Business groups target lawmakers

Nearly a dozen business groups that oppose President Obama's health care overhaul bill are spending millions of dollars to put pressure on vulnerable, fence-sitting House members in their districts. Employers for a Healthy Economy, which counts health insurers, manufacturers, retailers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce among its members, said it is spending between $4 million and $10 million on television ads that ask House members to oppose the Senate's health bill. The ad buy, from a powerful lobbying muscle, comes amid Mr. Obama's final push to rally Democrats to support his bill. A handful of House Democrats who supported ...

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Obama to Make Closing Argument on Health Care

The president's speech comes as congressional Democrats stand on the brink of delivering the president a success with passage of his sweeping overhaul legislation -- or a colossal failure if they can't get it done.

Obama Using 'Bounty Hunters' to Root Out Fraud

Grabbing a populist idea with bipartisan backing in his final push to overhaul the system, the president says he'll bring in high-tech bounty hunters to help root out health care fraud.

Obama Touts Anti-Fraud Measures in His Closing Argument for Democrats’ Health Care Bill

President Barack Obama has chosen a suburban St. Louis high school to make his closing argument for a health care overhaul, pushing a new anti-fraud plan as he cranks up the pressure on skittish Democratic lawmakers to act fast.
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Desperate Democrats Cling to Human Kiddie Shield

The audiences that President Obama has cherry-picked to cheer his government health care takeover roadshow are getting younger and younger.
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55 Percent Think Obama Should ‘Start Over’ on Health Care Reform, Poll Finds

A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 55 percent of Americans think that Congress should throw the current health care plan out and start fresh, suggesting that President Obama's demand that Congress pass his reform proposal has failed to sway the public.
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Health Care Costs, Not Profits, Driving Premium Increases, Analysts Say

Health insurers are a frequent and easy target, of course, but the question is whether their profits are responsible for higher health care costs or whether they're just a symptom of them.

Lincoln opposes fast-track health bill

A moderate Democrat insisted Tuesday she remained opposed to pushing a health care bill through the Senate with a simple majority vote, despite saying she wanted to see what was in the legislation. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas Democrat, who is facing a more liberal Democratic primary challenger as well as GOP opposition, said those comments didn't represent a change of heart on her stance against the controversial majority-vote procedure known as "reconciliation." "I don't support reconciliation. All I said was I want to see what's in it," M rs. Lincoln told reporters outside the Senate floor. She walked quickly into ...

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Democratic Senator Opposes Fast-Track Health Bill

A moderate Democrat insisted Tuesday she remained opposed to pushing a health care bill through the Senate with a simple majority vote, despite saying she wanted to see what was in the legislation.
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White House Denies Massa Was Pushed Out Over Health Care Vote

The White House on Tuesday denied assertions by former Rep. Eric Massa that he was pushed out of office because he voted no on health care.

Senate takes up unemployment insurance

Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year. The measure also prevents doctors from absorbing a crippling cut in Medicare payments, extends health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and gives cash-starved states help with Medicaid, the federal-state program providing health care to the poor and disabled. The unemployment insurance alone -- to provide weekly unemployment checks averaging above $300 to people whose core 26-week benefit package has run out -- will ...

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Stupak: Health bill abortion fray resolvable

TAWAS CITY, Mich. -- Prospects are good for resolving a dispute over abortion that has led some House Democrats to threaten to withhold support of President Obama's health care overhaul, a key Michigan Democrat said Monday. Rep. Bart Stupak said he expects to resume talks with House leaders this week in a quest for wording that would impose no new limits on abortion rights but also would not allow use of federal money for the procedure. "I'm more optimistic than I was a week ago," Mr. Stupak told the Associated Press between meetings with constituents in his northern Michigan district, ...

