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HEALTH CARE: Governors Air Medicare Concerns To Bush
SOCIAL SECURITY: Grassley Suggests Smaller Private Accounts Than Bush Plan
APPROPRIATIONS : Cochran Moves State Dept. Spending In Committee Shuffle
PUBLIC OPINION: Appraising Bush's Foreign-Policy Priorities

Political Roundup -- What's In The Headlines
ECONOMY: Greenspan Calls For Simpler Tax Code
SOCIAL SECURITY: Administration Plans Two-Month Tour
CONGRESS: Frist Says Social Security May Wait Until 2006
NATION: Governors To Adopt Higher High School Standards
TERRORISM: Gonzales Urges USA PATRIOT Act Renewal
MILITARY: Recruitment Down As U.S. Deaths Top 1,500
ADMINISTRATION: Bush Reiterates Bin Laden Focus
IRAQ: Major U.S. Detention Centers Overflowing

HEALTH CARE
Governors Air Medicare Concerns To Bush
"Governors are prepared to buck the White House's request for quick agreement on Medicaid cost-cutting measures, despite talk that they would agree to a package of short-term Medicaid changes while deferring a major overhaul of the program until later," CongressDailyAM reports. "New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, head of the Democratic Governors' Association, said governors likely would not agree on measures aimed at cutting Medicaid spending by the time lawmakers adopt 'budget reconciliation' instructions ordering cost cuts." President Bush "told the nation's governors on Monday that he recognizes their alarm over soaring Medicaid costs and proposed federal cutbacks and vowed to work with them to try to reach common ground," AP reports.

"The Government Accountability Office last week announced that a former Medicare policymaker will become its new director of healthcare," The Hill reports. "In her new role, Kathleen King will be overseeing the GAO Healthcare Team and focusing on issues related [to] health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid." (coverage compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, March 1)

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SOCIAL SECURITY
Grassley Suggests Smaller Private Accounts Than Bush Plan
Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley Tuesday voiced reservations about diverting as much as 4 percent of Social Security payroll taxes into private retirement accounts, as President Bush has proposed. While arguing that the president's proposal in general will help young people save for their retirement, Grassley implied in a radio interview Tuesday on "The Diane Rehm Show" that he favors setting aside a smaller amount -- 2 percent -- of payroll taxes for stock-market invested accounts. "They're going to be able to take maybe 2 percent, in my estimation, 4 percent in the estimation of the president, and start saving for retirement," he said in the radio interview. Grassley later told CongressDaily he has not specifically discussed a proposal for 2 percent accounts with any senator, and that discussions have not delved into specifics.

"It's all very general at this point. Right now we're working not on legislation but on an understanding of what the problem is," he said. Grassley stressed he was not taking accounts funded at 4 percent off the table. But he said he does have concerns about the amount that must be borrowed or collected in taxes to offset the payroll taxes being diverted under President Bush's plan. Grassley also said he was wary of proposals for "add-on" savings accounts that would not draw from payroll taxes -- which have been touted by Democrats and Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla. -- because he feared low-income workers would not be able to take advantage of them. "If they're ever going to have a [personal] account, it's going to have to come out of obligated money," he said. (CongressDaily, March 1)

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APPROPRIATIONS
Cochran Moves State Dept. Spending In Committee Shuffle
The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to ratify a restructuring plan this afternoon that would eliminate the VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee and move State Department accounts into the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee -- an unexpected move that would consolidate broad authority to influence foreign policy. Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., is giving up his Homeland Security panel chairmanship, providing Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., with a soft landing. Gregg called Cochran's move "very accommodating" but added, "I still like C-J-S." Cochran declined to comment on his proposals, preferring to wait for this afternoon's committee meeting.

Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who is more senior than Gregg, will take the helm of a new Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee. The panel would gain science agencies, including NASA and the National Science Foundation, from the VA-HUD spending bill.

