Health Care Fight

Reconciliation bills have very distinct rules - you aren't supposed to put anything in those bills other than revenue and spending items.

That means if Democrats are going to try to put items like abortion language and other topics, they will have to get "creative" - and that might mean bending the rules.

And if they start bending the rules, the Republicans will rightly blow their top and probably bring the Senate to a halt.

Remember the fuss over the nuclear option with regards to filibusters and judges? This is sort of the same kind of thing.

Of course the Democrats will need to do one thing before we can get to that point - and that is keep their members together.

Something tells me that they can get to 51 in the Senate.

But getting to a majority in the House, that may be much more difficult. And I will say it again - every day that health care reform stays in the news is probably a good day for Republicans.

So the Democrats must do three things:

1. Approve new funding changes in a reconciliation bill
2. If they keep policy items out of a reconciliation bill, then a new bill would be needed as a vehicle for those items
3. The House would have to approve the original Senate passed health bill.

One of those three is difficult. Two will be very hard to do. All three?

That could take most of the next few months.

SOURCE: Jamie Dupree

Emanuel, Pelosi Meet In Capitol To Chart Health Care Course

Rahm Emanuel ventured to the Capitol Friday evening to hash out health care strategy with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a White House aide confirmed.

The meeting comes as Democrats are searching for a way to get to the health care finish line, though neither chamber wants to move first. Senate leaders want the House to pass the Senate bill first, after which the Senate would use reconciliation to fix the legislation to the liking of the Senate. House leaders contend that the votes aren't there for the Senate bill if the upper chamber doesn't move. The House, after two centuries of watching the Senate lag behind, doesn't trust that it'll act.

Senior Hill aides speculated to HuffPost that Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, would bring the message that the House must move first, with a pledge from Senate Democrats that they would follow. It's hard to make amendments to a law through reconciliation if that law hasn't been made official yet, they argue.


SOURCE: Huffington Post

One last health-reform sprint

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer blogs: “The President remains committed to enacting meaningful health insurance reform …And while the President appreciated the participation and input of everyone today, he doesn’t think we can just scrap a year’s worth of work and start over. The millions of Americans that are suffering can’t afford another year-long debate. There’s too much at stake.”

Dr. Carrie Budoff Brown sketches the “x”s and “o”s: “Within minutes of Obama’s remarks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made clear that he didn’t envision extended negotiations with the Republicans. ‘That’s the president’s timeline, not mine,’ Reid told POLITICO. … Rep. Rob Andrews of New Jersey, one of the Democrats’ most prominent voices on health care, said House leaders expect Obama to modify his plan based on Thursday’s meeting and send a revised proposal to the House by next week. Democratic leaders will then use the president’s bill as their jumping-off point. …Another Democratic problem is that their hoped-for slam-dunk on bipartisanship didn’t materialize Thursday. Democrats from Obama on down seemed to be counting on portraying the Republicans as obstructionists and know-nothings – all the better to convince the American public that Democrats really had no choice but to jam through the bill on reconciliation. But instead, the Republicans who showed up generally looked reasonable and sincere. …

"That’s not to say the summit didn’t bring a certain clarity: Democrats aren’t starting over, Republicans aren’t planning to sign on to Obama’s plan, and the only clear hope Democrats have of passing a bill is using reconciliation. … Democrats will likely need to embark on three-step process, with a target to finish it before the Easter recess. Step one, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said Congress must first pass a reconciliation bill with major, but limited, fixes to the original Senate bill. Step two, the House would then agree to pass the Senate bill. Step three, both chambers would have to pass a third bill with policy changes that would not pass muster under reconciliation, which requires every element to have a direct impact on the federal budget. For example, the third bill would be needed to make any changes to abortion and immigration provisions in the Senate bill. … House Democrats may well withhold their votes on the first two bills until they are assured their concerns will be addressed in a third bill.”


SOURCE: Politico

Many words but few revelations from health care summit

It wasn’t a disaster for either Republicans or Democrats. It wasn’t a total bore either. And while there were some combative moments, the two sides managed to remain largely civil.

