The Senate hopes to vote on its health care bill before Christmas

CNN’s Political Unit

Senate Democrats claimed a major victory this weekend after voting to end debate on their version of the health care bill.

The Senate is on track to hold a final vote on Christmas eve, but there's still a long way to go before a bill is on President Obama's desk.

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about what's in the House and Senate health care bills and what's next.

Where does the health care debate stand?

The House passed its version of health care reform last month. The Senate, which follows different procedures than the House, is slated to vote on its version of the health care bill before Christmas.

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An abortion demonstrator protests a clinic in Nebraska.

Orrin Hatch
Special to CNN

The Democratic health care proposal being debated in the Senate not only contains large new taxes, enormous government expansion and huge spending, but I'm convinced it also seeks to allow federal funding for abortion - something 61 percent of Americans do not support, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey.

Recently, the House of Representatives passed a health care reform bill containing language that would safeguard the rights of the unborn, and also prevent medical providers from being coerced into performing procedures that violate their conscience.

However, the health care reform bill introduced by Harry Reid, D-Nevada, in the Senate does not contain similar protections. To be clear, the language in the Reid bill on abortion is significantly weaker than that of the bill that passed in the House last month.

I have major concerns about how effective the weak language in the Reid bill will be. The one thing we know is that coverage of elective abortions in the government-operated health plan (or the public option) would be decided by the secretary of Health and Human Services. I am certain that federal subsidies would ultimately pay for insurance coverage used to cover elective abortions.

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Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, discusses health care legislation with reporters in Washington last Tuesday.

John Feehery
Special to CNN

Winston Churchill once exclaimed, "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result."

Joe Lieberman knows that exhilaration better than most.

In 2006, the Democratic establishment took a shot at Mr. Lieberman, and it missed.

Now, the Connecticut senator is dictating the terms of a health care package that could determine the political future of the party that tried to end his career.

Predictably, the left wing of the party has decided to attack, with all of its might, their former vice presidential standard bearer. They have called him a traitor, sell-out and worse.

They have attacked his wife's career - she lobbies for funding to end breast cancer and formerly worked for insurance companies.

Think Progress, a left-wing group, has launched a campaign to get Harry Reid to strip Lieberman of his committee chairmanship.

The Washington Post's Ezra Klein writes Lieberman "seems willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral score."

John McCain, Lieberman's closest friend in the Senate, has called these attacks a "disgrace."

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President Obama speaks after White House meeting, joined by Sens. Chris Dodd, Max Baucus and Harry Reid.

Gloria Borger
CNN Senior Political Analyst

Democrats in Congress, already worried about their dim prospects in the 2010 midterm elections, have been thrown in a tizzy about something else that could reduce their majority: retirements.

They are four departures down and worried about more members leaving districts that have grown more competitive. And they're right to be concerned: Districts without any incumbent running often wind up switching to the other party.

But there's much more to worry about. Consider the results of a recent "open seat" special election for the state senate in a Democratic district in rural eastern Kentucky: Republican Jimmy Higdon beat the Democrat Jodie Haydon by tying him to, of all things, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats.

"Congress is out of control," one effective ad intoned, "and [Haydon] will bring Nancy Pelosi's one-party control of government to Frankfurt."

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Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele

Kevin Madden and Kristen Soltis
Politico

As unemployment hovers in the double digits, the nation’s federal deficit continues to tick upward, with the Obama administration projecting a $1.8 trillion federal spending deficit for the 2009 fiscal year alone. That unrestrained spending of taxpayer dollars and piling federal debt has had an important political consequence: a potentially toxic political environment for Democrats heading into 2010.

While the everyday American confronts a sour economy with a sense of conservatism — cutting back on excess expenditures, doing more with less — congressional Democrats and the White House have confronted it liberally: a $787 billion “stimulus” targeted toward the public sector, a proposed trillion-dollar health care bill and billions upon billions more of federal taxpayer dollars directed at bailouts. What’s most troubling is there seems to be no end in sight.

Democrats have offered up a gift in the form of disgruntled independents, the growing and mobile political force currently in possession of both parties’ political fortunes. Both anecdotal and empirical evidence demonstrates these voters are highly concerned with the policies that have flooded the country with debt and red ink.

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'TARP rests at the intersection where excessive government spending meets risky decisions' says Thune.

John Thune
Special to CNN

For the federal government, this has been the year of spending dangerously.

The danger lies not just in the staggering volume of money being thrown around by the administration and Democrat-controlled Congress. It lies as well in their choices about how that money is being used and their apparent lack of concern that their spending splurge is unsustainable.

