Obama’s Democrats voice new confidence on healthcare

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic leaders in the Congress voiced confidence on Sunday they will have the votes, possibly within a couple of months or so, to pass landmark legislation to overhaul the healthcare system.

Facing a wall of Republican opposition, Democrats have said they may resort to a rarely used procedural tactic, known as reconciliation, to win approval on purely partisan votes.

President Barack Obama, who hosted a White House summit last week that produced no sign of bipartisan compromise, is to announce this week how he would like Democrats to proceed on a top legislative priority.

“Our members, everyone of them, wants healthcare” reform, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, told ABC’s “This Week” program.

“Everybody wants affordable healthcare for all Americans,” Pelosi said. “They know that this will take courage.”

Surveys show Americans oppose the sweeping legislation pushed by Democrats during the past year. But polls also find that most Americans favor reform and believe costs need to be reduced and coverage expanded.

Republican Senator Lamar Alexander warned Democrats to expect voter backlash in November’s congressional elections if they try to use reconciliation, which would enable them to win passage in the 100-member Senate with 51 votes rather than the 60 required to clear Republican roadblocks.

“It would be a political kamikaze mission for the Democratic Party if they jam this through after the American people have been saying, ‘Look, we’re trying to tell you in every way we know how, in elections, in surveys, in town hall meetings, we don’t want this bill,’” Alexander told “This Week.”

“We’d really like to get a bipartisan bill,” said Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Democratic Senate campaign committee.

“In the absence of that, the American people … have said in the polls that they want to see (us) move forward on healthcare reform,” Menendez told “Fox News Sunday.”

“I believe we will pass healthcare reform this spring,” he said.

HEALTHCARE STALLED

Democrats in the Senate and House approved healthcare bills last year that would reshape the $2.5 trillion industry by cutting costs, regulating insurers and expanding coverage to tens of millions of Americans.

But efforts to merge the different measures and send a final version to Obama collapsed in January after Democrats lost their crucial 60th Senate vote in a special election in Massachusetts.

Obama has since offered specific ideas of his own that House and Senate Democrats will seek to fold into a somewhat revised bill that could win House and Senate passage, clearing the way for the president to sign it into law.

Democrats had hoped to avoid using reconciliation, but many now see it as the last viable means for passing an overhaul of healthcare.

Under this method, the House would approve the Senate-passed bill. Then changes to the Senate bill sought by the House would be passed through reconciliation.

Many of those provisions, such as changes to a tax on high-cost insurance plans and additional federal subsidies to make coverage more affordable, were incorporated in a proposal released by Obama last week.

House passage, however, is not assured. The House narrowly approved its healthcare bill last year, but a number of House Democrats have raised concerns about the Senate version, including its less restrictive language on abortion.

Pelosi said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid will seek to determine what provisions can carry the Senate on a simple majority vote. They are to meet on Tuesday.

Each provision would be subject to parliamentary challenges to determine whether they meet the requirement that they be budget-related — meaning changes to areas like federal funding for abortion would not be possible through the process.

House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, made it clear his party wants to move quickly.

“I would think that within the next couple of weeks we’re going to have a specific proposal and start counting votes to see whether or not those proposals could pass either the House or the Senate,” Hoyer said.

“When we start counting, the votes will be there,” Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of the Democratic leadership, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Earlier on the program, Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said she also believes “we will have the votes” in Congress.

One Republican said he believes Pelosi doesn’t yet have enough Democratic votes for passage in the House, but that she may get them.

“I would not count her out because she is very good at muscling votes,” Republican Representative Paul Ryan told “Fox News Sunday.” Ryan said she “is very good at making deals.”

(Additional reporting by John Crawley, Eric Beech and John Whitesides; editing by Eric Beech)

Iran hails nuclear advance on Revolution Day

State television said “tens of millions of people” attended rallies in support of the Islamic revolution across the country of 70 million, which is facing its worst domestic crisis in three decades.

Opposition supporters have coalesced around the reformists who lost to Ahmadinejad in a disputed election last June, and refused to yield to government demands to halt protests.

