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.”

Health Reform “Gag Order” Tiff Escalates

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports:

The ongoing spat between Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, and Max Baucus, D-Mont, on how insurers can contact Medicare enrollees about health reform legislation continued Thursday.

It's a convoluted story; for background, click HERE.

First, Republicans in the Senate sent a letter to the HHS pledging to block all HHS-covered Administration nominees – the biggest of these would be the Surgeon General – until HHS rescinds the CMS order to Medicare Advantage providers not to lobby enrollees on health reform legislation in Congress.

“Until your department rescinds its gag order and allows seniors to receive information about matters before Congress, we will not consent to time agreements on the confirmation of any nominees to your department or associated agencies,” Republican leaders wrote in the letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Thursday.

Then, late Thursday night came a tacit but clear response from Sen. Max Baucus, who requested the HHS investigation of Humana that started the tiff in the first place.

Rather than entreat HHS to rescind the “gag order” on insurer lobbying of Medicare Advantage enrollees, Baucus has dug in and scheduled a confirmation hearing for two HHS nominees, basically calling the bluff of Republicans.

The argument is over what Republicans are calling a “gag order” on Humana and other insurers against communicating with their Medicare enrollees about the health care reform legislation before Congress.

McConnell, whose state is home to Humana, had railed against the order in speeches on the Senate floor and Republicans have used the episode to criticize Democrats for clamping down on the first amendment.

Baucus had requested an HHS investigation into Humana for “misleading” Medicare Advantage enrollees with letters that on first glance appeared to be about current benefits offered by the insurer but were in fact an entreaty for the senior to lobby their Congressman.

Liberal Groups Target Ark. Dems on Health Care

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: So much for Rahm Emanuel’s cease-fire.

Two liberal groups are launching new advertising campaigns targeting moderate Democratic members of Congress from Arkansas, attacking them for not supporting a “public option” as part of health care reform.

One ad bluntly warns Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., that they will face Democratic primary challenges if they persist in “trying to kill the public health insurance option.”

“Stand with Democrats now — or we’ll find someone who will,” says the ad from the FDL Action PAC, which organizers said would run for the next 10-14 days in the Little Rock market.

That ad also uses footage from raucous rallies and town-hall meetings, and cites Rep. Joe Wilson’s “you lie!” outburst on the House floor last week.

Another group, Change Congress, is also targeting Ross. The ad uses footage of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann attacking Ross — a leading “Blue Dog” conservative Democrat — for opposing the public option.

“Congressman, if you’re so tired of raising money from special interests who oppose your constituents on issues like health care, do something,” says that ad, which asks Ross to support a bill that would establish public funding for congressional races.

Ads from liberal groups targeting Democrats have been less prevalent since White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel warned a collection of groups to stop running them, dismissing them as “stupid.”

But advocates of a public option have been harshly critical of Sen. Max Baucus’ health care reform bill, which does not include provisions for a government-established plan that would compete with private insurers.

For months, liberal groups have been frustrated by concessions made by leaders in Congress to appease their fellow Democrats — notwithstanding their large majority in the House and the Senate.

“Top Line” — Health Care Reform Without Adding to Deficit: Obama’s Impossible Dream?

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: President Obama today reiterated his pledge that health care reform will “not add a dime to the deficit, now or in the future” — a critical component of his sales pitch to a public that’s growing increasingly concerned about government spending.

But is that a promise he can keep?

On ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” today, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said he doesn’t think so — not with health care spending growing far faster than the rate of new revenues.

“I think the fundamental problem is that if you cover everybody, you put everyone in a system that is growing too rapidly in costs, and is added onto an entitlement problem where we already don’t have the revenues to pay for it,” Holtz-Eakin told us. “And so you build a big problem up front and there’s no way to unwind that quickly. A way to get there is to be more patient and sequential. Cover targeted groups like working uninsured and as you get savings, channel them back in and cover more people.”

“But the political patience isn’t there for that. The promise has been made to cover everyone, and I don’t think it’ll ever add up,” he said.

Democrats’ last best chance at producing a product that doesn’t add to the deficit is likely to come this week, as the Senate Finance Committee finishes its long-delayed draft of a health care bill. The CBO is expected to release its cost estimates of that bill this week as well.

