Democrats Writing Healthcare Bill Behind Closed Doors, Gregg Accuses

By Laurel Brishel Prichard
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Sens. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Thursday that the health reform bill must first become a law before reconciliation can be used to amend it.

“So much of this bill may be subject to the Byrd Rule and may go in one way and come out another way, assuming it comes out at all,” Gregg told reporters during a brief session.

Senate Republicans have secured 41 signatures on a letter demanding that reconciliation only be used on legislation involving budget adjustments, and not major policy changes, said Alexander.

“If any sentence is deemed that the policy is more significant then the budget adjustments that it applies to...it will be knocked out, the paragraph will be knocked out, and the section will be knocked out,” said Gregg.

Alexander reiterated a GOP desire to deal with reforming the nation's healthcare system in a "step-by-step" manner. Gregg agreed, and argued that a more piecemeal approach would yield a more transparent process.

“The simple fact is [Democrats] are hiding the bill. This is another one of those processes where it's being written in a hidden room, behind a hidden room, behind a hidden door,” said Gregg.

House May Try To Pass Smaller Individual Healthcare Bills, Says Hoyer

Unwilling to make the ultimate concession and pass the Senate’s healthcare reform bill, the House may try to pass a series of individual bills, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday.

“We may have individual bills on the floor...that’s in discussion,” said Hoyer, who acknowledged that passing piecemeal legislation could be difficult given that many reform provisions rely on others to be effective. Hoyer said that a decision on how to proceed would be made “as soon as [House leaders] know the way forward.”

In addition to healthcare, Hoyer touched upon a laundry list of issues during his weekly briefing with reporters, including Pay-Go legislation that passed the Senate last week. The Majority Leader said that the House would vote on a Pay-Go proposal of its own within a bill to raise the nation's debt ceiling on Thursday.

Addressing the big news story of the day -- testimony from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen regarding ending the military’s ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy -- Hoyer said he supported doing away with the controversial practice.

“‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ needs to be repealed,” he said. Hoyer added that although Mullen called for an end to the policy during Tuesday’s hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Congress would wait to act on putting forth legislation.

Later, Hoyer blasted Republican leadership for blocking a Senate amendment last week that would’ve created a congressional debt commission. Hoyer took shots at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), noting that he had been for the commission before he voted against it. The Majority Leader expressed his hope that President Barack Obama would “go forward” on issuing an executive order to create a similar commission.

And for you sports fans out there, when asked for his pick to win the Super Bowl, Hoyer wouldn’t commit to either the Saints or Colts, but may have tipped his hand when he quipped that the “Colts were stolen out of Baltimore...in the dead of night.”

In VA-35, Both Campaigns Predict Tight Race

The race to replace 35th District Delegate and Democratic Attorney General candidate Steve Shannon is within a 2-point margin – or at least it was two weeks ago, according to polls conducted for Republican candidate Jim Hyland.

Hyland’s margin, described by his campaign manager Kevin Conroy as “within the margin of error,” reflects a tightening of the race since a July benchmark poll, when pollsters Barry Zeplowitz and Bill Lee of TelOpinion Research indicated in a confidential memo posted on Hyland’s website that Hyland held a 7-point lead 43 percent to 36 percent lead, with 21 percent undecided. The memo did not indicate the size of the sample or whether “likely voter” filters were used.

Read more at Collins on Politics

GOP Congressmen Warn That Health Care Reform Could Provide Public Funding For Abortion

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

House Republicans gathered on Tuesday to denounce the inclusion of publicly funded abortions in the proposed health care reform.

“If the President is serious about passing true health care reform... [he] needs to step up, clarify his position about whether he wants abortion to be included in his health care reform,” said Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Ok.)

The proposed health care reform legislation requires every American to have the right to benefit from a minimum health care coverage, which may include abortion unless Congress makes abortion a statutory exception.

Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) warned that “The issue here is clear - abortion is not explicitly excluded, it is implicitly included. The stakes are high and the implications incredibly far reaching.”

GOP leaders claim that allowing abortion to be funded by taxpayers may legitimize the procedure, which in turn could lead to an increase in abortion rates.

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) noted the disrespect shown to pro-life Americans who, through this legislation, would indirectly fund abortion through taxation.

“Millions and millions of American women have profound moral qualms about the killing of unborn children by abortion, putting these American women in a position that violates their deeply held beliefs on abortion... [The legislation] will trespass their rights to refrain from funding an industry that they find to be destructive to our nation's social and moral fabric,” Foxx said.

"Abortion, except in rare circumstances, is not heath care,” noted Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.)

Pelosi Supports President's Pay-As-You-Go Method

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

The acceleration of President Obama's pay-as-you-go initiative, a method that would require Congress to use current revenues for capital items instead of borrowing funds by issuing bonds, and health care reform are important steps in turning the economy around, according to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Pelosi and other legislators met with the President earlier this week as he announced the details of the PAYGO initiative.

The U.S. operated under the PAYGO method throughout the 1990’s. Pelosi credited it for leading to the balanced budgets and eventual surplus of the Clinton administration. 

“Democrats are coming together around this concept. For many years it has been the central organizing purpose of the blue dogs: fiscal discipline, fiscal responsibility...But I want you to know that there are initiatives from all sectors of our caucus which support pay as you go,” said Pelosi today during a press conference.

Pelosi said she was enthusiastic about “accelerating the (PAYGO) discussion” as a tool to improve the economy and initiate healthcare reform in the U.S.

The Speaker touched upon what kind of healthcare model Congress will pursue.

“It should be administratively self-sufficient. It should be a real competitor with the private sector and not have an unfair advantage. When you say the words public option and that is the term of art we will be using, you have to say right next to it: level playing field.”

She said Congress will soon consider legislation on the supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and pandemic flu. The House will also consider legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration legal authority to regulate how cigarettes and other tobacco products are produced and distributed.  Committee work will be focused on the pillars of the President’s agenda which were in the budget. They include: health care, education, energy, reducing the deficit, lowering taxes, creating jobs, and turning the economy around.