President Obama says new savings would come from 'commonsense changes.'

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama said Saturday he wants to make additional resources available for overhauling the nation's health care system by dramatically reducing current medical costs to the government.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama proposed $313 billion in cuts and new savings over the next decade. Some of the funds would come from from expected increases in efficiency, reductions in excessive hospital payments and drug cost savings from individuals enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid, the White House said.

But he did not specify precisely what form much of those cuts might take, saying the new savings would "come from commonsense changes."

"For example – if more Americans are insured, we can cut payments that help hospitals treat patients without health insurance," he said.

"If the drug makers pay their fair share, we can cut government spending on prescription drugs. And if doctors have incentives to provide the best care instead of more care, we can help Americans avoid the unnecessary hospital stays, treatments, and tests that drive up costs."

The funds would be in addition to the $635 billion in spending cuts and tax funds Obama has already requested to help ease the transition to a new system that would cover uninsured Americans and do a better job of slowing the surge in medical costs.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) — Mitt Romney, disciplined politician, is quick to say he's not a presidential candidate. It's Mitt Romney's schedule that seems to be a bit off-message.

Earlier this year, he got a hero's welcome at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where more than a few attendees attendees insisted his economic credentials might have nabbed him the Oval Office if the economic crisis had hit before the Republican Party had decided on its 2008 standard-bearer.

On Friday, he was the keynote speaker at the Virginia GOP's Commonwealth Gala dinner in Richmond. Yesterday, he weighed in on his party's future on Fox News, Sunday. The former Massachusetts governor's making appearances as a key member of the National Council for a New America — the move, led by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, to re-brand the GOP. Meanwhile, Free and Strong America PAC — Romney's political action committee, dedicated to supporting conservative candidates — is helping him build the national network of party loyalists he'd need to clinch the nomination, if he decides to run again.

And today, nearly two weeks after former vice president Dick Cheney took on President Barack Obama's national security policy before a think-tank crowd in Washington, Romney is scheduled to give his own take — laid out in a speech called "The Care of Freedom" — to a Heritage Foundation audience, assessing the new administration's response on North Korea and other foreign policy challenges.

It's slated to be the latest in a string of tough critiques of President Obama — including a tough take on Supreme Court pick Sonia Sotomayor — that have made him a conservative favorite in the first months of the new administration, even as he carefully avoids the kind of incendiary attacks and media overexposure that could threaten mainstream appeal he'd need to reach the Oval Office.
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The Republican National Committee announced its April fundraising figures today.

(CNN) – Some good news for embattled Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele: the national party said Friday it raised more than $5.7 million in April, and had $24.3 million cash-on-hand.

That's more than double the roughly $9.8 million Democrats had on hand in March, the last month for which the party's fundraising figures are available.

Many political observers expected Steele's biggest success would come as party spokesman, not on the fundraising front. Instead, the former Maryland lieutenant governor's public statements have frequently landed him in hot water — but, despite a push within the party to reclaim some control of the purse strings from the GOP leader, the RNC's bottom line remains surprisingly healthy thanks to better-than-expected fundraising success.

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Palin is taking part in a new organization to rebrand the GOP

(CNN) – A few hours after Rush Limbaugh told listeners GOP leaders launching a Republican re-branding effort hated and feared Sarah Palin, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor announced that the Alaska governor had finally accepted an invitation to join the group.

On a conference call last week for the National Council for a New America, former Republican presidential candidate John McCain said he thought his running mate would probably be part of the effort as well — but there had been no immediate confirmation by her office.

The two groups of key Palin aides — those in the governor's office in Alaska, and at her Virginia-based political action committee SarahPAC — have often given very different messages on her participation in various efforts: Congressional leaders and conservative activists have both announced Palin's planned attendance at major events this year after receiving assurances from one set of advisors, only to learn later from other aides that she hadn't yet made a decision.

The governor's decision to join the NCNA's panel of experts was confirmed Monday by spokeswoman Meg Stapleton.

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Sestak is weighing a 2010 Senate bid.

(CNN) — Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak told CNN Sunday that he wasn't sure Sen. Arlen Specter is really part of the Democratic Party, the latest in a series of tough comments aimed at his potential Senate primary rival.