“They may be frustrated but this shouldn’t be a matter of surprise,” Holtz-Eakin said. “[CBO] put out in January their view of options that would change health care spending. They’ve worked with the staffs on all the drafts of the bills. They’ve talked about things that work [and] don’t work, nd so when they finally get down to putting out these final reports, everyone should know what’s coming. And what they’ll look at when they get a bill from the Senate Finance Committee is number one: How much does it cost? They’re not going to know for sure.”

Holtz-Eakin, who was a top adviser to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, also joked about what it’s like to see the president own ideas McCain once espoused, such as subjecting health insurance coverage to taxation, and the creation of “high-risk pools” for those with preexisting health conditions.

“Democrats have been phenomenal advocates of most of the McCain plan,” he said. “They will in fact propose the entire McCain plan, and we’ll see how it happens. But substantively this isn’t the same proposal. . . . [T]hey’re going to make the effort to put out a bipartisan proposal in this way, but when the rubber hits the road it’s not there.”

Watch the full interview with Doug Holtz-Eakin HERE.

We also chatted with Politico columnist Roger Simon about the health care push and the latest trouble signs for the president in the new ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Click HERE to see the discussion with Roger Simon.

“Top Line” — Health Care Reform Without Adding to Deficit: Obama’s Impossible Dream?

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: President Obama today reiterated his pledge that health care reform will “not add a dime to the deficit, now or in the future” — a critical component of his sales pitch to a public that’s growing increasingly concerned about government spending.

But is that a promise he can keep?

On ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” today, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said he doesn’t think so — not with health care spending growing far faster than the rate of new revenues.

“I think the fundamental problem is that if you cover everybody, you put everyone in a system that is growing too rapidly in costs, and is added onto an entitlement problem where we already don’t have the revenues to pay for it,” Holtz-Eakin told us. “And so you build a big problem up front and there’s no way to unwind that quickly. A way to get there is to be more patient and sequential. Cover targeted groups like working uninsured and as you get savings, channel them back in and cover more people.”

“But the political patience isn’t there for that. The promise has been made to cover everyone, and I don’t think it’ll ever add up,” he said.

Democrats’ last best chance at producing a product that doesn’t add to the deficit is likely to come this week, as the Senate Finance Committee finishes its long-delayed draft of a health care bill. The CBO is expected to release its cost estimates of that bill this week as well.

“They may be frustrated but this shouldn’t be a matter of surprise,” Holtz-Eakin said. “[CBO] put out in January their view of options that would change health care spending. They’ve worked with the staffs on all the drafts of the bills. They’ve talked about things that work [and] don’t work, nd so when they finally get down to putting out these final reports, everyone should know what’s coming. And what they’ll look at when they get a bill from the Senate Finance Committee is number one: How much does it cost? They’re not going to know for sure.”

Holtz-Eakin, who was a top adviser to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, also joked about what it’s like to see the president own ideas McCain once espoused, such as subjecting health insurance coverage to taxation, and the creation of “high-risk pools” for those with preexisting health conditions.

“Democrats have been phenomenal advocates of most of the McCain plan,” he said. “They will in fact propose the entire McCain plan, and we’ll see how it happens. But substantively this isn’t the same proposal. . . . [T]hey’re going to make the effort to put out a bipartisan proposal in this way, but when the rubber hits the road it’s not there.”

Watch the full interview with Doug Holtz-Eakin HERE.

We also chatted with Politico columnist Roger Simon about the health care push and the latest trouble signs for the president in the new ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Click HERE to see the discussion with Roger Simon.

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.

Ownership Society: What happened to health care’s new momentum?

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:

Fired up and ready to go — that’s all well and good. But weren’t we supposed to be there by now?

Here’s the thing about the return to a campaign-style push: The campaign was supposed to be over, and President Obama already won.

And the longer this goes on, the less it looks like he’s winning again. (The other side may or may not have met inflated crowd estimates in Washington, but that’s an army that can mobilize.)

Yet another critical week begins with yet another reality check — and, after last week’s Joint Session of Congress, one fewer big weapon in trying to turn it around.

The case gets personal: “I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails,” President Obama said on “60 Minutes” Sunday, per ABC’s Jake Tapper. “That doesn’t work. You know, I intend to be president for a while, and once this bill passes, I own it. . . . I’m the one who’s going to be held responsible.”

That’s a sentiment Republican leadership may not dispute (aside from the “president for a while” part).