Just this past fiscal year alone, which ended in October, the federal government has racked up a staggering deficit of $1.4 trillion, tripling the previous record. And it has done so in part through moves like buying an ownership stake in hundreds of banks, an insurance company, two automakers and numerous other businesses.

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Matthew Continetti
Special to CNN

Sarah Palin appears on Oprah on Monday to mark the launch of her book, "Going Rogue." She'll follow up with an extensive interview with Barbara Walters, a multicity book tour and appearances on the Fox News Channel and talk radio.

She'll grab plenty of headlines. As you read about Palin's old-media tour, it's important to remember that she's also a pioneer in the political use of new social media. Not that she gets any credit.

Sometimes the most important revolutions are the quiet ones. This is especially true in the case of technology, which has a way of sneaking up on us.

Take cell phones, for example. A decade ago, they were a luxury item. Suddenly, everyone seemed to have one. What had once been a sign of status became commonplace, all with hardly anybody noticing - and without any central direction.

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Republicans pulled off a significant victory with Robert McDonnell defeating Creigh Deeds.

Julian E. Zelizer
Special to CNN

Republicans have been downright giddy following the off-year elections in Virginia and New Jersey. In a swing state and a blue state, Republicans pulled off significant victories with Chris Christie's defeat of Gov. John Corzine and Robert McDonnell defeating Creigh Deeds.

Just two days after the election, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who had boasted of the results as evidence of a "Republican Renaissance," issued a stern warning to his colleagues. Steele said that his message for the 2010 midterm elections was that Republicans should remain loyal to the party principles, or "we'll come after you."

Republicans certainly can take some comfort in this election. It is clear that some of the excitement about the Democratic Party has faded since the beginning of 2009. The so-called jobless recovery, with unemployment now at 10.2 percent, is not sitting well with many Americans.

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GOP candidate Bob McDonnell emerged victorious in the Virginia gubernatorial race.

CNN

Tuesday's off-year election may not have had the high stakes of the 2008 presidential election, but several races are significant on the national level:

• New York's 23rd Congressional District: Owens to win vacant U.S. House seat, CNN projects

Democratic candidate Bill Owens will be elected to a vacant U.S. House seat in upstate New York.

The race garnered national attention as local Republican leaders picked Dede Scozzafava because of her appeal to centrist Republicans, independents and even some Democrats. However, the decision sparked a revolt among conservative activists in the GOP.

Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman outpolled Scozzafava, forcing her to withdraw. Scozzafava has since endorsed Owens.

• Virginia governor: McDonnell is projected winner

CNN has projected that Republican Bob McDonnell will be elected Virginia governor. The 55-year-old former state attorney general will be the first Republican to win the state's highest office in 12 years.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, McDonnell was leading Democratic opponent Creigh Deeds 59 percent to 41 percent.

The race was seen as an early referendum on voters' attitudes toward President Obama and his policies and an opportunity for Republicans to turn back recent Democratic gains.

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Denver, Colorado, hosted the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Kevin Bohn and Jessica Yellin
CNN

The western United States, with its independent streak and growing population, is the terrain both political parties are hoping to mine for electoral gains in the coming years.

With Denver hosting the 2008 Democratic Convention and a more concentrated effort in the region, the Obama campaign was able to capture Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada in last year's presidential election. Some Democrats hoped those results foretold a transformation, but a year later, political experts are saying not so fast.

The West gives President Obama his lowest approval ratings, and the Democratic Party has a 45 percent approval rating in the area - the only region in the country in which it gets under 50 percent, according to an October 16-18 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll.

"It's not as though people are lining up at the Republican Party headquarters. It's just that the bloom is off," said William Chaloupka, a long-time observer of Western politics and a professor at Colorado State University.

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New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, lost in a race dominated by local issues.

Nate Silver
Special to CNN

"All politics is local." That four-word statement, originally uttered by former Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill, is one of the favorite clichés of political pundits everywhere. But it's seldom respected when it matters most.

Consider, for instance, the special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District, which conservative Democrat Bill Owens won in spite of partisan and nonpartisan polling that had shown Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman with a solid lead.

Almost overnight, Hoffman became a sort of folk hero among conservative activists around the country, a decidedly ordinary-looking man who seemed poised to take an extraordinary path into Washington. Some 95 percent of his fundraising came from outside the district.

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Candy Crowley | BIO
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

GOP candidate Bob McDonnell has been polling ahead of his Democratic rival in the Virginia gubernatorial race.

Jay Newton-Small
Time Magazine

On the Sunday before a pivotal election, a few hundred supporters have gathered to hear their nominee speak. For many in the excited crowd, it's their first political event. "This one feels big because the whole country is paying attention to it because it's a change in the attitude: people are fed up with Washington," says Lisa Manser, 42, a Leesburg, Va., teacher who had knocked on doors as a campaign volunteer for the first time in her life earlier that day.

