Democrats Roll Out New Health Care Bill

Senate Democrats have unveiled an $849 billion bill, designed to remake the nation’s health care system. The bill relies on cuts in future Medicare spending to cover costs, as well as an increase in taxes.

GOP: Dems Ignoring Public’s Health Care Concerns

The Democratic-run Congress is ignoring the public’s concerns in the rush to pass legislation to overhaul the nation’s health care system, Republicans say.

“The American people expect us to get this right and to do it in an open, honest and bipartisan debate. That’s what they deserve,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in his party’s radio and Internet address Saturday. “But thats not what theyre getting from the Democrats on Capitol Hill.”

The Senate Finance Committee is the last of five committees to take up health care legislation, which tops President Barack Obama’s domestic agenda.

The committee chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., negotiated with top Republicans for weeks before talks broke down. Baucus’ bill leaves out a primary demand of many Democrats _ a government insurance option _ and it has a lower price tag than other Democratic proposals.

But Isakson and other Republicans say it’s still too costly and would require too much government intrusion into the health care system. Only one Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, appears to be considering supporting it.

At its core, the bill is designed to expand health insurance coverage to millions of people who lack it, employing a new system of federal subsidies for lower-income individuals and families and establishing an insurance exchange in which coverage would have federally guaranteed benefits.

Insurance companies would be prohibited from refusing to sell insurance based on a person’s health history, and limits would be imposed on higher premiums based on age.

CBS NEWS

Obama Eyes Economic Triage for Unemployed

The Obama administration has begun talks with congressional Democratic leaders on moves to extend health insurance subsidies, the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit and jobless benefits, congressional and administration officials told FOX News late Friday.

After another grim jobless report, President Obama is turning his attention to extending a lifeline to the unemployed and making the case that his health care plan would create jobs by making small business startups more affordable.

The Obama administration has begun talks with congressional Democratic leaders on moves to extend health insurance subsidies, the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit and jobless benefits, congressional and administration officials told FOX News late Friday.

Meanwhile, in his weekly radio and Internet video address Saturday, the president linked one of his biggest challenges — joblessness — with passage of far-reaching changes to the nation’s health care system.

FOX NEWS

Pelosi: GOP has double standard in health care rhetoric debate

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped congressional Republicans on Thursday for holding Democrats to a higher standard in the rhetoric employed in the often acidic health care debate.
Rep. Alan Grayson isn’t backing down from his controversial remarks made on the House floor.

Rep. Alan Grayson isn’t backing down from his controversial remarks made on the House floor.

“Apparently, Republicans are holding Democrats to a higher level than they hold their own members,” she said on Capitol Hill. “If anybody’s going to apologize, everybody should apologize.”

Pelosi made her remarks after being asked to comment on a controversial speech made this week by Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, who said on the House floor that Republican health care plans call for sick people to “die quickly.”

GOP leaders charged Grayson with crossing a rhetorical line and demanded an apology. Grayson responded by apologizing not for his remarks but for the government’s failure to enact health care reform sooner. Video Watch Grayson defend his remarks »

“I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America,” he said.

Grayson cited a Harvard University study released this month that said 44,000 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance.

That prompted a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee to issue a stinging rebuke, saying Grayson is “doubling down on his despicable remarks, and he is dragging his party with him.”

On Thursday, a GOP legislative leader from Grayson’s home state of Florida criticized him for making light of the Jewish Holocaust during World War II.

“Regardless of one’s position on the issue of health care reform, comparing the American health care system to the systematic murdering of over 6 million Jews is totally outrageous and unfit for someone holding public office,” Florida House Majority Leader Adam Hasner said.

“Congressman Grayson should apologize to the Jewish community and the families of those whose loved ones were brutally executed. I’d also encourage Mr. Grayson to take a walk tomorrow afternoon to the U.S. Holocaust Museum so he can witness for himself just how offensive and inappropriate his statement is.”

Pelosi in turn argued that Republicans regularly make statements about health care on the House floor “that relate to death.” The “points have been made,” she said. “Now it’s time for us to keep the focus on health care.”

Grayson, a Democrat who represents a central Florida swing district that includes Orlando, defended his recent remarks Wednesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”

“What I mean is, they have got no plan,” Grayson told Wolf Blitzer. “It’s been 24 hours since I said that. Where is the Republican plan? We’re all waiting to see something that will take care of the pre-existing conditions, to take care of the 40 million Americans who have no coverage at all.

“That’s what I meant when I said that the Republican plan is ‘don’t get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly.’ ”

Grayson said the Republicans who he believes are obstructing health care reform are “foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.”
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Calling for universal health care, he slammed “whoever it is that’s causing the Republicans to fight tooth-and-nail against anything, absolutely anything.”

“Those are the people who are really disserving Americans,” he said.

CNN