Vice President Biden said today that that the fact that President Obama cancelled his trip to Indonesia and Australia next week is not an ominous sign for the prospects of the health care reform bill on Capitol Hill.

From Bloomberg, Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen write...

U.S. House Democrats, who cleared a big hurdle in their effort to overhaul the health-care system by producing compromise legislation, picked up fresh support for a likely showdown vote this weekend.Democrats need about six more votes from House members to pass the 10-year, $940 billion bill, Obama administration officials said today.

White House and Democratic leaders aim to collect those votes from a pool of about 14 to 15 undecided lawmakers to get to the 216 votes needed to pass the measure, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Obama has met or called about three dozen lawmakers in the last five days and has cleared his schedule today for more last- minute appeals, including a campaign-style rally in nearby Fairfax, Virginia.

Read more on Bloomberg.

UPDATES BELOW

Obama cancels trip to Asia so he can be here for health care vote

From Breitbart

President Barack Obama has postponed his trip to Asia until June so he can stay in Washington for a possible Sunday vote on his health care overhaul plan. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday the president is disappointed and regrets having to delay his visits to Indonesia and Australia but has told the leaders of those nations that health care is a crucial priority. "The president believes right now the place for him to be is in Washington seeing this through," Gibbs said. Obama had already delayed the trip to Indonesia and Australia, pushing back a Thursday departure until Sunday so he could help Democrats on Capitol Hill rally last-minute votes for the plan.

Read more on Breitbart.com

Bart Stupak says the health care process and going up against Obama has been a 'living hell'...

On The Hill, Jeffrey Young and Bob Cusack write...

Leading a revolt against President Barack Obama’s healthcare legislation over abortion has been a “living hell” for Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). The telephone lines in his Washington and district offices have been “jammed” and he’s gotten more than 1,500 faxes and countless e-mails — most of which he says don’t come from his constituents.  The fight has taken a toll on his wife, who has disconnected the phone in their home to avoid harassment. “All the phones are unplugged at our house — tired of the obscene calls and threats. She won’t watch TV,” Stupak said during an hourlong interview with The Hill in his Rayburn office. “People saying they’re going to spit on you and all this. That’s just not fun.”

Read more on The Hill.

Pelosi's handling of the vote may open Congress up to lawsuit

From Bloomberg, Greg Stohr writes...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may be creating new grounds for a court challenge to the proposed U.S. health-care overhaul as she considers using a mechanism that would avoid a vote on the full legislation. Pelosi said this week she might use a parliamentary technique that would “deem” House members to have passed the Senate’s health-care plan by voting for a more politically palatable package of changes. Some legal scholars question whether that approach can be squared with the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s 1998 declaration that the two houses of Congress must approve “precisely the same text” before a bill can become a law.

Read more on Bloomberg.

Nancy Pelosi says this health bill will cut $1.2 trillion from our deficit. I think she needs to use some of that government insurance and check herself into the looney bin. She's crazy!

Update 1: Caterpillar Inc. says new health bill will add $100 million in costs the first year alone

From The Chicago Breaking Business News and Dow Jones Newswires...

Caterpillar Inc. said the health-care overhaul legislation being considered by the U.S. House would increase the company's health-care costs by more than $100 million in the first year alone. In a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, Caterpillar urged lawmakers to vote against the plan "because of the substantial cost burdens it would place on our shareholders, employees and retirees." Caterpillar, the world's largest construction machinery manufacturer by sales, said it's particularly opposed to provisions in the bill that would expand Medicare taxes and mandate insurance coverage. The legislation would require nearly all companies to provide health insurance for their employees or face large fines.

Read more on Chicago Breaking News.

Update 2: IRS will get more power with new health bill

On The Hill, Vicki Needham writes...

House Ways and Means Republicans on Thursday assailed a provision in the proposed health care reform bill under consideration this week.

Subcommittee on Oversight ranking member Charles Boustany (R-La.) said the IRS provision in the bill "dangerously expands, in an ominous way the tentacles of the IRS and it's reach into every American family," he said today during a press conference.

"This is a vast expanse of power," he said.

Boustany said the bill would allow the IRS to confiscate refunds if there are penalties for not buying health care.

Read more on The Hill.

Update 3: "Impeach The President"

On The Washington Times, Jeffrey T. Kuhner writes...