The speech is behind him, and yet: “Bottom-line views on health care reform have stabilized but failed to improve since President Obama addressed the nation, leaving him with a continued challenge in selling his plan to a public that remains skeptical about its benefits and costs alike,” ABC Polling Director Gary Langer writes of the new ABC News/Washington Post poll, taken in the days after the president’s Wednesday’s speech last week.

“Obama shows some improvement. He’s stanched his losses, shored up his base and gained on a few specifics. But his speech was no game-changer: Americans in this ABC News/Washington Post poll divide by 48-48 percent on his handling of the issue and by 46-48 percent on the reform package itself, both essentially the same as their pre-address levels.”

“Bottom line: right now, voters are almost exactly where they were before the speech,” per ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“And on the crucial what’s in it for me questions, for people who have health insurance, there’s no real progress after the president’s speech,” Stephanopoulos said on “Good Morning America” Monday. “If that public option goes away, real evidence that support for the package goes up.”

What else has he got up his sleeve? “As Congress begins its second week back from August recess, the playing field is virtually level: Americans remain almost deadlocked in their opinion of the Democrats’ health-care initiative, with 46 percent in favor of the proposed changes and 48 percent opposed,” Jon Cohen and Dan Balz write in The Washington Post. “There is also a clean split on Obama’s handling of the issue, with 48 percent approving and the same number disapproving. But since mid-August, the percentage ‘strongly’ behind the president on health care has risen to 32 percent, evening out the intensity gap that has plagued him on the subject.”

Why Tea Parties matter: “This August’s town-hall fury wasn’t just about the details of health care. Neither were the anti-Obama protests that crowded Washington over the weekend,” Ross Douthat writes in his New York Times column. “They were about the Wall Street bailout, the G.M. takeover, the A.I.G. bonuses, and countless smaller examples of middle-income Americans’ ‘playing by the rules,’ as [Frank] Luntz puts it, ‘and having someone else benefit.’ The bad news for Democrats is that actually passing a health care bill could further enflame these anxieties.”

Why else they matter: “The ability to channel the wide-ranging frustrations expressed by speaker after speaker may determine whether beleaguered conservatives will be able to create a movement rivaling that which liberals used to help power Democrats back into the majority in the 2006 congressional elections and Barack Obama into the White House last year,” Kenneth P. Vogel and Alex Isenstadt write for Politico.

Speaking of ownership: It’s the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, and President Obama is marking it by focusing on the financial crisis in a speech in New York.

Per the White House: “In the afternoon, the President will deliver a major speech on the financial crisis at Federal Hall. He will discuss the aggressive steps the Administration has taken to bring the economy back from the brink, the commitment to winding down the government’s role in the financial sector and the actions the United States and the global community must take to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.”

Is the public buying it? “One year after Wall Street teetered on the brink of collapse, seven out of 10 Americans lack confidence the federal government has taken safeguards to prevent another financial industry meltdown, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll,” the AP’s Jim Kuhnhenn reports. “Even more — 80 percent — rate the condition of the economy as poor and a majority worry about their own ability to make ends meet. The pessimistic outlook sets the stage for President Barack Obama as he attempts to portray the financial sector as increasingly confident and stable and presses Congress to act on new banking regulations.”

“One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a series of federal interventions, the government is the nation’s biggest lender, insurer, automaker and guarantor against risk for investors large and small,” Edmund L. Andrews and David E. Sanger report in The New York Times. “Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the nation’s economy — 26 percent — than at any time since World War II. The government is financing 9 out of 10 new mortgages in the United States. If you buy a car from General Motors, you are buying from a company that is 60 percent owned by the government.”

No new proposals, but new urgency: “Obama will use the backdrop of Federal Hall in New York City to try and revive efforts at revamping market regulations. The president will urge the financial community to support that goal and he will emphasize the need for global coordination on financial oversight, according to an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity,” per Bloomberg’s Nicholas Johnston.

“This address is to kindle support for regulatory reform that digs deep into the culture of corporate America, including his belief that corporations need to observe greater responsibility and executives need to trim [exorbitant] salaries and bonuses,” per ABC’s Ann Compton.

“The president will tell Wall Street not to misread this moment, with the financial system stabilizing. He does not want them to return to the days of reckless excess,” ABC’s Jake Tapper reported on “GMA” Monday.

