Politics/elections

Healthcare remains a key concern for voters ahead of the November midterms, a new CNN poll says, even if the issue is less potent than jobs and the economy.

Eighty-three percent of respondents said healthcare was "extremely" or "very" important in determining their vote for Congress. Only five other issues — the economy, unemployment, the deficit, terrorism and government ethics — were deemed more important.

The latest results mark a substantial 14-point increase since January in the percentage of people who rated healthcare as "extremely" or "very" important. The question was phrased significantly differently before the law was passed, however — the poll back then asked respondents how important it was "that the president and Congress deal with [the issue] in the next year" — so extrapolating is difficult.

The latest round of telephone polling was conducted Aug. 6-10 by Opinion Research Corporation among 1,009 adult Americans. In regards to healthcare, 13 percent of respondents said the issue was "moderately important" and 4 percent judged it "not that important."

State governments are implementing the controversial healthcare law, even in places where elected officials are challenging its constitutionality.

Heritage Action for America presses lawmakers to sign discharge petition to force House vote on repealing healthcare law.

Americans view Democrats’ signature health reform bill more positively now than at any point since it was signed into law, a new poll found Thursday. 

50 percent of the public say they view the new healthcare law favorably, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll that has been tracking public opinion about the legislation since it became law. 

35 percent of adults said they view the law unfavorably, while 14 percent had no opinion. 

The July numbers mark the strongest support for reform since it reached a low in May, when the Kaiser poll found the public opposed the law 44-41 percent. 

The positive numbers play heavily into this fall’s impending midterm elections, in which Republicans and Democrats will jockey over the reforms in the healthcare bill. Most Republicans have said they want to repeal the legislation and replace it with different reforms, while Democrats have opted to highlight the benefits in the bill that would be threatened by a GOP-led repeal. 

27 percent of the public overall said the law should be repealed, while seven percent said that while they dislike the law, it should be given a chance to work. 

Also important for the elections is the support for the law among self-identified independent voters. 48 percent of independents view healthcare reform favorably, compared to 37 percent who view it unfavorably. 15 percent had no opinion.

The Kaiser poll, conducted July 8-13, has a three percent margin of error.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is calling on abortion opponents to help restrict provisions of the healthcare reform law by donating to Americans United for Life. The group helped craft legislation enabling states to ban healthcare plans from offering abortion coverage on their health insurance exchanges, and Boehner says in a fundraising message to AUL supporters that their help is needed to ensure more states pass the prohibition.

“AUL urgently needs your financial support to aggressively implement this opt-out strategy — and save lives — across the nation,” Boehner says in his message.

Five states — Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee — have already passed opt-out legislation, and more than two dozen others have introduced similar legislation.

The Susan B. Anthony List on Friday announced its support for Christine O’Donnell in the race for Vice President Joe Biden’s former Senate seat, calling her “the clear pro-life leader in the GOP Primary.” O’Donnell, a marketing consultant and political commentator, is running against Rep. Mike Castle in the Sept. 14 Republican primary.

“Delaware families deserve the pro-life leadership Christine O’Donnell so capably provides,” SBA List Candidate Fund President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. “Unlike her primary opponent who has an explicitly pro-abortion voting record, O’Donnell has expressed her strong determination to be a vocal advocate for women and unborn children in abortion debates on the floor of the U.S. Senate.” 

The Susan B. Anthony List supports getting more women who oppose abortion elected to office. The group says it plans to spend $6 million on the midterm elections, including $3 million on key Senate races.

President Obama said Friday he made a controversial recess appointment to head a key agency that will oversee the healthcare reform law because he could not afford to deal with the Senate’s “political games.”

In an interview with NBC News, Obama blamed Senate obstruction for the recess appointment of Donald Berwick to helm the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

"Well, what is true is when it comes specifically to appointments ... there have been more delays, obstruction and stalling when it comes to just appointing people to run the day-to-day aspects of Washington than any president has experienced in history,” he said. “And, you know, the fact of the matter is, is that I can’t play political games with the Senate on these issues. I’ve got a government to run.”