The Democrats are assaulting the very pillars of our democracy. As the debate on Obamacare reaches the long, painful end, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is confronting a political nightmare. She may not have the 216 votes necessary to pass the Senate's health care bill in the House.

Hence, Mrs. Pelosi and her congressional Democratic allies are seriously considering using a procedural ruse to circumvent the traditional constitutional process. Led by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, New York Democrat and chairman of the House Rules Committee, the new plan - called the "Slaughter Solution" - is not to pass the Senate version on an up-or-down vote. Rather, it is to have the House "deem" that the legislation was passed and then have members vote directly on a series of "sidecar" amendments to fix the things it does not like.

The Democrats are assaulting the very pillars of our democracy. As the debate on Obamacare reaches the long, painful end, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is confronting a political nightmare. She may not have the 216 votes necessary to pass the Senate's health care bill in the House.

Hence, Mrs. Pelosi and her congressional Democratic allies are seriously considering using a procedural ruse to circumvent the traditional constitutional process. Led by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, New York Democrat and chairman of the House Rules Committee, the new plan - called the "Slaughter Solution" - is not to pass the Senate version on an up-or-down vote. Rather, it is to have the House "deem" that the legislation was passed and then have members vote directly on a series of "sidecar" amendments to fix the things it does not like.

Read more on The Washington Times.

Part 1: The president sits down with FNC's Bret Baier to discuss the health care reform bill

Part 2: The president talks foreign policy with Fox News

President Obama is not worried -- and doesn't think Americans should worry -- about the "procedural" debate over whether House Democratic leaders should go ahead with a plan to approve health care reform without a traditional vote, he told Fox News on Wednesday. The president, in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, responded for the first time to the controversy over a plan to use a parliamentary maneuver to allow the House to pass the Senate's health care bill without forcing members to vote for it directly.

Read the rest on Fox News...

Pelosi says she has the votes

On Bloomberg, Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen write....

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, still shoring up support for legislation to overhaul the U.S. health- care system, vowed that Democrats will be ready to pass the bill when the time comes.

“When we bring the bill to the floor, we will have the votes,” Pelosi told reporters yesterday. Leaders plan for the House to vote later this week, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters today.

Representative John Larson of Connecticut, chairman of the House Democratic caucus, agreed that the leadership will get enough votes, although he said, there’s “tremendous anticipation and certainly anxiety” among lawmakers.

Read the rest of Bloomberg.

House Majority leader Steny Hoyer says not so fast on vote count or timeline

On The Hill,  Jared Allen writes...

After shooting down GOP arguments against a rule to “deem” the Senate healthcare bill passed without a roll-call vote, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) took a moment to shoot down the optimism of one of his fellow leaders about the Democrats' whip count.

Toward the end of his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Hoyer was asked about competing whip counts from James Clyburn (S.C.), the Democratic whip, and Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.).

On Monday night, Larson emerged from a caucus meeting to declare that he believed “the votes are there” for healthcare.

Read the rest on The Hill website.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn says vote may not happen until Easter. 

On The Hill,  Michael O'Brien writes...

The House's healthcare vote could be delayed until as late as Easter, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Tuesday.

Clyburn, in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers, said it is possible that the House vote on healthcare reform could take place long past the vote Democratic leaders had hoped for this week.

"The chances are good, but I wouldn't bet on it," the third-ranking House Democrat said of whether a healthcare vote could be held by the April 4th holiday.

Read the rest on The Hill website. 

Public still split on Health Care

Report: Obama won't campaign for anyone who votes no on health care

On The Daily Telegraph, Alex Spillius writes...

The president will refuse to make fund-raising visits during November elections to any district whose representative has not backed the bill. A one-night presidential appearance can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds which would otherwise take months to accumulate through cold-calling by campaign volunteers. Mr Obama's threat came as the year-long debate over his signature domestic policy entered its final week. Mr Obama is personally telephoning congressmen who are still on the fence this week, in between several personal appearances devoted toward swinging public opinion.

Read the rest on The Daily Telegraph

Phone lines jammed as people call Congress in protest

On Hum Events,  Elisabeth Meinecke writes...

As Congress prepares to vote on (or pass without a vote) health care legislation, congressional phone lines and fax lines are paying the cost.

