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Senate Democrats eye key US health care victory

by Olivier Knox WASHINGTON (AFP) --

Democrats in the US Senate strove to lock down support to prevail in a landmark first test vote of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority, remaking the US health care system.

Adding to their confidence, a wavering Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, said he would vote with his party on Saturday while warning he might side with Republicans in subsequent fights.

"We are not assuming a thing. We are working hard to bring all Democrats together for the 60 votes necessary to proceed to this historic debate," Senator Dick Durbin, the party's Senate vote counter, told reporters.

Democrats were increasingly confident they would win a procedural vote a day later on what would be the most sweeping overhaul of its kind in four decades, extending health care coverage to an estimated 31 million Americans at a price tag of about 848 billion dollars through 2019.

The White House, which has aggressively courted undecided Democrats, declared the legislation "a critical milestone" on Obama's signature issue and warned "the nation cannot wait another year for health insurance reform."

Democrats needed 60 votes to override any delaying tactics from Republicans and approve a resolution that would formally start the debate -- a hurdle shaping up as the legislation's biggest test to date.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was already looking beyond the early skirmish to win the broader battle by courting a handful of swing-vote, centrist lawmakers to vote in favor of the overhaul itself.

After next week's Thanksgiving holiday break, Reid will speak to individual senators to "make sure they each have some peace of mind about what the bill does and can support it, and if they have a concern, address it," said Durbin.

With the 100-seat Senate's 40 Republicans seemingly united against the overhaul, vote counters focused on three centrist Democrats -- Nelson, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, whose vote was perhaps most in doubt because she faces a tough reelection campaign in 2010.

Republicans stepped up their attacks, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell denouncing "a trillion-dollar experiment in government-run health care" and branding the bill a "2,074-page bureaucratic nightmare."

But Durbin shot back that "the Republican health-care reform bill is zero pages long, because it provides zero relief for the American people and the problems they face with health care today."

The House of Representatives approved its own trillion-dollar version of the measure on November 7, squeaking through on a 220-215 margin only after toughening restrictions on federal funds subsidizing abortions.

The Senate version does not include that stricter language, and changes several other key provisions.

Nelson, who has called for tougher abortion curbs, announced he would vote Saturday to start the debate but would join Republicans later in opposing the measure if his proposed changes to the bill were defeated.

If, as expected, the House and Senate approve different versions, they would need to work out their differences and approve the same legislation to send to Obama to sign into law.

The United States is the world's richest nation but the only industrialized democracy that does not provide health care coverage to all of its citizens, with an estimated 36 million Americans uninsured.

Washington spends more than double what Britain, France, and Germany do per person on health care, but with no meaningful edge on the quality of care, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

And the United States lags behind OECD averages in key indicators like life expectancy and infant mortality.

A Democrat calls for Geithner to go

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) --

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said Thursday top members of President Obama's economic team were focused on Wall Street, not Main Street.

DeFazio said White House economic adviser Larry Summers was an adviser from Wall Street, CBS News reported.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, he said, should step down or be asked to leave his position.

They want to keep the TARP money either to continue to bail out Wall Street if there are future problems, or maybe … to pay down the deficit. That's absurd, he said.

Referring to government's massive financial firm bailouts, instead of saying 'you bet, you lost,' they got paid back in full through AIG (American International Group). We channeled the money through them, the congressman said.

AIG, the country's largest insurer, received $180 billion in federal bailout funds.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus is reviewing the option of asking Obama to replace Geithner, CBS said.

Experts: Democrats at risk over abortion

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (UPI) --

Democratic politicians could lose the support of Catholic voters in the United States for wanting abortion to be included in healthcare reform, experts said.

The Politico said Sunday that political experts warn while Democrats enjoyed strong support from Catholic voters in 2008 elections, that support could wane in 2010 over the possible inclusion of abortion services in the proposed healthcare legislation.

There could be political repercussions in the election. It could be harder for the Democrats to keep those Catholics voters they gained and they may put some of their members at risk, said John Green, a Bliss Institute politics expert at the University of Akron.

To alienate them on abortion could be to alienate them on healthcare reform, he added.

Democratic political consultant Tad Devine agreed the intensifying debate over whether abortion services should be part of the healthcare legislation could have major fallout for Democrats.

Voters who consider themselves Catholic are able to see the church teachings in ways that can be pro-Democratic Party or pro-Republican Party, Devine told The Politico.

