Political truce ends as Republicans eye health fight

Congressional Week Ahead
The House will try to return to some sense of normalcy Tuesday when lawmakers begin debate over the Republican plan to Repeal the new Health Care law. Ten days after the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the Republican-led House will reconvene in what both sides acknowledge is a changed political atmosphere. But Republicans have no intention of dropping their push to roll back the Health Care Legislation, though the vote set for Wednesday is unlikely to be repeated anytime soon in ...

Wonkbook: Health-care debate, round two
Health-care reform isn't getting repealed this week. It's getting re-debated. The GOP's control of the House -- and thus of at least some of the agenda -- gives them a second opportunity to make their case against the bill. It also, however, puts the Republicans in a position Democrats will recognize immediately: They're behind a specific piece of health-care Legislation with sweeping implications, some of which are popular, and many of which are not. In the coming days, Americans will hear a lo...

A difficult health care report for Republicans to deal with
A startling report about the health of Americans has been released today, on the cusp of the wrangle in the House about killing health Legislation. As many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have medical problems that are red flags for Health Insurers, according to an analysis that marks the government's first attempt to quantify the number of people at risk of being rejected by Insurance Companies or paying more for coverage. The secretary of health and human services is scheduled to ...

GOP advancing health care repeal without its friends
GOP ADVANCING Health Care Repeal WITHOUT ITS FRIENDS.... After a week-long break, House Republicans will get back to work today, renewing their admittedly-pointless effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The vote, which will likely come tomorrow, isn't hard to predict -- the House will easily approve the repeal measure -- but even supporters know the bill will promptly fade into oblivion soon after. What's more interesting is how little Republicans' ostensible allies are doing to give them ...

Democrats seek redo of health pitch
Supporters of Health Care reform are hoping to use the GOP Repeal effort this week to defend and explain the law, using a unified voice and a personal touch. House Republicans are set to begin debate Tuesday on repeal. A vote is scheduled for Wednesday after a week of delay to honor Victims of the shootings in Tucson. Wednesday’s vote, which is mainly symbolic for Republicans because it faces promised opposition in the Senate, still gives Democrats a second chance to defend their landmar...

Polls Show Conflicting Results on Health Care Law as House Readies Repeal Vote
As Congress resumes regular business this week and prepares for a vote in the House on repealing the Health Care reform law, a number of new polls provide conflicting results on how the public feels about the law and efforts to scrap it or scale it back. A Quinnipiac University poll of Registered Voters, conducted Jan. 4-11, says the public supports Repeal by 48 percent to 43 percent with 8 percent Undecided. (The Margin of Error is 2.4 points). Support for repeal, according to this poll, is bol...

Time to inoculate ourselves from ObamaCare
The Tea Party became the largest and fastest-growing Grassroots movement in American history in large part due to the overwhelming public opposition to ObamaCare.  ObamaCare and other reckless and ineffective stimulus spending gave many Americans reason to join the tea party movement and experience their first taste of political Activism. And thanks to ObamaCare, the movement is still growing. That is why it is especially amusing to see liberal media pundits and other Democrats employing thei...

Up to half in US. .have pre-existing conditions: study
The Department of Health and Human Services is scheduled to release the study on Tuesday, the Post said, the same day the House of Representatives is expected to begin considering a Republican bill to Repeal President Barack Obama's healthcare overall. The report is part of the Obama Administration's effort to convince the public of the advantages of the law, which contains Insurance protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions. "Americans living with Pre-existing Conditions are ...

GOP set to try for healthcare law repeal
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Republican leaders in the U.S. House are set to open debate on whether to Repeal Healthcare Reform Legislation enacted by Democrats in the previous session. The debate, set to begin Tuesday, comes as public-opinion polls indicate less than a third of Americans support repealing the law. A Repeal vote is expected Wednesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., told The Christian Science Monitor. The debate was originally scheduled for last week and was anticipate...

Up to half in US. .have pre-existing conditions: study
WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:12am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have medical problems putting them at risk of being rejected by Insurance Companies or having to pay more for coverage, according to a U.S. government study reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday. The Department of Health and Human Services is scheduled to release the study on Tuesday, The Post said, the same day the House of Representatives is expected to begin considering a Repu...

Defund Obamacare: The next step (Politico)
As one of the first acts of this 112th Congress, the House is due to pass language I introduced to Repeal Obamacare: “as if such Act had not been enacted.” This Legislation would validate the strategy for Repeal that I have been advancing since the day the law was signed. It will also set the stage for the next component of my Repeal strategy: the inclusion of language in every appropriations bill to prevent federal funds from being used to implement or enforce any of Obamacare&rsquo...;

The Healthcare ActReturn to Sender
We were told—and sold- everything except the truth about the details in the healthcare act. And then, despite a majority of Americans rejecting this massive change in Public Policy, Congress enacted it anyway. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work in our representative Democracy. This massive 2500 page piece of Legislation went to the floor of the House without being read by pretty much anyone, was rammed down the throats of an unwilling public, was enacted in the middle of the

Obama's day: Defending health care, prepping for China
Good morning from The Oval. On this day in 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt transmitted the first trans-Atlantic radio message from the United States, sending it to King Edward VII of Great Britain. Today, President Barack Obama prepares for a major summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, starting tonight with a private dinner at the White House. As Hu wings his way to Washington, USA Today's Calum MacLeod and Richard Wolf report that the Global Economy is creating friction between the U.S. ...