The below email is circulating around the Hill:

Due to the high volume of external calls, House telephone circuits are near capacity resulting in outside callers occasionally getting busy signals.A HUMAN EVENTS reporter trying since 1 p.m. today to reach the office of Rep. John Boccieri, a potential swing vote on health care, has been unable to get through.

Other news organizations are also reporting on the volume of calls being received.

"I've never seen the phone lines this jammed on Capitol Hill," Fox News’ Chad Pergram said on the Neil Cavuto show.

Read the rest on Human Events. 

Obama looking long-term for Health Care reform?

Afraid to vote Nancy? House may try to pass Senate health care bill without voting on it

On The Washington Post, Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane write...

After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.

Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers "deem" the health-care bill to be passed.

The tactic -- known as a "self-executing rule" or a "deem and pass" -- has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.

"It's more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know," the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. "But I like it," she said, "because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill."

Republicans quickly condemned the strategy, framing it as an effort to avoid responsibility for passing the legislation, and some suggested that Pelosi's plan would be unconstitutional.

"It's very painful and troubling to see the gymnastics through which they are going to avoid accountability," Rep. David Dreier (Calif.), the senior Republican on the House Rules Committee, told reporters. "And I hope very much that, at the end of the day, that if we are going to have a vote, we will have a clean up-or-down vote that will allow the American people to see who is supporting this Senate bill and who is not supporting this Senate bill."

Read the rest on The Washington Post.

President Obama is feeling the pressure to pass health care this week, and to that end --- is pressuring Democrats to vote his way.

From My Way News, Erica Werner writes...

Days away from a make-or-break vote on his health care overhaul, President Barack Obama is turning up the pressure as only presidents can, as Democratic leaders make a desperate scramble for votes. The president is wooing freshman Democrats in the Oval Office, holding at least two one-on-one sessions in the past few days that never appeared on his official schedule, according to aides to two lawmakers invited, Reps. Scott Murphy, D-N.Y., and Suzanne Kosmas, D-Fla. Both voted "no" when the legislation passed the House on the first go-round last year, but now they're not ruling out siding with the president and Democratic leaders on what's expected to be a cliffhanger vote in the House later this week.

Read more on My Way News.

UPDATE: Elizabeth Edwards speaks out on photos and Hunter.

In the story that just won't end, Rielle Hunter is telling the world about her affair with John Edwards. 

In The New York Post, JEREMY OLSHAN writes...

John Edwards' mistress has revealed for the first time how the illicit lovers fell in lust and slept together the night they met -- and claims the presidential candidate predicted the wild romp would cause his premature ejection from politics. "Falling in love with you could really f- - - up my plans for becoming president," Edwards told vixen videographer Rielle Hunter after their sexual tryst at Manhattan's Regency hotel in February 2006.

(THE TEMPTRESS: Rielle Hunter, posing in GQ, bares all to the mag about her affair with former presidential candidate John Edwards. Photo credit --- MARK SELIGER FOR GQ)

 

In her bombshell interview with GQ, Hunter says:

* Her first words to him were "You're so hot" -- and they had sex later that night in his hotel room.

* Edwards was scared to death of his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, fearing if she knew the truth, "he would be pummeled."

* The then-presidential candidate hoped Hunter, pregnant with his child, would get an abortion.

For the rest of this article, go to the NY Post website. 

Rielle Hunter's complete interview with GQ...

The Interviewer LISA DEPAULO writes...

We've heard from former senator John Edwards, we've heard from his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Saint Elizabeth, and we've heard (bleh) from Andrew Young, the former Edwards aide and faux father. But through it all—the affair and the cancer-stricken spouse, the doomed campaign and the love child, the sex tape, all of it—we've never heard from the woman at the heart of the story. Now, after years of silence, the other woman speaks. 

You haven't uttered a word so far. Why now?
I feel comfortable talking now, because Johnny went public and made a statement admitting paternity. I didn't feel like I could ever speak until he did that. Because had I spoken, I would have emasculated him. And I could not emasculate him. Also, it is not my desire to teach my daughter that when Mommy's upset with Daddy, you take matters into your own hands and fix Daddy's mistakes. Which I view as one of the biggest problems in all female-and-male relationships.

We'll get to that. But first, we should make it clear: You're not making a penny from this interview.
[laughs] I am not making a penny from this interview!

