Bill Clinton to Rally Senators on Health Care Reform

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: Former President Bill Clinton will travel to Capitol Hill Tuesday to rally Democratic senators on health reform.

The House passedits sweeping health reform package on Saturday, but efforts have stalled in the Senate.

A cost assessment process has delayed introduction of a bill in the Senate and internal Democratic squabbles of whether to include a public option have brought into question whether Democratic leaders can cobble together the 60 votes they will need to bypass a Republican filibuster.

Clinton, whose own attempt to pass a health reform package fifteen years ago did not pass either House of Congress, was asked by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to make the pep talk, according to an aide familiar with the discussion. Clinton is expected to speak to Democratic senators at a closed caucus meeting, urging them to see past differences to pass compromise legislation, according to Democratic staffers.

Dueling Protests Converge at Pelosi’s Office – ‘Health Care for All!’ or ‘Kill the Bill!’

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: Capping off protest day here at the Capitol are the competing protests that have converged on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district office on Capitol Hill, leading to several more arrests and littering the hallway with torn copies of House Democrats healthcare bill.

An protest of about 100 people supporting universal care – including some familiar faces from Lieberman's office earlier today – was already ongoing at Pelosi's office when a new group of about 100 people who oppose the bill showed up.

Specifically, the new group of protesters is concerned that the health reform bill will put tax dollars toward abortions.

Among the protesters against a health reform bill was Randall Terry, founder of the anti-abortion rights group Operation Rescue.

Terry said one of the protesters who was arrested is Father Norman Weslin, a priest from Indiana. Weslin laid down in front of Pelosi's door until a group of police officers picked him up and carried him away.

Up to four protesters (it wasn't clear from which group) were arrested when they started ripping up pages from the bill in the hallway.

Chants of “Healthcare for all!” have been drowned out by chants of “Kill the bill!”

Police are trying to clear the hallway.

This is the office for Pelosi in her capacity as Congresswoman for the 8th District of California. It is not where she works – that office is in the Capitol building.

GOP’s Scozzafava Robocalls for Democrat Bill Owens for NY-23 Race

ABC News' John Berman and Justin Anderson report:

It's the campaign turned Republican civil war, turned circus. Things just keep getting weirder in the race for New York's 23rd Congressional District. The Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava who, just this weekend dropped out of the race and endorsed the Democrat, today recorded a Robocall voicing her support for the Democrat Bill Owens.

Listen to the robocall HERE. The text is below:

“Hi, this is Dede Scozzafava calling on behalf of Bill Owens. And I wanted to let you know that I am supporting Bill for Congress.

“Since beginning my campaign I have said that this election is not about me, it's about the people of this district. It's not in the cards for me to be your representative but I strongly believe Bill Owens is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh's lasting legacy in Congress.

“In Bill Owens I see a sense of duty and integrity. He will be an independent voice, devoted to doing what is right for New York. To address the tough challenges ahead we must rise above partisanship and politics, and work together.

“Please join me in voting for Bill Owens on Tuesday.”

This is coming from the mouth of a candidate whom the Republican Party spent more than a million dollars supporting.

Some on the right are most displeased with Scozzafava's actions. On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh said, “Dee Dee Scazafava is illustrating precisely what moderate republicans will do . (6) and who moderate republicans are. (9)” Using the term RINO, or Republican in Name Only, Limbuagh said, ” Scasafava screwed every RINO in the .., we can say she' guilty of wide spread bestiality, she had screwed every RINO in the country. Everyone can just see how phony and dangerous they are.”

The Republican National Committee has now come out in support of Conservative Party candidate Douglas Hoffman. In an interview with ABC News, Hoffman said, “all along I've been fighting for the soul of the republican party, for the values and ideals that it stands for.”

When asked if there is room in the Republican party for opposing views, he said, “For moderate views, yes, but not ultra liberal views.” The tent, should only be so big, he said, “isn't that true in life in general? There is always boundaries.”

