Pelosi: I've Got the Votes on Health Care

Tentative deal emerges in House-Senate talks

(AP) - House-Senate talks on renewing a payroll tax cut that delivers about $20 a week to the average worker yielded a tentative agreement today, with lawmakers hopeful of unveiling the pact tomorrow and sending the measure to President Obama as early as this week. Under the outlines of the emerging agreement, a 2-percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax would be extended through the end of the year, with the nearly $100 billion cost added to the deficit. More»

Just 10% approve of work on Hill, according to latest Gallup poll

(NEWSER) - A Gallup poll released Wednesday finds that Americans' approval of Congress has hit yet another record low: 10%. There aren't many institutions Americans have liked less over the last 50-or-so years, according to Gallup: Only Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and OJ Simpson detective Mark Fuhrman have ever scored lower. ABC News takes a look at some very unpopular things that still manage to rank above Congress:

• According to an August poll, Paris Hilton is America's least-favorite celeb. But her 60% disapproval rating is still better than Congress's 86% disapproval rating.

Rep. Spencer Bachus faces first-of-its-kind ethics investigation

(NEWSER) - Foxes have been found guarding hen houses on Capitol Hill in the past, but ethics investigators now believe they have identified a particularly greedy one. Rep. Spencer Bachus, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, is being probed for possible violations of insider-trading laws, reports the Washington Post . The investigation of the Alabama Republican is the first of its kind involving a member of Congress, and comes as lawmakers are taking steps to stamp out insider trading by legislators and executive branch officials . More»

Joke ad meant to drum up DISCLOSE Act support

(NEWSER) - Nancy Pelosi is trying to drum up support for the long-languishing DISCLOSE Act, and she's found the perfect foil: Stephen Colbert. "Stephen Colbert used to be my friend," she says in a new YouTube ad. "But since the day he started his super PAC, taking secret money from special interests, he's been out of control, even using his super PAC to attack my friend New Gingrich. And if that weren't enough, I hear he doesn't even like kittens." More»

Gail Collins doesn't think new rules are impinging on religious freedom

(NEWSER) - The furor over President Obama's decision to force Catholic employers to provide health care that covers contraceptives brought a story to mind for Gail Collins. Her mother-in-law once told her that, when she'd confessed to a priest she was using birth control, he replied, "You're no better than a whore on the street." These days the clergy is less judgmental, but the story shows "why bishops are not the only Roman Catholics who are touchy about the issue of contraception," she writes in the New York Times . More»