: House GOP Lays Down Marker With New Budget Plan
House Republicans thrust their vision of a smaller government, a flatter tax code and a free-market Medicare system into the 2012 election season on Tuesday, banking that fears over surging federal deficits will trump longstanding voter allegiances to popular government programs (Weisman, 3/20).
: GOP Budget Plan Cuts Deeply Into Domestic Programs, Reshapes Medicare, Medicaid
House Republicans laid down a bold but risky election-year marker Tuesday, unveiling a budget proposal that aims to tame the national debt by reshaping Medicare and cutting deeply into Medicaid, 鈥� while reshuffling the tax code to sharply lower rates. Congressional Republicans plan to use the document to demonstrate their willingness to tackle the nation鈥檚 difficult fiscal problems head-on (Helderman and Montgomery, 3/20).
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: Ryan Plan Revives Deficit Duel
Rep. Paul Ryan鈥檚 budget instantly became the centerpiece of an election-year debate over the size of government on Tuesday, thrusting back into the spotlight a topic鈥攖he deficit鈥攖hat has been largely overlooked by the presidential candidates. 鈥� The Budget Committee will begin finalizing the bill Wednesday. 鈥� The Democrat-controlled Senate is all but certain to reject the Ryan plan, if it considers it at all. 鈥� Mr. Ryan also reiterated his plan for turning Medicare from a program that pays directly for health care into one that would subsidize insurance premiums for seniors, allowing them to buy either a private plan or traditional Medicare (Bendavid, 3/20).
: Paul Ryan Budget Plan Triggers Wars Anew
Congress returned full throttle to the budget wars Tuesday with rival plans and accusatory rhetoric, spiced by November鈥檚 elections and the bad memories of last summer鈥檚 debt battle. House Republicans moved first, rolling out their plan to cut by half the deficits in President Barack Obama鈥檚 February budget 鈥� but in the process also walking away from agreements made in the Budget Control Act last August (Rogers, 3/20).
: New GOP Medicare Plan Borrows A Key Idea From 鈥極bamacare鈥� And Romney鈥檚 Mass. Overhaul
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the top GOP budget writer, borrowed the idea of insurance exchanges, a big pooled marketplace, from the health care law enacted in Massachusetts when GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was governor. Ryan wants to set one up for Medicare. Obama borrowed the same idea to make exchanges available to uninsured working families through his law (3/21).
: Health Law Heads Back Into Spotlight
For those who support the health care reform law, the trick next week will be to get the public to see it as a bunch of pieces 鈥� the parts everyone likes. For the opponents, the goal is to paint it as one big, scary law: 鈥淥bamacare鈥� (Haberkorn, 3/20).
: White House Preps For Court鈥檚 Health Care Ruling
Most of the president鈥檚 speeches these days focus on jobs or gas prices. But the health care law is his signature achievement, and it always gets a mention at political events. 鈥� The law will be back in the spotlight next week when the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments about the Affordable Care Act. The White House is gearing up to defend the policy, sending top administration officials out across the country to explain the law鈥檚 benefits. The focus this week is on women, who are key health care consumers and an all-important demographic for the president鈥檚 re-election bid (Liasson, 3/21).
: Health Care Law鈥檚 Defenders Look To George Washington
The father of our country could play a key role in defending what opponents of President Obama鈥檚 health care law call the mother of all mandates. Seeking precedents for the law鈥檚 requirement that Americans buy health insurance, some constitutional scholars are reaching back 220 years to a law signed by George Washington: the Militia Act of 1792 (Wolf, 3/20).
: Few Options If Top Court Strikes Part Of Health Law
If the high court opted only to reverse the law鈥檚 unpopular individual mandate, which requires most adults to purchase health insurance, the Obama administration could look to several alternatives to ensure that enough people participate in coverage to make the law work as envisioned (Morgan, 3/20).
: Summary Box: Supreme Court Has A Range Of Options In Ruling On Obama Health Care Law
The Supreme Court has several options in ruling on President Barack Obama鈥檚 health care overhaul, from upholding the law to striking it down in its entirety (3/20).
: Obama Healthcare Law Not Resonating With Public Yet
Because key provisions of the law have yet to kick in, relatively few people have benefited from it thus far, making Democrats鈥� defense of it a tough sell (Levey, 3/20).
: IPAB Repeal Hits Ideological Snags
A mix of conservative ideologies came into sharp collision Tuesday as Republicans readied to repeal yet another piece of President Barack Obama鈥檚 health-care law. The problems came when Republicans were preparing legislation to wipe out the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel created as part of the Democrats鈥� health-care law. Its purpose: Keep Medicare spending down (Sherman and Palmer, 3/20).
: Illinois Primary: Romney Wins GOP Contest
Mitt Romney won the GOP presidential primary in Illinois on Tuesday, walloping rival Rick Santorum. 鈥� Earlier Tuesday 鈥� he offered support for the 2013 budget released Tuesday by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). That budget aims to lower the top tax rate paid by the wealthy while at the same time seeking to wipe out U.S. deficits by 2040. That would be done, in part, by reducing spending on federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid (Fahrenthold and Rucker, 3/21).
: Despite Illinois Loss, Santorum Rallies Forces At Gettysburg
Rick Santorum delivered his own Gettysburg address twice Tuesday night after he lost the Illinois primary in a blowout to Mitt Romney. 鈥� He jabbed at President Obama鈥檚 health care overhaul, which has become his chief object lesson when he talks about freedom being threatened. Under that health care law, he said, 鈥渆very single American will depend on the federal government,鈥� adding, 鈥渢hat鈥檚 why this election is so important (Seelye, 3/20).
: Generic Drugs Prove Resistant To Damage Suits
Across the country, dozens of lawsuits against generic pharmaceutical companies are being dismissed because of a Supreme Court decision last year that said the companies did not have control over what their labels said and therefore could not be sued for failing to alert patients about the risks of taking their drugs. Now, what once seemed like a trivial detail 鈥� whether to take a generic or brand-name drug 鈥� has become the deciding factor in whether a patient can seek legal recourse from a drug company (Thomas, 3/20).
: Supreme Court Rules That States Can鈥檛 Be Sued For Denying Workers Medical Leave
States are generally immune from lawsuits seeking monetary damages, and the court鈥檚 conservative majority said in a 5 to 4 decision that the restriction should apply when the issue at stake is the sick-leave provisions in the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (Barnes, 3/20).
: Justices Limit State Liability Under Medical Leave Act
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that states cannot be sued for money damages for failing to give an employee time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act to recover from an illness. The vote was 5 to 4 with no legal theory commanding a clear majority (Totenberg and Chen, 3/20).
: Utah Governor Signs Law Mandating 72-Hour Wait For Abortion
Utah鈥檚 Republican governor signed a law extending a required waiting period for women seeking an abortion to 72 hours on Tuesday, even though a similar requirement in South Dakota has been blocked in court, a spokeswoman said (3/20).