Medvedev pushes democratic modernisation

MOSCOW (AFP) --

President Dmitry Medvedev called Thursday for Russia to modernise more quickly, but stressed that it should happen through the development of democratic institutions and a market economy.

In his annual address to the nation, Medvedev said Russia must diversify its economy away from raw materials exports and strive to become an influential power in the world.

"In the 21st century, our country again requires modernisation in all areas, and this will be the first time in our history when modernisation will be based on the values and institutions of democracy," Medvedev said.

The goal of his administration, Medvedev added, was to make Russia a society of "smart, free and responsible people."

In a comment reminiscent of the election campaign slogan of US President Barack Obama, Medvedev added: "We are all united on at least one thing: change is needed."

Ralph Peters New York Post Comment Spurs Interest

NEW YORK CITY, NY., Nov. 9 (TOTI) --

New York Post columnist Ralph Peters has spurred quite a bit of interest with his latest column. Obama can't be bothered by Islamic terrorism.

In his column, Peters accuses President Barack Obama of following a double standard when it comes to Islamic terrorism.

"Imagine if, instead of Fort Hood, the massacre had gone down at a mosque in Detroit, carried out by a maddened Christian or Jew. Obama wouldn't have been aboard Air Force One before the pilots had time to file a flight plan and he would've been on site before the gun smoke cleared, hugging and boo-hooing and dispensing stirring rhetoric for the evening news.

Peters, in his impassioned essay goes so far as to accuse the Obama administration of a cover up of their investigation into the Fort Hood shooting, before it even begins.

"What's next? The White House is going to bring heavy pressure on the FBI, through Attorney General Eric Holder, to play down investigative results confirming that Maj. Nidal Hasan was motivated by his Muslim beliefs," Peters opines.

There's no question that the shooting at Fort Hood has caused emotions to flare all over the Internet. Peters' column is worth the read, regardless of what your opinion of the incident might be.

What do you think really happened at Fort Hood? Do you think President Obama has done a good job of handling the situation?

Democrats brace for next step in health care fight

by Olivier Knox WASHINGTON (AFP) --

Democrats Sunday girded for the next battle to push the most sweeping US health care overhaul in a half-century through Congress, after handing President Barack Obama victory in a narrow House vote.

Following a razor-thin win late Saturday in the House of Representatives which saw 39 Democrats vote against the controversial bill, Obama urged the whole Senate to rally behind the issue when it takes up its version in the coming weeks.

"Given the heated and often misleading rhetoric surrounding this legislation, I know that this was with a courageous vote for many members of Congress," Obama said Sunday.

"Now it falls on the United States Senate to take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people. And I'm absolutely confident that they will."

After 12 hours of bitter debate, the bill squeaked through the House by 220 votes to 215 in a rare weekend session.

But amid the Democratic defections only one Republican broke ranks to back a 10-year, trillion-dollar plan to extend health coverage to some 36 million uninsured Americans.

Democrats now need all their 60 senators to come on board to have a hope of passing the legislation through the 100-seat Senate.

"The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate. Just look at how it passed," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, signaling the tough fight ahead.

"You had 40 -- 39 Democrats vote against the bill. They come from red states, moderate Democrats from swing districts. They bailed out on this bill. It was a bill written by liberals for liberals," he told CBS television.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled last week that intra-party divisions in the Senate mean the timetable could slip to 2010.

"We're not going to be bound by any timelines. We need to do the best job we can for the American people," said Reid, who needs 60 votes to ensure he can overcome parliamentary delaying tactics.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the bill "improves quality, lowers cost, expands coverage to 36 million more people and retains choice."

But Republican Minority Leader John Boehner said it amounts to a government takeover of the health care industry "that increases costs, adds to our skyrocketing debt" and "destroys jobs with tax hikes and new mandates."

If, as expected, the House and Senate pass rival versions of health care legislation, they will need to thrash out a compromise bill and approve it before sending it to Obama to sign into law.

Obama and Democratic House leaders had invested much political capital in what they knew would be a close contest. The president telephoned wavering members on Friday and paid a rare visit to Congress on Saturday, but still 39 Democrats joined 176 Republicans to oppose the plan.

One Republican -- Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana -- broke ranks, nominally fulfilling, in the barest terms, Obama's vow to secure bipartisan support.

The Vietnamese-American, who represents a heavily Democratic district, Sunday defended his vote as the right decision for his constituents.

"I made the vote to support the health care reform bill because a lot of my constituents are uninsured, a lot of them are poor and it was the right decision for the people of my district," Cao told CNN.