The move will give Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., jurisdiction over the State Department, a move he has long advocated. A new Transportation, Treasury and Housing panel will assume responsibility for the judiciary, as well as HUD and related agencies from VA-HUD -- a move that mirrors House action. VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo., will be that subcommittee's chairman. (CongressDaily, March 2)

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PUBLIC OPINION
Appraising Bush's Foreign-Policy Priorities
President Bush still gets his highest marks on one aspect of foreign policy -- more than six in 10 respondents to a CBS News/New York Times survey approve of the way he is handling the campaign against terrorism, and 33 percent disapprove. But the president's other numbers on international situations have narrower margins: Iraq has a 45/50 split, North Korea is 39/34 and Iran stands at 44/40.

A Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll suggested the public sees hope across the Atlantic: Nearly three-quarters deemed it very important that the United States improve its relations with Europe, and 51 percent said they thought Bush's recent European trip bolstered the relationship. Twenty-eight percent said it did not. And 44 percent of CBS/Times poll respondents said they approved of Bush's handling of foreign policy. Thirty-seven percent said the Bush administration had the same foreign-policy priorities as most Americans; while 58 percent said they were different.

That number dropped to less than a third on the home front, with 31 percent of respondents saying the administration shared their domestic priorities and 63 percent saying it did not. Six in 10 also said they disapproved of the way Bush is handling the budget deficit; 54 percent disapproved of his handling of the economy. Forty-two percent of CBS/Times respondents said the country was going in the right direction and 52 percent said it was off on the wrong track. The Fox number was closer, with 41 percent saying the world was heading in a better direction with Bush as president and 43 percent saying it was worse.

But the public is paying the most attention to one issue: Ninety-two percent said they follow news stories on Iraq very or somewhat closely, more than the debate over Social Security (85 percent), the pope's health (68 percent), the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal (48 percent) and the Michael Jackson trial (34 percent). (NationalJournal.com's Poll Track, March 4)

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Political Roundup -- What's In The Headlines

ECONOMY
Greenspan Calls For Simpler Tax Code
"The U.S. tax code has grown too complicated and must be simplified to ensure the economy runs more smoothly, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified" Thursday, the Washington Times reports. "While replacing the income tax with a consumption tax might be the best way to boost growth, it would be too hard to achieve both technically and politically, because it would arouse much opposition, he told" Bush's advisory panel on tax reform.

Greenspan also "said solely taxing consumption would raise 'a challenging set of transition issues' and noted 'any tax increase... inhibits economic activity,' suggesting strictly taxing consumption could limit growth in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity," USA Today reports.

In other news, "as oil prices approached a new high" Thursday, "industry analysts said they are anticipating price increases to more than $60 a barrel this year," the Wall Street Journal reports. Also Thursday, "the acting secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Adnan Shihab-Eldin, acknowledged in remarks to journalists the possibility of prices rising to greater levels if supplies are disrupted, suggesting the cartel believes it has a limited ability to curb world oil prices." (coverage compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, March 4)

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SOCIAL SECURITY
Administration Plans Two-Month Tour
"With Congress just back from a recess during which many lawmakers heard complaints from constituents about changing Social Security, the White House plans a two-month tour of American cities" in which President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Treasury Secretary John Snow "will promote Mr. Bush's ideas," the Wall Street Journal reports.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., "pressed the Senate to pass a Social Security reform bill before the House takes it up," The Hill reports. "Hastert thus threw the hot potato of reform back to the upper chamber just a day after" Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., "suggested he might not bring it to the Senate floor for 12 months," but the speaker's remarks came before Snow "indicated that the White House could accept a Social Security overhaul that excludes the diversion of payroll taxes to personal savings accounts." (coverage compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, March 3)

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CONGRESS
Frist Says Social Security May Wait Until 2006
At a hearing Tuesday for William G. Myers III, the first of President Bush's "previously blocked court nominees up for consideration again, the hope for a new era of compromise seemed illusory, as several key Democrats set the stage for a showdown with Republicans and blamed the president for the impasse on his nominees," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. "Even one Democrat viewed as a swing vote, newly elected Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, seemed to be taking a harder line.... Salazar sent a letter to Bush asking that he withdraw all seven previously blocked court nominees, including Myers, to show his commitment to working with Democrats."