In the end, the big White House health-care summit was basically what it was expected to be: many hours of talk that will ultimately be seen to have served as an anchor on which Democrats steadied their legislative ship while they tried to regain momentum for a push through Congress.

Nonetheless, some news and themes emerged:

President Obama has no problem with using reconciliation to force a bill through Congress

SOURCE: Daily Caller

Obama, GOP fail to reach accord on health bill

Giving no ground, President Barack Obama and Republican leaders fought forcefully for their competing visions of historic health care reform Thursday in an exhausting, often-testy live-on-TV debate. Far from any accord, Obama signaled the Democrats were prepared to push ahead for an all-or-nothing congressional vote.

The marathon, 7 1/2-hour session did reveal narrow areas of agreement on the topic that has vexed Congress for months and defied U.S. leaders for decades. But larger ideological differences overwhelmed any common ideas, all but cementing the widely held view that a meaningful bipartisan health care bill is not possible as time grows short in this election year.

Obama rejected Republican preferences for starting over, discussing the issue much longer or dealing with it in a limited, step-by-step fashion.

"We cannot have another yearlong debate about this," Obama declared. "I'm not sure we can bridge the gap."

Party officials said March is probably the last chance to act.

SOURCE: Associated Press > Yahoo News

What happens next in health care

After a brief period of consultation following the White House health reform summit, congressional Democrats plan to begin making the case next week for a massive, Democrats-only health care plan, party strategists told POLITICO.

A Democratic official said the six-hour summit was expected to “give a face to gridlock, in the form of House and Senate Republicans.”

Democrats plan to begin rhetorical, and perhaps legislative, steps toward the Democrats-only, or reconciliation, process early next week, the strategists said.

After the summit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid planned to take the temperature of their caucuses.

“The point [of the summit] is to alter the political atmospherics, and it will take a day or two to sense if it succeeded,” the official said.

SOURCE: Politico

Shuler opposes legislative tactic to push through health care bill

Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, says he is against a procedural move congressional leaders are eyeing to muscle a health care reform bill through the Senate.

Some Democratic leaders are talking about using a procedure called reconciliation to pass the health care bill with a simple majority. Reconciliation would allow Senate Democrats to overcome Republican delaying tactics. Democrats now control 59 Senate seats, one vote short of the number needed to end Republican filibusters.

"That is not the way you run Washington," Shuler said in an interview with the Times-News Wednesday. "It has to be done in a bipartisan way."

Shuler said he would vote against a reconciliation bill and does not believe there are enough votes in the House for it to pass anyway. He voted against the first House version of the health care bill Nov. 7, and it was defeated 220-215.

"We could do something with health care," Shuler said. "But the process that has been going on in the House and Senate is not right. We have to do what is right for the American people."

SOURCE: Hendersonville Times-News

Hoyer: Comprehensive health bill may be no go

Two days before Obama's televised health summit with Republicans and Democrats, the prospects for any bipartisan deal dimmed as the administration set the stage for pushing ahead with only Democratic support, a risky move that would require the president's political capital and elusive unity from a fractious party.

Obama's new plan used legislation already passed by the Senate as its starting point, making changes designed to appeal to House Democrats. He unveiled it Monday almost exactly a year after calling on Congress to act to reform the nation's costly an inefficient health care system. Majority Democrats were on the verge of meeting the challenge before Republican Scott Brown's upset win in a Massachusetts Senate seat last month.

Brown's win underscored the perilous political environment for Democrats in an election year, but Obama didn't scale back his ambitions, opting for one last attempt at full-scale legislation. It costs around $1 trillion over a decade, requires nearly everyone to be insured or pay a fine, and puts new requirements on insurance companies, including — in a new twist responding to recent rate hikes — giving the federal government authority to block big premium increases.

If Obama fails on a comprehensive health care overhaul where Bill Clinton and other presidents failed before him, the chance won't come around again anytime soon.