“Obama will try to retake the initiative, capping other recent efforts in which top government officials have emphasized improvements in the economy and made the case anew for rewriting the nation’s financial rulebook,” Brady Dennis reports in The Washington Post. “He will urge members of the financial community ‘to take responsibility, not only to support reforming the regulatory system but also to avoid a return to the practices on Wall Street that led us to the financial crisis,’ an administration official said Sunday.”

The DNC marks the occasion with a Web video featuring commentary on how bad it all might have been: “Lest we forget.”

Fueling skepticism: “The government handed out stimulus money far more slowly this summer than it had in the first weeks after the massive economic recovery plan started, even though President Obama and other members of his administration had vowed to hasten that aid,” USA Today’s Brad Heath reports. “In the 101 days after Obama signed the stimulus package in mid-February, the government allocated an average of more than $1.3 billion a day to new grants and projects. Since then, that pace has fallen to an average of about $1 billion a day, a drop of about 25%, according to federal agencies’ financial reports, current through Sept. 4.”

Back on health care, the public option continues what looks like a long march into oblivion.

The Boston Globe’s Lisa Wangsness: “Leading moderates in both parties retreated further from the government-backed health insurance option yesterday, echoing the argument President Obama made last week that the issue had been overblown and that alternatives, such as private nonprofit cooperatives, might be acceptable.”

If this is about getting even a single GOP vote: “I urged the president to take the public option off the table,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

The choice ahead: “The fate of the Obama health-care initiative could rest in large part with some members of his party’s left wing, who threaten to let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Bloomberg’s Al Hunt writes. “In the end this is probably a bluff. If not, they will blow an opportunity that will take them years to recoup.”

Said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. (offering the prevailing view in House Democratic leadership): “There will be some threats, but ultimately most liberals will go along.”

Trigger-happy? “I can support potentially a fallback [public option], but only if the private sector is allowed and given a great opportunity to get this right,” Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” “I believe they can.”

Snowe sounding similar themes: “We’ll be using the co-op as an option at this point, as the means for injecting competition into the process,” Snowe said.

But does that get them in the clear? “The president’s apparent flexibility on the public insurance option does appear to have assuaged some centrist Democratic Senators on a key issue. But these Democrats remain resistant — particularly over the price tag, including how much reform will cost the government and what it will cost taxpayers,” David M. Drucker and Emily Pierce report for Roll Call.

This is less than a dime, even: “I want to make sure it’s not going to add 1 cent to the deficit,” said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

Robert Samuelson makes the case for intellectual honesty: “Obama’s selling of ‘reform’ qualifies as high-class hucksterism, but in fairness, many conservative opponents match or exceed his exaggerations and distortions with low-class fear-mongering.”

One big reason why this all should still take a while — and why it’s still going to be messy, every step of the way:

“Obama seems to lack one item that most presidents find helpful to have in their White House tool box: Fear,” Politico’s Ben Smith writes. “On the left and on the right, interest groups and members of Congress have been eagerly enjoying the rewards — publicity, negotiating leverage — of challenging the president or dissenting from his policies. . . . The practice has been encouraged by this president’s own intellectual and political style — a preference for negotiation, combined with a disinclination toward drawing bright lines about his own bottom line.”

How about the docs? “This time, the voice of America’s doctors is on the other side — working not to defeat President Barack Obama’s proposals but to get them enacted into law,” Tribune Co.’s Kim Geiger and Tom Hamburger report. “And among the many reasons for the AMA’s historic shift is one practical consideration: Obama’s plan promises to provide millions of government dollars to help millions of patients pay their doctor bills.”

New ad Monday from Americans United for Change — a five-figure buy on DC cable. Political Consultant: “Congressman, as your political consultant…I’m sorry you lost… I was wrong. Turned out the voters hated the strangle hold the insurance companies have on health care.. raising premiums…cutting off people with pre-existing conditions… making health care decisions instead of doctors. And they didn’t much like the millionaire insurance CEO’s you were hanging with either. Guess your vote against health insurance reform turned out to be bad politics.”

More fallout for Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.: The House is still planning a floor vote condemning Wilson’s “you lie” comment — unless Wilson changes course and issues a formal apology on the House floor early this week.

“Rep. Joe Wilson said Sunday that he is through apologizing for shouting ‘You lie!’ at President Obama during a health care speech before Congress last week,” ABC’s Russell Goldman reports. “Wilson told Fox News that he apologized to the president Wednesday and would not apologize again on the floor of the House, despite threats from Democrats to censure him.”

