House Dems confident in overcoming abortion rift

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama set his sights on Capitol Hill, ready to rally House Democrats on Saturday for a final health care push as party leaders appeared confident they had overcome a flare-up within their ranks over abortion funding restrictions in the legislation.

Building on Democrats' momentum, the House Rules Committee worked to set the terms for floor debate and a final vote Sunday on Obama's top priority and the focus of his first year in office.

The battle tilted in Obama's direction Friday as more Democrats disclosed how they would vote.

Victory within reach, the president decided to make a final personal appeal with a Saturday afternoon visit to the Capitol. Republicans, unanimous in opposition to the bill, complained anew about its cost and reach.

Under a complex and disputed procedure the Democrats have devised, a single vote probably will be held to send one bill to Obama for his signature and to ship a second, fix-it measure to the Senate for a vote in the next several days.

"This process corrupts and prostitutes the system," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, pleading with the Rules Committee head, Rep. Louise Slaughter, to allow separate votes on the underlying Senate bill and the fixes.

Slaughter, D-N.Y., chastised Barton, a GOP leader on health care, and said his party had "opted out" of co-operating on the legislation. "We have to get on with it," she said.

Democratic leaders and Obama focused last-minute lobbying efforts on two groups of Democrats: 37 who voted against an earlier bill in the House and 40 who voted for it only after first making sure it would include strict abortion limits that now have been modified.

Leaders worked into Friday night attempting to resolve the dispute over abortion, and Saturday morning they were increasingly confident it would not scuttle the bill.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who succeeded last November in inserting strict anti-abortion language into the House bill, had hoped to do so again. But Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told The Associated Press leaders are closing in on the votes to pass the bill and probably won't need Stupak's backing. "That's the likely outcome," said Waxman, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and an author of the House bill.

Stupak's office postponed a news conference the lawmaker had scheduled for Saturday morning.