All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Nothing gives a presidential speech an air of prestige and majesty more than an address to a joint session of Congress.

That's why President Obama asked to be invited to that venue for his health care speech this evening.

A CBS News tally shows that since taking office, Mr. Obama has given 28 speeches specifically about his health care proposals. And the issue was part of over 90 other addresses and remarks he delivered.

He mentioned it in his first and only other address to Congress on February 24th. He said excessive health care costs cause a bankruptcy every 30 seconds in America. He said 1.5 million could lose their homes this year because of health care costs. And he said 1 million Americans a year are losing their health care coverage.

"Given these facts," said Obama, "we can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold. We can't afford to do it. It's time."

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Jane Stanton Hitchcock's latest book, "Mortal Friends," centers on the pursuit of the "Beltway Basher," who's victims are fixtures in the alluring, political-centric world of the nation's capital.

Hitchcock spoke with Bob Schieffer on "Washington Unplugged" Tuesday, where she said she draws inspiration from life as it happens around her. "I like to say that every character is me," she said, "including the murderers!"

As a native New Yorker, Hitchcock found transitioning to life in Washington easier said than done. "I was at the British Embassy and a man came up to me and said, ‘How do you do, I'm Warren Christopher.’" I said, ‘your name sounds familiar to me. What do you do?’ He looked at me in utter awe and said, ‘I'm the Secretary of State.’"

Hitchcock splits her time between New York and Washington with her husband, Washington Post foreign affairs editor Jim Hoagland. She is the daughter of Joan Alexander Stanton, who was the voice of Lois Lane in the 1940 radio series "Superman."

Watch Bob Schieffer's interview with Hitchcock below, and watch Washington Unplugged live every weekday at 12:30pm.

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A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

President Obama will meet with leaders from various health care industry groups this morning when they’ll detail their agreement to curtail $2 trillion in health costs over the next 10 years.

At 11:30 a.m. ET, “They will present a letter (saying that they plan) to reduce the growth rate of health care spending by 1.5 percentage points a year over the next 10 years…This is a major and unprecedented move by this group made up of very sophisticated trade associations and groups, some of which have been opponents of health care reform in the past,” said a White House official.

“This fundamentally allies these groups with the President’s goal of getting health care reform this year and that’s a game changer, in our opinion…and it makes clearer than ever that health care reform is going to happen this year in Congress. These groups realize that we are all in the same boat and we are rolling in the same direction towards health care reform.”

The groups include the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, PHrMA, AvMed, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), The Greater NY Hospital Association, and The California Hospital Association.

Following the meeting, at 12:30 p.m., President Obama will speak about health care reform and will say, according to excerpts released by the White House, “"We cannot continue down the same dangerous road we've been traveling for so many years, with costs that are out of control, because reform is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait.”

"It is a recognition that the fictional television couple, Harry and Louise, who became the iconic faces of those who opposed health care reform in the ‘90s, desperately need health care reform in 2009. And so does America.”

"That is why these groups are voluntarily coming together to make an unprecedented commitment. Over the next ten years - from 2010 to 2019 - they are pledging to cut the growth rate of national health care spending by 1.5 percentage points each year - an amount that’s equal to over $2 trillion."

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A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

On the heels of the new unemployment numbers released this morning, President Obama will talk about jobs today at 11:30am ET. He'll unveil a plan for the unemployed to pursue education and training while keeping their unemployment benefits.

The Associated Press' Darlene Superville reports, " Under the measures Obama was scheduled to outline, according to the White House: The Labor Department will encourage states to update rules during economic downturns so that the unemployed can enroll in community colleges and other education or training programs without giving up their benefits.

"States generally require people who collect unemployment to be actively looking for work, which can make it difficult to sign up for school or job training. Going to school will satisfy the requirement that they be actively seeking new employment. The Education Department will encourage colleges to increase financial aid packages for the unemployed. Colleges can consider an unemployed worker's situation and make them eligible for Pell Grants, which help low-income students afford college, and other aid. An unemployed person could get a Pell Grant and use it to pay for education or job training without giving up unemployment benefits. Beginning in July, the maximum Pell Grant will be boosted by $500, to $5,350."

PRESIDENT'S BUDGET: "President Barack Obama released details of his $3.6 trillion fiscal-2010 budget Thursday, showing how he would expand the government's reach with programs ranging from a low-cost housing trust fund to adding 50,000 cops on the beat to spreading automatic 401(k) enrollments. What remains unclear in the nearly 1,500 pages is how the president would try to narrow the gaping federal deficit," writes the Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Weisman.

"The added cost of new programs detailed in Mr. Obama's budget appendix will swamp the $17 billion of potential savings anticipated from eliminating or cutting back 121 programs, enumerated in a separate document. At a time when state and local governments are slashing services, the Obama budget for 2010 shows little real sign of belt-tightening."