Ahmadinejad told a vast, flag-waving crowd of government supporters in central Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square that Iran was now able to enrich uranium to more than 80 percent purity, coming close to levels experts say would be needed for a nuclear bomb, although he again denied it had any such intention.

“The Iranian nation is brave enough that if one day we wanted to build nuclear bombs we would announce it publicly without being afraid of you,” Ahmadinejad said, addressing Iran’s Western enemies. [nDAH131309]

But he told the crowd: “When we say that we don’t build nuclear bombs, it means that we won’t do that because we don’t believe in having it.”

State television showed live footage of hundreds of thousands of people, some carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walking to the square.

An opposition website, Iran’s Green Voice, said security forces fired shots and teargas at supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi staging a Tehran counter-rally on the anniversary of the revolution that toppled the Shah.

Another opposition site, Norooz, said 30 people were arrested in one Tehran square.

A third, Jaras, said security forces attacked another opposition leader, Mehdi Karoubi, and moderate former president Mohammad Khatami. It said the windows of Karoubi’s car were smashed but he was not seriously hurt.

Jaras said clashes were continuing in a Tehran district called Ariashahr. It said gunshots had been heard, but gave no further details.

The opposition Kaleme website said Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard was beaten by plainclothes agents with batons during Thursday’s rallies. There was no immediate official comment.

Jaras said at least 100 mainly young protesters were detained in the northeastern city of Mashhad, and there were some “limited” clashes with security forces. It said more than 20 people were detained in the southern city of Shiraz, as anti-riot police sought to prevent protesters from gathering.

SANCTIONS CALLS

The reports could not be verified independently because journalists working for foreign media were escorted to Azadi Square and are not at liberty to cover opposition rallies.

There were no reports of the kind of violence that erupted in late December, when eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters.

Neither side has shown much appetite for compromise in the eight months since the presidential vote, which the opposition says was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad’s re-election. The authorities insist it was fair.

Since June, thousands of people protesting against the conduct of the vote have been arrested. Most have since been freed, though more than 80 people have been jailed for up to 15 years, including several senior ex-officials.

In January, Iran hanged two people sentenced to death in post-vote trials. At least nine others are appealing such sentences.

The country faces growing Western calls for a new round of targeted United Nations sanctions against it after Ahmadinejad this week ordered a start to production of higher-grade uranium.

Iran says it moved to produce the 20 percent enriched uranium for a Tehran research reactor making medical isotopes out of frustration at failure to reach agreement on a uranium exchange with world powers.

“By God’s grace … it was reported that the first consignment of 20 percent enriched uranium was produced and was put at the disposal of the scientists,” Ahmadinejad said. “In the near future we will treble its production.”

Iran had previously purified the fuel to just 3.5 percent, the level required for a nuclear power plant.

Western experts say the jump to 20 percent is a major technical leap toward enriching uranium to the 90 percent-plus that would be needed for a nuclear bomb.

The West accuses Iran of covertly trying to build nuclear bombs. Iran, the world’s fifth-largest crude oil exporter, says its nuclear facilities are part of a peaceful energy programme and it would retaliate for any attack on them.

Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN

Referring to comments by U.S. President Barack Obama this week that the international community was moving “fairly quickly” toward imposing broader sanctions on Iran, parliament speaker Ali Larijani said in the city of Qom: “If Mr Obama, who found the courage to threaten Iran yesterday, makes this maneuver again, Iran’s answer will be speeding up its nuclear technology.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told BBC television: “I believe the mood around the world is now increasingly one where, patience not being inexhaustible, people are turning to look at the specific sanctions we can plan on Iran.”

(Additional reporting by Hossein Jaseb, Ramin Mostafavi and Reza Derakhshi, Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)

Five things to watch in Illinois

POLITICO (Washington) – Just as the reverberations from the Massachusetts special election have begun to dissipate, another dark blue state plays host to the first primary election of the 2010 cycle: Illinois.

