“Think about it. If you are a member of the union right now, you’re spending all your time negotiating about health care. You need to be spending some time negotiating about wages, but you can’t do it," he said.

In fact, the UAW locked itself into a contract limiting wages and changes to health care, without the ability to negotiate with a threat of strike, until 2015. These stands were agreed to by the union at the prodding of the Obama administration, which demanded that union autoworkers accept lower wages -- as a condition to the bailout that saved Lordstown -- to match non-union workers at Toyota plants in Kentucky and Honda plants in Ohio.

Even so, Lordstown is something of a success story for both the UAW and GM, and Obama's remarks were punctuated with enthusiastic applause.  After winning deep concessions from the UAW in 2007, GM agreed to invest $500 million to retool the plant to make a new fuel-efficient small sedan, the Chevy Cruze.

Obama had nice things to say about the Cruze, which GM expects to get more than 40 miles-per-gallon in highway driving.

"I just sat in the car," Obama said of the Cruze. "I asked for the keys. They wouldn't give me the keys. I was going to take it for a little spin. But it was nice sitting in there. It was a roomy car."

Consumers will not get the keys to a new Cruze, either, until the middle of next year when it arrives in showrooms. In the meantime, Lordstown is stuck building the Cobalt, a budget-minded Chevy and vestige of the "old GM." 

Consumer Reports in its October edition branded the Cobalt as one of the five "cruddiest cheap cars" on the market.

(Writing by Kevin Krolicki. Reuters photo by Larry Downing.)

The temperature’s heading toward 100 in Washington, and things are getting hotter in the debate over health care too, even with Congress out of town for the traditional August recess and President Barack Obama in Mexico for the so-called Three Amigos summit.

Taking aim at the orchestrated — or not — attacks on congressional supporters of the Obama health care plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer struck back in an opinion piece in USAToday: “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.”

The two top House Democrats aren’t commenting in a vacuum. Obama’s Saturday radio and Web address focused on the “outlandish” tactics of some opponents of health care reform.

That followed a note by Sarah Palin — ex-governor, ex-vice-presidential candidate but still somehow claiming attention in Washington — on Facebook last week, alleging that Obama’s health care plan would have what she called a “death panel” that would let bureaucrats decide who would be “worthy of health care.” Palin, who has slammed the media for focusing on her children, said her “baby with Down Syndrome” would have to come before such a bureaucratic panel.

ABC News asked, reasonably, what Palin was talking about when she mentioned a “death panel,” and was referred to HR3200 p. 425, “Advance Care Planning Consultation” about end-of-life care. No specific mention of any death panel.

The non-partisan Factcheck.org site says its e-mail inbox has been “exploding” recently with queries asking whether this provision encourages suicide at the end of life. The answer, Factcheck.org said, is no. “Page 425 does deal with counseling sessions for seniors, but it is far from recommending a “Logan’s Run” approach to Medicare spending. In fact, it requires Medicare to cover counseling sessions for seniors who want to consider their end-of-life choices –- including whether they want to refuse or, conversely, require certain types of care. The claim that the bill would ‘push suicide’ is a falsehood.”

Will this be the end of the discussion? Our considered opinion: not a chance!

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Photo credits: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, July 22, 2009, Washington DC)
REUTERS/Nathaniel Wilder (Sarah Palin, July 26, 2009. Fairbanks, Alaska)

After a week of holiday barbecue, hometown parades and constituent fence-mending, members of the U.S. Congress begin to drift back to Washington on Monday for what promises to be its most severe test of the year — finding common ground on a mammoth overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system.

The Senate is back in session on Monday afternoon and the House of Representatives returns on Tuesday to begin work on melding two different Senate bills and three House versions into legislation that can earn initial approval from each chamber before lawmakers adjourn for the month of August.

There are plenty of obstacles for the proposals, President Barack Obama’s top legislative priority this year, from trimming the potential $1 trillion cost to determining how to pay and whether to include a government-run public insurance option for approximately 46 million uninsured Americans.

Obama, meanwhile, arrived in Moscow on Monday as the United States and Russia try to break a stalemate on nuclear arms control talks. It is the opening of a weeklong Obama trip that also will include the summit of G8 wealthy industrialized nations in Italy and his first visit as president to Africa with a stop in Ghana.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credits: REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang (Fireworks over U.S. Capitol); REUTERS/Anatoly Maltsev/Pool (Obama and Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev at Kremlin)

A coalition of progressive U.S. faith groups and pastors has launched a push for affordable health care reform, an effort they say is rooted in a "scriptural call to act."