"Restraint has not been the hallmark of President Obama's first budget," adds the Washington Post's Dan Balz.

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A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

At 10:30 a.m. ET, President Obama unveils more details of his proposed FY 2010 budget today but the part of the announcement the White House has been enthusiastically touting is the result of their “line-by-line” scrubbing of the budget, resulting in 121 budget cuts totaling $17 billion.

Those figures, however, have landed with a bit of a thud.

The Washington Post’s Lori Montgomery and Amy Goldstein write that it’s “a tiny fraction of next year's $3.4 trillion budget. The plan is less ambitious than the hit list former president George W. Bush produced last year, targeting 151 programs for $34 billion in savings.

"And like most of the cuts Bush sought, congressional sources and independent budget analysts yesterday predicted that Obama's, too, would be a tough sell. ‘Even if you got all of those things, it would be saving pennies, not dollars. And you're not going to begin to get all of them,’ said Isabel Sawhill, a Brookings Institution economist who waged her own battles with Congress as a senior official in the Clinton White House budget office.

"‘This is a good government exercise without much prospect of putting a significant dent in spending.’ Administration officials defended their approach, saying the list of program reductions and terminations is just the start of a broader effort to cut spending and rein in a skyrocketing budget deficit, which is projected to approach $1.7 trillion this year. They also noted that the list does not include more than $300 billion in savings Obama proposes to squeeze from federal health programs and use to finance an expansion of coverage for the uninsured.”

“Obama's proposed cuts are about one-fiftieth the size of this year's $787 billion economic stimulus package — all of which was added to the deficit. The overall budget is $3.6 trillion,” adds USA Today’s Richard Wolf.

“The programs that would be reduced or eliminated would require approval by Congress. In all, 121 programs would be affected, said the officials, who briefed reporters in a conference call but refused to be identified ahead of Obama's official announcement. The programs Obama will try to shrink or eliminate vary from a long-range radio navigation system made obsolete by the Global Positioning System to the Even Start early childhood education program, the officials said. Those programs will have defenders in Congress and across the country that will make it hard for him to get the desired savings.”

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A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

President Obama focuses on Pakistan and Afghanistan today when he holds separate White House meetings beginning at 2 p.m. ET with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari followed by a joint meeting with both leaders at 3:30 p.m. ET (the two will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this morning).

“President Obama begins two days of talks at the White House today with the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to overhaul a painstakingly developed security strategy that was unveiled only five weeks ago but already has become badly outdated,” report the Los Angeles Times’ Paul Richter and Christi Parsons.

“The three countries spent months developing their plan to combat an Islamic insurgency centered in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. But growing militant activity in Pakistan is forcing them to hastily switch focus. In what is emerging as Obama's first major foreign policy crisis, U.S. officials fear the militants could fracture Pakistan, the far more populous nation, further destabilizing the region and even posing a grave risk to the security of Islamabad's nuclear arsenal.

"Obama will press Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to intensify his country's efforts to fight the insurgency, step up economic development efforts and reach out to political rivals to broaden his fragile government's base of support. ‘We need to put the most heavy possible pressure on our friends in Pakistan to join us in the fight against the Taliban and its allies,’ Richard C. Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, said in testimony before a House committee Tuesday. Yet U.S. officials acknowledge that their influence over Pakistan is limited, consisting mostly of the money and arms they can supply. Though the situation in Afghanistan may not have improved, it does suddenly seem more manageable. ‘By comparison, it looks like Canada,’ one U.S. official said in an interview.”

“Obama will urge the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan to put aside a history of mistrust and join Washington in an alliance against Islamic extremists at a White House meeting on Wednesday, senior administration officials said,” adds Reuters’ David Alexander.

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A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

REPLACING SOUTER: President Obama called his newest Senate Democrat, Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and former Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Monday to “follow through on his commitment” to reach out to both sides as he consults with senators during his search for a nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, according to the White House.

Following their call, Hatch told speculated to reporters that there might be an announcement from the president very soon, reports CBS News’ John Nolen. “I’d be surprised if it went beyond this week,” Hatch said. “I would think by the end of this week or over the weekend, he’ll nominate somebody.”

The White House, however, downplayed Hatch's speculation, suggesting that an announcement isn't imminent.

Meantime, “Republicans are set to name conservative Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as their point man on President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, signaling that they won't shy away from a protracted fight despite risks of being cast as obstructionist,” reports the Associated Press’ Ben Evans.

“Sessions' ascension as the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee comes more than 20 years after the panel rejected him for his own federal judgeship during the Reagan administration over concerns that he was hostile toward civil rights and was racially insensitive.