Pressure back home: MoveOn.org is planning a protest Monday evening at Wilson’s district office in West Columbia, S.C. From the e-mail that went out to members: “We need to show Rep. Wilson that South Carolinians want solutions, not name calling, in the health care debate. He has to hear from us that we want Congress to enact President Obama’s health care plan, including a strong public option, right away.”

Quite the troika to defend (sort of) President Obama, on Afghanistan: “We have reached a seminal moment in our struggle against violent Islamist extremism, and we must commit the ‘decisive force’ that Gen. McChrystal tells us carries the least risk of failure,” senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., write in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

“We believe that the short-term political reaction from Congress to any increase in troop numbers, no matter how small or large, will be essentially the same. The key question is whether the increase is substantial enough to have a decisive effect on the course of the war within the next 12 to 18 months. If we are to send more of our brave men and women in uniform into harm’s way, we should do so in a way that carries the greatest probability of success.”

Fun in the family tree…. The Boston Globe’s Farah Stockman, reporting from Kogelo, Kenya: “Now that Obama has moved to the White House, expectations of financial benefit have grown even greater in this tiny hamlet where water is still delivered to thatched huts on the backs of donkeys. ‘There are still those who are waiting for him to send millions,’ said Nicholas Rajula, a Kogelo businessman.”

Sen. Ted Kennedy’s memoir, “True Compass,” is in bookstores this week.

“He really respected people who stuck at it, and kept going, no matter what their station in life,” Ted Kennedy Jr. told ABC’s Diane Sawyer on “GMA” Monday.

Said Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.: “You know the movie, ‘The Bucket List?’ He accomplished everything he really wanted to accomplish the last year.”

“They were amazing moments,” Ted Jr. said.

The Kicker:

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Waterloo!” — Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., speaking at the Tea Party rally in Washington.

“I intend to be president for a while.” — President Obama, on “60 Minutes.”

For up-to-the-minute political updates check out The Note’s blog . . . all day every day.

Health Care: Confidential

ABC News' Z. ByronWolf reports:

A video postcard from the health reform debate on Capitol Hill:

The six senators hashing out a bipartisan health care reform bill in the Senate are so dogged by reporters it sent Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe down the fire escape after negotiations this morning.

And you can’t blame her. The line of reporters pursuing lead Democratic negotiator Sen. Max Baucus after the negotiating session this morning goes on and on and on and on…

One reason reporters are covering all the exits of Baucus’ office and crowding around the Senator when he leaves is because the health reform legislation being hashed out here – the bill that has the best shot at bipartisanship – is being negotiated behind these closed doors, out of public view.

An ABC News Poll this week shows most Americans (a whopping 71 percent) want Democrats to change their bills to make health reform more bipartisan. So these negotiations are extremely important to any possibility of a health reform effort.

And it appears that if the people want bipartisanship, they’ll have to sacrifice access. The “Gang of 6” as they call themselves, have kept their negotiations largely secret until they reach a backroom deal. Baucus released an outline last week, but not legislative language.

A deadline has been set by Baucus for this week for his staff to release their final proposal even as the group of six senators grapples with how to curb medical malpractice cases, bar illegal immigrants from receiving benefits under the plan waits for a nonpartisan assessment of whether the bill will add to the federal deficit.

When negotiations in other Congressional committees were out in public, things went far worse. Four Congressional committees – three in the House and the HELP Committee in the Senate — spent the Spring and Fall writing health reform bills in public in four committees. There were speeches and votes on amendments and at the end of the day several party-line bills. Public support for health care reform deteriorated when Congress was out of session during August amid the perception that Democrats had railroaded the process.

And that is a cautionary tale for the bipartisan negotiators and Democratic leaders. Once (if) these bipartisan negotiators reach a deal, it will face its greatest tests when it comes out from the back room where the deal is struck, and into the light.

Ownership Society: What happened to health care’s new momentum?

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:

Fired up and ready to go — that’s all well and good. But weren’t we supposed to be there by now?

Here’s the thing about the return to a campaign-style push: The campaign was supposed to be over, and President Obama already won.

And the longer this goes on, the less it looks like he’s winning again. (The other side may or may not have met inflated crowd estimates in Washington, but that’s an army that can mobilize.)