The candidates arrive and the speeches begin. One riles the crowd up with a chant, "Yes, we can!" Another gets them going with the old Kerry campaign slogan, "Help is on the way!" He continues: "When we're done and the polls close, change is on the way! But unlike change that we've seen in the past this is change you can hope for!"

The scene may seem eerily familiar, especially since the rally was held in front of the very offices Barack Obama's campaign used last year in this northwest Virginia town. But the rally in Leesburg on Sunday was for the Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell; the speakers included attorney general nominee Ken Cuccinelli (the leader of the "Yes, we can" chant) and Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling ("Help is on the way"). And while the tone may have sounded reminiscent of Obama's stirring rallies of a year ago, the platform couldn't have been more conservative. "This has been a campaign of ideas, on innovation, on a positive uplifting vision for the future of Virginia," McDonnell told the crowd. "And what we need you to do is go find those people who believe in these limited conservative principles that we've laid out in the last six months, that believe free enterprise and the private sector is the key to economic prosperity."

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Candy Crowley
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

Barack Obama was riding high on November 5, 2008. What signals will the 2009 elections send him?

John King
CNN Chief National Correspondent

This is a week that, in more ways than one, will bring lessons of how much has changed since President Obama's historic election victory one year ago.

In Washington, key tests remain for Democratic health care plans in the House and Senate. This week will also give us a better sense of just how detailed Republicans are willing to be in offering an alternative plan.

From the government and Wall Street, fresh earnings and other data will test this cautiously optimistic assessment from Vice President Biden: "I'm confident we have hit bottom."

And Election Day 2009 will be compared with Election Day 2008. Democrats have had the upper hand in New Jersey and Virginia in recent years. In gubernatorial and other elections, Republicans see a chance to make a statement about their party and perhaps about the president's standing as well.

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Michael Bloomberg has set a record by spending more personal funds than anyone in U.S. history on bids for public office.

Robin Shulman
Washington Post Staff Writer

As Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg campaigns for reelection, some of his steadiest supporters include people like Freddy Batista: a man with mixed feelings.

"I don't like Bloomberg, but I think the city needs him," said Batista, 30, a heavyset sales clerk wearing a Yankees cap. He explained that he finds the mayor cranky and distant, but that he trusts him to fix the ailing economy.

Recent polls have found Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman and political independent, leading by double digits over his Democratic rival, the little-known and underfunded William C. Thompson, the city's comptroller.

Yet New Yorkers both for and against the mayor describe conflicting emotions about his record spending on his campaign - likely more than $100 million by Tuesday, which is Election Day - and the way he pushed through legal changes to allow him to run for a third term.

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Deirdre Walsh
CNN Congressional Producer

House Democratic leaders are preparing to unveil a health care bill as soon as Thursday that includes a more moderate version of the public option, one that allows doctors to negotiate reimbursement rates with the federal government, several Democratic leadership aides tell CNN.

That’s a blow to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has argued for a more “robust” version of a the public option, one that ties reimbursement rates for providers and hospitals to Medicare rates plus a 5% increase. But Pelosi and other Democratic leaders appear to be bowing to the reality that after a week of canvassing rank and file Democrats, her preferred approach does not have enough votes. Instead the more moderate version of a public option, favored by rural and moderate Members, appears to have the most support among House Democrats.

One of these Democratic aides told CNN “the votes aren't there for robust public option, so that means we're looking at the other form of the public option.”

This aide said House Democratic leaders will meet Wednesday afternoon to make final decisions.

House Democratic leaders are planning to unveil their health care bill at a big event on the West Front of the Capitol Thursday morning. However, these sources cautioned the bill is still not final, and the event for Thursday is tentative.

“The overall message is the same as it's been at the beginning. We're committed to a bill with a public option,” one aide told CNN, arguing that the House is still presenting a strong health reform bill.

Democratic leaders expect to get a final cost estimate today from the Congressional Budget Office.

Preliminary estimates by the CBO given to leaders last week projected that a bill using either version of the public option would come in under the $900 billion cap President Obama has set for the ten year cost.

One thorny issue that must still be resolved is the final abortion language in the bill. Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak has been pushing leaders to add stronger language prohibiting the use of federal money to pay for abortions under new health care reforms. Stupak vows that if he isn’t allowed a vote on the issue he has the support of 40 anti-abortion Democrats to block the bill from getting to the House floor. Leadership aides admit they still need to find compromise wording on abortion, but are confident the issue will be resolved by the time the bill gets to the House floor.

House leaders are working to post the text of final bill on line early next week and have agreed to give Members 72 hours to read it before a vote. Under this timetable, the House would begin debating health care at the end of next week.