Democrats feel political heat despite ObamaCare ‘fix’

President Obama's fix to reverse millions of insurance cancellation notices may have eased slightly the pressure he faces, but Democrats at state level still face political trouble and fear what it may mean for the 2014 midterm elections.
One such Democrat is West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall. The 19-term veteran, a perennial target in a GOP-shifting state, was one of many Democrats who recited to constituents Obama's assurance that they could keep insurance coverage they liked under the 2010 health care overhaul.
This promise proved untrue and ignited an uproar that eventually forced Obama to reverse himself and on Thursday propose the fix that he claims will allow consumers to keep their plans. The debacle has sent many Democrats scrambling into political self-preservation mode ahead of the 2014 elections.
Rahall was among 39 Democrats who, despite an Obama veto threat, voted Friday for a Republican measure that would let insurers continue selling policies to individuals that fall short of the health care law's requirements. It was approved 261-157.
"I'm concerned about my integrity with voters who have returned me here for 38 years. They know me enough to know I wouldn't purposely mislead them," Rahall said this past week. "They have that confidence in me, and I want them to continue to have that confidence in me."
Republicans have been emboldened by Obama's reversal and the Democrats' scramble for cover, with GOP strategists digging through old statements and video clips in the hope of capturing Democrats offering the same promises that landed Obama in political trouble
An example of this is Oregon Rep. Kurt Schrader – a Democrat who has criticized the president over the botched ObamaCare rollout. According to Politico, Schrader found himself the target of Republicans after it was revealed that language on the congressman’s website stating, “If you are insured and happy with your coverage, nothing changes,” had been deleted.
"There's nothing more damaging than when your word is devalued and people think they were misled," said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee. "And especially damaging is when it actually affects you and your family. So in terms of degree of impact, this is off the Richter scale."
Top Democrats, who need to gain 17 seats to retake the House majority, brush off the suggestion, saying that next November's elections are still far away. They say by then, the health care law will be to their advantage because it will be working well.
Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said his party will focus the campaign on the economy, Democratic efforts to fix it and the GOP's preference for cutting Medicare and granting tax breaks to the wealthy.
The Republican emphasis on ObamaCare's problems "from a partisan perspective gins up the Republican base. But it alienates independent and moderate voters," said Israel, who said those voters "are more interested in solutions."
“For consumers who want to keep their health care plans, President Obama has offered a commonsense fix – and Democrats worked hard to make sure that pledge is supported,” Jesse Ferguson, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee deputy executive director, told Politico. “Republicans are now being unmasked as dishonest after they doubled down rhetorically on the importance of helping Americans keep their plan – but opposed President Obama’s fix because of their knee-jerk ideological obsession with opposing everything with President Obama’s name on it.”
Other Democrats are not so confident.
Martin Frost, a former Texas Democratic congressman who headed the House Democratic campaign committee, said many people still may lose their coverage because state officials have ample power over insurers. And he said the Obama administration cannot allow additional foul-ups.
"If I were still in Congress, I'd be concerned," Frost said.
Sensing an edge, the GOP plans to cut commercials featuring Democrats' promises that people could keep their health insurance.
America Rising, a GOP political action committee that compiles research on opposition candidates, is collecting video of Democrats' comments on the law. Some conservative groups are already running television spots, with Americans for Prosperity airing ads attacking Rahall and Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., while defending Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., for opposing the law.
"It forces thousands to lose the plans they love and the doctors they know," says the 30-second spot running on television and radio in Rahall's district.
Though Democrats opposed the Republican measure 153-39, the vote was evidence of the pressure they feel over canceled policies.
On Thursday, Obama took the blame for the confusion, saying, "That's on me," not congressional Democrats. House Democratic leaders told reporters later that day that they had nothing to apologize for.
Even so, most House Democrats felt Obama's action was not enough and demanded a vote on a Democratic proposal.
"They want to be on record," said Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa. "Members are not judged by administrative fixes. Members are judged by their voting records."