Yet another critical week begins with yet another reality check — and, after last week’s Joint Session of Congress, one fewer big weapon in trying to turn it around.

The case gets personal: “I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails,” President Obama said on “60 Minutes” Sunday, per ABC’s Jake Tapper. “That doesn’t work. You know, I intend to be president for a while, and once this bill passes, I own it. . . . I’m the one who’s going to be held responsible.”

That’s a sentiment Republican leadership may not dispute (aside from the “president for a while” part).

The speech is behind him, and yet: “Bottom-line views on health care reform have stabilized but failed to improve since President Obama addressed the nation, leaving him with a continued challenge in selling his plan to a public that remains skeptical about its benefits and costs alike,” ABC Polling Director Gary Langer writes of the new ABC News/Washington Post poll, taken in the days after the president’s Wednesday’s speech last week.

“Obama shows some improvement. He’s stanched his losses, shored up his base and gained on a few specifics. But his speech was no game-changer: Americans in this ABC News/Washington Post poll divide by 48-48 percent on his handling of the issue and by 46-48 percent on the reform package itself, both essentially the same as their pre-address levels.”

“Bottom line: right now, voters are almost exactly where they were before the speech,” per ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“And on the crucial what’s in it for me questions, for people who have health insurance, there’s no real progress after the president’s speech,” Stephanopoulos said on “Good Morning America” Monday. “If that public option goes away, real evidence that support for the package goes up.”

What else has he got up his sleeve? “As Congress begins its second week back from August recess, the playing field is virtually level: Americans remain almost deadlocked in their opinion of the Democrats’ health-care initiative, with 46 percent in favor of the proposed changes and 48 percent opposed,” Jon Cohen and Dan Balz write in The Washington Post. “There is also a clean split on Obama’s handling of the issue, with 48 percent approving and the same number disapproving. But since mid-August, the percentage ‘strongly’ behind the president on health care has risen to 32 percent, evening out the intensity gap that has plagued him on the subject.”

Why Tea Parties matter: “This August’s town-hall fury wasn’t just about the details of health care. Neither were the anti-Obama protests that crowded Washington over the weekend,” Ross Douthat writes in his New York Times column. “They were about the Wall Street bailout, the G.M. takeover, the A.I.G. bonuses, and countless smaller examples of middle-income Americans’ ‘playing by the rules,’ as [Frank] Luntz puts it, ‘and having someone else benefit.’ The bad news for Democrats is that actually passing a health care bill could further enflame these anxieties.”

Why else they matter: “The ability to channel the wide-ranging frustrations expressed by speaker after speaker may determine whether beleaguered conservatives will be able to create a movement rivaling that which liberals used to help power Democrats back into the majority in the 2006 congressional elections and Barack Obama into the White House last year,” Kenneth P. Vogel and Alex Isenstadt write for Politico.

Speaking of ownership: It’s the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, and President Obama is marking it by focusing on the financial crisis in a speech in New York.

Per the White House: “In the afternoon, the President will deliver a major speech on the financial crisis at Federal Hall. He will discuss the aggressive steps the Administration has taken to bring the economy back from the brink, the commitment to winding down the government’s role in the financial sector and the actions the United States and the global community must take to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.”

Is the public buying it? “One year after Wall Street teetered on the brink of collapse, seven out of 10 Americans lack confidence the federal government has taken safeguards to prevent another financial industry meltdown, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll,” the AP’s Jim Kuhnhenn reports. “Even more — 80 percent — rate the condition of the economy as poor and a majority worry about their own ability to make ends meet. The pessimistic outlook sets the stage for President Barack Obama as he attempts to portray the financial sector as increasingly confident and stable and presses Congress to act on new banking regulations.”

“One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a series of federal interventions, the government is the nation’s biggest lender, insurer, automaker and guarantor against risk for investors large and small,” Edmund L. Andrews and David E. Sanger report in The New York Times. “Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the nation’s economy — 26 percent — than at any time since World War II. The government is financing 9 out of 10 new mortgages in the United States. If you buy a car from General Motors, you are buying from a company that is 60 percent owned by the government.”

No new proposals, but new urgency: “Obama will use the backdrop of Federal Hall in New York City to try and revive efforts at revamping market regulations. The president will urge the financial community to support that goal and he will emphasize the need for global coordination on financial oversight, according to an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity,” per Bloomberg’s Nicholas Johnston.

