Politics Today: Abortion Issue Hits Senate Health Care Debate
Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:
** Obama sounds uncomfortable with the health care bill's abortion amendment...
** The president settles on a new Afghanistan strategy...
** Restoring American influence in Asia...
Mr. Obama will then address the Fort Hood community during a memorial service. Later, Mr. and Mrs. Obama will meet with wounded soldiers at Darnall Army Medical Center before flying back to Washington.
CBS News coverage of the Fort Hood tragedy
Associated Press' Ben Feller, "Obama pressed into role as national healer"
"The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is expected to finish its cost analysis of the Senate bill by the end of this week or early next.
"Senior aides and senators say Democrats plan to pivot quickly and file the first procedural vote as early as Monday. A 'motion to proceed' vote, which brings the bill to the floor, would require 60 votes — a first, critical test of the caucus's unity on procedural votes.
"Senators don't expect any momentum from Saturday's successful 220-215 House vote, however. They say the most realistic scenario is for a Senate vote by Christmas followed by final passage in mid-January."
Meantime, Bill Clinton's heading to the Hill to rally Democrats today, reports the Associated Press' Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar.
"Former President Bill Clinton knows just how high the political stakes are in the fight to overhaul America's health care system. His failed attempt to revamp the delivery of medical care contributed to the Republican takeover of the House and Senate in 1994.
"Fast forward to 2009, where health care's white-hot spotlight now shines on the Senate. Clinton is still in the picture, and he's expected to speak to Senate Democrats about health care legislation during their weekly caucus Tuesday, officials said."
Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown and Jonathan Allen, "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid found his health reform efforts seriously complicated Monday by the explosive issue of abortion, as key centrist senators said they wanted to see airtight language in the bill blocking federal funding for the procedure.
"Abortion threatened to derail a House health reform bill Saturday, and now it's standing in the way of Reid's attempts to get 60 votes as well, with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) saying he wants to see language as restrictive as the House's in the Senate bill.
"If the language isn't clear in prohibiting federal funds for abortion, 'you could be sure I would vote against it,' said Nelson, who met with Reid on Monday.
"Other key moderates didn't go quite that far, but at least two others — Sens. Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana — said they, too, want to ensure that the Senate bill prevents federal dollars from paying for abortion."
5574442"The Senate legislation contains looser restrictions on abortion coverage than were approved by the House," add the Los Angeles Times' James Oliphant and Kim Geiger. "But already at least one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, has signaled that he may be willing to work with abortion rights opponents on developing language similar to the House's.
"'He wants to make sure the intent is the same' as the House amendment, said Jake Thompson, a spokesman for Nelson. 'The final bill has to satisfy him that it doesn't support federal funding of abortions.'
"Activists were also focusing on Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who opposes abortion rights. Because Democrats will likely need the vote of every member of their caucus to pass the health bill, Nelson and Casey might have significant leverage in demanding tough language on abortion coverage."
"President Obama suggested Monday that he was not comfortable with abortion restrictions inserted into the House version of major health care legislation, and he prodded Congress to revise them," writes the New York Times' Robert Pear.
"'There needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we're not changing the status quo' on abortion, Mr. Obama said in an interview with ABC News. 'And that's the goal.'
"On the one hand, Mr. Obama said, 'we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions.'
"On the other hand, he said, he wanted to make sure 'we're not restricting women's insurance choices,' because he had promised that 'if you're happy and satisfied with the insurance that you have, it's not going to change.'"
Boston Globe's Matt Viser reports on a critic of the House's health care reform plan's abortion restriction: the Democratic frontrunner in the race to replace late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.: "Opening up a major fissure in the US Senate race, Attorney General Martha Coakley said yesterday that she opposes the landmark health care bill approved by the House Saturday because it contains a provision restricting federal funding for abortion.
"Coakley, in her boldest gamble of the campaign, said that fighting for women's access to abortions was more important than passing the overall bill, despite its aim of providing coverage for 36 million people, establishing a public insurance option, and prohibiting insurers from discriminating against patients with preexisting conditions.
"'To pretend that now the House has passed this bill is real progress - it's at the expense of women's access to reproductive rights,' Coakley said in an interview, after making similar comments yesterday morning on Boston radio station WTKK-FM.
"She said later at a campaign appearance in Worcester, 'I refuse to acknowledge that this is the best we can do.'
"Coakley's opposition to the bill put her squarely at odds with her three rivals for the Democratic nomination, including US Representative Michael E. Capuano, who voted in favor of the plan and blasted Coakley's stance yesterday, calling it 'manna from heaven' for his campaign."
5571234Wall Street Journal's Anna Wilde Mathews, "Effort to Assist Older Voters May Raise Costs for the Young": "A provision in the House health-care bill sets up a stark choice for Democrats between the interests of younger voters and older ones.
"The bill would limit how much insurers can vary premiums based on the age of the person buying the policy. The narrower the range, the lower the premiums for older people, a help to those who currently pay some of the highest rates for insurance and often need coverage the most. But such a limitation tends to raise premiums for younger folks, who are sometimes reluctant to buy coverage."
