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Jake Tapper - ABC's Political Punch
White House officials tell ABC News that in his remarks tomorrow President Obama will indicate a willingness to work with Republicans on some issue to get a health care reform bill passed but will suggest that if it is necessary, Democrats will use the controversial "reconciliation" rules requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass the "fix" to the Senate bill, as opposed to the 60 votes to stop a filibuster and proceed to a vote on a bill. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been awaiting the president's remarks direction on how health care reform will proceed. In his remarks, scheduled to be at the White House, the president will paint a picture of what he will say will happen without a health care reform bill - skyrocketing premiums, everyone at the mercy of the insurance industry as recently seen with the 39% premium increases proposed by Anthem Blue Cross in California.
As Democrats seek to push through health bill, Obama reaches out to Republicans
Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray - Washington Post
As Democrats on Capitol Hill prepared a risky effort to muscle sweeping health-care legislation to final passage, President Obama on Tuesday made a last gambit to split Republicans on the issue, proposing to incorporate a handful of GOP ideas into his signature domestic initiative. On Wednesday, Obama plans to call on Congress to bring the year-long debate to a swift close, and congressional leaders expect him to signal support for a strategy that includes a special budget maneuver known as reconciliation. Under that strategy, the House would adopt the bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve and approve a separate package of fixes to reflect a compromise worked out between Democrats in the two chambers.
Hoyer Wants Guarantees from Senate on Health Care Bill
Chad Pergram - Fox News' The Speaker's Lobby
Perhaps they'll need to create a special handshake, like how college fraternity brothers do it. Or even sign their names in blood. But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) wants some sort of assurances from the Senate that it won't torpedo key policy provisions important to House members on health care reform. It's likely that Democrats could stood start down a special procedural path called "reconciliation" to pass the health care bill without enduring a potential Republican filibuster. But to launch the reconciliation process, the House must first adopt the Senate's version of the health care bill. And that doesn't sit well with many House Democrats who are afraid of getting quashed by the Senate yet again.
Lincoln's Challenger: I Support Public Plan, And It Will Be Issue In Campaign
Greg Sargent - The Plum Line
There's been some question about whether Blanche Lincoln's challenger, Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter, really backs liberal priorities, such as the public option and the Employee Free Choice Act. In an interview with me just now, Halter made it official: He fully supports the public option, and expects it to be an issue in the campaign. Asked directly if he supported a public plan that would give folks access to Medicare or something like it, Halter answered: "Yes."
Bayh: Reconciliation to Take Senate Into 'Uncharted Waters'
Janet Adamy - Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire
How does reconciliation work? Followers of the health bill should hear how Sen. Evan Bayh thinks it will play out if the Senate uses the parliamentary tactic to complete the health overhaul. The Indiana Democrat, a respected moderate who can speak more freely that most of his peers since he's announced he won't seek re-election, told the Federation of American Hospitals on Tuesday that the procedure would take the Senate into "uncharted waters." For those not following the play-by-play, Democrats last hope for sending a roughly $1 trillion package to President Barack Obama is to have the House pass the Senate version, and then have the Senate adopt a package of changes to win over House Democrats using reconciliation. The procedure was designed for passing budget legislation and requires a simple majority instead of the 60 votes the Senate needed to clear its health care bill Christmas Eve.
Decentralize The Government
Joel Kotkin - Forbes
From health care reform and transportation to education to the environment, the Obama administration has--from the beginning--sought to expand the power of the central state. The president's newest initiative to wrest environment, wage and benefit concessions from private companies is the latest example. But this trend of centralizing power to the federal government puts the political future of the ruling party--as well as the very nature of our federal system--in jeopardy. Of course, certain times do call for increased federal activity--legitimate threats to national security or economic emergencies, such as the Great Depression or the recent financial crisis, for example.
Obama to offer amended health care plan
Associated Press
President Barack Obama is unveiling his revised version of a health care bill at the White House. It's expected to include several Republican proposals. The White House says the president will repeat why reform is so crucial and what it would mean for American families and businesses. And he'll restate his preference for a comprehensive bill. Later, Obama will sit down separately with the national commander of Disabled American Veterans and the commander of the American Legion.
The President vs. Health-Care Reform
Holman W. Jenkins Jr. - Wall Street Journal
Unnoticed at the summit was a diatribe in which President Obama showed he has no patience for any kind of health-care reform that most Republicans, most economists and many non-ultra left Democrats believe in--namely the kind that corrects the incentives that inflate costs. Let us flip back to an epic series of Senate Finance hearings in 1992. They represented a remarkable meeting of minds across a broad swath of health-care wonks and economists (not interest groups) that the original sin was the exclusion of employer-provided health insurance from taxable income--imposed carelessly by the IRS in 1943 so defense contractors could compete for workers without transgressing Roosevelt-era wage and price controls.
Obama's last-ditch health care reform effort
Jennifer Eagan - NECN
President Barack Obama on Wednesday will offer his last ditch effort to bring about health care reform. The proposal is expected include some Republican ideas, following last week's bi-partisan White House Health Care Summit. The White House said the president will repeat why health care reform is necessary for American families, and what it would mean for businesses.