I would imagine you could have sold out a hundred times.
I could have cashed out big. But that's not what I'm about. I love Johnny and I love my daughter more than anything in the world, and I don't want to ever do anything to hurt them or hurt their relationship.

How hard was it to keep quiet?
At times very difficult. It's been four years. It's hard to know that people are out there speaking over and over and over again untruths. Lies. Consciously going out there and spinning the truth. Using me and Johnny and our relationship to make themselves look better, to play victim, or to get money. That rubs me the wrong way in every way possible.

Read the entire interview on GQ. 

Lisa DePaulo landed an exclusive "Free" interview with Rielle Hunter, the woman at the center of the John Edwards saga. Here’s DePaulo on how the story came together.

Direct from the NY Post website...

I MET RIELLE HUNTER for the first time the day of our first interview, at her home in Charlotte, North Carolina, though we’d already spoken for some months on the phone. And would continue to, as more developments were reported. (Are she and John Edwards engaged? “I am not engaged.”) There were no conditions, no ground rules, no topics or questions that were off-limits. Just a request that her words be her words, unfiltered and unspun. While everyone else in the Edwards drama has said their piece, in books and/or television interviews, the mistress and campaign videographer and mother of his child has, in her own words, “kept my mouth shut.” Until now (as they say in the tabloids).

My first impression of Hunter, when she opened the back door off the screened porch filled with toys and strollers in the three-bedroom house she is renting (for $1,500 a month), her hair pulled up in a scrunchy, was that she was much prettier, and a whole lot softer, than all those National Enquirer spy photos suggest. She was wearing size 2 jeans, a Ralph Lauren turtleneck, and Uggs. No makeup. And she was laughing. Because Quinn, her 2-year-old daughter, had just done something particularly adorable. The child is gorgeous and, yes, looks exactly like John Edwards, but she also has her mother’s spirit. Which is to say, a combination of serenity and spunk.

Read the rest of this article on The New York Post website. 

Gallup tracks daily the percentage of Americans who approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president. Less than 50% approve of what he's up to these days. That's a pretty sad number compared to the 70% one year ago. 

Late Night hosts have a little fun at Eric Massa's expense.

Bill Maher weighs in on Eric Massa and his explanation for his 'tickle fights'...

Dennis Miller also has something to say about the former Congressman

Questions arise about how much Nancy Pelosi knew about the Massa scandal.

From Fox News and The Wall Street Journal 

Aides to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew of concerns about the behavior of former Rep. Eric Massa months earlier than Pelosi previously acknowledged, a senior Democratic leadership aide said Wednesday. In October, Massa's chief of staff told Pelosi's office the then-congressman was living in a townhouse with some of his congressional aides and that he had used "strong" language that made them feel uncomfortable, the leadership aide said. The Massa aide, Joe Racalto, also voiced concern "about the way Massa runs the office" and added he had asked the congressman to move out of the townhouse, the aide said.

Read more on Fox News

Read all updates on bottom of post...

Carl Cameron with FOXNews.com, writes that seven key Democrats in Congress will side with Republicans to block any new health care legislation, as long as there is federal funding for abortion. 

The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as seven anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News has confirmed. Seven new no votes would be enough to kill the Senate bill, and several more fence-sitting lawmakers are under pressure from both sides of the aisle.

Read more of this article on Fox News. 

From The Washington Examiner, Mark Tapscott writes that Nancy Pelosi and other key Democrats would be willing to ram this bill through without actually having a recorded bill in the House. 

Would House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democratic leaders try to cram the Senate version of Obamacare through the House without actually having a recorded vote on the bill?
Not only is the answer yes, they would, they have figured out a way to do it, according to National Journal's Congress Daily:
"House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.
"Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.
"Slaughter has not taken the plan to Speaker Pelosi as Democrats await CBO scores on the corrections bill. 'Once the CBO gives us the score, we'll spring right on it,' she said."

Read the rest of this article on The Washington Examiner website. 

From The Wall Street Journal, Michael Barone asks the question --- Does Pelosi have enough votes to pass health care?

Are there enough votes in the House to pass the Senate's health-care bill? As of today, it's clear there aren't. House Democratic leaders have brushed aside White House calls to bring the bill forward by March 18, when President Barack Obama heads to Asia. Nevertheless, analysts close to the Democratic leadership tell me they're confident the leadership will find some way to squeeze out the 216 votes needed for a majority.