Final House passage came after a flurry of votes, including a 240-194 vote to sharply tighten restrictions on government funds for abortions, vital to bringing on board anti-abortion Democrats.

The United States is the only industrialized democracy that does not ensure that all of its citizens have health care coverage.

Under the White House-backed bill, all Americans would have to buy insurance and most employers would have to offer coverage to their workers -- though some small businesses would be exempt and the government would offer subsidies.

Washington spends vastly more on health care -- both per person and as a share of national income as measured by gross domestic product -- than other industrialized democracies, but with no meaningful edge in quality of care.

The bill would create a government-backed insurance plan, popularly known as a "public option," to compete with private firms and would stop companies denying coverage due to pre-existing medical problems.

Democrats gird for next step in health care fight

by Olivier Knox WASHINGTON (AFP) --

Democrats braced for the next battle in pushing the most sweeping US health care overhaul in a half-century through Congress, after handing President Barack Obama victory in a narrow House vote.

After 12 hours of bitter debate, the bill squeaked through the US House of Representatives by 220 votes to 215 in a rare late Saturday session after President Barack Obama appealed to lawmakers to "answer the call of history."

But only one Republican broke ranks to back the bill which amounts to a 10-year, trillion-dollar plan to extend health coverage to some 36 million uninsured Americans.

The action now shifts to the 100-seat Senate where the fate of its own version remains unclear, with Democrats needing all their 60 senators to come on board to have a hope of passing the legislation.

"The House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate. Just look at how it passed," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, signaling the tough fight ahead.

Obama, who was set to make another statement on the issue at 1800 GMT Sunday, had hailed the vote late Saturday.

"Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable health care for the American people," Obama said in a statement.

Obama said he was "absolutely confident" the Senate would pass its own bill, adding he looked forward to signing it into law by the end of the year.

But Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled last week that intra-party divisions mean the timetable could slip to 2010.

"We're not going to be bound by any timelines. We need to do the best job we can for the American people," said Reid, who needs 60 votes to ensure he can overcome parliamentary delaying tactics.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the bill "improves quality, lowers cost, expands coverage to 36 million more people and retains choice."

If, as expected, the House and Senate pass rival versions of health care legislation, they will need to thrash out a compromise bill and approve it before sending it to Obama to sign into law.

Obama and Democratic House leaders had invested heavy political capital in what they knew would be a close contest sure.

The president telephoned wavering members on Friday and paid a rare visit to Congress on Saturday, but still 39 Democrats joined 176 Republicans to oppose the plan.

One Republican -- Joseph Cao of Louisiana -- broke ranks, nominally fulfilling, in the barest terms, Obama's vow to secure bipartisan support.

The Vietnamese-American, who represents a heavily Democratic district, Sunday defended his vote as the right decision for his constituents.

The chamber's Democrats erupted in loud cheers and applause the moment the bill had the 218 votes needed for passage, about 11:07 pm (0407 GMT).

Final House passage came after a flurry of votes, including a 240-194 vote to sharply tighten restrictions on government funds for abortions, vital to bringing on board anti-abortion Democrats.

The United States is the only industrialized democracy that does not ensure that all of its citizens have health care coverage.

US Senate Democrats push through climate bill

WASHINGTON (AFP) --

US Senate Democrats on Thursday pushed through a sweeping climate change bill, maneuvering an end-run around opposition Republicans who continued their boycott of deliberations.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the legislation by a vote of 11 to one, with the seven Republicans on the committee absent from the discussion and vote.

The panel is among five other Senate committees which also will weigh in with their draft bills on slowing the pace of climate change before a bill receives a vote in the full chamber, possibly next year.

"We are pleased that despite the Republican boycott we have been able to move this bill forward," said committee chair Democrat Barbara Boxer, after the vote.

Republicans, who boycotted the deliberations for three consecutive days, said they would oppose the bill until they had a "comprehensive analysis" of the economic impact of the legislation from the federal watchdog agency, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

But Boxer said further analysis by the agency was not necessary, and maintained that the EPA's environmental impact assessment of a similar bill approved in June by the House of Representatives, was sufficient.

"We found that, after questioning the EPA extensively, that the Republicans' demand for another EPA analysis now would be duplicative and a waste of taxpayer dollars," she said.

Committee rules require the presence of at least two members of the minority party but Boxer sidestepped the boycott using parliamentary procedures that allowed her to pass the bill by a simple majority of members present, a tactic Republicans decried as a "nuclear option."