Radio ads will appear from today until July 4th in five states: Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Nebraska and North Carolina. The ads urge those states' Senators, whose votes could ultimately decide the fate of President Barack Obama's drive to transform America's health care system, to back legislation "that makes quality coverage truly affordable for every American family." You can see the ad script and audio here.

Organizers also say that more than 600 clergy from 41 states and 39 denominations have said they will deliver sermons in coming weeks on the issue and urge their flocks to act. A pastors' guide to health care will also be distributed to 4,250 religious leaders along with a shorter version to wider church members.

PICO National Network, Faith in Public Life, Faithful America, Sojourners, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good are the main religious advocacy groups behind the campaign.

If this all sounds familiar, it should. The tactics being adopted by these liberal and centrist groups and activists are a carbon copy of the successful ones employed in the past by the U.S. religious right. The distribution of pastors' guides, the call for public policy to be guided by scripture (in this case compassion for the poor and the ill), the preaching of sermons on looming legislation -- it's all taken from the loose network of conservative Christians which has delivered many a vote for the Republican Party.

Conservative Christians remain a key base for the Republicans and they have also been decrying "Obama-care" on talk radio, the blogosphere and other outlets.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Larry Downing.  Members of the audience shake hands with U.S. President Barack Obama after his speech about reforming America's health care system in Green Bay, Wisconsin, June 11, 2009.

If you just can’t get enough of the goings and doings of President Barack Obama, can’t wait for the blog posts, Twitter tweets, Washington whispers or even the newspaper and magazine stories about the U.S. chief executive, now there’s help. You can sign up for e-mails from the president. He sent his first one Wednesday. It’s hardly a window on the inner workings of the White House but it is a new way to communicate.

“My staff and I plan to use these messages as a way to directly communicate about important issues and opportunities, and today I have some encouraging updates about health care reform,” wrote in his first message, also posted here. “The Vice President and I just met with leaders from the House of Representatives and received their commitment to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill by July 31.”

He ended the note with,

“Thank you,
“Barack Obama”

and then added a postscript:

“P.S. If you’d like to get more in-depth information about health reform and how you can participate, be sure to visit http://www.HealthReform.gov”

It’s not like Obama’s been under wraps. He traveled to Tempe, Arizona, on Wednesday to deliver a commencement speech at Arizona State University. He heads for Indiana to give a graduation speech at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend on Sunday — where protests against Obama’s stance on abortion and stem cell research are expected. And today, there’s a town hall meeting at Rancho Rio High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This administration seems to communicate constantly, but presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs apparently draws the line at ringing cellphones in the White House briefing room.

When one reporter’s cell phone rang during Gibbs’ daily briefing on Wednesday, the spokesman interrupted his remarks to say, “Just put it on ‘vibrate,’ man.” When the correspondent’s phone rang again, Gibbs took direct action, taking the offending mobile phone and tossing it into the press office. Another reporter had a different response when his phone rang during the briefing. He took the call but moved quickly out of the briefing room.

On Capitol Hill today, the Senate is expected to vote on credit card legislation, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is set to unveil final details of the Democrats’ climate change bill and Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, testify on the defense budget request for fiscal 2010 before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (A likeness of Barack Obama pulled from a recently published online blog posting as a part of a cinematic art installation, “We Feel Fine,” on display during the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, January 15, 2009.)

It’s a busy day at the White House, with waves of lawmakers moving in for talks with President Barack Obama, in between a press statement and before a commencement address.

Wave One: House Democratic leaders — Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel of New York and Education and Labor Chairman George Miller and Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, both of California — come to discuss health care.

Wave Two: Senate leaders from both parties — Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, both Democrats, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and ranking Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama — talk with the president about a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

Between the waves, there’s a media statement, a briefing on the economy and a read-out from Vice President Joe Biden on how the stimulus plan is going.

At the end of the day, Obama heads for Phoenix, where he delivers the commencement address at Arizona State University. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also hits the commencement trail — it’s the season — by giving the address to New York University’s graduates at Yankee Stadium.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner misses the mortar-board circuit, instead addressing a meeting of the Independent Community Bankers of America, and when he speaks, the markets tend to listen.

With all this high-level talking on tap, the morning television shows took a different tack. Donald Trump and Miss California — against gay marriage but occasionally snapped topless, and keeping her tiara — were everywhere, as were stories about actress Farrah Fawcett, now ill with terminal cancer.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Kevin LaMarque (President Obama and aide Reggie Love enter Oval Office, May 8, 2009)

After the Obama team’s big announcement on health care and an even bigger deficit, now comes the hard part — actually sitting down and figuring out how much it’s going to cost, and how to make it cost less. President Barack Obama’s first public appearance today is a round-table discussion with business leaders on cutting employer health care costs.

