Sara Collins of the Commonwealth Fund and Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation shared their differences over the costs and benefits of health care reform during a briefing held Friday at the Alliance for Health Reform headquarters in Washington, D.C..

The Commonwealth Fund recently released a study on how effective the system reform provisions are in the House and Senate bills. They found that both bills are practical and contain key provisions that target cost and quality.

“Both bills substantially expand coverage to 94-96% of people…the major effect is on the uninsured,” said Collins.

Butler disagreed, arguing that both bills will create “troubling areas of affordability in legislation.” Specifically, Butler expressed disapproval over proposals involving higher taxes and employee insurance mandates.

“We will soon see pressures to afford other things in our economy,” said Butler. “The cost is squeezing out funds to have for our education and other goals that we have in our society.”

A United Nations resolution is quickly making its way through the highest ranks of the General Assembly. The resolution, L.37, condemns the Islamic Republic of Iran for the massive human rights abuses the government committed on students, activists, protesters and journalists following a widely perceived rigged June 12th Presidential election. Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered on the streets of major cities and towns in Iran to condemn the re-election of President Mahmood Ahmadinejad over his opponent Mir Hussein Mossavi.

Iranian authorities have confirmed approximately 4,500 arrests surrounding the post-election unrest, with 89 convictions in post-election trials, 5 of which were capital sentences. Other reports cite up to 72 people killed in detention or in clashes with security services.

The protests garnered worldwide support and jumpstarted the “Green Movement” which has mobilized thousands in favor of a reformed Iran.  Police and Basij militia jailed, raped, beat and murdered journalists, students and protesters who demanded action be taken to formulate a recount of votes. Some 20-30 journalists, writers and bloggers remain behind bars.

Resolution L.37 was brought forward by the government of Canada in an appeal for action by  the 192 member UN body. The resolution was co-sponsored by 42 other countries, and calls on Iran to better cooperate with UN human rights monitors–by allowing them to make visits to Iran, and requests the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon,  to report back next year on Iran’s progress in fulfilling its human rights obligations.

Robert Wood, Deputy Spokesperson from the US Department of State added:

“The resolution also calls on Iran to cooperate fully with and admit entry to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance. It calls on the Government of Iran to abolish torture and arbitrary imprisonment, as well as any executions, including stoning, carried out without due process of law.”

Canada has led the drafting of resolutions on alleged human rights abuses in Iran every year since the 2003 torture and murder while in Iranian custody of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi. A prominent Canadian-Iranian Newsweek reporter, Maziar Bahari was freed recently after spending 118 days in jail. Many of the victims (both men and women) sent to Iran’s notorious prisons reported being raped.

“This is the toughest resolution on the human rights situation in Iran,” said Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.

“The adoption of this resolution is another clear signal of the international community’s concern for the human rights of people in Iran. With this resolution, and those presented in previous years, international attention has been drawn to the unacceptable human rights situation in Iran, and the Government of Iran has been forced to account for its actions. We continue to invite the Iranian government to take meaningful steps to respect the human rights of all people in Iran,” he added.

The adoption of the resolution sends a clear message to Iran to act quickly to investigate these crimes committed during the election coup and to uphold due process of the law.  Iran has rejected several requests from member-states including Canada, to visit the country and investigate the abuses.

The resolution was  approved by a vote of 74 to 48 by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly.

The resolution also expresses concern over the treatment of  minority communities inside Iran including Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis and Sunni Muslims.

“The nuclear issue has been used by the Islamic Republic to avoid international scrutiny of its fraudulent election and mounting human rights violations,” said Akbar Atri, a leading student activist and democracy advocate who served on the board of the Office for the Consolidation of Unity, Iran’s most prominent student organization. ”While it seeks a solution on the nuclear front, the international community must pressure the regime to release political prisoners and allow the full spectrum of liberties, including free and fair elections.  Anything less will amount to a validation of a regime fast losing all semblance of legitimacy.”

The Iranian mission representative to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, issued a statement in response the adoption of the resolution:

“No Government including my own can claim perfection. Nonetheless, we believe that the old worn-out policy of introducing resolution on Iran is not only an unfair and unjustified action, but also a disservice to the Iranian policy of cooperation with the UN human rights mechanisms.  The move is, therefore, doomed to fail and should be categorically rejected.”

Claiming that Democrats are pulling ‘gimmicks’ on the American public, Senate Republicans on Friday blasted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) health reform bill, which the Congressional Budget Office says will cost nearly $2.5 trillion after all the provisions have been enacted.

“In the words of the great Yogi Berra, ‘this is deja vu all over again’,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). “They [Democrats] assume savings on the [Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act], which Sen. Conrad has described as a ponzi scheme of the first order…something that Bernie Madoff would be proud of.”

The CLASS Act, S.697, sponsored by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), would amend the Public Health Service Act to create a national, voluntary disability insurance program under which all employees are automatically enrolled, but are allowed to waive enrollment. Establishing this new program is contingent upon Reid’s big bill passing.

Thune his Republican colleagues were flanked by massive charts displaying the nation’s current debt as well as potential debt increases that they argued would be caused by H.R. 3590, otherwise known as the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” With a major vote to determine whether or not the bill will proceed to the floor expected to take place Saturday night, GOP leaders are looking to convince a few moderate Democrats to join them.

“It would be our hope that our more moderate colleagues on the Democratic side would respect the wished of the constituents, rather than doing the bidding of Harry Reid,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). ”At the end of the day, this health care legislation will impact every American in extraordinary ways. We believe in a very negative way. We hope the views of the American people will be respected.”

In a phone interview with Talk Radio News Service Thursday, Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Research Fellow Brian W. Walsh said that language used in the federal cyber-bullying bill, introduced earlier this year by Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), is overly broad.

“The terms [in the bill]…don’t have a precise, clear, accepted, generally agreed upon definition in federal law,” said Walsh.

Sanchez drafted the “The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act” in response to the death of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl from Missouri who committed suicide in 2006 after being cyber-bullied on the social networking site MySpace by a woman named Lori Drew, the mother of one of Meier’s classmates. Drew was indicted and convicted on charges stemming from the incident in 2008, but was later acquitted in 2009.

The bill has received mixed reviews from a handful of members of Congress who have argued that it uses vague terms and would cause potential violations of free speech rights.

“We need to be extremely careful before heading down this path,” said Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) during a House subcommittee hearing on the legislation back in September.

The bill would amend the federal criminal code to allow criminal penalties to be levied upon anyone that “transmits in interstate or foreign commerce a communication intended to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to another person, by using electronic means.”

“We are going to end up criminalizing conduct that shouldn’t be criminal in the first place…it’s easy to draft an overbroad criminal law,” said Walsh.

As the Senate prepares for a Saturday vote on whether or not to bring its health care bill to the floor, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) says he will be working feverishly to try to muster up 60 votes, including at least one from the other side of the aisle.

“It would be a real break if we get one Republican to join us and say yes, this is an issue worth debating,” said Durbin. “I’m not assuming a thing, we’re working hard to bring all 60 Democrat votes together to proceed with this historic debate.”

Durbin refused to divulge any information about the status of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), a moderate who has remained quiet as to how she will vote on Saturday night.

“She’s told Senator Reid,” said Durbin.”You’ll have to ask Senator Reid.”