Republicans loudly objected to the recess appointment made last week, accusing Obama of skirting the democratic process by bypassing the Senate, which is constitutionally bound to provide advice and consent on nominees.

The GOP also accused Obama of not wanting to bring up questions about the new healthcare law. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had not vetted Berwick and joined the GOP in criticizing the president. 

The president can also make recess appointments to fill seats, but the nominee can only serve until the end of the current session of Congress unless he or she is confirmed beforehand. 

Republicans say Berwick’s views on healthcare are too extreme, citing a complimentary comment he made about Britain’s socialized system. 

But Obama said it was time to move forward. 

"At a certain point we have to go ahead and just make sure that people are in place to deal with the enormous challenges that are ahead," he said. 

The leaders of 74 conservative groups on Wednesday signed an open letter to lawmakers urging them to sign a discharge petition that would force an up-or-down vote in the House on repealing the healthcare reform law. The signees — which include Tea Party groups, gun rights advocates and pro-business organizations — claim the law “limits choice, increases the deficit, raises health care costs, expands government bureaucracy, discriminates against low-income workers, mandates insurance coverage and stunts economic growth.”

“Since Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi (D-Calif.) exercises near total control over which bills are voted upon in the House of Representatives a discharge petition allows an oppressed political majority to bypass the Speaker’s clenched fist,” the letter says.

The discharge effort is spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation’s Heritage Action for America. It had attracted the signatures of 123 House lawmakers as of noon Wednesday; 218 are needed to force the vote.

A federal judge’s ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act has ironically rekindled conservatives’ hopes that their arguments against the healthcare reform law will prevail. In issuing his ruling Thursday against the law that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages, Boston District Court Judge Joseph Tauro held that restrictions on federal funding for states that recognize such unions was a violation of states’ rights under the 10th Amendment.

The Supreme Court very rarely strikes down federal laws for violating that provision of the constitution.

“To see a judge actually reaffirm the 10th Amendment is very positive no matter what side of the gay marriage debate you fall on,” said Christie Herrera, director of the Health and Human Services Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

ALEC is an organization of conservative state lawmakers that has been pressing states to adopt laws rejecting federal intrusion into healthcare. Herrera said the direct fall-out from Tauro’s ruling, which the Obama administration is expected to appeal, would be limited.

She pointed out that the two state lawsuits against healthcare reform — one filed by Virginia, the other by a coalition of almost two dozen states — don’t focus on the 10th Amendment. 

The Virginia case argues the law’s individual mandate, requiring most people to buy insurance or pay a fine, violates the Constitution’s “commerce” and “necessary and proper” clauses, and is not a legitimate exercise of Congress’s taxing powers. The multi-state lawsuit is broader, and challenges the law’s health insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion in addition to the individual mandate.

The multi-state lawsuit does rely on the 10th Amendment in rejecting state health insurance exchanges, which are scheduled to go online in 2014. The lawsuit argues the amendment prohibits the federal government from “commandeering” states to administer and fund the exchanges.

The real impact of Tauro’s ruling may be felt in the event that the two state lawsuits fail, Herrera said. In that case, state laws outlawing the individual mandate are likely to face 10th-Amendment based challenges.

“I don’t think this has any effect on the current lawsuits,” she said. “Is it a good indication of how future 10th Amendment lawsuits coming from the states will fare? Yes.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday endorsed Rep. Bobby Bright (D-Ala.) for reelection in November, praising him for standing “against a health care measure that will fail to control costs.”

“On issues ranging from competition in the health care industry, to lowering taxes, to reducing energy costs, Alabama’s businesses and workers have a tireless advocate in Bobby Bright,” Chamber senior vice president and political director Bill Miller said in a statement.

The first-term congressman was one of 34 Democrats who voted against the Senate healthcare reform bill in March. Bright also voted along with 38 other Democrats against the more liberal House reform bill in November.

The Chamber says it “plans to play a major role nationwide in the 2010 elections” and points out that 213 of the 265 Chamber-endorsed candidates — 81 percent — won their races in 2008.