‘Top Line’ — Sen. Wyden: Lack of Choice in Health Care Bill Doesn’t Pass ‘Smell Test’

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Almost lost in the coverage of Sen. Olympia Snowe’s decision to vote for the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill was Sen. Ron Wyden’s favorable vote — a slight surprise, since Wyden had been critical of what he sees as major shortcomings in the measure.

While Wyden, D-Ore., ultimately joined Snowe and all the committee’s Democrats in voting yes, he — like Snowe — is serving notice that he may not support the final product.

On ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” today, Wyden renewed his call to inject more choice into the health care system by allowing individuals — not just small businesses — to buy into the new “insurance exchanges” that would be created by the bill.

Intriguingly, Wyden used the White House’s own calls for ensuring choice in the health care system in making his case.

“I’ve made it very clear that when the White House and particularly [Press Secretary] Robert Gibbs talks about choice and competition about three times an hour, and then you have a bill that we’re told leaves 90 percent of the American people outside the marketplace — outside the exchanges — after seven years, that’s not going to pass the smell test,” Wyden told us.

“At every single rally you hear politicians stand up and say the American people ought to have choices like their member of Congress, and of course that’s what holds the insurance industry accountable,” Wyden said.

“And under this bill not only are most Americans not going to have choices like members of Congress, they aren’t going to get any choice at all, even when their insurance company is abusing them.”

Wyden is a longtime proponent of a different means of pursuing universal health coverage, encapsulated in a bill — the Healthy Americans Act, co-sponsored with Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah — that emphasizes individual choice over the current employer-based system.

Unless the current bill achieves a similar level of choice for individuals, Wyden said he won’t support it.

“I am trying to export the key principles of the Healthy Americans Act, particularly choice and competition, holding insurance companies accountable so the consumer gets more affordable coverage, to the final bill. And without that, the final bill is not going to have my support,” Wyden said.

Wyden’s amendment to open up the insurance exchanges to individuals was set aside in a parliamentary dispute in the Finance Committee — a fact that irked Wyden.

He’s still trying to include that component in the final bill, and yesterday engaged in an unusual Senate floor discussion with Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., that strongly suggested that a deal is in the works.

Wyden told us today: “I think we got our foot in the door, and I’ve talked at length with Chairman Baucus about it, with Chairman [Chris] Dodd, Senator [Harry] Reid,” the Senate majority leader.

Watch the full interview with Sen. Ron Wyden HERE.

We also chatted with Christina Bellantoni of Talking Points Memo about the pressures being applied by the political left in the health care debate, in addition to President Obama’s (brief) trip to New Orleans today.

We also got her take on the “Goatee Gamble” pitting ABC Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper against NBC’s Chuck Todd, with the Phillies-Dodgers playoff series (maybe) carrying bearded repercussions.

“Now I have a reason to care about baseball. I think Chuck could use a new look so you know, go Phillies,” Bellantoni said.

Click HERE for the full discussion with Christina Bellantoni.

Will Health Care Bill Raise Taxes? Finance Committee Debates

ABC News Z. Byron Wolf reports: Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee have taken delight this morning in pointing out that if Democrats can enact a health carereform bill that mandates Americans buy health insurance or pay a fine, they are, by definition, enacting a new tax that would break President Obama’s campaign pledge.

And they have taken the opportunity to read Sen. Obama’s pledge as he was running for the White House.

GOP Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, quoting Obama, said, “If you're a family making less than $250,000 a year, my plan will not raise your taxes — not your income taxes, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax.”

Sen. John Ensign of Nevada quoted a different riff on the same sentiment.

“But let me be perfectly clear,” he said, quoting candidate Obama. “If your family makes less than $250,000, you will not see your taxes increase one single dime.”

Granted, the penalty for not obtaining health insurance would be a penalty and could be avoided by purchasing insurance, but the effect of the bill– the government exacting a fee from uninsured families who make less than $250,000 — cannot be denied.

Republicans have offered several amendments today that would exempt families making less than $250,000 from the individual mandate to buy health insurance that is at the core of the reform bill.

