Political Pulse

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A bill has filed in the state Senate to
help Oklahoma military veterans get health insurance.
Sen. Andrew Rice, an Oklahoma City Democrat, says thousands of
veterans do not qualify for health care through the U.S. Veterans
Affairs Department.
Rice said those veterans make too much money to qualify for
means-tested federal programs but do not earn enough to afford
private coverage.
His bill would expand the Insure Oklahoma program to include
certain qualified veterans under age 65.
Based on a Harvard University Study, Rice says Oklahoma could
have more than 26,000 vets who are uninsured.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Democrats in the Oklahoma Senate say the
new Republican majority is using partisanship to impose public
policy by excluding key Democratic senators from committees they
once dominated.
In November, Republicans took control of the 48-member Senate
for the first time since statehood, breaking a 24-24 tie in the
chamber last year.
Democratic leaders say differences over corrections, civil
justice and health issues are behind GOP attempts to silence the
opposition and exclude Democrats from policy decisions as
Republicans try to accomplish their political goals.
Not unexpectedly, GOP leaders see things differently.
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, says
some Democratic senators have acted as obstructionists while
presiding over the Senate’s committee structure and blocking GOP
attempts to enact policies they favored.
Coffee says Democratic bellyaching is an indication they are
learning how challenging political life can be when you’re in the
minority.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The perceived power carried by the Oklahoma
congressional delegation is rated just 45th among the 50 states.
The rating is posted on congress.org.
With a Democrat being elected president and both the House and
Senate firmly controlled by Democrats Oklahoma has just one
Democrat among its five representatives and two senators.
Rep. Frank Lucas and Sen. Jim Inhofe have the most seniority and
both hold positions on key committees.
Lucas is the top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee
while Inhofe is the senior Republican on the Environment and Public
Works Committee.
But only Rep. Dan Boren is a member of the majority party and he
has just four years in Congress.

Jim Lehrer of The NewsHour on PBS will anchor special coverage of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. The program will begin at 10:00 a.m. (Oklahoma time) on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.

It will include excerpts of the morning events including church services, the Obamas’ arrival at the White House, and events at the Capitol (including the official swearing-in at noon and the new President’s speech). Following the address, Lehrer will be joined by The NewsHour’s regular analysts, Mark Shields and David Brooks, plus others, for reaction and commentary.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A state lawmaker says he’ll try again to
limit yearly property tax increases.
Rep. Dave Dank of Oklahoma City says he wants to give voters in
each county the option of limiting property tax increases to 2
percent per year.
Current law allows up to 5 percent increases in the taxes.
Dank says the bill is needed to help prevent residents from
losing their homes and predicts a taxpayer revolt if the law isn’t
changed.
The measure is House Joint Resolution 1002 and calls for a
statewide vote of the people before it’s implemented.