Washington Post's Aaron C. Davis and Ben Pershing, "Groups redirect health-care ads to cheer and jeer Democrats": "The liberal group MoveOn.org launched a $500,000 television campaign Monday targeting lawmakers who voted no, including first-termers such as Rep. Glenn Nye (Va.).
"Meanwhile, Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio and more than 20 other House Democrats in vulnerable seats who voted for the bill enjoyed a far warmer reception from the liberal group Health Care for America Now and one of the nation's largest public employee unions. Those groups bankrolled a series of 'thank you' commercials to laud freshmen in battleground districts in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and elsewhere for 'standing up to the insurance companies and fighting for us.'
"The battle of the airwaves has already seen more than $150 million spent this year on television ads related to the health-care debate, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group. As of Friday, about $63 million had been spent on ads favoring Democrats' reform plans and $52 million on ads opposed, according to the analysis group."
New York Times' Adam Nagourney and David M. Herszenhorn, "Trick for Democrats Is Juggling Ideology and Pragmatism": "[I]f the flexibility shown by party leaders on issues like abortion and the proposed government-run insurance plan has kept the legislative process on track, it has also left many liberals off balance and risked alienating the party's base as the midterm elections approach ...
"The challenge of balancing ideology and pragmatism confronting Democrats stems from the party's success in building large but diverse majorities in the House and Senate in the 2006 and 2008 elections.
"In both of those cycles, the party aggressively recruited candidates who could win in traditionally non-Democratic areas, producing a class of legislators that has a decidedly conservative stance on issues like abortion, gun control and the size of government.
"Democrats are now encountering the complications of that success, and a task that faced Republicans during periods of both the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations: How to manage an ideologically diverse caucus to produce legislative victories without alienating base voters."
"The president still has more meetings scheduled on Afghanistan, but informed sources tell CBS News he intends to give Gen. Stanley McChrystal most, if not all, the additional troops he is asking for.
"McChrystal wanted 40,000 and the president has tentatively decided to send four combat brigades plus thousands more support troops. A senior officer says 'that's close to what [McChrystal] asked for.' All the president's military advisers have recommended sending more troops.
"But they also have warned that troops alone will not win the war unless Afghan President Hamid Karzai cleans up his government."
White House National Security Advisor James Jones responded to Martin's report: "Reports that President Obama has made a decision about Afghanistan are absolutely false. He has not received final options for his consideration, he has not reviewed those options with his national security team, and he has not made any decisions about resources. Any reports to the contrary are completely untrue and come from uninformed sources."
Meantime, the Associated Press' Anne Gearan and Steven R. Hurst report, "President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to add tens of thousands more forces to Afghanistan, though probably not quite the 40,000 sought by his top general there.
"The White House emphasized that the president hasn't made a decision yet about troop levels or other aspects of the revised U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.
"Administration officials told The Associated Press on Monday the deployment would most probably begin in January with a mission to stiffen the defense of 10 key cities and towns. An Army brigade that had been training for deployment to Iraq that month may be the vanguard. The brigade, based at Fort Drum in upstate New York, has been told it will not go to Iraq as planned but has been given no new mission yet.
"White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president would meet again Wednesday with key members of his foreign policy and military team but was unlikely to announce final plans for Afghanistan until late this month, when he returns from an extended diplomatic trip to Asia."
"But administration officials say the president isn't likely to bring along tangible concessions on hot-button issues, nor will he return with concrete achievements. Unfinished business -- from the shape of U.S. military bases in Okinawa, to a South Korean free-trade agreement, to climate change, trade and currency issues with China -- will remain unfinished.
"Instead, Mr. Obama will likely rely heavily on oratory and personal popularity to try to boost U.S. influence while maintaining close economic ties to a region that has become the biggest creditor to the U.S.
"With the trip, Mr. Obama will have visited 20 countries in his first year in office, a record for a U.S. president, according to Jeffrey Bader, senior director for East Asian affairs for the National Security Council. All that travel is not out of 'wanderlust,' he said, but because 'it is essential to restore American leadership, influence, image, and standing in a world where all have suffered in recent years.'"
Washington Post's Scott Wilson, "President Obama has agreed to send a senior U.S. diplomat to North Korea for the first direct talks with the government there in more than a year, hoping the mission will lead to the renewal of multi-nation negotiations designed to end its nuclear program.
"Senior administration officials said Monday that Obama decided last week to dispatch Stephen W. Bosworth, his special representative for North Korea, to Pyongyang after months of 'intensive' discussions with U.S. allies in East Asia over how to reengage North Korea on its nuclear program. Although a date has not been set for the visit, senior administration officials say it probably will occur before the end of the year.
"Bosworth's mission will follow Obama's first presidential visit to Asia, and conclude a year during which North Korean leader Kim Jong Il tested the new U.S. administration with a series of missile practice firings and the detonation of a nuclear device in May."
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