The whole endeavor will now rise or fall on Obama's ability to sell his plan at the summit Thursday, and the reaction from lawmakers and the public in the days ahead.

SOURCE: Associated Press > Yahoo News

Health Care Dynamic

It would be nice to think that both sides could sit down together and negotiate, but there sure aren't many signs of that right now.

"President Obama unveiled today is just more of the same government-run insurance, mandates and taxes the American people have overwhelmingly rejected," said Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN).

"Republicans say they support health reform, but the only ideas they've put forward involve privatizing Medicare and Social Security or giving more power to the insurance and drug industries," countered Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

Both sides have their talking points, but it may be that health care compromise is a bridge too far.

Which means maybe the only way for something to get done is if Democrats go it alone.

And they may not have the votes for that either.

SOURCE: Jamie Dupree

Obama Health Details

There were so many people wanting to know how much this new bill would cost that the Congressional Budget Office took the odd step of posting a response on its web site.

The CBO did not know.

"We had not previously received the proposal, and we have just begun the process of reviewing it -- a process that will take some time, given the complexity of the issues involved," said the CBO statement, which added that a lot more information was needed from the White House.

"Therefore, CBO cannot provide a cost estimate for the proposal without additional detail, and, even if such detail were provided, analyzing the proposal would be a time-consuming process that could not be completed this week."

In other words, Democrats will go to the Health Care Summit with a plan that has no exact cost estimate.

SOURCE: Jamie Dupree

Stupak: President's Health Care Bill is "Unacceptable"

In a statement out this morning, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., has addressed the issue of publicly financed abortions included in the president's health care proposal:

I was pleased to see that President Obama’s health care proposal did not include several of the sweetheart deals provided to select states in the Senate bill. Unfortunately, the President's proposal encompasses the Senate language allowing public funding of abortion. The Senate language is a significant departure from current law and is unacceptable. While the President has laid out a health care proposal that brings us closer to resolving our differences, there is still work to be done before Congress can pass comprehensive health care reform.

SOURCE: TownHall blog

White House: If GOP Filibusters, We’ll Pass Health Reform Via Reconciliation

The game of chicken commenceth — right now.

In the course of unveiling Obama’s new health reform proposal on a conference call with reporters this morning, White House advisers made it clearer than ever before: If the GOP filibusters health reform, Dems will move forward on their own and pass it via reconciliation.

The assertion, which is likely to spark an angry response from GOP leaders, ups the stakes in advance of the summit by essentially daring Republicans to try to block reform.

“The President expects and believes the American people deserve an up or down vote on health reform,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said on the call.

Pfeiffer said no decision had been made how to proceed, pending the outcome of the summit. But he added that Obama’s proposal is designed to have “maximum flexibility to ensure that we can get an up or down vote if the opposition decides to take the extraordinary step of filibustering health reform.”

Translation: If the GOP doesn’t cooperate with us in any meaningful sense, we’re moving forward on our own.

SOURCE: Plumline

Obama Health Plan Costs $950 Billion Over 10 Years

Trying to revive languishing health-care legislation, the White House proposed Monday that a tax on high-end health plans be delayed for all workers, not just those in unions, and suggested new taxes to help make up for the lost revenue.

President Barack Obama will carry the proposal, an attempt to bridge differences between bills passed by the House and Senate last year, into a bipartisan meeting with congressional leaders on Thursday, as Democrats try to regain momentum and push their legislation through final passage in Congress.

Republicans are planning to bring their own ideas to the meeting, and aides said last week they are prepared to incorporate Republican proposals into the Democratic plan. But White House officials made clear again Monday that they have no intention of scratching their legislation and starting over, as Republicans are demanding.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal

Up Next! On Live TV! A Battle Over ... Health Care?

When he jousts with Congressional Republicans over health care policy during a televised meeting on Thursday, President Obama will seek to portray his adversaries as sharing many of the broad goals of his legislation and also strive to unify Congressional Democrats to press ahead and adopt a bill, senior White House officials and leading Democrats say.