At a press conference earlier this week, she signaled the tactical maneuver ahead.

"What they're doing is highly unusual. And what we're doing in response is highly unusual," she said, adding that her actions were completely "by the Senate rules."

Meanwhile, the lone Republican at Thursday's vote, ranking committee member James Inhofe, in a two-minute declaration said his party's position had not changed.

"We still are asking for the same thing," he said.

Republicans also criticized the Democrats' bill as doing too little to promote nuclear energy and is likely to lead to a spike in energy prices.

One Democrat, centrist senator Max Baucus, who serves as the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, broke with his party as the lone Democrat to vote against the bill, saying that its goals for reducing greenhouse emission levels were too ambitious.

The Senate legislation faces a long and contentious process ahead, and must be reconciled with a US House bill that calls for cutting US greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and by 83 percent by 2050.

The Senate's slightly more ambitious bill calls for a 20-percent cut by 2020. Both bills would create a cap-and-trade regime, aimed at setting the total level of domestic emissions allowable and then allocating quotas to companies.

Firms that emit less than their quota would be allowed to sell their surplus allocation to others that exceed theirs. Those in excess could also face fines.

Democrats wary after odd-year election

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (UPI) --

The White House may downplay Tuesday's Election Day outcome, but moderate and conservative Democrats in the U.S. Congress say results signal voter uneasiness.

Congressional Democrats point to the number of independent voters who flocked to Republican gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey, helping them defeat Democratic candidates. They're warning that results indicate independent voters are wary of President Barack Obama's sweeping proposals, and mounting federal spending and debt, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The question is, do people think we're tending to the things they care about? Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., said as he left a Senate leadership meeting Wednesday. He said colleagues were concerned that the main items Democrats pursue -- healthcare and climate change -- don't connect with voters trying to find or keep their jobs.

Don't think people in my state are going to stand up and start cheering about Copenhagen, Rockefeller said, referring to the U.N. Climate Change Summit in Danish capital in December. Critics of climate change legislation moving through Congress said it would kill jobs in states dependent on manufacturing and natural resources, the Post said.

Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist and a top congressional aide when Democrats lost control of the House in a 1994 GOP landslide, said Wednesday lawmakers are less sanguine now than they were 15 years ago.

They need to pay attention to it, Elmendorf said. Voters spoke, and I think the message they sent was they care about the economy and they care about jobs. I don't think there's any reason to panic here. We have to get healthcare done, and then we have to turn our attention to the economy and jobs.

Democrat wins upstate N.Y. race

WATERTOWN, N.Y., Nov. 4 (UPI) --

Democrat Bill Owens won a bizarre three-way special election in New York state's heavily Republican 23rd congressional district Tuesday.

Douglas Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate who became the official Republican choice less than 72 hours before the polls opened, conceded around midnight, The New York Times reported. With most of the votes counted, he was trailing by a few thousand in the sprawling district on the Canadian border that has been represented in Congress by Republicans for generations.

The Republican candidate, centrist Dede Scozzafava, withdrew Saturday. The Republican leaders who praised her for leaving the field clear for Hoffman were furious when she endorsed Owens the next day.

Scozzafava had the backing of the local Republican establishment. But Hoffman, running as the candidate of New York's long-established Conservative Party, received the support of many Republican headliners, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson.

John McHugh, who had represented the district since 2003, winning with more than 60 percent of the vote in every election, resigned after President Barack Obama named him secretary of the army.

Republicans sweep Va., win in N.J.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (UPI) --

The Republican Party, after a clobbering in 2008 at all levels, won off-year governor's races Tuesday in New Jersey and Virginia.

But a Democrat, Bill Owens, won a special election in a heavily Republican upstate New York congressional district that had been held by the GOP for generations. Doug Hoffman, running as a conservative, forced Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava out of the race with help from nationally known conservative figures but conceded to Owens.

This one was worth the fight, Hoffman said. And it's only one fight in the battle, and we have to keep fighting.

In New Jersey, Gov. Jon Corzine conceded the election to former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, who picked up about half the vote to 45 percent for Corzine and 5 percent for Chris Daggett, a former Republican environmental official running as an independent.

Christie was the first Republican to win statewide in New Jersey since Christie Whitman was re-elected governor in 1997.

In Virginia, former Republican state Attorney General Robert McDonnell won an early and decisive victory over state Sen. Creigh Deeds. The Republicans took all statewide offices and expanded their majority in the House of Delegates.

