Insider Report
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Poll: Americans Least Worried About Global Warming
2. Report Says U.S. Warning Iran With Bomb Development
3. Cramer Says Obamacare Will Push Tax Rates to 50-60 Percent
4. Thousands of Doctors May Quit Medicine Over Obamacare
5. Races Tighten for McCain, Boxer
6. We Heard: Roger Ailes
1. Poll: Americans Least Worried About Global Warming
Americans rank global warming dead last among eight environmental issues to be very worried about, a new Gallup Poll reveals.
The percentage of respondents who said they worry “a great deal” about global warming was just 28 percent, down 5 percentage points from last year.
The following are eight environmental issues and the percentage of people who said they are very worried are, according to the poll results released on March 16:
- Pollution of drinking water, 50 percent
- Pollution of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, 46 percent
- Maintenance of the nation’s supply of fresh water for household needs, 45 percent
- Contamination of soil and water by toxic waste, 44 percent
- Air pollution, 38 percent
- The loss of tropical rain forests, 33 percent
- Extinction of plant and animal species, 31 percent
- Global warming, 28 percent
For all eight issues, Americans are less worried now than they were a year ago, with the percentage drops ranging from 4 points for “maintenance of the nation’s supply of fresh water” to 9 points for “pollution of drinking water” and “the loss of tropical rain forests.”
Worry about global warming peaked in 2007, at 41 percent, and stood at 40 percent in 2000.
“Americans are now less worried about a series of environmental problems than at any time in the past 20 years,” Gallup observed. “That could be due in part to Americans’ belief that environmental conditions in the U.S. are improving. It also may reflect greater public concern about economic issues, which is usually associated with a drop in environmental concern.”
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2. Report Says U.S. Warning Iran With Bomb Development
The U.S. is shipping hundreds of “bunker-buster” bombs to an island in the Indian Ocean in an effort to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear program, according to a report in Scotland’s Sunday Herald.
The newspaper reported that the U.S. signed a contract with a Florida-based shipping company to carry 10 ammunition containers from Concord, Calif., to Diego Garcia, an island about 1,000 miles from the southern coast of India.
The island is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory and has been used by the U.S. as a military base for decades.
The cargo includes 195 Blu-110 bombs and 192 massive 2,000-pound Blu-117 bombs used for blasting hardened or underground targets, according to a cargo manifest from the U.S. Navy.
“They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran,” said Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London.
The preparations are being made in case President Obama decides that it would be better for the U.S. to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities than for Israel to launch an attack, according to Plesch.
The U.S. Department of Defense did not respond to the Herald’s request for a comment.
The newspaper’s report comes as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is urging Russia to delay launching Iran’s nuclear plant until Tehran proves it is not pursuing nuclear weapons.
Russia said on Thursday that it would start up the reactor it is building in Iran around the middle of this year. Clinton called that decision “premature.”
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3. Cramer Says Obamacare Will Push Tax Rates to 50-60 Percent
Financial guru and “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer says President Obama’s healthcare reform plan will force the federal government to boost tax rates on income as well as on capital gains and dividends.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday, Cramer told host Larry O’Donnell that with the Obama bill, “you break the budget. That means we’re going to see 50 to 60 percent federal tax — I’m not kidding.
“And I also think we see capital gains and dividends being taxed at ordinary income rates.”
O’Donnell said jokingly: “So you’re in favor of it.”
Cramer: “I really want to go broke. It’s important to me.”
Cramer reiterated his concerns in an article published on the Web site RealMoney this past week. He said the passage of Obamacare would give the president “a second wind.”
Cramer wrote: “That means the whole agenda — cap and trade, card check, and amnesty for immigrants who are currently not citizens — will quickly come to pass, perhaps even before the election.
“To pay for these items, I see a dramatic increase in ordinary tax rates and perhaps capital gains and dividend tax rates in 2011 either reaching or exceeding those ordinary income rates as this current version of the Democratic Party believes that only rich people own stocks.”
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4. Thousands of Doctors May Quit Medicine Over Obamacare
Nearly one-third of physicians in the U.S. could leave the medical profession after Obama’s healthcare reform plan becomes law, according to a survey published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
In the survey, 29.2 percent of practicing physicians said they would quit practicing medicine or retire early if faced with the healthcare reform.
“What many people may not realize is that health reform could impact physician supply in such a way that the quality of healthcare could suffer,” said Jim Stone, a managing partner with The Medicus Firm, a national physician search company that conducted the survey.
But just 3.6 percent of those polled said they prefer the status quo and feel the healthcare system does not need an overhaul.
“Allow me to emphasize that 96 percent of the physicians surveyed in our report are in favor of health reform, in some form or fashion,” Andrea Santiago, a spokeswomen for The Medicus Firm, told CNSNews. “To me, the fact that so many physicians surveyed want health reform, but relatively few are in favor of the current legislation, was one of the most significant, telling results.”
Other findings of the survey include:
- 28.7 percent of physicians favor a public option.
- 46.3 percent of primary care physicians — family medicine and internal medicine — feel that health reform will either force them out of medicine or make them want to leave medicine.
- 36 percent of physicians would not recommend medicine as a career.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 661,400 physicians and surgeons in the U.S. in 2008.
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5. Races Tighten for McCain, Boxer
Prominent U.S. Sens. John McCain and Barbara Boxer are both facing stiffer competition in their bid for re-election this year.
In California, three-term Democrat Boxer is now in a virtual dead heat with one Republican challenger, former Congressman Tom Campbell. The latest Rasmussen Reports poll shows Boxer leading Campbell 43 percent to 41 percent, with 6 percent favoring another candidate and 10 percent undecided.
A month ago, Boxer led Campbell 45 percent to 41 percent, according to Rasmussen.
Two other Republicans, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, are within striking distance of Boxer, with both trailing by a margin of 46 percent to 40 percent.
In Arizona, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth has closed to within single digits of McCain in the race for the GOP nomination. McCain now leads Hayworth 48 percent to 41 percent among likely Republican voters, with 8 percent undecided, according to Rasmussen.
McCain led Hayworth by 22 percentage points in January.
McCain is still keeping significant conservative and tea party support due to his vociferous opposition to Obama’s healthcare and domestic initiatives.
In Florida, meanwhile, a new poll confirms that former House Speaker Marco Rubio is well ahead of Gov. Charlie Crist in the race for the GOP nomination for the Senate. A DailyKos/Research 2000 survey has Rubio with 58 percent of the vote to Crist’s 30 percent.
If Crist were to run as an independent, as some have suggested, Rubio would still win, according to the poll, which shows Rubio with 32 percent, Crist at 29 percent, and the likely Democratic candidate, Rep. Kendrick Meek, with 27 percent.
However, in a head-to-head race, Rubio holds only a slight edge over Meek, 41 percent to 40 percent.
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6. We Heard . . .
THAT Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes is fuming over a Washington Post report that Glenn Beck is creating tension at the network, telling staffers to stop “shooting in the tent.” The Post reported that Fox journalists were worried “that Beck is becoming the face of the network.”
MediaBistro.com reported that Ailes told Fox’s Washington bureau, "Glenn Beck does his show and that's his opinion. It's not the opinion of Fox News, and he has a right to say it,” adding, "I was brought up to defend the family.”
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