team before its public rollout - will deliver text, audio, image and video updates to users, according to Cantor's office. "WhipCast" also gives users access to Republican talking points, policy discussions, polling information, and floor schedule updates. CNN

There’s An App For That. House Republicans today launched a new "communications tool" that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy say will help them distribute up-to-the-minute information. The BlackBerry application is called WhipCast and it's designed to give "instantaneous alerts, audio updates, video features, and additional messages to users." Talking Points Memo

HEALTH CARE ROUND UP: A $1.055 Trillion Dollar Bill, And The Public Option Is Not A Cheaper Alternative

Actual Cost Over $1 Trillion, Let The Budget Gimmicks Begin. But a closer look at the budget office report suggests that the number everyone should have reported was $1.055 trillion – which is the gross cost of the insurance coverage provisions in the bill before taking account of certain new revenues, including penalties by individuals and employers who fail to meet new insurance requirements in the bill. The New York Times

Don’t Forget The Original Gimmick, $1.055 Trillion + $200 Billion … None of the cost estimates of the bill included provisions to increase Medicare payments to doctors. Those provisions, which would cost more than $200 billion over 10 years, were put into a separate bill, also introduced Thursday. The New York Times

Public Option Not A Cheaper Alternative ... The public insurance option would typically charge higher premiums than private plans available in the exchange, according to the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House bill. That surprising conclusion raises doubts about Democratic promises that a government-run insurance plan would provide a lower-cost alternative to consumers. Politico

Blue Dogs Not On Board. However, it was telling that of the 100-odd lawmakers surrounding Pelosi, few if any belonged to the conservative, 52-member Blue Dog Democratic coalition. They'll be crucial to her bill's success. … Blue Dogs and some party moderates have been concerned about the plan's cost, as well as its impact on small business and expansion of government. Those concerns remain. McClatchy

Other Roadblocks Remain. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) has long threatened to block the House's healthcare effort unless his party's leadership permits a vote on an amendment that would prevent taxpayer dollars from funding abortions -- a provision, he noted on Thursday, that is still absent from Democrats' recently unveiled bill. "[L]anguage in the bill still does not do enough to prevent federal funding from going to abortion services,"... The Hill

ECONOMY: Administration Comes Under Fire On A Stimulus That Has Failed To Create Jobs, While Dramatically Increasing The Nation’s Deficit

Jobless Recovery Has White House Considering A Second “Stealth” Stimulus. For most people, the recovery will not feel real until jobs are more plentiful and the housing market improves. Jobs may still be hard to find well into 2010, economists say. A government report to be released next week is expected to show that unemployment rose again this month. … Concerns about rising unemployment may pressure the administration to look for additional ways to stimulate the economy. Proposals include another extension in unemployment benefits and various job creation programs. “It’s all in the hopper,” said Christina D. Romer, chairwoman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. “It would be irresponsible if we weren’t thinking about these kinds of programs.” The New York Times

Stimulus Saga: Administration Jobs Claim Disputed (Again). White House spokesman Robert Gibbs downplayed errors in job counts identified by the AP's review, telling reporters, "We're talking about 4,000, or a 5,000 error." The AP reviewed a sample of federal contracts, not all 9,000 reported to date, and discovered errors in one in six jobs credited to the $787 billion stimulus program - or 5,000 of the 30,000 jobs claimed so far. Even in its limited review, the AP found job counts that were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of paid positions; jobs credited to the stimulus program that were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs that were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced. The Associated Press

One Thing’s For Sure, The Lasting Effect Of The Democrat’s Stimulus … Debt. The irony here is that the largest obstacle to turning this recovery into a durable expansion is now the very "stimulus" programs that were sold as a way to ensure recovery. Washington's Great Reflation—fiscal and monetary—eventually has to be wound down and paid for, and those looming bills now cloud the expansion outlook. Whatever role the fiscal stimulus played in "saving or creating jobs"—and we don't see evidence of much—there's no doubt it did bust the federal balance sheet. With a deficit of $1.4 trillion in 2009, and $9 trillion more predicted for the next decade, every business and investor in America can see a huge tax increase coming right at them. The Wall Street Journal

The Bridge To Nowhere We Want To Be. President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke built a bridge they anticipate will lead to a lasting U.S. economic recovery. It may end up being a bridge to nowhere they want to be. … the biggest government intrusion into the economy since World War II will leave the U.S. saddled with trillions of dollars of debt and not much to show for it. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression may have shaken companies and consumers so much that their spending won’t be enough to replace federal support. Bloomberg

Congressional Dems To Obama “The Buck Stops Here” … As it turns out, President Obama's proposed spending cuts aren't entirely the kind of change Congress can believe in. The Los Angeles Times

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: White House Huddles On “McChrystal Light” Strategy That Provides Fewer Troops Than Originally Requested By General McChrystal.

“McChrystal Light” Strategy Gains Traction Within The Administration. President Barack Obama is considering sending large numbers of additional U.S. forces to Afghanistan next year but fewer than his war commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, prefers, U.S. officials said. Such a narrowed military mission would escalate American forces to accomplish the commander's broadest goals, protecting Afghan cities and key infrastructure. But the option's scaled-down troop numbers likely would cut back on McChrystal's most ambitious objectives, amounting to what one official described as "McChrystal Light." The Associated Press

Sec. Clinton Steps Up Pressure On Pakistan Over Al-Qaeda. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed doubt Thursday over Pakistan's failure to locate top al-Qaeda leaders in the eight years since they escaped over the border from Afghanistan, telling a group of Pakistani journalists that she found "it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to." "So far as we know," she said, "they're in Pakistan." Clinton's comments, the most direct public statement of a U.S. argument long made in private, came as she tried to balance assurances of strong economic and military support for Pakistan with reminders that the relationship is a "two-way street." The Washington Post

Iran Rejects Uranium Deal, Set Back For Administration. Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday that it would not accept a plan its negotiators agreed to last week to send its stockpile of uranium out of the country, according to diplomats in Europe and American officials briefed on Iran’s response. The apparent rejection of the deal could unwind President Obama’s effort to buy time to resolve the nuclear standoff. In public, neither the Iranians nor the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, revealed the details of Iran’s objections, which came only hours after Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, insisted that “we are ready to cooperate” with the West. The New York Times

IN OTHER NEWS

• IBD: A 1,990-Page Medical Monstrosity
• Ignatius: Why Obama Needs To Send More Troops
• WSJ: Chamber To Administration “No Deal”
• NYT: In Military Campaign, Pakistan Finds Hint Of 9/11
• Brooks: The Tenacity Question
• Sen. Hatch and Sen. DeMint: Say No To Internet Regulation

THE SCHEDULE

• The House is not in session
• The Senate will convene at 10:00 a.m. and begin a period of morning business.