"Ironically, Sessions would replace Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a moderate who was one of just two Republicans in 1986 to oppose Sessions as a U.S. district court judge. Specter left the GOP last week to become a Democrat, creating the vacancy atop the committee just as Justice David Souter announced his retirement. The choice of Sessions has excited conservatives who see him as a sharp lawyer with well-established legal views after a career as a prosecutor and Alabama attorney general.”

“Getting off to a bipartisan start, Obama yesterday called Specter and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a former Judiciary Committee chairman, beginning the process of consulting with senators as he weighs potential nominees.

"‘He's not going to pick some radical,’ Hatch told reporters after the conversation, saying the president suggested he would take a ‘pragmatic’ path,” writes the Washington Post’s Paul Kane.

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A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

President Obama will lay out proposals to reform international tax laws this morning at 11am ET. He and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will “call for reforms to ensure that our tax code does not stack the deck against job creation here on our shores,” the White House says.

“Second, they will seek to reduce the amount of taxes lost to tax havens – either through unintended loopholes in the law that allow companies to legally avoid paying billions in taxes or through the illegal use of hidden accounts by well-off individuals.” The White House estimates that these reforms “combined with further international tax reforms” to be unveiled later will raise $210 billion over the next 10 years.

“Officials described the administration's plan ahead of the announcement on the condition of anonymity so they wouldn't upstage the president's remarks. However, they acknowledged the political challenges facing the plan,” writes the Associated Press’ Philip Elliot.

“The administration won't seek a complete repeal of overseas tax benefits and, although the rule changes are narrower than some anticipated, business leaders still oppose them as a tax hike. Obama aides countered that the plan is a step toward a massive overhaul of international financial regulations the president has promised. In exchange, Obama said he was willing to make permanent a research tax credit that was to expire at the end of the year and is popular with businesses.

"Officials estimate that making the tax credits permanent would cost taxpayers $74.5 billion over the next decade. But administration aides said 75 percent of those tax credits paid workers' wages; given the struggling economy, aides were reluctant to do anything that could add more Americans to the unemployment rolls.”

A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

If there wasn’t enough news to come out of Washington this week, National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg reported another bombshell late last night.

“Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term. The vacancy will give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high court and begin to shape its future direction,” .

“At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. In fact, he is in the younger half of the court's age range, with five justices older and just three younger. So far as anyone knows, he is in good health. But he has made clear to friends for some time that he wanted to leave Washington, a city he has never liked, and return to his native New Hampshire.

"Now, according to reliable sources, he has decided to take the plunge and has informed the White House of his decision. Factors in his decision no doubt include the election of President Obama, who would be more likely to appoint a successor attuned to the principles Souter has followed as a moderate-to-liberal member of the court's more liberal bloc over the past two decades.

"In addition, Souter was apparently satisfied that neither the court's oldest member, 89-year-old John Paul Stevens, nor its lone woman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had cancer surgery over the winter, wanted to retire at the end of this term. Not wanting to cause a second vacancy, Souter apparently had waited to learn his colleagues' plans before deciding his own.”

“Friends said Thursday evening that he had often spoken of his intentions to be the court’s first retirement if Mr. Obama won the election last fall. He told friends he looked forward to returning to New Hampshire while he was young enough to enjoy climbing mountains and other outdoor activities,” add the NY Times’ Peter Baker and Jeff Zeleny.

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A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

As his administration deals with the growing swine flu crisis, President Obama continues on with business as usual – separate meetings with FBI Director Robert Mueller and Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He’ll also present the Teacher of the Year award this afternoon and hold a reception for his cabinet secretaries tonight.

On the swine flu, “President Barack Obama responded to the first domestic emergency of his presidency by urging calm — and then dispatching officials to the cameras to again urge Americans to be calm,” writes the Associated Press’ Jennifer Loven.

“Obama said the emerging swine flu outbreak was ‘not a cause for alarm,’ even as the government began urgent steps to respond to the small but rising number of cases. The calming words belied an intense reaction across departments and agencies.

"The administration planned daily briefings to assure the public that officials are taking action. On Monday, the White House sent top health and homeland security officials out for televised briefings — and promised they'd return Tuesday and keep at it until the situation settles. And Obama inserted his own assurances in a previously scheduled speech, knowing the TV networks were waiting for his comments. Obama's aides were determined not to botch their first test."

While the administration is trying to show they’re in control during this crisis – in contrast to the Bush administration reaction to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – the Washington Post reports that there are still key administration posts that remain unfilled.

“As they confront the growing swine flu crisis, President Obama's administration is attempting to implement a never-before-tested pandemic response plan while dozens of key public health and emergency response jobs in the administration remain vacant,” report the Post’s Michael D. Shear and Spencer S. Hsu. “The president has yet to fill 15 top positions at the health department or name a full-time director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and five more nominations -- including that of former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be HHS Secretary -- are waiting to be confirmed by the Senate, officials at the department said. [Sebelius is expected to be confirmed today by the Senate].

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