But Mr. Obama, top White House advisers and Congressional leaders of both parties are under no illusion that the meeting will resolve more than a half-century of disagreements over health care policy. Instead, Democrats say, they hope the event will create a climate that helps revive their legislation in Congress and prove to the American public that they are willing to hear out Republicans and even adopt their ideas.

“We may not be able to resolve all the disagreements, but we ought to be able to thrash out areas of broad agreement,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser. “The fact is, there are broad areas of agreement on elements of this, and hopefully that will become apparent here.”

Mr. Axelrod added, “Sitting side by side working through these issues is better than not sitting side by side and dealing with distortions.”

Republican leaders have not yet committed to attending the session and have said they doubt the sincerity of Mr. Obama’s bipartisan overtures, given his refusal to discard the Democrats’ legislation and start over. But senior Republican aides said that party leaders planned to participate and that a chief goal would be to portray the president as defying the will of the American people if he continues pushing for an expansive and expensive bill.

SOURCE: New York Times

Obama version of health reform expected Monday

The White House readied its last-ditch effort to salvage health care legislation Sunday while the Senate's Republican leader warned Democrats against the go-it-alone approach.

The White House was expected to post a version of President Barack Obama's plan for overhauling health care on its Web site on Monday, ahead of his critical and daring summit at Blair House on Thursday. The plan, which was likely to be opposed by the GOP, was expected to require most Americans to carry health insurance coverage, with federal subsidies to help many afford the premiums.

Hewing close to a stalled Senate bill, it would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more. The expected price tag is around $1 trillion over 10 years.

The conference at the White House guest residence is to be televised live on C-SPAN and perhaps on cable news networks. It represents a gamble by the administration that Obama can save his embattled overhaul through persuasion — a risky and unusual step.

It was forced on the administration by the Senate special election victory of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown in January. He captured the seat long held by Democrat Edward M. Kennedy, who died last year. Brown's victory reduced the Democrats' majority in the Senate to 59 votes, one shy of the number needed to knock down Republican delaying tactics.

SOURCE: Associated Press > Yahoo News

Obama paves the way for reconciliation in video address

President Obama’s weekly address to the nation today urged Republicans to come to the bipartisan health care negotiations next week in a “spirit of good faith,” but critics see the plea as just the kind of “political theater” the president condemned in the videotaped message.

“We know the American people want us to reform our health insurance system. We know where the broad areas of agreement are. And we know where the sources of disagreement lie,” the president said.

Absent the necessary votes to overcome a Senate filibuster, the remaining option for the administration is to push the health care reform bill into law using the budget reconciliation process, a legislative procedure that enables the consideration of certain budget-related, contentious bills without the threat of filibuster.

But such an aggressive and unilateral move would likely be highly unpopular, seeing as polls suggest fewer than 40 percent of Americans approve of the president’s handling of health care to this point. That, some suggest, is why the president is attempting to appear ‘above the fray’ with even-handed addresses like this one.

“If the president is sincere about moving forward in a bipartisan fashion, he must take the reconciliation process — which will be used to jam through legislation that a majority of Americans do not want — off the table,” House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said earlier this week.

The warnings do not appear to have fazed top Democrats.

“We’re really trying to move forward on this,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday evening on Face to Face with Jon Ralston in Nevada.

SOURCE: The Daily Caller

Live From Washington! It's Obama health care drama

Coming soon to daytime television: America's long-running civic drama over how to provide better health care to more of its people without breaking the bank.

President Barack Obama summons anxious Democrats and aloof Republicans to a White House summit Thursday — live on C-SPAN and perhaps cable — and gambles that he can save his embattled health care overhaul by the power of persuasion. Adversaries and allies alike were surprised by Obama's invitation to reason together at an open forum, as risky as it is unusual.

Ahead of the meeting, the White House will post on its Web site a health care plan that modifies the bill passed by Senate Democrats last year. The modification is an effort to address the concerns of their House counterparts.

