Democrats, who have been on the defensive in a partisan battle over their sweeping healthcare overhaul, are firing back now that Republicans are preparing an alternative in the U.S. House of Representatives.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters that Republicans will get a vote on their proposal when the House considers the Democratic-written legislation possibly later this week.

Hoyer, a Democrat, did not shy away from offering his own opinion about the Republican bill, saying it would allow insurance companies to sell policies across state lines and would “gut consumer protections and encourage a race to the bottom.”

Republicans argue the provision would inject more competition into the market and help lower premiums. But Hoyer said insurers would flock to states with the fewest consumer protections, sell their policies at low prices and that many consumers would discover in the middle of a health crisis that their policies don’t offer adequate protection.

Other provisions in the bill, as outlined by House Republican Leader John Boehner, would encourage insurers to “cherry pick” and enroll the healthiest people, Hoyer said.

The Republican proposal also leaves out major market reforms contained in the Democratic bill that would bar insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions or charging more based on medical history.

A summary of the House Republican proposal is to be made available here.

Boehner argued that the Republican plan aims to rein in soaring insurance premiums, but Hoyer and other Democrats say it would do little to expand coverage or make healthcare more affordable.

“It doesn’t provide for insurance availability for all Americans,” Hoyer said. “It does little to expand access to coverage or address the $1,000 to $1,100 extra that every American is paying for people who do not have coverage and therefore add to the uncompensated care in hospitals.”

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Photo credit:  Reuters/Joshua Roberts (House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is greeted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi at healthcare event)

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are gearing up for an epic battle against the sweeping healthcare reform that Democratic leaders hope to bring to the House floor for debate later this week.

“Our goal is to make this as difficult as possible to vote for it,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner. “We think this bill is the wrong prescription for what ails our healthcare system in America.”

Representative Mike Pence, who heads the House Republican Conference, said the campaign against the bill unveiled last week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began over the weekend with Republican members delivering copies of the huge 1,990-page bill to public libraries. Also, Republican women are speaking against the bill this week on the House floor.

“It is a fact that 85 percent of healthcare decisions in this country are made by American women,” Pence said.

On Thursday, House Republicans plan a special Internet town hall meeting. Pence said the discussion with participants will last at least 12 hours.

“Our members are going to stand on principle against Speaker Pelosi’s trillion dollar government takeover of our healthcare system,” Boehner said.

Republicans plan to offer a far less sweeping alternative to the Democratic bill. Boehner said it will focus on reducing the cost of health insurance.

The proposal will allow individuals and businesses to purchase insurance across state lines and to form pools to buy insurance. It will also seek to limit malpractice lawsuits, which Republicans say lead to higher healthcare costs.

The Republican bill will also encourage states to look over their own insurance laws and mandates to find ways to lower costs.

“Many states don’t realize that mandates in their own laws actually drive up the cost of health insurance,” Boehner said.

The Republican bill will not include the sweeping insurance market reforms contained in the Democratic bill, which would bar insurers from excluding people from coverage or charging more because of medical history.

Instead, the Republican bill would provide some federal money to help states create high risk insurance pools where those people could obtain coverage, Boehner said.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (House Republican Leader John Boehner plays golf with Tiger Woods.)

A war of words over U.S. policy on Afghanistan is heating up between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill as they await President Barack Obama's new strategy.

"This kind of partisanship in the middle of a war I find to be really out of place," Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat, said.

He was responding to House of Representatives Republican leader John Boehner's statement that "the current political uncertainty should not be used as a pretext for the White House to back away from the counter-insurgency strategy the president announced in March."

Levin, at the Reuters Washington Summit, said former Republican President George W. Bush took three months to decide on the troop surge in Iraq -- "Nobody was saying that President Bush is jeopardizing anything by taking three months to deliberate on a new strategy."

Levin said he agrees with much of what General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, says.

"One of the things he (McChrystal) says is the deliberative process is useful and healthy. So, I wish Boehner would listen to McChrystal," Levin said.

For more news from the Reuters Washington Summit, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Senator Carl Levin at Reuters Washington Summit)

The lipstick-wearing pig is back, making its annual appearance in the political discourse of the country.

The last time it was out and about, eerily enough, was a year ago Wednesday , tripping from Barack Obama’s tongue as the U.S. senator campaigned for the presidency.

Republicans don’t know what real change is, he told a crowd in Lebanon, Virginia.

“You know, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” Obama said. “You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called ‘change.’ It’s still gonna stink after eight years.”

The line prompted people to jump to their feet and cheer — apparently taking it as a direct slam at Governor Sarah Palin, the newly minted Republican vice presidential candidate.

A few days earlier, Palin had introduced herself to the Republican National Convention as a hockey mom.