“This address is to kindle support for regulatory reform that digs deep into the culture of corporate America, including his belief that corporations need to observe greater responsibility and executives need to trim [exorbitant] salaries and bonuses,” per ABC’s Ann Compton.

“The president will tell Wall Street not to misread this moment, with the financial system stabilizing. He does not want them to return to the days of reckless excess,” ABC’s Jake Tapper reported on “GMA” Monday.

“Obama will try to retake the initiative, capping other recent efforts in which top government officials have emphasized improvements in the economy and made the case anew for rewriting the nation’s financial rulebook,” Brady Dennis reports in The Washington Post. “He will urge members of the financial community ‘to take responsibility, not only to support reforming the regulatory system but also to avoid a return to the practices on Wall Street that led us to the financial crisis,’ an administration official said Sunday.”

The DNC marks the occasion with a Web video featuring commentary on how bad it all might have been: “Lest we forget.”

Fueling skepticism: “The government handed out stimulus money far more slowly this summer than it had in the first weeks after the massive economic recovery plan started, even though President Obama and other members of his administration had vowed to hasten that aid,” USA Today’s Brad Heath reports. “In the 101 days after Obama signed the stimulus package in mid-February, the government allocated an average of more than $1.3 billion a day to new grants and projects. Since then, that pace has fallen to an average of about $1 billion a day, a drop of about 25%, according to federal agencies’ financial reports, current through Sept. 4.”

Back on health care, the public option continues what looks like a long march into oblivion.

The Boston Globe’s Lisa Wangsness: “Leading moderates in both parties retreated further from the government-backed health insurance option yesterday, echoing the argument President Obama made last week that the issue had been overblown and that alternatives, such as private nonprofit cooperatives, might be acceptable.”

If this is about getting even a single GOP vote: “I urged the president to take the public option off the table,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

The choice ahead: “The fate of the Obama health-care initiative could rest in large part with some members of his party’s left wing, who threaten to let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Bloomberg’s Al Hunt writes. “In the end this is probably a bluff. If not, they will blow an opportunity that will take them years to recoup.”

Said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. (offering the prevailing view in House Democratic leadership): “There will be some threats, but ultimately most liberals will go along.”

Trigger-happy? “I can support potentially a fallback [public option], but only if the private sector is allowed and given a great opportunity to get this right,” Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” “I believe they can.”

Snowe sounding similar themes: “We’ll be using the co-op as an option at this point, as the means for injecting competition into the process,” Snowe said.

But does that get them in the clear? “The president’s apparent flexibility on the public insurance option does appear to have assuaged some centrist Democratic Senators on a key issue. But these Democrats remain resistant — particularly over the price tag, including how much reform will cost the government and what it will cost taxpayers,” David M. Drucker and Emily Pierce report for Roll Call.

This is less than a dime, even: “I want to make sure it’s not going to add 1 cent to the deficit,” said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

Robert Samuelson makes the case for intellectual honesty: “Obama’s selling of ‘reform’ qualifies as high-class hucksterism, but in fairness, many conservative opponents match or exceed his exaggerations and distortions with low-class fear-mongering.”

One big reason why this all should still take a while — and why it’s still going to be messy, every step of the way:

“Obama seems to lack one item that most presidents find helpful to have in their White House tool box: Fear,” Politico’s Ben Smith writes. “On the left and on the right, interest groups and members of Congress have been eagerly enjoying the rewards — publicity, negotiating leverage — of challenging the president or dissenting from his policies. . . . The practice has been encouraged by this president’s own intellectual and political style — a preference for negotiation, combined with a disinclination toward drawing bright lines about his own bottom line.”

How about the docs? “This time, the voice of America’s doctors is on the other side — working not to defeat President Barack Obama’s proposals but to get them enacted into law,” Tribune Co.’s Kim Geiger and Tom Hamburger report. “And among the many reasons for the AMA’s historic shift is one practical consideration: Obama’s plan promises to provide millions of government dollars to help millions of patients pay their doctor bills.”

New ad Monday from Americans United for Change — a five-figure buy on DC cable. Political Consultant: “Congressman, as your political consultant…I’m sorry you lost… I was wrong. Turned out the voters hated the strangle hold the insurance companies have on health care.. raising premiums…cutting off people with pre-existing conditions… making health care decisions instead of doctors. And they didn’t much like the millionaire insurance CEO’s you were hanging with either. Guess your vote against health insurance reform turned out to be bad politics.”