The plan is important, but not as critical as the political skill Obama can apply to an impasse that seems close to hopeless in a pivotal congressional election year.

SOURCE: Associated Press > Yahoo News

Dems Near Plan To Pass Health Care Bill

The White House and congressional leaders are preparing a detailed health care proposal designed to win passage without Republican support if GOP lawmakers fail to embrace bipartisan compromises at President Barack Obama's summit next week.

A senior White House official said Thursday that Democratic negotiators are resolving final differences in House and Senate health bills that passed last year with virtually no Republican help. The White House plans to post the proposals online by Monday morning, three days ahead of the Feb. 25 summit, which GOP leaders are approaching warily.

The comments signal that Obama and Congress' Democratic leaders still plan to use assertive and sometimes controversial parliamentary powers to enact a far-reaching health care bill if no GOP lawmakers get on board. Republicans and conservative activists have denounced such a strategy, and it's unclear whether enough House and Senate Democrats would back it. Both parties have used the strategy, known as reconciliation, in the past.

Obama says he is open to Republican ideas for changing the health care legislation. But many Democrats seriously doubt GOP leaders will support compromises that could draw enough lawmakers from both parties to create a bipartisan majority.

The negotiations, led by Democratic leaders with White House input, are meant to determine what changes must be made to the Senate-passed bill for House Democrats to accept it, the administration official said. The goal is to craft a reconciled measure that Senate Democrats can pass, under rules barring GOP filibusters, unless Republicans offer acceptable changes at next week's summit.

Democrats lost their ability to block filibusters when Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown won a Senate seat last month.

The White House official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday that Obama plans to have a health care proposal that "will take some of the best ideas and put them into a framework" ahead of the Feb. 25 summit.

House Democrats insist on several changes to the bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve. They include reducing or eliminating a proposed tax on generous employer-provider health plans, and eliminating a Medicaid subsidy aimed only at Nebraska.

Overall, the Democratic plans would provide health insurance to more than 30 million people now uninsured and end the industry practice of denying coverage to those with medical problems. Most Americans would be required to carry health coverage, with new government subsidies available to reduce the cost for many.

The main beneficiaries would be small businesses and people who now buy their own insurance. They now have few choices, and premium prices can spike unpredictably from year to year.

Under the Democrats' legislation, they would be able to pick a plan in a new insurance marketplace offering a range of choices similar to those available to federal employees.

The cost of the legislation - about $1 trillion over 10 years - would be paid for through Medicare cuts and a series of tax increases. In the short run, the nation would spend more on health care under the Democratic plans, since newly covered people would be able to get care they had previously put off. Over time, however, the rate of increase in medical costs would begin to slow.

SOURCE: Associated Press

White House: Dems near accord on health care bill

The White House and congressional leaders are preparing a detailed health care proposal designed to win passage without Republican support if GOP lawmakers fail to embrace bipartisan compromises at President Barack Obama's summit next week.

A senior White House official said Thursday that Democratic negotiators are resolving final differences in House and Senate health bills that passed last year with virtually no Republican help. The White House plans to post the proposals online by Monday morning, three days ahead of the Feb. 25 summit, which GOP leaders are approaching warily.

The comments signal that Obama and Congress' Democratic leaders still plan to use assertive and sometimes controversial parliamentary powers to enact a far-reaching health care bill if no GOP lawmakers get on board. Republicans and conservative activists have denounced such a strategy, and it's unclear whether enough House and Senate Democrats would back it. Both parties have used the strategy, known as reconciliation, in the past.

SOURCE: Associated Press > Yahoo News

Health Reform in Limbo, Top Drug Lobbyist Quits

Billy Tauzin, one of the highest paid lobbyists in Washington, is resigning as president of the pharmaceutical industry’s trade group amid internal disputes over its pact with the White House to trade political support for favorable terms in the proposed health care overhaul.

As the industry’s top lobbyist, Mr. Tauzin brokered the deal last summer with the White House and Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to limit the drug industry’s total costs under the proposed health care overhaul to $80 billion over 10 years.

