Obama promised $2,500 health care savings; CBO says plan is $2,300 price increase
Mark Hemingway - Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential
From a fact sheet on Obama's campaign website (PDF link): Obama's plan will save a typical family up to $2,500 on premiums by bringing the health care system into the 21st century: cutting waste, improving technology, expanding coverage to all Americans, and paying for some high-cost cases. However, the CBO just produced this analysis of the senate health care bill (another PDF link) which concludes that the Senate health care bill will raise the average family's health care premiums by $2,300.

Down the Health Care Homestretch, White House Pitches Talking Points to House Democrats
Chad Pergram and Trish Turner - Fox News' Row 2 Seat 4
On the verge of the most fateful week in the life of President Obama's signature domestic initiative, the White House on Tuesday told House Democrats exactly what to say to sell the idea of health reform -- even as they know the final package of reforms has yet to be written. David Simas, an assistant to Senior White House adviser David Axelrod, led House Democrats through a 13-slide power point presentation Tuesday night. The presentation was titled, simply, "Talking Points on Health Reform" (see below). It drew on policies found in the Senate health care bill and the recent changes to it suggested by President Obama.

Can Nancy Pelosi Get the Votes?
Michael Barone - Wall Street Journal
Are there enough votes in the House to pass the Senate's health-care bill? As of today, it's clear there aren't. House Democratic leaders have brushed aside White House calls to bring the bill forward by March 18, when President Barack Obama heads to Asia. Nevertheless, analysts close to the Democratic leadership tell me they're confident the leadership will find some way to squeeze out the 216 votes needed for a majority.

House Democrats looking at 'Slaughter Solution' to pass Obamacare without a vote on Senate bill UPDATED!
Mark Tapscott - Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential
Would House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democratic leaders try to cram the Senate version of Obamacare through the House without actually having a recorded vote on the bill? Not only is the answer yes, they would, they have figured out a way to do it, according to National Journal's Congress Daily: "House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.

Democrats Prepare "Slaughter Solution" to Ram Unpopular Health Care Takeover Through Congress Without a Vote
Dave Schnittger - GOP Leader Blog
The twisted scheme by which Democratic leaders plan to bend the rules to ram President Obama's massive health care legislation through Congress now has a name: the Slaughter Solution. The Slaughter Solution is a plan by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the Democratic chair of the powerful House Rules Committee and a key ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), to get the health care legislation through the House without an actual vote on the Senate-passed health care bill.

Democrats, White House close in on heath bill
Erica Werner - Associated Press
A final agreement nearly in hand, President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders are about to embark on one last sales job that will determine the outcome of the president's signature health care overhaul. It will come down to a phenomenal effort by congressional leaders and the White House to win over skittish lawmakers after a year of incendiary debate, even as Obama keeps up campaign-style appearances designed to fire up public support.

Obama wants side deals out of bill
Carrie Budoff Brown - Politico
President Barack Obama is pushing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to go further than Obama has previously disclosed to strip the final health care reform bill of the narrow deals aimed at appeasing specific senators. The president wants to eliminate more than just Sen. Ben Nelson's "Cornhusker Kickback" and Sen. Bill Nelson's agreement to shield 800,000 Florida seniors from Medicare Advantage cuts, the White House told POLITICO Wednesday in response to questions about other deals in the bill.

Pelosi says House has votes for healthcare if vote were held today
Michael O'Brien - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested Tuesday evening that Democrats would have the votes to pass healthcare legislation if it were taken up today. Pelosi, in an interview with Bloomberg and PBS host Charlie Rose, hinted that she could pass Democrats' healthcare plans through the House if they were brought up this week. "Yes," Pelosi said when asked if she believed the House would end up having the votes to approve healthcare.

Senate Health Care Bill Dead on Arrival, Pro-Life House Democrats Say
Carl Cameron - Fox News
The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as seven anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News has confirmed The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as seven anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News has confirmed.

Health-care reform's 'back-door' tax
Jia Lynn Yang - CNN Money
The big talk on Capital Hill may be about health-care reform, but as part of this massive undertaking, the Democrats are quietly reshaping the tax system too. Tucked inside President Obama's latest health-care proposal is a major change to the Medicare tax. Since its conception, the Medicare tax has always been tied to payrolls. Every paycheck, employers and employees each chip in 1.45%, regardless of how much someone makes. Under Obama's proposal -- which should be very close to what Congress winds up enacting -- a Medicare tax would now be applied to investment income too: Individuals who earn more than $200,000 and couples over $250,000 would pay an additional 2.9% surtax on unearned income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents.