Seattle voters elect socialist to city council

SEATTLE –  Seattle voters have elected a socialist to city council for the first time in modern history.
Kshama Sawant's lead continued to grow on Friday, prompting 16-year incumbent Richard Conlin to concede.
Even in this liberal city, Sawant's win has surprised many here. Conlin was backed by the city's political establishment. On election night, she trailed by four percentage points. She wasn't a veteran politician, having only run in one previous campaign.
But in the days following election night, Sawant's share of the votes outgrew Conlin's.
"I don't think socialism makes most people in Seattle afraid," Conlin said Friday.
While city council races are technically non-partisan, Sawant made sure people knew she was running as a socialist -- a label that would be political poisonous in many parts of the country.
Sawant, a 41-year-old college economics professor, first drew attention as part of local Occupy Wall Street protests that included taking over a downtown park and a junior college campus in late 2011. She then ran for legislative office in 2012, challenging the powerful speaker of the state House, a Democrat. She was easily defeated.
This year, though, she pushed a platform that resonated with the city. She backed efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15; called for rent control in the city where rental prices keep climbing; and supports a tax on millionaires to help fund a public transit system and other services.
During her campaign, she condemned economic inequality, contending that some people aren't benefiting from the city's declining jobless rate, ongoing recovery from the recession, and downtown building boom.
"She's passionate about her values," Conlin said.
Research showed no socialist candidate had won a citywide office in the past 100 years. The last socialist candidate to make it into the general election was in 1991 and was defeated, said Scott Cline, the city's archivist. Bailey Comment: No doubt that America is now going downhill fast.

House Republicans introduce resolution to impeach Attorney General Holder

A group of congressional Republicans introduced a resolution Thursday to call for the impeachment of Attorney General Eric Holder, alleging Holder had committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” during his tenure as head of the Justice Department.
The resolution was introduced by Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, who claims Holder has committed “the offenses of lying to Congress, refusing to comply with a subpoena, and failing to fulfill his oath of office.”
Olson cites Holder’s unwillingness to cooperate during the investigation into the botched Operation “Fast and Furious, his refusal to prosecute those involved IRS targeting of conservative groups, his failure to enforce laws including the Defense of Marriage Act, and his “false testimony” about the DOJ’s monitoring of Fox News journalist James Rosen as articles that are grounds for impeachment.
“For nearly five years, Attorney General Holder has systematically deceived Congress and destroyed the credibility of the Justice Department in the eyes of the American people,” Olson said in a statement.
Olson was joined by 19 other Republican representatives in the resolution.
One House Democrat spoke out against the resolution before it was introduced Thursday, calling it “the most fundamental abuse of the impeachment power.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a former federal prosecutor who led the Senate in the impeachment of a federal judge in 2010, said the articles of impeachment in the resolution are simply a list of “debunked conspiracy theories.”
“It is the height of irresponsibility to use the Congress's power to impeach office holders – a power that has been used very rarely and judiciously – to settle political scores,” Schiff said. “The House Republican Leadership should disavow this misguided effort immediately; it is far more damaging to Congress and its impeachment authority than to anyone in the administration.”
The DOJ did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News.

