Senate, Health Care Reform | featured news

House and Senate Republican leaders told President Barack Obama Thursday that they will refuse to nominate candidates to serve on an advisory board that is to play a role in holding down Medicare costs under the new health care act.

The ads have hit hard: In one, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is slammed as an out-of-touch politician who saddled his state's manufacturers with higher taxes by voting for President Obama's health care law. In another, he is savaged for his "failed record on energy."

"For us to have the numbers in the Senate and House and White House isn't going to be as easy as everybody thinks," Rooney said after the high court decision Friday. "It's great to be optimistic, but in an election a lot of things have to go your way. 2012 would have to be like 2010 and then some."

There's a lot of anxiety these days as we wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue its decision on President Obama's health care law. Apparently, Senate candidate Richard Mourdock wanted to be ready. The Indiana Republican's campaign yesterday uploaded videos to YouTube of his different reactions to the decision, including cheering the law's demise. The videos were taken down.

Rep. Barney Frank , D-Mass., said he advised President Obama against taking up health care reform following a special election in 2010 that changed Democrats' fortunes in the Senate, saying that he should have instead turned his focus to financial reform.

It's safe to say the word "Obamacare" has a negative connotation, given how it's been thrown around on the Senate floor, in campaign videos, and during GOP debates. But a new campaign called "Thanks Obamacare!" seeks to wrest the term back from conservatives. Run by two progressive Colorado organizations, the website features a top-10 list of good things about the Affordable Care Act, along with a lively video and a handy timeline.

The Republican-led House of Representatives passed legislation that would repeal President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform law on Wednesday in a mostly symbolic move likely to be scuttled in the Senate.

The Senate's Republican leader says congressional lawmakers can and should vote to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law, repeatedly if necessary.

Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller says his family benefited from Medicaid and a state-run health care program for low-income children and pregnant women.Miller previously acknowledged receiving federal farm subsidies for land he owned in Kansas in the 1990s, as well as low-income hunting and fishing licenses for him and his wife in Alaska.As a conservative candidate, he's criticized certain entitlement programs. Sitting Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who's running for re-election as a write-in candidate against him, called Miller a hypocrite.

Two minor violations of reconciliation rules will force the Senate to change the bill and ship it back to the House for final passage.