“If we want to keep the president's promise of not raising taxes by one single dime,” said Ensign, the pledge should be a part of the reform bill.

“We need to settle down and find ways of living within the promises that have been made,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

The author of the bill, Max Baucus, D-Mont.,was frustrated at times, arguing against the amendments.

“If we're serious about this, we have to have shared responsibility,” Baucus said, raising his voice. He called the amendments not serious and designed simply to send a message by Republicans about taxes. They would have the effect, said Baucus, of gutting the provisions in the bill that keep health reform from adding to the deficit.

Baucus had lowered the penalty in half at the outset of the markup. A family of four making more than four times the poverty level– about $88,000– would have to pay a fine of $1,900 for not having insurance. The penalty is lower for families making less money.

Other amendments, also turned back, would have scaled back an excise tax Baucus would place on insurance companies that offer high-value “Cadillac” insurance plans. This is a back door to taxing the people who receive those plans, which often include no co-payment and are thought to drive up the cost of health care. And Republicans argued that insurance companies would simply pass the excise tax along to people, many of them union members, who receive the plans.

Baucus had raised the value of the plans that would be taxed at the outset of the markup and exempted many people in public service who receive them.

The amendments were repelled with largely party line votes. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., who faces a tough reelection fight in 2010, sided with Republicans.

This is the seventh day of the markup. Tomorrow, it will become the longest markup staffers on the committee can find.

There probably will not be a final vote on the health reform bill in the Senate Finance Committee until next week, when the CBO can come up with its best guess cost estimate. We are entering the final stretch of the amendment process, which Baucus predicted would end either late Thursday or Friday.

UPDATE: Eagle-eyed Republicans point out that Baucus’ own bill refers to the penalty for not having insurance under an individual mandate as an excise tax. Check out page 29 HERE.

White House Press Secretary RobertGibbstoday referred to the tax as more like a speeding ticket.

The IRS says an excise tax is what is paid on something like motor fuel.

But the point remains that health reform will leave people who make less than $250,000 paying a new tax to the government. It's clear that Democrats and the White House are comfortable living with that if they can enact health care reform.

Hoyer: House Health Care Bill ‘In Flux’

ABC News' Dean Norland and Rick Klein report:

Don't look for a health care bill to reach the House floor this week. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters today that significant differences in three competing House health care bills still need to be worked out.

“The issue of what's going to be in or out [of a healthcare bill] is obviously in flux. How we're going to pay for this is in flux,” Hoyer told reporters at his weekly briefing with reporters.

“There's no deadline set. The speaker and I are in lock-step on this,” Hoyer said. “The fact of the matter is, that we're going to bring this bill to the floor when it is ready to come to the floor. And not before that, and no later than that.”

“That determination will be made when we decide the parameters of the bill, when we have the [cost] scoring on the bill. This bill is going to be paid for, not going to add to the deficit, and we want to bend the [cost] curve. Those are all things that, as these discussions occur, we're going to have to get [the Congressional Budget Office's] advice. That's going to take some time. So there is no deadline.”

Bill Clinton Says Right-Wing Conspiracy Now After President Obama

ABC News' Kristina Wong reports: Former President Bill Clinton says the right-wing conspiracy that attacked him during his presidency now is after President Obama.

When asked whether the “vast right-wing conspiracy” is still present today, the former president answered without hesitation, “Oh you bet.”

“It's not as strong as it was because America has changed demographically, but it's as virulent as it was,” Clinton said today on NBC's “Meet the Press.”

“Right-wing conspiracy” was the term used by former first lady Hillary Clinton to describe the tactics her husband's political enemies used to attack his presidency after revelations of his affair with Monica Lewinski.

“I mean they may be hurting President Obama,” Bill Clinton said of the current attacks. “They can take his numbers down, they can run his opposition up, but fundamentally he and his team have a positive agenda for America. Their agenda seems to be wanting him to fail, and that's not a good prescription for a good America.