The announcement of Mr. Tauzin’s resignation is the latest unexpected fallout of the Republican upset in the Massachusetts Senate race, which abruptly transformed the health care overhaul from a near inevitability to a daunting cause.

Like almost every other seasoned Washington player, Mr. Tauzin bet the health care overhaul was an unstoppable train, so he wagered it was better to get on board early — only to watch it come to a screeching halt.

The trade group issued a news release on Thursday night confirming Mr. Tauzin’s departure, effective June 30. In the statement, Mr. Tauzin, a former House representative who is 66 and has survived intestinal cancer, said, “My health is excellent, and I look forward to exciting new challenges ahead.”

SOURCE: New York Times

White House formally invites Republicans to health-care summit

The White House formally invited Republicans on Friday to attend a health-care summit Feb. 25, calling it "the next step" in the process of reforming the country's broken health insurance system and pledging to post the text of a reform proposal online before the gathering.

In a letter to lawmakers, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the half-day meeting at Blair House would include the top Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and the ranking members in committees that deal with health care.

Outlining the format for a session some Republicans have derided as little more than political theater, the Obama advisers said both parties would be allowed to invite four other members each to the discussion, to begin at 10 a.m. and be televised live.

SOURCE: Washington Post

Democrats will Implement "Trick" to Pass Health Care Reform

Posted by: Michele Bachmann at 7:35 PM

Well, so much for a bipartisan strategy session on health care. Despite calls from the White House about bringing Republicans to the table to get their ideas into the debate, it looks like Democrats have already decided on a plan to pass their original legislation. Legislation Americans have soundly rejected from coast to coast.

Speaking at the National Health Policy Conference hosted by Academy Health and Health Affairs, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's senior health care adviser Wendell Primus said that Democratic leaders in Congress will implement a legislative "trick" to pass their very unpopular version of health care reform.

Mark Tapscott with the Washington Examiner writes that Congress Daily, which originally published the story, is a subscription-only publication, but provided a link to LifeNews.com, which provided these details:

"In comments reported by Congress Daily, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top health care aide Wendell Primus admitted top Democrats have already decided on the strategy to pass the Senate's pro-abortion, government-run health care bill.

"Primus explained that the Senate will use the controversial reconciliation strategy that will have the House approve the Senate bill and both the House and Senate okaying changes to the bill that the Senate will sign off on by preventing Republicans from filibustering.

“'The trick in all of this is that the president would have to sign the Senate bill first, then the reconciliation bill second, and the reconciliation bill would trump the Senate bill.

“'There's a certain skill, there's a trick, but I think we'll get it done,' Primus said."

Why propose a televised, bipartisan meeting on February 25th if the underlying plan has been to pass the Democrats' original health care proposal all along? Well, it's simple. President Obama wants to give the appearance of bipartisan cooperation without without really caring at all. It's one PR stunt after another with this White House, and this latest action is a clear assault on the intelligence of the American people.

The Democratic leadership of this Congress and White House simply refuses to take no for an answer when it comes to a government takeover of your health care. They simply refuse to consider any idea being proposed by me or any of my Republican colleagues. Is this the leadership you want in Washington, or more importantly, the leadership you deserve?

SOURCE: Town Hall

Republican Leadership Call for Health Care Bill to be Scrapped

ABC's Sunlen Miller reports: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader John Boehner emerged from a meeting with President Obama today on job creation – but had much to say about their views on the status of health care reform. Their meeting did not have much to do with health care reform, the leaders said, but it was their concerns about the president’s invitation for the February 25th health care summit that dominated the conversation with reporters afterward, each calling for the president to scrap the health care bill.

“We’re trying to understanding what it is we’re trying to accomplish with this health care meeting,” Boehner said referring the letter he and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor sent to the White House yesterday. “We’re hopeful that we’ll get some answers as we consider what to do about the February 25th meeting.”

Boehner said it is hard to have a bipartisan conversation over a bill that can’t even be passed.