Tuesday’s crowded ballot will test Gov. Pat Quinn’s popularity within his own party a year after he took over the reins from disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich, as well as pare down the field for the surprisingly up-for-grabs U.S. Senate seat formerly held by President Barack Obama.

Mix in the shadow of corruption that hangs over the state and an unemployment rate above the national average and even the political professionals aren’t sure what to expect.

“I have no freaking idea what’s going to happen Tuesday,” said Kitty Kurth, a Chicago-based Democratic consultant. “It’s going to be an election that’s going to have people scratching their heads for a week.”

Here are POLITICO’s five things to watch Tuesday night as the results trickle in from the Land of Lincoln.

The impact of the Cook County Board race

While this down-ballot contest isn’t registering on the radar inside the Beltway, the four-way Democratic primary for president of the board in the state’s most populous county could tip the turnout scales. With three African-Americans among the four candidates and with first-term incumbent Todd Stroger on the ropes, some political observers predict a boost from black voters trekking to the polls for the favorite, Chicago City Council member Toni Preckwinkle, and Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown.

If black voters turn out in force, that would bode well for Quinn, because he launched a blistering attack during the past weekend designed to motivate those voters. Quinn accused his opponent, state Comptroller Dan Hynes, of ignoring the dumping of human remains at a historic black cemetery, an attack that came in response to a Hynes television ad featuring 1980s footage of Harold Washington, the city’s first African-American mayor, calling Quinn “a totally and completely undisciplined individual.”

A recent Public Policy Polling survey showed Quinn trailing among African-Americans, but a higher-than-average turnout in the county race could help save him among this crucial constituency.

In the Democratic Senate contest, state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias — the front-runner — is betting on a healthy Cook County turnout. But one of his opponents, Chicago Urban League CEO Cheryle Jackson, could cut into Giannoulias’s margin by attracting the votes of blacks motivated to vote down ballot for Preckwinkle or Brown.

“She’s not raised the money and doesn’t have a high profile, but she’s the only woman and only African-American,” Kurth said. “If it’s big turnout, Toni’s voters will be breaking between Cheryle and David Hoffman,” she added, referring to Giannoulias’s major opponent.

Said a Hynes adviser: “If the African-American community comes out, it’s good for Quinn and Cheryle Jackson.”

The bottom line: Because African-Americans traditionally make up about one-third of the statewide Democratic primary vote, if their percentage in Cook County goes much higher than average, it could be bad news for Giannoulias and Hynes.

Tea party test

As much as some activists relish the thought, the tea party movement isn’t likely to take down GOP Rep. Mark Kirk in the Senate primary. While his conservative opponent, lawyer Patrick Hughes, did go up with an early television buy, he lacks the money and star power of a Marco Rubio to pull off such an upset.

Still, Kirk’s margin of victory won’t be the only way to measure the tea party’s temperature.

In the fractured GOP primary for governor, conservative grass-roots populists are organizing for Adam Andrzejewski, who scored the unique endorsement Friday of former Polish President Lech Walesa — an especially meaningful endorsement in Chicago, which has a sizable Polish population.

Andrzejewski, who registered 7 percent in a January 22 Chicago Tribune poll, presents himself as a “private citizen” running against “five insiders.”

But pundits wonder whether the power of his outsider movement will siphon votes from other conservative candidates in the field to the benefit of state Sen. Kirk Dillard.

Dillard is taking heat for having appeared in a television ad for Obama’s campaign leading up to the 2008 Iowa caucuses. A rival, Illinois Republican Chairman Andy McKenna, has a spot running that targets Dillard’s bipartisan praise for the president, asking, “Sen. Dillard. Is he really who we thought he was?”

At the House GOP retreat Friday, the president even offered his public condolences to Dillard: “In the Republican primary, of course, they’re running ads of him saying nice things about me. Poor guy.”

Dillard has become the prime target because he’s the most centrist candidate in the field. Democratic strategists acknowledge they’ll be tracking his numbers closely Tuesday night.