Owens sets phone chat with seniors on health bill
Rep. William L. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, will hold a town hall meeting via telephone at 7:15 p.m. today to discuss President Barack Obama's health-care bill with constituents 65 and older. About 40,000 residents of the 23rd Congressional District received automated messages Monday night, and will receive another call tonight, asking that they join in, said Sean R. Magers, Mr. Owens's spokesman. Residents who didn't receive a call are asked to call Mr. Owens's Washington, D.C., of...

Big health bucks roll in for K St.
K Street expects to reap a new bonanza from the healthcare law even as House Republicans move to Repeal the measure on Wednesday.  Lobbying firms are adding healthcare specialists and new boutique firms are opening to court clients interested in influencing the shape of Regulations implementing the law. Nearly a year after healthcare’s passage, there’s little sign of business slowing down.  “Passing the law is just the beginning of the story in this case. The development of the

Daschle, Frist join forces on reform
Former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist are hoping to achieve at the state level what federal lawmakers weren’t able to do: Bipartisan health reform. “We realize that the bulk of the work has to be done at the state level,” Daschle told Politico. “We want to work in a constructive way to ensure all the tremendous challenges, including the creation of the exchanges and the availability of the new Insurance possibilities for millions of Americans, can be...

Health care lobby mum on repeal
The Health Care industry’s biggest trade groups have remained uncharacteristically neutral on the Republican effort to Repeal the Health Care reform law, choosing instead to save their political capital for smaller, more targeted changes that have a chance at becoming law. America’s Health Insurance Plans lobbied against much of the Health Care overhaul when it was passed in Congress, but it is not supporting the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act. The heads of Aetna and...

Republicans like it, too
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column takes a look at the recent tax hike… Whether they admitted it or not, a large majority of Statehouse denizens was relieved last week when the General Assembly approved the Income Tax hike. Ironically enough, Republicans may have been the happiest. The state’s horrific structural Deficit was finally addressed, which is good news all around. And since they didn’t put any votes on the tax hike bill, the Republicans now get to use it as a w...

Capitol Hill Happenings: Today in Congress
The House begins debate in the afternoon on the bill to Repeal the Health Care law. There are seven hours of debate scheduled for the measure, and since seven hours in Congress time takes much longer than seven hours on a watch, the final vote will take place Wednesday. House Democrats hold a hearing at 1:00 p.m. ET on the impact of repealing the Health Care law they pushed through Congress. They are billing it as the only hearing where supporters can "testify about the real-life effects of undo...

FACT CHECK: Shaky health care job loss estimate
WASHINGTON—Republicans pushing to Repeal President Barack Obama's Health Care overhaul warn that 650,000 jobs will be lost if the law is allowed to stand. But the widely cited estimate by House GOP leaders is shaky. It's the latest creative use of statistics in the Health Care debate, which has seen plenty of examples from both sides. Republicans are calling their thumbs-down Legislation the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." Postponed after the Mass Shootings in Tucson, a H...

The state of denial
Well, what did you expect? How bad is the Budget Crisis in Texas? Ask the Republicans who run the state, and they’ll tell you it’s in the eye of the beholder. The way they see it, the $8 billion drop in state revenue can be offset with some belt-tightening. The $7 billion loss in federal stimulus funding? Well, that was expected. And as for the roughly $12 billion more that state agencies say they need to avoid cutting services — Republicans say they just won’t get it. Voil...

Manhattan pol to push gay marriage bill
ALBANY - The battle over same-sex marriage is about to heat up again in the state Senate. Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan), the Senate's biggest booster of Gay Marriage, said he'll introduce Legislation "within weeks" to legalize same-sex marriage - and will push for a vote before the end of June. "I think everyone is aware that we have to make the lives of New Yorkers better in every way - economically, as well as to provide equality to New York families," Duane said Monday. Although a similar...

129M Americans May have Health Care Red Flags
House Republicans plan a largely symbolic vote on repealing the Health Care Reform Bill. American Spectator contributor Russ Ferguson thinks they should be careful what they wish for. Bob Schieffer spoke with Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) on if members of Congress will work together to practice Civil Discourse in the debate over Health Care reform. As many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have medical problems that are red f...

GOP: The party of taking no responsibility
I'm not enough of a glutton for punishment to sit through Sarah Palin fielding softballs lobbed by Sean Hannity, but if you're interested in Madame It's All About Me's latest chapter in, well, It's All About Her, you can read about it here. For those who have forgotten, we had a president for eight years who never, ever, acknowledged a mistake, and look where that got us. If being as much of a dunderhead as Snowflake Nasnooki of the North (or the Texas Tool, for that matter) makes you infallible...

StupidiNews!
At least 60 are dead as a police recruitment center in Tikrit, Iraq was attacked by a Suicide Bomber. As House Republicans take back up Health Care reform Repeal, support for repeal has decreased in the wake of the Tuscon shooting rampage, even among Republicans. A group of Republicans are trying to convince Indiana Rep. Mike Pence to throw his hat in the ring for 2012. High food prices outside the country are good for US farm exporters leading to record export amounts. Wikileaks founder Julian ...