Details emerge about Americans badly injured in Benghazi attack

In addition to the four Americans killed in the Benghazi terror attack last year, at least two other Americans were severely injured in the fighting that night, Fox News has learned.
The injuries were sustained by U.S. personnel after mortars struck the CIA annex rooftop they were defending. Fox News is told that one former government contractor -- who is expected to testify this week along with four other contractors in classified sessions on Capitol Hill -- has had multiple surgeries since the attack and has still not regained full use of one arm.
The blood loss after the attack was so severe that a source close to the contractor said it had been life-threatening.
In addition to former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, who were killed defending the Annex, at least two other Americans were severely injured on the roof top.
 Diplomatic Security Agent David Ubben – who as late as August was still recovering at Walter Reed Medical Center in suburban Washington - was so severely injured fighting alongside the Seals that he has undergone multiple surgeries.  The protocol is often referred to as a “leg or limb salvage.”
Little is known about those who survived the Benghazi attack. The State Department confirmed in March, after multiple inquiries by Fox News, that a total of three diplomatic security agents, as well as a State Department contractor, were among the Americans injured during the terrorist assault which killed the two former SEALs, Ambassador Chris Stevens, and Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith.
The latest details are emerging as the House Intelligence Committee hears this week from contractors who were on the ground in Benghazi. Fox News has learned that they will give their accounts in closed, classified sessions on Wednesday and Thursday.
Two contractors were expected to appear Wednesday, and three former government contractors from the CIA annex are expected Thursday, according to sources familiar with the meetings.
In a press release from earlier this year, the intelligence committee appeared to identify this week's witnesses, adding that they included those who signed a book deal earlier this year. "The Subcommittee will pursue interviews with three additional CIA personnel who are publishing a book and whose public comments suggest possible contradictions with testimony the Intelligence Committee has received on the record," the release said.
The lawyer who represents the authors would not comment on their Capitol Hill appearance, adding that they were part of "an elite security team" in Benghazi.
While the sessions are not open to the public, sources told Fox News that the timeline offered by some of the contractors may differ from the public narrative that there were two distinct waves to the attack -- first at the consulate at approximately 9:40 p.m. local time and then at the CIA annex the following morning, separated by a lull in the fighting.
The fighting was characterized to Fox News as being more "constant, consistent" throughout the attack's seven-hour duration.  If there was no lull in the fighting, it raises more questions about the lack of a significant military response to the Benghazi assault -- during that time, Stevens' whereabouts were unknown.
In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner last week, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., stated that any discrepancies demanded further investigation. "If some answers differ substantially from the established narrative and timeline of the attack, then it would be warranted to take new measures to complete the investigation and synthesize the information obtained by the Intelligence Committees and other committees investigating the Benghazi attack."

Top Democrat joins push to keep health plans after Clinton's ObamaCare critique

An influential Democratic senator is backing the push to restore insurance plans canceled due to ObamaCare, on the heels of a a blunt critique from Bill Clinton on President Obama's handling of the health care law's rocky rollout.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Tuesday she is cosponsoring a bill by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., that would force insurance companies to reinstate canceled policies that Obama repeatedly vowed that people could keep.
"The Affordable Care Act is a good law, but it is not perfect," Feinstein said in a statement. "I believe the Landrieu bill is a commonsense fix that will protect individuals in the private insurance market from being forced to change their insurance plan."
Feinstein said she has received 30,842 calls, emails and letters from constituents about the cancellations and premium increases. A man from Rancho mirage told Feinstein that he is being forced to spend over $400 more per month for a similar policy.
“I believe consumers should be allowed to choose their plans, and they should be adequately informed about those choices," Feinstein said. "Consumers must be told what their coverage does and does not include so families don’t find themselves paying for an insurance policy they believe is comprehensive when in fact it is not."
Separately, House Republicans have scheduled a Friday vote on a proposal by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., that would allow insurers to continue selling insurance plans that would otherwise be banned under the law.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the president's team is trying to figure out a way to offer relief to the millions of Americans who have received cancellation notices,  though in doing so, it could inadvertently build the case for those calling for a delay in the law's implementation.
The statement comes after former President Clinton, in an interview with the site Ozy.com, said Obama should live up to his promise to Americans that if they like their health plans, they can keep them.
"So I personally believe, even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got," Clinton said.
Asked Tuesday if Obama agreed, Carney said: "The answer's yes."
Carney referred to Obama's comments to NBC News last week, when the president apologized for the cancellation notices and said the administration was looking at a "range of options" to address the issue.
But Carney spoke in additional detail on Tuesday, saying the president's team is specifically trying to help those Americans who have been forced off their plans into more expensive coverage which they might struggle to afford.
"The president has tasked his team with looking at a range of options, as he said, to make sure that nobody is put in a position where their plans have been canceled and they can't afford a better plan, even though they'd like to have a better plan," Carney said.
It's unclear, though, how the administration could go about doing that. Insurance companies are the ones canceling policies -- due to new requirements under the health care overhaul -- and would likely have to be involved in any effort to restore coverage.
Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman with America's Health Insurance Plans, told FoxNews.com that all the myriad plans to reverse or stop the cancellation notices raise questions about how that would be achieved. He said in many cases, changes to existing policies have already been filed with state regulators and consumers have been notified.
"That's a lot to go back and unwind," he said, noting that any modified health plans would have to be reviewed and approved by state regulators.
"That typical process takes many months," he said.
The insurance industry generally does not support any delay in the implementation of the ObamaCare insurance mandates, out of concern that a delay would deprive them of much-needed customers at a time when they're dealing with the cost of additional coverage requirements.
But any effort to overhaul the cancellations might require an extended timeframe.
In his interview Tuesday, Clinton defended the health care law as a whole, but explained how the broken promise on health coverage can hurt young people. He relayed the story of a young man who said his individual market plan was canceled and replaced with one whose premiums were twice as high. Though his deductibles and co-pays were lower, that savings is only realized if he gets sick, Clinton explained.
Obama, in explaining the cancellation notices, has clarified that under ObamaCare, policies could be canceled if they had been altered in any way since the passage of the law.
That nuance was not included in the president's initial explanations.
The administration argues that while some are losing their current coverage, those plans will be replaced by better-quality insurance. The flip side is that they could be more expensive.