“He’d be a tougher candidate in the general than any other. Part of the reason he’s got a shot is because the rest are conservatives to the right of him, and they could split it up,” said Democratic consultant Robert Creamer.

The GOP’s battle to replace Kirk in the North Shore’s 10th Congressional District is also of great interest to Democrats, who eye the seat as a potential takeover in a rough year.

Republicans expect the primary to go down to the wire among state Rep. Beth Coulson, Winnetka businessmen Robert Dold and Dick Green.

Coulson has taken heat for some of her past votes in Springfield on issues such as illegal immigration and capping carbon emissions, but if Republican voters push her through to the general election it would be viewed as a victory for the party’s moderates.

Does downstate care?

The forecast in the state capital for primary election day is cloudy and cold, which brings up the question whether downstate voters will take the time to bundle up and head out to the voting booth to cast ballots for a bunch of Chicago politicians.

By midday, a look at precincts in Springfield and Champaign might prove instructive for Giannoulias and Hynes. If turnout is steady and strong south of Peoria, it’s most likely a soothing sign for the two, because both are more familiar to downstate voters.

A Hynes aide said recent polling has shown the comptroller surging into the lead over the governor in rural areas, but the aide cautions that “it has to translate into actual votes cast.”

Hoffman lacks strong name identification outside Chicago, and a potentially damaging story about Giannoulias’s role in his family’s bank has been bumped from leading the evening newscasts in favor of the racially charged gubernatorial primary. On the flip side, a big turnout on the North Shore and Lakefront would be beneficial to Hoffman.

The timing of this election makes enthusiasm even more difficult to measure.

“With how early the election is, it’s very difficult to gauge who’s going to vote and whether it’s going to line up with traditional votes,” said Jerry Morrison, political director of the Illinois Service Employees International Union.

Hastert’s legacy

The lesson from Massachusetts was stark and simple: Voters are angry, volatile and perfectly willing to thumb their noses at the national parties’ establishments.

How that dynamic applies to Republican voters in the 14th Congressional District could determine whether the 31-year-old son of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert emerges as the GOP nominee.

The speaker’s 20-year tenure in the seat and stature have helped raise cash and name recognition for Ethan Hastert, making him the favorite over state Sen. Randy Hultgren.

But Hastert’s candidacy has also brought charges of carpetbagging and entitlement from grass-roots conservatives who resist Hastert as a legacy candidate.

Hultgren’s challenge is to appeal to those outside the anti-Hastert camp. Conservative endorsements are one thing; turning them into actual votes on a cold February morning is another.

If Hastert, who has been endorsed by Newt Gingrich, is able to win, observers will score it as a victory for the Hastert legacy and the D.C. GOP establishment.

Blago’s machine

The state’s bombastic, blow-dried former governor has been out of office for roughly a year, but political observers will nevertheless be keeping tabs on turnout in Ward 33, which is run by Blagojevich’s father-in-law, famed political boss Dick Mell.

Under normal circumstances, Democratic workers would be pulling out all the stops to grease the wheels for establishment candidates such as Quinn and Giannoulias. But with a Blagojevich trial scheduled for June, it’s not entirely clear that the machine will be operating at peak efficiency.

“What’s left of the machine is really fractured, not only impacting the governor’s race but the Senate race. Frankly, workers are more afraid of going to jail,” Kurth said.

That doesn’t mean Mell is sitting this one out. Another of his daughters, state Rep. Deb Mell, is fighting back a primary challenge herself, dropping at least four mail pieces during the past few weeks and sending a clear reminder that parts of the machine are fully operational.

(c) Capitol News Company, LLC 2009

McCain introduces bill to block FCC’s net neutrality rules

U.S. Senator John McCain has introduced legislation that would block the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from creating new net neutrality rules, on the same day that the FCC took the first step toward doing so.

McCain on Thursday introduced the Internet Freedom Act, which would keep the FCC from enacting rules prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing Internet content and applications. Net neutrality rules would create “onerous federal regulation,” McCain said in a written statement.