“The president wants to have bipartisan conversations. It is going to be very difficult to have a bipartisan conversation with regard to a 2,700 page heath care bill that’s a Democrat majority in the House and a Democrat majority in the Senate can’t pass. So why are we going to talk about a bill that can’t pass? It really is time to scrap the bill and start over.”

McConnell agreed.

SOURCE: ABC News

Obama to take health bill that's not all he wants

Signaling he'd meet critics part way on health care, President Barack Obama said Tuesday he's willing to sign a bill even if it doesn't deliver everything he pursued through a year of grinding effort at risk of going down as a dismal failure.

The Democrats' massive health overhaul legislation is stalled in Congress by disagreements within the party and the loss last month of their 60th Senate vote, and with it, control of the agenda. Republicans suspect that Obama's invitation to a televised health care summit Feb. 25 is a thinly disguised political trap. On Tuesday, the president tried to change the dour dynamic, indicating he could settle for less in order to move ahead.

"Let's put the best ideas on the table," Obama told reporters after meeting with congressional leaders of both parties. "My hope is that we can find enough overlap that we can say, this is the right way to move forward, even if I don't get every single thing that I want."

Obama's overarching goals are to rein in medical costs and expand coverage to millions of uninsured. Specifically, Obama said he'd be willing to work on ways to limit medical malpractice lawsuits — one of the main ideas Republicans have for reducing costs, by addressing the problem of defensive medicine. Democrats, who count trial lawyers among their most generous contributors, especially in an election year, have blocked all previous attempts to tackle the issue.

SOURCE: Associated Press > Yahoo News

Murtha’s Death Another Blow To ObamaCare

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., has passed away at the age of 77 from complications from gall bladder surgery in late January. Renowned even on Capitol Hill for his ability to bring pork back to his district, Murtha faced numerous brushes with ethical issues over the decades.

Murtha’s district now is a possible pickup for the House GOP. Murtha won re-election with 58% of the vote in 2008. But John McCain narrowly carried the district over Barack Obama in a Democratic year.

Getting health care through Congress is even more of a hurdle. The House passed its health bill 220-215 in November. But Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., resigned at the end of 2009. The lone GOP member to vote yes, Joseph Cao of Louisiana, has said he won’t do so again. Now with Murtha’s passing, that would leave Speaker Nancy Pelosi with just 217 votes for the original bill.

SOURCE: Investor's Business Daily

Obama seeks to rally glum Dems amid GOP challenges

While Republicans have stood in solid opposition to the president's proposed overhaul of health care, Obama insisted he wasn't willing to abandon his top domestic priority that consumed months of his agenda and has produced slim hints of victory.

"Let me be clear: I am not going to walk away from health care insurance reform," Obama said, bringing the audience in the hotel ballroom to their feet.

Republicans, though, made clear the Democrats' current health proposals must be scrapped.

"If they get past this arrogant phase that they have been stuck in about a year, if they can work their way past that and concentrate on the real problem which is the cost, we are willing to look at it," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "To work together, first you have to do it on a bipartisan basis."

SOURCE: Associated Press > Yahoo News

Obama admits health care overhaul may die on Hill

No, maybe he can't. President Barack Obama, who insisted he would succeed where other presidents had failed to fix the nation's health care system, now concedes the effort may die in Congress.

The president's newly conflicting signals could frustrate Democratic lawmakers who are hungry for guidance from the White House as they try to salvage the effort to extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and hold down spiraling medical costs. Obama's comments Thursday night came hours after Republican Scott Brown was sworn in to replace the late Edward M. Kennedy, leaving Democrats without their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and Obama's signature health legislation with no clear path forward.

"I think it's very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then let's go ahead and make a decision," Obama said at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.

"And it may be that ... if Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not," the president said. "And that's how democracy works. There will be elections coming up, and they'll be able to make a determination and register their concerns."