Republicans cast the New Jersey and Virginia victories as a referendum on President Barack Obama. Democrats said voters were reacting to a sour economy.

People are disgruntled and angry, said New Jersey Democratic state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, Corzine's pick for lieutenant governor. When people get angry and hostile, the attitude is, 'Throw the bums out, whoever they are.'

Democrat leads in close upstate NY race

WATERTOWN, N.Y., Nov. 4 (UPI) --

Democrat Bill Owens led Conservative Doug Hoffman by about 4,000 votes late Tuesday in New York state's heavily Republican 23rd congressional district.

The Republican candidate, centrist Dede Scozzafava, withdrew Saturday and endorsed her Democratic opponent Sunday. She remained on the ballot.

With about 77 percent of the precincts reporting, Owens had 49 percent of the vote to 45 percent for Hoffman, The New York Times reported. Rob Ryan, a Hoffman spokesman, said 10,000 absentee votes also remained to be counted and results might not be final for several days.

It's going to be a long night, he said.

John McHugh, who had represented the district since 2003, winning with more than 60 percent of the vote in every election, resigned after President Obama named him secretary of the army.

Obama's Democrats struggle in off-year elections

by Sebastian Smith NEW YORK (AFP) --

US President Barack Obama's Democrats lost the Virginia governor's seat and were struggling in New Jersey in off-year elections that tested Obama's clout 12 months after he swept to power.

Republican Bob McDonnell won the Virginia governor's race with 63 percent of the vote, US media predicted, seizing back the governorship from the Democratic Party.

Projections showed Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds with only 37 percent in a pivotal state that voted for Obama in the 2008 presidential elections.

McDonnell, a conservative Republican, will follow two Democrats in taking over as the state's governor.

In New Jersey, early indications showed the contest between Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine and his Republican challenger Chris Christie too close to call, US media reported after polls closed.

While the off-year races were colored by local politics and personalities, they were seen as testing Obama's popularity as he marked the first anniversary Wednesday of his historic election.

Obama had campaigned for Deeds in Virginia and even more so for Corzine, rallying with 11,000 people just this weekend in a bid to lift the Democrat's flagging campaign.

Another tight race was predicted in upstate New York's 23rd congressional district, where a Conservative candidate backed by Republicans ran strongly against the Democratic candidate.

With nationwide elections to Congress next year and with Obama bogged down in confrontations over the economy, health care reform, and the Afghanistan war, the results of Tuesday's three off-year races were under close scrutiny.

"Obama needs at least one of the three wide-publicized elections to maintain momentum. He'll be hard-pressed to get one," Rutgers University political analyst Ross Baker wrote on the Politico website.

The Republican Governors Association quickly congratulated McDonnell in Virginia, saying his victory gave the party "tremendous momentum heading into 2010."

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs played down the wider significance of the three races, saying: "I don't think the president is looking at these and believes that they say anything about our future legislative efforts or our future political efforts."

If the three races showed that Obama's Democratic machine is not invincible, they also laid bare rifts in the Republican Party over how to rebuild from last year's drubbing in presidential and congressional elections.

In the New York special congressional race, the official, moderate Republican candidate withdrew in the face of the insurgent Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman.

Although he was not running on the Republican ticket, Hoffman had the backing of senior Republican conservatives, including Sarah Palin.

His success has made him a standard bearer for the wing of the Republican Party organizing nationwide "tea party" protests against Obama.

However, other Republicans are arguing for a more centrist stand aimed at attracting independent voters. The official Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, endorsed her Democratic opponent Bill Owens, rather than Hoffman, when she withdrew from the race.

Also on the ballot Tuesday were mayoral posts in major cities, including New York City, Atlanta, Houston, Detroit and Pittsburgh, as well as referendums in Maine and Washington state on allowing same-sex marriage.

New York's mayor, the media tycoon Michael Bloomberg, looked likely to win a third term after getting City Council to scrap a mayoral two-term limit and spending a record amount of his own money on the campaign.

Bloomberg is an independent, but ran on the Republican ballot. His main challenger, the Democrat Bill Thompson, had received almost no support from the Obama camp.

Meanwhile, the frontrunner in Atlanta's mayoral contest, Mary Norwood, would be the city's first white mayor in 36 years if she won.

In Houston, voters were considering electing their first openly gay mayor or their first Hispanic mayor among four leading candidates.