The FCC on Thursday voted to begin a rulemaking process to formalize net neutrality rules. The rules, as proposed, would allow Web users to run the legal applications and access the legal Web sites of their choice. Providers could use “reasonable” network management to reduce congestion and maintain quality of service, but the rules would require them to be transparent with consumers about their efforts.

The new rules would formalize a set of net neutrality principles in place at the FCC since 2005.

McCain, an Arizona Republican, called the proposed net neutrality rules a “government takeover” of the Internet that will stifle innovation and depress an “already anemic” job market in the U.S. McCain was the Republican challenger to President Barack Obama in the 2008 election, and Obama has said net neutrality rules are among his top tech priorities.

McCain protested the FCC’s proposal that wireless broadband providers be included in the net neutrality rules. The wireless industry has “exploded over the past 20 years due to limited government regulation,” McCain said in the statement.

“Today I’m pleased to introduce the Internet Freedom Act of 2009 that will keep the Internet free from government control and regulation,” McCain said. “It will allow for continued innovation that will in turn create more high-paying jobs for the millions of Americans who are out of work or seeking new employment. Keeping businesses free from oppressive regulations is the best stimulus for the current economy.”

It’s unclear whether the legislation would pass. Democrats, who generally support net neutrality rules, have majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but in recent days, more than 70 House Democrats have written the FCC expressing concern over net neutrality regulations.

Elsewhere, reaction to the FCC’s decision was mixed.

Supporting net neutrality rules:

– “Network neutrality protects the fundamental rights of Americans in using the Internet and accessing content, applications, and services of their choice. A well-reasoned network neutrality policy also ensures a level playing field for companies large and small as they create an online presence, and will continue to foster the entrepreneurial innovation found not only in corporate office suites, but in college dorms across the country.” — Statement from Senators Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, and Olympia Snowe, Maine Republican.

– “It is clear to us that at the end of the proceeding, consumers and innovators will benefit from an open and nondiscriminatory Internet. As a result, the economy will benefit in the future, as it did in the past, from the stability of an Internet that grants equal opportunity to all to participate in an open Internet environment.” — Statement from Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a digital rights group.

– “This is a down payment on creating a digital democracy. Today’s vote to begin the process of requiring nondiscrimination insures, among other things, that large internet providers will be unable to block or throttle speech from competitors or those who disagree with them. The nondiscriminatory environment in which the Internet was developed fostered unprecedented opportunities for political and artistic expression.” — Statement from Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president and CEO of the Media Access Project, a media reform and digital rights group.

Opposed to net neutrality rules:

– “I remain concerned … that the FCC is poised to take intrusive action into a well-functioning Internet ecosystem without either the demonstrated need or clear legal authority to do so. I know of no empirical evidence suggesting that the openness of the Internet that we all value is under threat today, or is likely to be under threat tomorrow. In the absence of evidence of market failure or demonstrable consumer harms, the costs of government intervention are more likely to outweigh the benefits.” — Statement from Barbara Esbin, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a free-market think tank.

– “As the FCC’s Broadband Task Force said recently, it could take $350 billion to build next-generation broadband across America, and most of that money will have to come from the private sector and companies like Comcast. We continue to hope that any rules adopted by the commission will not harm the investment and innovation that has made the Internet what it is today and that will make it even greater tomorrow.” — Statement from David Cohen, executive vice president at Comcast

– “I understand there is a regulatory revival climate in Washington under the Obama Administration, but the FCC’s launch of a rulemaking proceeding to adopt new Internet regulations stands out as an example of a proposed regulation in search of a problem that will then search for a solution to address the non-problem. At the FCC meeting, there was absolutely no evidence presented by the FCC’s staff of any market failure or pattern of marketplace abuses. It is risky business for regulators to mess with a technologically dynamic environment that is working well for American consumers and the economy.” — Statement from Randolph May, president of the Free State Foundation, a free-market think tank.

By Grant Gross – IDG News Service\Washington Bureau