It appeared to be a shift in tone for the issue the "Yes we can" candidate campaigned on and made the centerpiece of his domestic agenda last year. In a speech to a joint session of Congress in September, Obama declared: "I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. ... Here and now we will meet history's test."


SOURCE: Associated Press > Yahoo News

Public Share of Health Tab to Top 50%

For the first time, government programs next year will account for more than half of all U.S. health-care spending, federal actuaries predict, as the weak economy sends more people into Medicaid and slows growth of private insurance.

The figures show how federal and state spending is taking a bigger role while Congress hesitates over a health-care overhaul.

Government health programs are a growing burden on the federal budget, which is running annual deficits of more than $1 trillion, and rising health costs continue to batter private industry.

By 2020, according to the new projections, about one in five dollars spent in the U.S. will go to health care, a proportion far beyond any other industrialized nation.

"It's going to be a desperate issue five to 10 years out," said Gail Wilensky, the former top Medicare official in the George H.W. Bush administration. She said the U.S. will have to decide soon between raising revenue to pay for Medicare or reducing benefits.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal

Virginia Senate bills say no to requiring health insurance

Virginia's Democratic-controlled state Senate passed measures Monday that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance, a direct challenge to the party's efforts in Washington to reform health care.

The bills, a top priority of Virginia's "tea party" movement, were approved 23 to 17 as five Democrats who represent swing areas of the state joined all 18 Republicans in the chamber in backing the legislation.

The votes came less than a week after President Obama implored Democrats in Washington not to abandon their health-care efforts, urging them in his State of the Union address not to "run for the hills" on the issue.

But the action in Virginia, a state that backed Obama in 2008, could indicate that the president is failing to reassure members of his own party that current reform efforts remain worthwhile. The votes also suggest that Democrats on the state level fear that supporting health-care reform could be politically damaging, and their action could put pressure on members of the state's congressional delegation who have been behind the effort...

SOURCE: Washington Post

Sen.-elect Scott Brown seeks to be sworn in Thursday

US Senator-elect Scott Brown this afternoon sent a letter to Governor Deval Patrick and Secretary of State William Galvin, requesting them to "certify without delay" the results of the Jan. 19 special election.

In a letter written by his legal counsel, Daniel B. Winslow, Brown said he wanted the results certified no later than 11 a.m. Thursday so that he can deliver a copy to the Secretary of the United States Senate in time to be administered the oath of office by Thursday afternoon.

Brown had initially planned to be sworn into office Feb. 11 but, Winslow wrote, “he has been advised that there are a number of votes scheduled prior to that date. For that reason, he wants certification to occur immediately.”

Galvin completed his certification of the official election results today, which now must be approved by the Governor’s Council, and then signed by Galvin and Patrick. The governor has been away from the State House this afternoon, with several events in Taunton, so the certification did not occur this afternoon.

Patrick is planning to certify the results tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., which would then allow Brown to travel to Washington for the swearing-in. Top officials in Washington could not be immediately reached for comment to see if they are prepared to conduct the ceremony tomorrow.

SOURCE: Boston Globe

Catholic Bishops Lobby for ObamaCare, Amnesty for Illegals

Calling health care a "right" to be guaranteed by the federal government, America's Catholic Bishops are trying to save ObamaCare at a time when the legislation has been pronounced in limbo, dying or dead by most of the media.

The evidence of intensive Catholic Bishop lobbying activity suggests that liberal Congressional leaders are going to give the legislation a temporary respite so that liberal Catholics can be persuaded to pressure Congress to pass both national health care legislation and "comprehensive immigration reform" in the form of H.R. 4321, the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity" Act.

As AIM has documented, lobbying by the Catholic Bishops and their representatives, who worked closely with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, guaranteed passage of the health care bill in the House.

In a January 13 conference call and briefing, Kevin Appleby, a representative of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, explained in frank language why the Bishops are so desperate to pass the health care and immigration bills. He said that the Bishops want a federal health plan to absorb the costs being borne by the nation's 600 Catholic hospitals to cover illegal aliens.

SOURCE: Accuracy in Media