Read the rest of this article on The Wall Street Journal website. 

Rachel Maddow fact-checks Rep. Bart Stupak's threat that he has "at least a dozen" other members of Congress who will vote against a health reform bill that doesn't contain a version of Stupak's anti-abortion language.

On Countdown with Keith Olberman, the question is posed --- Is the health bill ready or not?

On Hardball with Chris Matthews, Joe Biden says passing health care is vital. Biden talks about the White House's 'last big push' to pass the bill. He's 'confident' that Pelosi can pass the bill.

President Obama says it's time to vote.

Update 1: Senator Gregg warns House Dems on health care reform.

From USA Today...

New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg has a warning for House Democrats: Don't trust the Senate. At a session with reporters this morning, Gregg, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, chronicled the ways in which the House members could end up feeling double-crossed if they pass the Senate version of the health-care bill -- based on the promise that a subsequent "reconciliation" measure would make adjustments they want in the measure.

Read the rest of this article on USA Today.

Update 2: Hispanic lawmakers tell Obama they will not vote for health care reform unless immigration is addressed. 

On The Hill website, Jared Allen writes...

A group of Hispanic lawmakers on Thursday will tell President Barack Obama that they may not vote for healthcare reform unless changes are made to the bill’s immigration provisions. The scheduled meeting comes as Democratic leaders and the White House are struggling to craft a final bill that will attract 216 votes in the lower chamber.  Unlike abortion, immigration has flown beneath the radar, and almost seemed to vanish altogether as House Democrats have wrestled with how to accept a Senate healthcare bill far different from the one they passed in November. But immigration remains just as explosive an issue and carries the same potential to derail the entire healthcare endgame, a number of Democrats said. “It’s still one of those issues that’s out there,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), the Democratic Caucus vice chairman and the only Hispanic member of House leadership.

Read the rest of this article on The Hill website. 

Update 3: Republicans look to block health care bill through a process called reconciliation

On Bloomberg, Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen write...

Republicans said the Senate parliamentarian threw up a hurdle to congressional Democrats’ plans to pass changes to U.S. health-care legislation through a process called reconciliation. Republicans said guidance they received from the parliamentarian means that President Barack Obama has to sign a Senate health bill into law before the House and Senate can approve changes to it. Some House Democrats, who object to provisions in the Senate measure, wanted Obama to hold off signing the legislation until reconciliation passed. “The Senate Parliamentarian’s office has informed Senate Republicans that reconciliation instructions require the measure to make changes in law,” Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said in an e-mail.

Read the rest of this article on Bloomberg. 

Update 4: Obama delaying his trip to Asia so he can concentrate on health care reform. 

Update:5 Republicans win parliamentary victory in fight to stop health care bill. 

From Bloomberg,  Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen write...

Republicans said they won a parliamentary victory as they try to fight Democrats’ efforts to pass legislation to overhaul the U.S. health-care system. Republicans said President Barack Obama has to sign a Senate health-care bill into law before the House and Senate can approve changes to it under a process called reconciliation. The Senate parliamentarian told Republicans that a reconciliation bill has to “make changes in law,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “This would be another headwind for Democrats in the House” who oppose provisions in the Senate bill, said John Sullivan, a health-care analyst at Boston-based Leerink Swann & Co. “Their biggest fear has been that they vote for the Senate version and they never get the relief they’re looking for.”

Read more on Bloomberg.

Update 6: Poll --- If Democrats ignore American people and pass health care bill, the November elections will be costly. 

On The Washington Post, Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen write...

In "The March of Folly," Barbara Tuchman asked, "Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests?" Her assessment of self-deception -- "acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts" -- captures the conditions that are gripping President Obama and the Democratic Party leadership as they renew their efforts to enact health-care reform. Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November. In the wake of the stinging loss in Massachusetts, there was a moment when the president and the Democratic leadership seemed to realize the reality of the health-care situation. Yet like some seductive siren of Greek mythology, the lure of health-care reform has arisen again.

Read more on the Washington Post. 

Update 7: Rahm Emanuel says 'we're getting this done'...

Update8: Nancy Pelosi on when we can expect an approved health care plan.