“You know they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: Lipstick,” she told the convention.

Obama’s pig remark riled the Republican camp and set the tone for an increasingly nasty White House campaign.

The pig has mostly been in hiding since then. Now it’s back again, making an anniversary appearance Wednesday, this time on the lips of House Minority leader John Boehner.

The target was Obama’s healthcare reform plan, which is in a spot of trouble after a round of Republican criticism during Congress’s August recess.

Obama will try to revive the plan with a speech to a joint session of Congress at 8 p.m.

“I hope he’s been listening to the American people because I think over the course of August they’ve raised their voices loud and clear that they don’t want this massive government takeover of our healthcare system,” Boehner said.

“But it appears,” he said, “that the president’s going to double down tonight and try to put lipstick on this pig and call it something else.”

So that’s Boehner’s view. What do you think of Obama’s healthcare plan? Lipstick on a pig, or change we can believe in?

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Photo credits: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama at a healthcare event in August);  Reuters/Rick Wilking (Women hold up lipstick to greet Palin at a campaign rally Sept. 15, 2008)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hit back at protesters vocally disrupting healthcare reform meetings around the country, calling them “un-American” - and with that word ignited the ire of opposition Republicans.

Pelosi and Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wrote in USA Today that there was an “ugly campaign” to misrepresent the healthcare overhaul legislation being written in Congress and stop public debate, which they said is “at the heart of our democracy.”

Opponents have shouted down lawmakers at town meetings held to explain the healthcare ideas, calling the proposed government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers “socialism” - a fighting word in American politics.  “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American,” the Democrats wrote.

The other side was quick to lob equally barbed words back. “Each public forum should give every participant the opportunity to express their views, but to label Americans who are expressing vocal opposition to the Democrats’ plan ‘un-American’ is outrageous and reprehensible,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner.

Congress is on break for the month of August, during which time Democrats were to try to sell healthcare reform ideas to the public.

In the first week of the summer recess, headlines have focused more on the raucous public meetings than on the healthcare legislation itself.

Has the Democratic strategy to win public support for healthcare reform backfired?

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Usually congressional debates over funding U.S. troops are fights where lawmakers try to best each other praising them and throwing as much money as possible at them for fear of appearing less patriotic than someone else.

But Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives are girding for an all-out brawl over a roughly $95 billion bill to fund the troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq — but not because of that money but rather because of provisions to shore up the International Monetary Fund.

While most in Washington know what the IMF is, many Americans do not. It provides loans to governments around the world trying to weather financial crises and get their economies back on track.

President Barack Obama asked Congress to bless his plan for extending a $100 billion line of credit to the IMF amid the global economic meltdown, boost the U.S. membership contribution by $8 billion and endorse the IMF’s plan to sell 400 tons of gold.

Republicans argue that it is unrelated  to funding the U. S. troops and should be considered on its own merits, instead of being tucked into the money bill at the last minute by Democrats who control both the House and Senate.

“I will oppose this legislation if it is loaded up with billions in spending that is unrelated to our military’s core mission of protecting our nation and our interests,” said Republican Minority Leader John Boehner, a sign that most Republicans could oppose the bill.

Some House Democratic leaders have been wary about including the IMF money but have agreed to go along with Obama. Yet Republican opposition could make it potentially much harder for the Democrats to pass the war funding bill.

Fifty-one Democrats opposed the war funding bill last month and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi needed Republicans to pass it. Some 168 Republicans voted with Democrats to approve it.

If most or all the Republicans bolt (which would be an fairly unusual since it’s a war funding bill), that leaves Pelosi in the difficult position of seeking support from the anti-war faction of the Democratic party — for a war funding bill.

Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Andy Wong (Pelosi last week in China)

                                      There was political theater, drama, but no surprise ending on Thursday on a topic involving spies, torture and truth in the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans again ripped into Speaker Nancy Pelosi for accusing the CIA of misleading Congress — and her fellow Democrats quickly blocked their bid for a bipartisan probe into her truthfulness. The vote was 252-172.

“The Republicans … have been focused on the politics of personal destruction,” House Democratic leader House Steny Hoyer said afterward.

Hoyer also accused Republicans of trying to divert attention from the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners as well as Democratic efforts this year to revamp healthcare and move the nation toward energy independence.

Democrats rushed to Pelosi’s defense earlier this week, saying they believe her statement that the CIA did not inform her at a September 2002 briefing that it had used waterboarding, simulated drowning widely denounced as torture, during interrogations of suspected enemy combatants.

Prior to the House vote, Republican leader John Boehner, who has pounded Pelosi for saying the CIA had misled Congress, said, “Getting to the bottom of this quickly is important.”