More fallout for Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.: The House is still planning a floor vote condemning Wilson’s “you lie” comment — unless Wilson changes course and issues a formal apology on the House floor early this week.

“Rep. Joe Wilson said Sunday that he is through apologizing for shouting ‘You lie!’ at President Obama during a health care speech before Congress last week,” ABC’s Russell Goldman reports. “Wilson told Fox News that he apologized to the president Wednesday and would not apologize again on the floor of the House, despite threats from Democrats to censure him.”

Pressure back home: MoveOn.org is planning a protest Monday evening at Wilson’s district office in West Columbia, S.C. From the e-mail that went out to members: “We need to show Rep. Wilson that South Carolinians want solutions, not name calling, in the health care debate. He has to hear from us that we want Congress to enact President Obama’s health care plan, including a strong public option, right away.”

Quite the troika to defend (sort of) President Obama, on Afghanistan: “We have reached a seminal moment in our struggle against violent Islamist extremism, and we must commit the ‘decisive force’ that Gen. McChrystal tells us carries the least risk of failure,” senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., write in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

“We believe that the short-term political reaction from Congress to any increase in troop numbers, no matter how small or large, will be essentially the same. The key question is whether the increase is substantial enough to have a decisive effect on the course of the war within the next 12 to 18 months. If we are to send more of our brave men and women in uniform into harm’s way, we should do so in a way that carries the greatest probability of success.”

Fun in the family tree…. The Boston Globe’s Farah Stockman, reporting from Kogelo, Kenya: “Now that Obama has moved to the White House, expectations of financial benefit have grown even greater in this tiny hamlet where water is still delivered to thatched huts on the backs of donkeys. ‘There are still those who are waiting for him to send millions,’ said Nicholas Rajula, a Kogelo businessman.”

Sen. Ted Kennedy’s memoir, “True Compass,” is in bookstores this week.

“He really respected people who stuck at it, and kept going, no matter what their station in life,” Ted Kennedy Jr. told ABC’s Diane Sawyer on “GMA” Monday.

Said Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.: “You know the movie, ‘The Bucket List?’ He accomplished everything he really wanted to accomplish the last year.”

“They were amazing moments,” Ted Jr. said.

The Kicker:

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Waterloo!” — Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., speaking at the Tea Party rally in Washington.

“I intend to be president for a while.” — President Obama, on “60 Minutes.”

For up-to-the-minute political updates check out The Note’s blog . . . all day every day.

Health Care: Confidential

ABC News' Z. ByronWolf reports:

A video postcard from the health reform debate on Capitol Hill:

The six senators hashing out a bipartisan health care reform bill in the Senate are so dogged by reporters it sent Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe down the fire escape after negotiations this morning.

And you can’t blame her. The line of reporters pursuing lead Democratic negotiator Sen. Max Baucus after the negotiating session this morning goes on and on and on and on…

One reason reporters are covering all the exits of Baucus’ office and crowding around the Senator when he leaves is because the health reform legislation being hashed out here – the bill that has the best shot at bipartisanship – is being negotiated behind these closed doors, out of public view.

An ABC News Poll this week shows most Americans (a whopping 71 percent) want Democrats to change their bills to make health reform more bipartisan. So these negotiations are extremely important to any possibility of a health reform effort.

And it appears that if the people want bipartisanship, they’ll have to sacrifice access. The “Gang of 6” as they call themselves, have kept their negotiations largely secret until they reach a backroom deal. Baucus released an outline last week, but not legislative language.

A deadline has been set by Baucus for this week for his staff to release their final proposal even as the group of six senators grapples with how to curb medical malpractice cases, bar illegal immigrants from receiving benefits under the plan waits for a nonpartisan assessment of whether the bill will add to the federal deficit.

When negotiations in other Congressional committees were out in public, things went far worse. Four Congressional committees – three in the House and the HELP Committee in the Senate — spent the Spring and Fall writing health reform bills in public in four committees. There were speeches and votes on amendments and at the end of the day several party-line bills. Public support for health care reform deteriorated when Congress was out of session during August amid the perception that Democrats had railroaded the process.

And that is a cautionary tale for the bipartisan negotiators and Democratic leaders. Once (if) these bipartisan negotiators reach a deal, it will face its greatest tests when it comes out from the back room where the deal is struck, and into the light.