“I mean, they're saying things about him just like when they accused me of murder and all this stuff they did, but it's not really good for the Republicans or the country, what's going on now,” Clinton said.

Repeat of 1994?

When asked to compare his administration's unsuccessful attempt at health care reform to President Obama's current push, Clinton said the president has been at a “terrible disadvantage in the law-making phase.”

“He has a better Congress than I did. And he doesn't have a committee chairman that I had demanding that he present a bill,” Clinton said. “So [Obama] said, 'OK, I'll let you develop the bill.' Well, while they're developing the bill, he's set out certain principles and he is vulnerable to whatever anybody wants to say about any of the bills moving through Congress — whether that's his position or not.”

But, Clinton said, the current situation will not lead to a “repeat of 1994”, when Democrats lost 15 seats in the House for the first time in 40 years, crippling progress on his administration's agenda.

“There's no way they can make it that bad, for several reasons,” Clinton said.

For one, he said, “The country is more diverse and interested in positive action.

“Number two,” he added, “they've seen this movie before, because they've had eight years under President Bush, when the Republicans finally had the whole government, and they know the results were bad.

“Number three, the Democrats haven't taken on the gun lobby like I did and they took 15 of our members out … so whatever happens, it will be manageable for the president,” Clinton said.

Hillary 2012?

Clinton said he was content with his current life in the non-governmentalsector.

“I love what I do now,” he said. “And while I can't touch as many lives and things as I did as president, the things I do focus on, we can have a huge impact on,” he said.

Asked whether his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would run for president again, he chuckled.

“That's up to her,” he said. “We're not getting any younger. But I'm proud of what she's doing now. I think she's doing a great job.

“I think it's pretty thrilling that she and the president just have established the relationship they have, and I think it's a good argument for reconciliation and remembering the good things for all the rest of us.”

Bill Clinton Says Right-Wing Conspiracy Now After President Obama

ABC News' Kristina Wong reports: Former President Bill Clinton says the right-wing conspiracy that attacked him during his presidency now is after President Obama.

When asked whether the “vast right-wing conspiracy” is still present today, the former president answered without hesitation, “Oh you bet.”

“It's not as strong as it was because America has changed demographically, but it's as virulent as it was,” Clinton said today on NBC's “Meet the Press.”

“Right-wing conspiracy” was the term used by former first lady Hillary Clinton to describe the tactics her husband's political enemies used to attack his presidency after revelations of his affair with Monica Lewinski.

“I mean they may be hurting President Obama,” Bill Clinton said of the current attacks. “They can take his numbers down, they can run his opposition up, but fundamentally he and his team have a positive agenda for America. Their agenda seems to be wanting him to fail, and that's not a good prescription for a good America.

“I mean, they're saying things about him just like when they accused me of murder and all this stuff they did, but it's not really good for the Republicans or the country, what's going on now,” Clinton said.

Repeat of 1994?

When asked to compare his administration's unsuccessful attempt at health care reform to President Obama's current push, Clinton said the president has been at a “terrible disadvantage in the law-making phase.”

“He has a better Congress than I did. And he doesn't have a committee chairman that I had demanding that he present a bill,” Clinton said. “So [Obama] said, 'OK, I'll let you develop the bill.' Well, while they're developing the bill, he's set out certain principles and he is vulnerable to whatever anybody wants to say about any of the bills moving through Congress — whether that's his position or not.”

But, Clinton said, the current situation will not lead to a “repeat of 1994”, when Democrats lost 15 seats in the House for the first time in 40 years, crippling progress on his administration's agenda.

“There's no way they can make it that bad, for several reasons,” Clinton said.

For one, he said, “The country is more diverse and interested in positive action.

“Number two,” he added, “they've seen this movie before, because they've had eight years under President Bush, when the Republicans finally had the whole government, and they know the results were bad.

“Number three, the Democrats haven't taken on the gun lobby like I did and they took 15 of our members out … so whatever happens, it will be manageable for the president,” Clinton said.