"I'm not sure he's a Democrat yet," he told John King on State of the Union.

President Obama said earlier in the week that Specter had his support, with one administration official saying it took the president about "seven seconds" to make that decision.

Those remarks don't faze Sestak.

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(CNN) – House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in an interview airing on CNN's State of the Union Sunday morning that the GOP wasn't directly responsible for much of the party's electoral misfortune in 2008.

"I frankly believe that much of what happened in the last election revolved around the fact that the economy fell apart at the time we were, if you will, holding the hot potato. Republicans and Democrats have been playing this game, passing the hot the potato, spending money like there was no tomorrow," Romney told John King.

"And the economy came crashing down while our party was holding the hot potato. And people said, hey, it's time for something else but I think if they took a good, hard look at what the — something else is planning on doing with regards to the massive borrowing, they are going to say, that is probably not the right thing for America's future."

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(CNN) — Republican Sen. Richard Shelby told CNN Sunday his decision on President Obama's Supreme Court pick would not be affected by "payback" for the former Illinois senator's votes against Bush nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

"I’m not a payback type guy," he told John King on State of the Union. "I think you have to keep moving."

He was also pragmatic about the kind of nominee the Senate could expect to see. "I have no illusions about President Obama appointing a conservative like Alito or Roberts," he said. " But if he will appoint a pragmatist, someone who is not an ideologue, that someone is not just going to light all the lightbulbs in America on the left, I think that would be good for the country. He is very smart. He is very careful. I hope he is going to be careful in this appointment.”

Judiciary Committee Chairman, Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy suggested he knew some of the names on President Obama's Supreme Court shortlist, and planned to meet with the president this week to discuss the issue. He also said he was encouraging Obama to meet soon with leaders of both parties.

(CNN) – Last year — for the first time in U.S. history — black and white voters voted at roughly the same rates, according to a new study.

The overall turnout rate barely budged, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center — and turnout among white voters actually declined — but in another first, participation by black women was the highest of any gender or race. Nearly 69 percent of black women voted in November.

The difference between black and white turnout rates dropped from 7 percent in 2004 to less than 1 percent last year, a statistically insignificant gap.

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RNC chairman Michael Steele compared Specter's defection to the legendary betrayal of Benedict Arnold.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Over the past 24 hours, angry Republicans have thrown out a flurry of withering descriptions of the decision by Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter to renounce his GOP membership Tuesday to become a Democrat. Now Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is comparing the senator's action to one of the most storied betrayals in U.S. history.

"I hope Arlen Specter's party change outrages you. …He told us all to go jump in the lake today," Steele wrote in a fundraising e-mail sent to Republicans Tuesday.

Facing the prospect of a primary loss because of "his left-wing voting record," said Steele, Specter had "peddled his services–and his vote–to the leftist Obama Democrats who aim to remake America with their leftist plan."

"You and I have a choice. Some will use Specter's defection as an excuse to fold the tent and give up. I believe that you are not one of those people. When Benedict Arnold defected to the British, George Washington didn't fold the tent and give up either.

"He grit his teeth more determined than ever to succeed. That's what I'm asking you to do today."

Steele has had a rocky start since taking the helm at the RNC, including the loss earlier this week of a hotly-contested House race in upstate New York.

A new ad tells Americans the British and Canadian health systems are fatally flawed.

(CNN) — A conservative group is out with a million-dollar ad buy attacking President Obama's plan to overhaul the nation's health care system.

The Conservative Patients' Rights Action Fund, one of the earliest opponents of the president's plan, will begin airing the first of the new 60-second spots Tuesday on national cable. The ad features British and Canadian doctors relating horror stories of government-run health care wait lists and restrictions, and accuses Congress of adopting elements of those systems.

“Patients are languishing and suffering on wait lists, our own Supreme Court of Canada has stated that patients are actually dying as they wait for care in Canada,” Canadian privatization proponent Dr. Brian Day says in the spot.

"Tell Congress you won't trade your doctor for a national board of bureaucrats," says the narrator. "Let's put patients first."