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Hoyer Calls Massa’s Claims That He Was Forced Out ‘Absurd’

The House's No. 2 Democrat is dismissing as "absurd" former Rep. Eric Massa's claims that he was forced out by party leaders because of his opposition to health care.
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Obama, insurers wrestle over rates

Health care execs blame rising medical costs for premium hikes, but the president isn't buying.
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Obama on the road to pitch health bill

Seeking to close the deal on a health care overhaul, President Obama is getting out of Washington, leaving the city he loves to bash and giving himself a platform to portray himself as an outsider going up against big insurance companies and their Capitol Hill lobbyists. Just about every time Mr. Obama has faced a deadline or crunch on his marquee priority, he has exchanged a White House podium for a campaign-style forum outside the Beltway in a bid to break through the political wrangling, attack Republican detractors and reconnect with voters. On Monday, Mr. Obama - backed by a ...

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Inside the Beltway

TEA REPORTERS Town halls are about to erupt in hallowed halls, particularly outside the doors of select Democrats. Prepare for a new wave of "tea party" citizen journalists: The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition - a broad federation of 30 local "tea parties" - has launched a proactive strike against the 50 or so House Democrats who have yet to reveal how they'll vote on health care reform legislation. The group is urging its activists to play reporter and find out what truly lurks in the hearts of undecided lawmakers. "We're finding that responsible, respectable constituents want to personally ask their ...

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Massa blames resignation on health care vote

ROCHESTER, N.Y. | Former New York Rep. Eric Massa is now blaming his resignation announcement last week on a conspiracy by House Democratic leaders to force him out before a crucial vote on health care, his third explanation for leaving office after he earlier cited health issues and an ethics investigation. One of 39 Democrats who voted against an earlier House version of the health care bill in November, Mr. Massa said in his weekly radio address Sunday that Democratic leaders will "stop at nothing" to advance the health care overhaul. "Mine is now the deciding vote on the health ...

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GOP sharpens midterm attack line

Cornyn says they'll hammer Democrats on health care reform if they squeeze a bill through.
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Lights, camera, reconcile!

The titanic, yearlong health care epic is headed toward a wonkish finale.
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Stupak 'More Optimistic' Abortion Fight Will End

President Obama will keep his promise to reach a solution on federal funding of abortions but that is not the centerpiece of his health care overhaul, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday. 

A Policy Change on Abortion, but How Radical?

A bitter dispute among abortion opponents over House and Senate versions of Obama's health care bill could derail his quest to remake the health insurance system.

Obama Confuses Decades, Inflates Estimated Health Care Savings by $868B

Obama boasted Monday that Democrats' health care proposals would cut deficits by $1 trillion "over the next decade," a flub that inflated the actual estimate by $868 billion

Obama hits road, pitches health plan

Seeking to close the deal on his health care overhaul bill, President Obama is getting out of Washington, leaving the city he loves to bash to portray himself as an outsider going up against big insurance companies and their lobbyists in the capital. Just about every time Mr. Obama has faced a deadline or crunch on his top policy priority, he has exchanged a White House podium for a campaign-style event somewhere beyond the Beltway in a bid to break through the political wrangling and reconnect with voters. The latest iteration of that strategy Monday brought Mr. Obama to a ...

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Obama to appeal to public on health care

With the fate of his signature legislative initiative far from certain, President Obama is taking his last-ditch push for U.S. health care overhaul on the road. In a speech Monday in Philadelphia, Mr. Obama will try to persuade the public to back his plan to remake the U.S. health care system, while also urging uneasy lawmakers to cast a "final vote" for the massive legislation in an election year. Mr. Obama's pitch in Philadelphia, along with a stop in St. Louis on Wednesday, comes as the president begins an all-out effort to pass his health care proposals. Though his plan ...

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Massa Claims He Was Forced out Before Health Care Vote

New York Rep. Eric Massa is now blaming his resignation last week on a conspiracy by House Democratic leaders to force him out before a crucial vote on health care, his third explanation for leaving office after he earlier cited health issues and an ethics investigation.
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