Later, behind closed doors at the White House, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with Commanding General Raymond Odierno, the head of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill. Then the president meets with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, one day after Gates replaced the top U.S. Afghanistan commander.

In congressional action, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano faces questions about her department’s 2010 budget from both sides of Capitol Hill. Lisa Jackson, who heads the Environmental Protection Agency, also faces budget questioning from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Despite talk of early signs of economic recovery, a U.S. Federal Reserve official sounded a note of caution. Things are better than they were, but the crisis isn’t over yet, Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart said: “I believe that conditions are now calmer but it is too soon to breathe easy.”

As if to confirm this, the U.S. trade gap widened in March for the first time in seven months — but not as much as some analysts had feared. So though the news isn’t good, it isn’t as bad as it could be.

Perhaps this counts as one of those “green shoots” of economic recovery we keep hearing about? You tell us: is this a sign the economy is turning?

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jim Young (President Obama in the White House Rose Garden, April 28, 2009)

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag would like to know what treatments work for him — a middle-aged white male who exercises. And he thinks healthcare reform efforts should focus in part on getting that kind of information to everyone.

Experts on healthcare, lobbyists and politicians started a final crunch on Tuesday to try and put together a healthcare reform package that will lower costs, help more Americans get insurance, and improve the less-than-optimal care that most patients now get.

Orszag assured Congress that the White House was leaving the details to lawmakers — but dropped hints about what he would like to see. One example — a new agency or framework for comparing medical treatments, including drugs, head-to-head.

“For me as patient, I would like my doctor to have better information about what might help a middle-aged, marathon-running male than he currently has,” Orszag told a Senate Finance Committe hearing.

“I mean, a great example is prostate cancer. And there are hugely different treatments. And we don’t know which ones work better,” he added.

Drug makers sponsor most drug trials and they usually compare their new drugs to placebos, not to existing drugs.

Orszag bets that private insurers and Medicare would drop some new and expensive drugs if they could not be shown to work better than older, cheaper treatments.

REUTERS/Yuri Gripas (OMB Director Peter Orszag prepares to testify)

President Barack Obama turned his chief rival in the 2008 Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton, into his secretary of state, but is he tapping her for advice on healthcare reform too?
 
Not clear. Clinton, who spearheaded a failed attempt to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system in the 1990s while her husband, Bill Clinton, was president, will be in Europe on Thursday, when Obama holds a “summit” on healthcare reform.
 
So has the White House consulted with the former first lady about the issue?
 
“You know, I don’t know if they have had wide-ranging conversations specifically with Secretary Clinton,” spokesman Robert Gibbs told a White House briefing.
 
“There are still a number of people around that were part of that effort that can be consulted,” he said.
 
Clinton’s failed efforts in the 90s were widely blamed for hurting her husband’s adminstration, with critics citing the secrecy of the process as one of its downfalls.
 
Thursday’s summit is meant to set a process in motion to reduce healthcare costs and extend insurance benefits to millions of Americans who are not covered.
 
Gibbs hinted that the White House would not repeat the former first lady’s mistakes.
 
“I think even those involved in previous efforts would acknowledge misgivings that they had about the way the process worked,” he said. “Tomorrow’s effort is intended to bring about a process that people can be assured is open.”

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Photo Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lemarque (Obama and Clinton at the State Deptarment on January 22)

President-elect Barack Obama’s healthcare reform bid got an endorsement Thursday from six groups representing a range of interests from doctors, insurers and drug makers to workers, patients and consumers. 
 
The group unveiled an ad backing healthcare reform and announced a multimillion dollar purchase of national television air time. 
 
The announcement came as Obama’s choice for health secretary, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, was making his pitch for confirmation before a Senate committee.
 
Daschle promised to work with Congress, industry groups and ordinary citizens to build support for reform.
 
His approach promised to differ sharply from the one taken by former first lady Hillary Clinton in 1994, which she led the Clinton administration’s failed healthcare reform effort.
 
President Bill Clinton’s reform plan fell apart in part because of resistance from the health insurance industry.
 
But the ad blitz announced Thursday was backed by health insurance plans as well as other organziations.
 
The ad promotes healthcare reform as a way way of improving the quality and saving money.

 
“Fixing the economy requires that we fix the broken healthcare system,” John Seffrin, head of the American Cancer Society, said in unveiling the ad.
 
“Healing our healthcare system is a key component to jumpstarting our national economy,” added Nancy Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association.
 
The other groups sponsoring the ad were Families USA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Regence BlueCross BlueShield and the Service Employees International Union.
 
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Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Daschle at Senate confirmation hearing Thursday)