Politics Today: Dems Remain Divided Over Health Care
Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics
** Now the real fight over health care reform begins...
** President Obama tackles unemployment...
** Sarah Palin rises in polls during her book tour...
Still, writes Shalaigh Murray of the Washington Post, " Democrats had little time to savor their weekend Senate health-care victory, as two of the lawmakers who voted to move the debate forward Saturday night indicated Sunday that they will not vote to pass the package if it includes a government-run insurance program."
"Despite the success in the test vote, the fragile consensus in the Democratic caucus will face its greatest test yet as the health-care debate moves to the Senate floor and Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) struggles to stave off internal schisms. The cracks in the 60-member caucus are most obvious over the public insurance option.
"One member of the Democratic caucus, independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), reiterated Sunday that he will oppose any bill that contains a public option. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," he called such a government-run plan 'radical.'
"Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), another centrist who supported the move to continue debate but has made it clear he has many objections to the legislation as currently written, restated his opposition to a public plan. 'I don't want a big-government, Washington-run operation that undermines the private insurance that 200 million Americans now have,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.'"
"Lieberman has said he won't support a bill that includes the government-run plan, as has the only Republican who supported a health bill in a committee vote, Olympia Snowe of Maine," adds Laura Litvan of Bloomberg News.
"She said she hasn't decided whether to offer an amendment, supported by some Democratic centrists, to create a public option only if private insurers aren't offering enough affordable policies.
"Reid said Landrieu told him she is working with other Democrats, including Tom Carper of Delaware and Charles Schumer of New York, to try to find a compromise on the public option issue."
5696255Beyond the public option, "Democrats are divided over abortion, an issue that nearly derailed the House earlier this month when it narrowly passed a health bill that blocked abortion coverage from federally subsidized insurance plans, including some run by private insurers," adds Greg Hitt and Janet Adamy of the Wall Street Journal.
"Another growing concern even as the bill progresses is the political heat on Democrats over expanded government spending amid rising unemployment and deficit concerns...
"The 60-39 vote Saturday night set the stage for as many as three weeks of debate and compromise in December and perhaps more in January, a struggle that is sure to color the 2010 fight for control of Congress."
The Los Angeles Times' Mark Z. Barabak profiles Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, "For a healthcare holdout, it's lonely in the middle"
The New York Times' David Herszenhorn, "Opposing Claims Cloud the Debate on an Overhaul"
"Companies and groups hiring lobbying firms on health issues nearly doubled this year as special interests rushed to shape the massive revamp of the nation's health care system now in its final stretch before Congress," reports Fredreka Schouten of USA Today.
"About 1,000 organizations have hired lobbyists since January, compared with 505 during the same period in 2008, according to a USA Today analysis of congressional records compiled by the nonpartisan CQ MoneyLine.
"Overall, health care lobbying has increased, exceeding $422 million during the first ninth months of the year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics. That's more than any other industry and a nearly 10 percent jump over the same period in 2008."
Meanwhile, according to a new PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE ECONOMY In his first public event since his return from Asia, President Obama today will deliver remarks at an event highlighting several initiatives designed to boost science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.In the afternoon, the president will hold a meeting with his cabinet in which unemployment is expected to be a key issue."The White House is lukewarm about proposals by congressional Democrats to introduce broad legislation to create jobs, instead favoring targeted measures that would be less likely to inflate the deficit, administration officials said, Elizabeth Williamson of the Wall Street Journal reports.
"There is as yet no agreement within the White House or in Congress on how to try to curb the U.S. jobless rate. But the differences in opinion suggest that rifts could emerge among Democrats as they wrestle with how to beat back the highest unemployment rate in a generation.
"A survey of economists to be released Monday by the National Association for Business Economists suggested that a solid recovery in the U.S. economy should ensure that jobs would be created beginning in the second quarter of 2010...
"Still, with more than 7.3 million jobs lost since December 2007, 61 percent of the panelists don't expect a complete recovery of the previously lost jobs until 2012."
"As part of the $787 billion fiscal stimulus package earlier this year, lawmakers included $375 million to support Small Business Administration (SBA) programs to spur lending through higher guarantees and reduced fees.
"The administration credits the programs with helping to rejuvenate lending for small businesses. Loan volumes under the program had crashed during the financial crisis last fall and winter. But the programs have been so popular this year that they are running out of money several months early.
"Supporters are now requesting a little more than $100 million to carry the program through mid-February 2010. The administration is working on a transition system so borrowers can still apply for the loan program."
Not all of the president's agenda items will bear fruit so quickly, writes John Harwood of the New York Times.