Hillary 2012?

Clinton said he was content with his current life in the non-governmentalsector.

“I love what I do now,” he said. “And while I can't touch as many lives and things as I did as president, the things I do focus on, we can have a huge impact on,” he said.

Asked whether his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would run for president again, he chuckled.

“That's up to her,” he said. “We're not getting any younger. But I'm proud of what she's doing now. I think she's doing a great job.

“I think it's pretty thrilling that she and the president just have established the relationship they have, and I think it's a good argument for reconciliation and remembering the good things for all the rest of us.”

Grassley, Frustrated with WH, Says Baucus Bill Not Bipartisan

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports:

Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said today that while Chairman Max Baucus' has bipartisan elements in it, it is not a bipartisan bill.

“This bill, except for five or six or seven or eight or nine or 10 — I don't know how many — things that weren't resolved has been put together with some Republican input. But to say that this is a bipartisan bill would be as intellectually dishonest as the Secretary of HHS saying on television recently that because Republicans had 86 amendments put on the HELP bill that it was a bipartisan bill.”

Grassley was clearly frustrated with the White House and Senate Democrats for wanting Baucus, D-Mont., to move forward with the bill without full buy-in from Republicans.

“We're kind of pre-empted from doing it right by being pushed or shoved aside by the leadership and by the White House because they want to move on,” Grassley said. “Particularly in light of the fact that so much of this bill doesn't go into effect until 2013. So what's another two or three weeks, if it could be done in another two or three weeks and end up with a bill that could have broad bipartisan support. “

And he said the White House caused strains in the negotiations this summer by saying Grassley, R-Iowa, was not negotiating in good faith.

“We've had 31 meetings of these group of six. We've had nine walk-throughs. I've had 156 meetings in my office dealing with health care, either with constituents or with other members. . . . And then to be accused of being political in the month of August when [I] didn't say anything different in Iowa than what I've been saying in Washington. That's not a very good environment to carry on a conversation,” he said.

Grassley danced around the fundraising letter his campaign sent to supporters in August that said he was working to defeat “Obamacare.” Today, Grassley said “Obamacare” was meant in that letter to represent the “public option.”

Several Democrats expressed optimism about the Baucus Bill.

Said Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.: “It looked good.”

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., praised it as a measure that would bring “a lot of very positive transformation in the way we deliver health care.”

“Are there some pieces in it that I disagree with? Yes. And we're going to try to work on those,” Kerry said. “I think that people ought to feel positive about what's going on here. We're going to get a bill done, one way or the other. We will make changes in it.”

Kerry said one of his amendments would change the formula by which insurance companies are taxed for offering the high-cost insurance plans that many believe drive up the cost of care.

Many such plans are used by union members and Kerry said its important not ton pin health reform on “the workin' guy.”

Other amendments, he said, would tackle the affordability of insurance for the middle class.

Others said it needed more work. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said, “I think it needs more than just a few tweaks.”

Downplaying Expectations for a Bipartisan Health Bill

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: What about the “bi” in “bipartisan? The Democratic half of the bipartisan “Gang of 6” negotiations are already warning that what comes out of those negotiations might not be bipartisan at all.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.,is expected to introduce the fruits of the gangs laborsWednesday, but don't hold your breath for the Rpublican members of the “Gang of 6” to throw their support behind it.

“It may well be that people reserve their final decision until we go through the committee process,” said one of the Democratic negotiators, Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota.

And that process will change the bill.

After Baucus introduces his version, it will be marked up by committee members.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a special Democratic caucus for Thursday, but many more liberal Democrats are already lining up against it.

Democrats on the Finance committee but not part of the “Gang of Six,” like Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, have pledged to do their best to amend what the bipartisan negotiations produce. And whatever the committee passes next week will be changed again before it hits the Senate floor as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid combines it with the partisan bill Democrats passed out of the HELP Committee over the summer.

So it will not be surprising for the Republican half of the gang – Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Olympia Snowe of Maine – to keep their poker faces.