“The speaker has made a very serious charge,” Boehner told reporters. He added it has had “a chilling effect on our U.S. intelligence officials around the world.”

Hoyer fired back by citing what he said were remarks by a number of Republicans, including Boehner, in recent years critical of the CIA.  On Wednesday, Senator Arlen Specter, a former Republican who recently switched to Democrat, defended Pelosi — known as one of the most liberal Democrats in the House and a favorite target of conservative critics.

“The CIA has a very bad record when it comes to — I was about to say ‘candid;’ that’s too mild - to honesty,” Specter, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told members of the American Law Institute.

REUTERS/Stephen Hird (House speaker Nancy Pelosi at No. 10 Downing Street after meeting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on May 12)

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama’s $825 billion plan to boost the recession-bound U.S. economy has some elements that, well, aren’t the sort of stimulus that House Minority Leader John Boehner says he can believe in.
 
“I’m concerned about the size of the package, and I’m concerned about some of the spending that’s in there,” Boehner complained Friday after a meeting at White House.
 
“How can you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives? How does that stimulate the economy?”
 
Hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives?
 
The Ohio congressman’s office explains. One proposal included in the stimulus package would expand Medicaid family planning services to all 50 states.
 
The proposal would enable people who don’t qualify for Medicaid to receive the family planning services, including contraceptives.
 
“Whether or not you think that is good public policy, it has nothing to do with an economic stimulus,” a spokesman for Boehner said.
 
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Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Boehner watches Obama speak to press)

The new year begins on a quiet note in Washington, but lawmakers are preparing to hit the ground running next week when the 111th Congress will be seated.

President-elect Barack Obama is scheduled to return to Washington this weekend and plans to meet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday to discuss the legislative agenda and plans for a nearly $1 trillion economic stimulus package.

Obama also plans to meet Republican leaders Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Meanwhile the posh Hay Adams Hotel is looking like its getting ready to receive the future first family. Television news outlets have begun setting up news crews outside the hotel where Obama and his family are reportedly going to stay for a few weeks.

And forget about parking  near the hotel, which is a few blocks from the White House. No parking until further notice signs have already gone up around the hotel.

World financial markets start the new year on a positive note and Wall Street may follow that lead.

The top news item in major U.S. papers and morning news shows is the violence in the Middle East and an Israeli strike on Gaza that killed a top Hamas leader.

The Washington Post features reflections of two senior advisers to president George W. Bush.

Photo credit: Reuters/Hugh Gentry ( President-elect Obama prepares to leave Hawaii on Jan. 1, 2009)

WASHINGTON - Who will be blamed if Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives get crushed in Tuesday’s election?

That’s a question being asked amid Republican fears that they may lose as many as 30 seats. That would be on top of the 30 they dropped in the 2006 election that saw Democrats win control of the House, which they now hold, 235-199.

If House Republicans have another bad night, their leaders could be in jeopardy of being replaced — just like the manager of the baseball team who’s bounced after a bad season or two.

“There’s going to be a shakeup,” predicted a senior Republican leadership aide.

A former leadership aide said another big loss would trigger “spontaneous combustion from the House Republican” members, signaling “a need for change.”

The top dog, John Boehner of Ohio, is preparing to run for another two-year term as minority leader, according to aides. So far, nobody appears to be emerging as a viable challenger. But that could change after the election as the damage is surveyed.

Boehner won high marks this summer when he crafted an election-year message that resonated with voters: the call for expanded oil drilling that morphed into “drill, baby, drill” at the Republican presidential nominating convention.

But by mid-September, the Wall Street bailout coupled with falling gasoline prices virtually wiped out Republican advances.

There’s speculation House Republican Whip Roy Blunt, the party’s second in commmand, could play the “fall guy” and step aside, Republican aides say.

“He’s held the whip (job) for two terms …. there’s blood in the water,” the ex-House aide said, adding the six-term Missouri congressman has mulled leaving leadership or even Congress. A Blunt spokeswoman said that for now, Republicans are focused on congressional elections, not leadership races.

Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the chief deputy whip, is jockeying to move up a notch, Republican aides say.

And then there’s Rep. Adam Putnam, the 34-year-old Floridian who holds the number-three post in House Republican leadership. Aides speculate he wants to keep the job, with Boehner’s backing. But some also wonder if he’ll get blamed for Republicans lacking a clear agenda. There’s also hard feelings over how he handled the Wall Street bailout.

Boehner, Blunt and Putnam may all be at risk if Election Day turns into a Republican nightmare. But at this point, it’s a bit of a mystery what will happen.

“They may all get wiped out or just one or two of them,” a leadership aide said. “It’s hard to say.”

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Boehner, Blunt and Putnam talk to reporters earlier this month)