Health Care Debate Readies for Road Trip

President's miscalculations include scale, momentum

(NEWSER) - Scott Brown’s Senate victory in Massachusetts is the final nail in the coffin of the Obama administration’s first-year political strategy, John F. Harris and Carol E. Lee write for Politico . The miscalculations cover “three major counts":

• Believing 2008 was a game-changer: The Obama team thought the "election represented something seismic." But "the assumption that Obama would be swimming mostly with the current rather than often against it on issues such as health care, financial regulation and global warming was naive in retrospect."

'You gotta love these Republicans'

(NEWSER) - New York congressman Anthony Weiner laid into the GOP's attitude in health care in a fiery diatribe on the House floor. "You gotta love these Republicans," Weiner said. "I mean, you guys have chutzpah. The Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of insurance companies." Offended GOP Rep. Dan Lungren only got an encore when he asked the Democrat to withdraw the remarks, notes New York . More»

Both sides have vocal opponents, could halt bill without compromise

(NEWSER) - With a last-second concession barring federal dollars from funding abortions, Nancy Pelosi largely skirted the full brunt of the issue, but Harry Reid may not be so lucky. The Senate majority leader likely won't get the 60 votes he needs without similar language— which a Planned Parenthood VP calls a “middle-class abortion ban”—but pro-choice lawmakers could also stall a too-restrictive bill, Politico reports. More»

Do voters want them to ditch presidential agenda, or complete it?

(NEWSER) - Democrats in Congress reading the tea leaves of Tuesday’s elections find themselves split: were the Republican wins in Virginia and New Jersey a vote of no confidence in the administration’s agenda, or frustration that it isn’t moving fast enough? Most agree on the first step going forward: pass health care reform. After that, it gets fractious. More»

Mr. Obama goes to Washington

(NEWSER) - A joint session of Congress might not have been the perfect setting for Barack Obama's health care reform speech last night, writes Washington Post critic Tom Shales. All that "pomp, circumstance, and folderol," including 16 minutes just to get to the lectern, may have led voters to change the channel. Yet for those who watched, Obama came across as a "bright, ambitious young president up against the stodgy old defenders of a corrupt status quo"—a Jimmy Stewart figure in the halls of power. More»