Harkin defies Obama, tells supercommittee to leave health law's prevention fund alone

Senate HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is urging the deficit-cutting supercommittee to leave the healthcare law's investments in prevention.

Harkin's letter to the panel pits him against President Obama, who last month recommended that Congress slash the $15 billion fund by $3.5 billion. Harkin was the main champion of the fund during the healthcare reform debate.

"Even though this historic piece of legislation is now the law," Harkin wrote to the supercommittee, "I continue to fight hard for the gains we made, especially investments in prevention and wellness through the Prevention and Public Health Fund… The Prevention Fund is not only good for the physical health of our nation, but for our fiscal well-being as well."

House and Senate committees have until Friday to share their priorities with the supercommittee, which is tasked with shaving $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion off the deficit over the next decade.

The fund has become an easy target for Republican critics of the law, who have taken to calling it a "slush fund" at the disposal of the Health and Human Services secretary.

Harkin and others counter that the fund supports "evidence-based" prevention programs that can save money in the long run.

The American Public Health Association has said the president's proposed cuts "could effectively put the nation's health at risk," while the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network declared itself "troubled" by the proposal.

---