Update 9: Health care reform hinges on trust between White House, Senate and House.

On MSNBC.com, Carrie Dann and Ken Strickland write...

For the next few weeks, Obama-brand "hope" may be taking a back seat to "trust." President Barack Obama’s decision on Friday to delay an overseas trip came after reports that an impartial Senate umpire is likely to push House and Senate Democrats into a legislative leap of faith. The Senate parliamentarian indicated Thursday that before a compromise health care bill can be finalized, House Democrats will have to approve a version of the bill that many of them don't like.

Read the rest of this on MSNBC.com

Update 10: Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., talks about whether President Barack Obama’s decision to delay his trip to Asia will help aid Democrats in passing health reform in the House.

Update 11: House minority leader John Boehner says there's no way this bill passes.

Update 12: The pro-life Democrat leading the charge in the House against passage of the Senate health insurance reform bill said Friday that a key committee chairman told him that Democrats want abortions to be paid by a federally-funded nationalized health insurance system.

Fox News reports....

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who's been so far out in front of the debate about abortion coverage that he earned himself a primary challenger over it, said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told him he wants to change current law that bans federal funding for abortion. In an interview with Marquette, Mich., radio station WKQS' Mark & Walk morning show, Stupak described what he said was a conversation with Waxman about the Senate's version of the health care overhaul. That bill contains weaker language than the House-passed legislation, which includes a provision crafted by Stupak to ensure insurance companies that participate in a national exchange don't use federal money for abortion services. "I gave him the language. He came back a little while later and said, 'But we want to pay for abortions.' I said, 'Mr. Chairman, that's -- we disagree. We don't do it now, we're not going to start.' "'But we think should,'" Stupak said Waxman told him.

Read the rest on Fox News. 

Update 13: Stupak says 'They just want this over'...

From The National Review, Robert Costa writes

Sitting in an airport, on his way home to Michigan, Rep. Bart Stupak, a pro-life Democrat, is chagrined. “They’re ignoring me,” he says, in a phone interview with National Review Online. “That’s their strategy now. The House Democratic leaders think they have the votes to pass the Senate’s health-care bill without us. At this point, there is no doubt that they’ve been able to peel off one or two of my twelve. And even if they don’t have the votes, it’s been made clear to us that they won’t insert our language on the abortion issue.”

According to Stupak, that group of twelve pro-life House Democrats — the “Stupak dozen” — has privately agreed for months to vote ‘no’ on the Senate’s health-care bill if federal funding for abortion is included in the final legislative language. Now, in the debate’s final hours, Stupak says the other eleven are coming under “enormous” political pressure from both the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.). “I am a definite ‘no’ vote,” he says. “I didn’t cave. The others are having both of their arms twisted, and we’re all getting pounded by our traditional Democratic supporters, like unions.”

Read the rest at The Corner on The National Review website. 

Update 14: Scott Brown says this has been a wasted year. 

From MY WAY NEWS, Erica Werner writes...

Newly arrived Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts accused President Barack Obama and Democrats on Saturday of a "bitter, destructive and endless" drive to pass health overhaul legislation that Brown warned would be disastrous. "An entire year has gone to waste," Brown said in the weekly GOP radio and Internet address. "Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, and many more jobs are in danger. Even now, the president still hasn't gotten the message. "Somehow, the greater the public opposition to the health care bill, the more determined they seem to force it on us anyway."

Read the rest on My Way News. 

Update 15: Obama feels very confident that this will pass this week. 

Update 16: Pelosi says she'll pass the bill this week. 

On Yahoo, SUDHIN THANAWALA from the AP writes...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday she's confident the House will pass health care legislation and dismissed Republican criticism that she did not have enough votes for the measure. "We're very excited about where we are and will not be deterred by estimates that have no basis in fact," she said during a dedication of the renamed Lim P. Lee Post Office in San Francisco. The post office was renamed after the nation's first Chinese-American postmaster.

Read more on Yahoo.

Update 17: Democratic Whip says there are not enough votes to pass health care.

On Google News, The AP reported...

The Democrat's chief vote counter in the House says that right now there aren't enough votes to pass President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. But Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina says he's confident that the legislation will pass. He says the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress have gotten to a point where there's a way to send the measure to the president's desk for his signature.

Read the rest on Google.