Nancy Pelosi: 'We're going to get started'
Patrick O'Connor and Carrie Budoff Brown - Politico
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will start walking her members through major components of the final health care package Thursday as Democrats inch ever closer to a climatic vote on the landmark legislation. "We're going to get started," Pelosi said as she left the Capitol Wednesday night. "We have some questions ... but we're hoping that we'll get those answered over the course of the reading. It's not much."

Immigration provision has Hispanic Caucus threatening 'no' health vote
Jared Allen - The Hill
A group of Hispanic lawmakers on Thursday will tell President Barack Obama that they may not vote for healthcare reform unless changes are made to the bill's immigration provisions. The scheduled meeting comes as Democratic leaders and the White House are struggling to craft a final bill that will attract 216 votes in the lower chamber. Unlike abortion, immigration has flown beneath the radar, and almost seemed to vanish altogether as House Democrats have wrestled with how to accept a Senate healthcare bill far different from the one they passed in November.

"Slaughter Solution?" GOP Uses Lawmaker's Name to Hit Health Care
Brian Montopoli - CBS News' Political Hotsheet
The Republican Party already has plenty of evocative phrases with which to hammer the health care reform effort: "Government takeover," "ram down our throats," "job-killing monstrosity." Now House Republican Leader John Boehner's office has come up with perhaps the most striking entry yet: "Slaughter Solution." In a blog post on Boehner's site, Dave Schnittger writes the following: "The twisted scheme by which Democratic leaders plan to bend the rules to ram President Obama's massive health care legislation through Congress now has a name: the Slaughter Solution."

Entire Senate GOP vows to block policy changes in health bill
Michael O'Brien - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
All Senate Republicans wrote Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday, vowing to oppose any policy-driven changes to the healthcare bill in the Senate. All 41 GOP senators signed a letter to Reid pledging to uphold the "Byrd rule," which requires that all elements of a bill passed using budget reconciliation rules be strictly related to the budget.

The Limits Of Reconciliation, Then And Now
Ed Driscoll - Pajamas Media
From Naked Emperor News, "Uncovered Shocker: Sen. Byrd Single-Handedly Stopped President Clinton From Using Reconciliation," according to a speech that Byrd gave on the Senate floor in 2001:

Will Republican Senators Vote Pro-Choice to Kill Health Care Reform Bill?
Rick Klein - ABC News' The Note
ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports: All 41 Republican Senators vowed in a letter today to do everything in their power to kill Democrats' health care legislation and vote en bloc against procedural motions Democrats want to use to fix the health reform bill passed Christmas Eve by the Senate. This would include a scenario where the Republican Senators oppose language championed by anti-abortion rights Democrats in the House and side instead with abortion rights defenders.

Student-Loan Bill May Enter Health-Care Mix
Corey Boles - Wall Street Journal
House Democratic leaders are mulling the addition of a measure that radically shakes up the student-loan industry to a fast-track legislative tactic they plan to use to conclude the health-care overhaul. In recent days, the idea of adding the sweeping higher-education legislation to the second of two health-care bills expected to come before the House in the coming weeks appears to be gaining steam.

Key senators balk at adding student loan overhaul to health-care legislation
Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray - Washington Post
As they push to finish health-care legislation by the end of the month, Democratic leaders in Congress are weighing whether to add another of President Obama's priorities to the package: a popular proposal to overhaul the federal student loan program. The move could clear the way for Obama to claim victory on two of his most significant domestic initiatives in a single signing ceremony. Administration officials and House leaders have pressed aggressively for the addition in recent days. But key senators are objecting to the move, arguing that political resistance in the Senate and the rapidly rising cost of the education measure could jeopardize efforts to push health-care reform to final passage.

Obama Gives St. Louis Area Crowds The Hard Sell
Jeff Bernthal, Andy Banker and Betsey Bruce - Fox 2 Now
Raising money and getting ready for a fight. President Barack Obama came to St. Louis to garner support for health care reform, Thursday. It's an uphill battle with the issue dividing the country. At a downtown fundraiser for Senator Claire McCaskill, Obama made his pitch to supporters both for McCaskill, and his health care plan. In front of supporters in a "preaching to the choir" atmosphere, the president told the Renaissance Hotel audience he was more interested in doing what's right for the country than, as he termed it, "doing what is popular." He went on to vow that he wouldn't grow weary of the fight that he believes is vital to the well-being of Americans.

Kyl says GOP has the votes to stop some health bill fixes in the Senate
Michael O'Brien - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
Republicans have the votes in the Senate to prevent key changes to Democrats' healthcare package, Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) asserted Wednesday. Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said House Democrats should be wary of voting for the Senate's healthcare bill under the assumption that another bill to make changes to that bill would necessarily make its way through the Senate.