between the obama administration and federal judges. a three-member appeals panel all republican appointees has taken issue with the president s jawboning of the u.s. supreme court over the health care reform law. now an unusual demand from those judges is putting a lot of heat from the justice department in washington. brian todd is following this battle for us. brian, what s going on? reporter: one seasoned court analyst says federal judges almost never do this kind of thing. whether he intended to or not an appeals court judge has publicly taken on president obama and walked into the political fire. reporter: a barometer of how high the political stakes are for the president and his opponents on the health care law. a public sparring match between president obama and the courts. on monday, mr. obama says this about the supreme court s review of health care. ultimately, i m confident that the supreme court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary st
the statute locks into place the states current medicaid eligibility requirements even if they already exceed federal standards. my wife is an attorney in arizona. arizona recently ep acted increased eligibility for medicaid beyond what was federally required. well, here comes the aca and locks it in at that current rate that was above what the federal government had previously required and now states can t change their minds even though that would have been perfectly legal to do so prior to that. of course as i said before, if states were to opt out, they would lose out on this money and still have to send their tax dollars to washington, d.c. when you add in all of those things, i think that s why these different factors, you put them altogether and what you have is something that is not a voluntary system but is a fundamental transformation of medicaid into a system where states are acting basically as arms of the federal government. can i respond to that? sure. a
part solomon, one part semantics. president obama rushed to resolve an election year battle over religion, health insurance and birth control. under new rules that he announced today, employees of faith-based institutions will still have contraceptives covered by their insurance plans, but the cost will be picked up by the insurance companies, not by the religious institutions. so they can say they don t pay for the contraceptives, but their employees can still get them for free. norah o donnell is at the white house tonight. norah? reporter: scott, this is clearly a change in policy by president obama aimed at calming this political firestorm that could have cost him support among catholic voters, a key swing group that he won by nine points in the last election. calling himself both a citizen and a christian, the president today announced a compromise. after the many genuine concerns that have been raised over the last few weeks as well as, frankly, the more cynical des
solution was not going to be an option. reporter: the new policy would not require religious institutions like catholic hospitals or universities to provide free contraception for their employees. instead, the institution s health insurance providers would have to offer and pay for birth control. a solution, mr. obama hopes, works for everyone. religious liberty will be protected and a law that requires free preventative care will not discriminate against women reporter: the decision settles months of debate inside the white house with the president s closest advisors divided along gender lines. valerie jarrett and kathleen sebelius urged the president to expand contraceptive coverage for women. while vice president joe biden and former white house chief of staff bill daly, both catholics, warned about the political fallout. even invited cardinal designate timothy dolan to the oval office to speak directly to the president. today a caution dolan called the president s a
because there s a game changer now in the santorum momentum that s happening reet now and cpac is a very dynamic place. if a person has a speech that takes over the place, it could change everything. i was at the straw poll, the florida straw poll about three months ago when herman cain won. and that surprised everybody. and that started his momentum going forward until the herman cain implosion occurred. and i think that right now rick santorum has a unique opportunity to gain unprecedented momentum because mitt romney has chosen not to connect with the conservative grass roots. the tea party right, so mitt romney is going to give a speech but he s also met with conservatives because of all those things that you say. he s kind of getting in to get a one-on-one message here sort of private meetings. and then, number two, rick soon santorum has to deliver a message that leverages off the momentum. how does he do that? well, this crowd yesterday when i mentioned it, if you