McConnell Warns Against Passage of Health Care Bill
David Herszenhorn - New York Times' Prescriptions
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, warned Democrats on Tuesday that Republicans would use the issue of health care to bludgeon them in the November midterm elections if Democrats succeeded in passing a comprehensive overhaul. "It will be the issue in every race in America," Mr. McConnell said at a news conference in the Capitol. He also referenced the Republican victory in the Massachusetts special Senate election as evidence of the price Democrats would pay if they "jam" a health care bill through Congress "over the objections of the American people."
'Blue Dog' Democrats need to act now on health care
Editorial - Washington Post
HOUSE SPEAKER Nancy Pelosi, seeking to rally her caucus to approve health-care reform, reminded wavering members in an interview on ABC Sunday, "We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress. We're here to do the job for the American people." A noble sentiment, and one we wish all of Ms. Pelosi's colleagues shared. But coming from a congresswoman who generally racks up more than 80 percent of the vote in her California district, it might not be entirely persuasive to members whose "self-perpetuation" is in considerably greater doubt this year. Those are, to a large extent, the "Blue Dog" moderate Democrats and recently arrived members from districts that do not vote overwhelmingly Democratic. Many of them genuinely want the country to make progress on health care, but they are justly worried -- as are many of their constituents -- about enacting an expensive new entitlement at a time of rising federal debt.
Health Care: Obama Adopts A Good Idea From The GOP
Karen Tumulty - Swampland
President Obama picked up a good idea from the Republicans at last week's health care summit, one that will add a badly needed dose of fiscal reality to the health care bill. What's more, this Republican idea will improve the lives of tens of millions of poor people.
A Plan to Talk About Jobs, Elbowed Aside by Health Care
Jeff Zeleny - New York Times
By the time March arrived, President Obama was supposed to be entering his third month of the year talking about three things: jobs, jobs, jobs. That was the plan of the White House -- and the plea from many Democrats -- as the unemployment rate remained frozen near 10 percent and the economy showed only hints of brightening. The administration created a "White House to Main Street" tour, giving Mr. Obama a forum to see and feel America's pain, and offer his plan for relief. So whatever happened to that shift from health care to the economy?
4 CEOs asked to testify in D.C.
Victoria Colliver - San Francisco Chronicle
Congressional lawmakers on Tuesday expanded their investigation into the health insurance rate hikes proposed in California by Anthem Blue Cross by requesting that the chief executives of the nation's four largest health insurers testify at a hearing later this month on medical claim denials affecting people with pre-existing conditions. The chairmen of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its investigations subcommittee sent letters Tuesday to UnitedHealth Group, Humana, Aetna and WellPoint Inc., Anthem's parent company.
Top Dems looking to Obama for health care momentum
Alan Fram - Associated Press
Democratic congressional leaders hope President Barack Obama's unveiling of his final health care package Wednesday will help resuscitate an effort that seemed all but dead until recently. The president planned to describe his plan at the White House, a day after he said he was open to melding four Republican ideas into his proposal. In a measure of the partisanship that has dominated the battle, his embrace of those GOP policies drew no plaudits from Republicans; instead, it appeared designed to coax votes from nervous Democratic moderates by demonstrating an attempt to cooperate with the other party.
Dem Unafraid to Risk Seats for Health Care
David Morgan - CBS News' Political Hotsheet
When asked today if Democrats are willing to push forward a contentious health care reform bill, even at the risk of losing control in Congress, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said that voters overwhelmingly back key parts of the bill, even as Republicans attack it as lacking public support. "When you go to the individual elements in our bill and ask people, 'Do you think there ought to be extended coverage? Do you think we ought to prevent pre-existing conditions . . . stopping you getting insurance?' the public overwhelmingly answers 'Yes,'" Hoyer, D-Md., said on CBS' "The Early Show" this morning.
Obama and the "R" Word, Will He or Won't He?
Major Garrett - Row 2, Seat 4
The only mystery left in President Obama's "final stage" speech Wednesday on the future of health care is whether he will utter the "R" word. The "R" word, at least as far as the health care debate is concerned, is reconciliation. Reconciliation is the procedural nom de guerre for the majority party's path around the Senate's 60-vote filibuster. Senate Democrats would like to hear Obama say reconciliation, if for no other reason than to give the maneuver a presidential imprimatur.
Obama to push healthcare overhaul into final act
Patricia Zengerle - Reuters
President Barack Obama will usher in the last act of his push to overhaul the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system on Wednesday by arguing that his retooled plan, incorporating more ideas from rival Republicans, is essential for the good of the country. After a year of debate, compromise, raucous public meetings, major speeches and even a seven-hour "summit" last week with Republican leaders, Obama is due to make a statement at the White House urging Congress to move swiftly toward a vote on legislation.
President Obama 'open' to Republican ideas on health care reform
Chris Frates and Carrie Budoff Brown - Politico
President Barack Obama on Tuesday outlined four Republican ideas that he is open to including in the final health care reform bill, including efforts to combat waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid and rein in medical malpractice lawsuits. Obama included the ideas in a letter to congressional leaders and said they were the result of last week's health care summit at the White House, where Obama offered to look at Republican ideas to give the bill a more bipartisan cast.
| Latest Polling |
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Rasmussen Reports March 1, 2010 52% of U.S. voters continue to oppose the health care plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats. |