Middle Class

Fewer than 50,000 have signed up for insurance on ObamaCare site

Fewer than 50,000 Americans have thus far bought a health-care plan on the problem-plagued ObamaCare website according to an insurance industry report, representing only a fraction of the half-million enrollees the administration apparently wanted the first month.
The number was reported first Monday by The Wall Street and confirmed by Fox News, which was told the final reporting day was Nov. 3.
The Department of Health and Human Services issued a prompt response, saying officials could not confirm the numbers.
“We have always anticipated that initial enrollment numbers would be low and increase over time,” said agency spokeswoman Joanne Peters. “And, as we have said, the problems with the website will cause the numbers to be lower than initially anticipated."
Healthcare.gov went live Oct. 1 and was immediately plagued with such problems as slow response time, volume-induced crashes and supplying incorrect information.
Official have since called in private technical experts and have taken the site off line in non-peak hours to perform maintenance and improve the situation.
The federal site handles insurance enrollment for 36 states without their own sites.

The administration has set a goal of signing up seven million Americans for insurance by next March, when open enrollment ends.
The Journal reported the number of enrollees thus far could be as low as 40,000 and  that the administration’s goal of 500,000 enrollees in October is based on an internal memo cited last week by Michigan Republican Rep. Dave Camp.
The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch said in a statement the low numbers are not surprising because of the website's problems.
"Whether it's higher costs, fewer choices or simply website glitches, it's becoming more clear with each passing day that this law isn't ready for prime time and should be delayed," Hatch said.

Oldest known WWII veteran honored at Arlington ceremony

The oldest known veteran of World War II was honored with a thunderous standing ovation during a ceremony Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, as President Obama and the rest of the nation paid tribute to 107-year-old Richard Overton's service.
The tribute to Overton was a stand-out moment at Monday's Veterans Day ceremonies, as details emerged about Overton's visit. Earlier in the day, the Texas man met with Obama and Vice President Biden, along with other veterans, during a White House breakfast.
"This is the life of one American veteran, living proud and strong in the land he helped keep free," Obama said during the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Though he uses a wheelchair, Overton can still stand -- and did so, as the crowd applauded his service.
Overton served in the Pacific during World War II, and Obama regaled the audience with his accomplishments. "He was there at Pearl Harbor when the battleships were still smoldering. He was there at Okinawa. He was there at Iwo Jima," Obama said.
When he returned from the war, Overton went back to Texas, where he built a house for him and his wife -- the house he still lives in today. The president said Overton still rakes his own lawn, and still drives ladies in his neighborhood to church every Sunday.
According to a profile on Overton in USA Today, his attendance at Monday's ceremony was set up after Overton visited the World War II Memorial and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial as part of an Honor Flight Austin trip back in May. Overton reportedly wondered what it would be like to meet the president, and the visit was later arranged.
During the war, Overton was a member of the Army's 188th Aviation Engineer Battalion and reportedly volunteered for service.
He attributes his longevity in part to drinking a tablespoon of whiskey in his coffee and smoking a dozen cigars a day, according to the article.
Obama used his remarks Monday to remind the nation that thousands of service members are still at war in Afghanistan. The war is expected to formally conclude at the end of next year, though the U.S. may keep a small footprint in the country.
As the Afghan war comes to a close, Obama said the nation has a responsibility to ensure that the returning troops are the "best cared-for and best respected veterans in the world." The country's obligations to those who served "endure long after the battle ends," he said.