"President Obama's scramble for a health care overhaul, like his dash across Asia last week, obscures an irony of his first year in office.
"As he tries to effect his agenda, the politician who campaigned on 'the fierce urgency of now' plays for time to demonstrate the benefits of policies that, if they work, will not work quickly.
"Mr. Obama, backed by some independent economists, believes that his stimulus plan has helped pull the economy into recovery. But he is at least months away from being able to make that case by pointing to a decline in joblessness."
Furthermore, adds Alister Bull of Reuters, "President Barack Obama's December jobs forum may be better at serving his political need to show the White House cares about sky-high U.S. unemployment, than discovering new ways to cheaply boost economic growth."
"Palin will be at Fort Bragg at the North Post Exchange today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. signing copies of her book, 'Going Rogue.'"
"To Ft Bragg after sweet overnight in NC visiting w Billy Graham family;The patriarch's message of faith is needed in US today more thn ever," Palin wrote on her Twitter feed.
The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza explains where Palin is stopping on her book tour and why: "All told, the former Alaska governor is making 31 stops in 25 states. Florida will see the most of Palin (three stops), and she will make two appearances each in Texas, Ohio, Indiana and Idaho.
"Palin will not stop in the most populous state -- California -- or in another biggie, Illinois. She is sticking largely to Republican-friendly areas, as is clear if you look at how the counties she's visiting voted in the 2008 presidential election...
"Whether there is a subtle political motivation within the tour, is, like many things related to Palin, difficult to divine."
Whatever her ambitions, Palin is doing well in the polls, the LA Times' Andrew Malcolm points out.
"Not that it matters politically because obviously she's a female Republican dunce and he's a male Democrat genius," Malcolm cheekily writes.
"But Sarah Palin's poll numbers are strengthening. And Barack Obama's are sliding. Guess what? They're about to meet in the 40's."
"Sarah Palin could expect a lot of support in Iowa's Republican caucuses if she launched a campaign for the 2012 presidential nomination, according to The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll," reports The Register's Tom Beaumont
"But the rising national figure, who is scheduled to stop in Iowa next month on her national book tour, would also have to contend with a lot of doubts about her — unlike her potential rivals, the poll found...
"More than two-thirds of Republicans like what they see, making her a credible candidate for the 2012 caucuses should she decide to run for president, strategists say."
"Three died on Sunday in southern Afghanistan in two separate incidents. One was killed in a small arms attack by insurgents and the other two when a roadside bomb exploded. A fourth service member died in eastern Afghanistan Monday in a roadside bomb attack. American soldiers are primarily fighting in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
"The United States has some 68,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, but the White House is considering increases suggested by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, of up to 40,000 soldiers."
"As President Obama measures the potential burden of a new war strategy in Afghanistan, his administration is struggling to come up with even the most dispassionate of predictions: the actual price tag for the anticipated buildup of troops," write Christi Parsons and Julian E. Barnes of the L.A. Times.
"The calculations so far have produced a sweeping range. The Pentagon publicly estimates it will cost $500,000 a year for every additional service member sent to the war zone. Obama's budget experts size it up at twice that much.
"In coming up with such numbers, the White House and the military have different priorities as well as different methods.
"The president's advisors don't want to underestimate the cost and then lose the public's faith. The Pentagon worries about sticker shock as commanders push for an increase of as many as 40,000 troops."
Meanwhile, "The powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has a stark message for President Obama about Afghanistan -- sending more troops would be a mistake that could "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy," reports Jonathan Karl of ABC News.
"'There ain't going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan,' House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News in an exclusive interview. 'If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to pay for it.'"
"Obey, a Democrat from Wisconsin, made it clear that he is absolutely opposed to sending any more U.S. troops to Afghanistan and says if Obama decides to do that, he'll demand a new tax -- what he calls a 'war surtax' -- to pay for it."
Still, "The Obama administration is in advanced talks with its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies for a coordinated rollout of a new Afghan war strategy, which U.S. officials hope will include a commitment by European allies to send several thousand additional troops," report the Wall Street Journal's Peter Spiegel and Stephen Fidler.
"U.S. and European estimates of the new troops they may get from NATO allies vary from 3,000 to 7,000. Those would complement the additional U.S. forces Mr. Obama is considering; those options range from 10,000 to 40,000, but U.S. officials have said a combination of combat troops and training forces totaling 35,000 has gained the most momentum.
"Arrangements haven't been finalized, but coordinated announcements of new troops could come as soon as the week of Nov. 30. They are likely to include an address by the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, shortly after President Barack Obama unveils his strategy."
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