The group — one of the earliest opponents to organize against Obama's health care plans — has launched several ads this year attacking the proposal. Last month, they released an spot that linked the administration's request for a set-aside in the federal budget to help fund health care reform with the controversial loophole that allowed executives of bailed-out companies to keep their bonuses.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama's decision to release four Bush-era memos regarding the use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" was heavily criticized Sunday as a couple of prominent senators told CNN's John King that the decision was a potentially dangerous mistake.

"I think it was a mistake to release the techniques that we're talking about and inform our enemy as to what may come their way," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said on "State of the Union."

Graham, who opposed the use of techniques that many consider to be torture, added that he still believed "there's a way to get good information in an aggressive manner to protect this nation without having to go into the Inquisition era."

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told CNN Sunday that President Obama still wants to work with Republicans in a bipartisan way on major policy initiatives like health care reform.

"He has reached out more aggressively I think to the Republican Party than I could ever imagine a president could possibly do," she told John King on State of the Union. "So I think the burden is on him to reach out his hand, and that's what he's done, and that's what he's going to continue to do throughout this administration."

After failing to secure Republican support for most of his economic plan, the president called on the Senate last week to use a parliamentary procedure that would allow legislation — including massive efforts like a health care overhaul — to pass without any GOP votes.

The CIA memos are grabbing headlines – but they’re not news, says Jarrett.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — There’s nothing new in the interrogation memos whose release has stirred controversy, senior White House advisor Valerie Jarrett told CNN Sunday.

The CIA memos described waterboarding and other tough interrogation methods on alleged al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah.

Jarrett said the United States is “a nation of laws,” and the administration had a legal requirement to release the documents.

"The techniques that were being used by the prior administration were well known," she told John King on State of the Union. "When the president came in office, he said we're not going to use those techniques anymore. That's not who we are as a country."

“There’s nothing in these documents that Americans hadn't seen all over the news,” she said, adding that Obama said it was time to release them and “move forward.”

But the president is leaving any prosecution decisions up to the attorney general, she added.

Jarrett is one of the president’s top advisors.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett told CNN Sunday the president takes the swine influenza outbreak "very seriously," as the White House announced an afternoon briefing to provide an update on efforts to keep the disease from spreading to the United States.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and acting CDC director Dr. Richard Besser will speak at 12:30. The State Department is also involved in tracking efforts.

This week, isolated cases of the illness were reported in at least three states. The swine flu has stricken more than a thousand and been blamed for more than 80 deaths in Mexico over the past few weeks.

Palin's new legal defense fund was formally unveiled Friday.

(CNN) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, facing a string of costly ethics complaints, formally unveiled a defense fund Friday to help pay her legal fees — now surging past the half-million dollar mark.

"For Alaskans, the time has come to end the siege on our government by political tricksters. Enough is enough. With the help of reform-minded advocates from across our nation, we will stand up for what is right," said a message on the Web site for the Alaska Fund Trust.

"Your maximum contribution of $150.00 will allow the Governor, her family, and her colleagues to retire their legal debt at no cost to Alaskans and reduce the incentive for mischief by her opponents. Together, we can help Governor Palin and future elected officials turn back the tide of overtly partisan and unnecessarily personal political attacks."

Kristan Cole, a Palin ally from Wasilla, will run the fund, which she described as "one of the most restrictive and transparent legal funds in history." The group said it plans to voluntarily release the names of donors and size of their contributions.

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(CNN) — Liz Cheney, former State Department official and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, defended her father's string of tough comments aimed at President Obama, telling an interviewer that the former VP believes the new president is taking the nation down a "dangerous" path and that he has an "obligation to stand up."

"I think he is concerned that some of the things that we have seen President Obama do, particularly on his overseas trip in terms of not taking the opportunity to stand up and defend America when Daniel Ortega delivers a 50-minute screed against the United States [during the Summit of the Americas]," she told MSNBC in an interview that aired Thursday.

"I think that there's a real concern. I mean, the message that we saw coming out of the last few foreign trips — I mean, forget Republican and Democrat, as an American it concerns me when I have a president that doesn't stand up and say, 'Wait a minute, you know, I'm going to defend the United States of America because we are a beacon of hope for people all around the world,'" she said. Read the rest of this entry »