"The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Tuesday pushed back for at least a day a markup of" Bush's 'Clear Skies' air quality plan, "signaling a continued inability of Republicans to find the single vote they need to pass it," CongressDailyAM reports. The Senate voted 63-32 Tuesday "to exempt active-duty military and some veterans from key provisions of pending legislation that would make it harder for millions of Americans to erase their debts by filing for bankruptcy protection," the Los Angeles Times reports. "The bankruptcy bill -- long sought by credit card companies and close to becoming law in the past -- would force many consumers to pass a new 'means test' to qualify for debt forgiveness." (coverage compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, March 2)

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NATION
Governors To Adopt Higher High School Standards
"The governors of 13 states with more than one-third of the nation's students said Sunday that they were forming a coalition to improve high schools by adopting higher standards, more rigorous courses and tougher examinations," the New York Times reports. "Unless the nation takes drastic measures on high schools, they said, the United States will lose its competitive position in the world economy."

Meanwhile, "the Bush administration is barring private American AIDS organizations from winning federal grants to provide health services overseas unless they pledge their opposition to prostitution, as part of a broader Republican effort in recent weeks to apply conservative values to foreign-assistance programs," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The White House move comes as Republican lawmakers have been pressing the administration to cut off funds to private organizations that encourage clean-needle programs overseas for intravenous drug users." (coverage compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, Feb. 28)

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TERRORISM
Gonzales Urges USA PATRIOT Act Renewal
On Monday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "called on Congress" to renew the USA PATRIOT Act, "saying the threat from international terrorism -- including the al Qaeda network -- was 'still very real' despite U.S. successes in capturing and killing global terrorists," the Washington Times reports. "In his first major address since his contentious confirmation hearing last month, Mr. Gonzales told a meeting of the Hoover Institution in Washington that some of the act's provisions will expire at the end of this year, but that 'the terrorist threat will not expire on that schedule.'" Gonzales also "said Monday he would move aggressively to prosecute obscenity cases, and he laid out a broader agenda much like that of his predecessor, John Ashcroft," AP reports.

"The military appointed a three-star general Monday to lead an investigation into abuse allegations at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, clearing the way for investigators to question a two-star general who once commanded the camp," AP reports. "Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt takes over for Brig. Gen. John Furlow, according to the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, which oversees the camp in eastern Cuba." (coverage compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, March 1)

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MILITARY
Recruitment Down As U.S. Deaths Top 1,500
"Two suicide car bombs exploded outside a checkpoint at the heavily fortified Interior Ministry this morning, killing at least five policemen and injuring seven others," the New York Times reports. According to Reuters, Thursday "in Baquba, about 40 miles north of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber blew himself up near the local headquarters of the National Guard, killing at least one civilian and wounding 14 people."

"U.S. military deaths in the Iraq campaign passed the 1,500 milestone" Thursday, an Associated Press count showed, as the military announced the latest death of one of its troops just south of Baghdad." The soldier was killed Wednesday "in Babil province, where insurgents frequently attack U.S.- and Iraqi-led forces."

"The Marine Corps for the second straight month in February missed its goal for signing up new recruits, the Marines said on Wednesday, in another sign of the Iraq war's effect on military recruiting," Reuters reports. "For the first time in more than a decade, the Marines in January fell short of their monthly goal for new recruits signing enlistment contracts to begin serving within a year." (coverage compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, March 3)

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ADMINISTRATION
Bush Reiterates Bin Laden Focus
During Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's formal swearing-in ceremony Thursday, President Bush "said stopping Osama bin Laden from committing a new attack on U.S. soil is 'the greatest challenge of our day,' but vowed that the United States eventually will bring to justice the mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks," the Washington Times reports.

Bush also "traveled to the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday and sought to reassure its director and nervous employees that they would not be undermined once John D. Negroponte assumes the new position of national director of intelligence," the New York Times reports. "The president said the second reason for his trip to the agency's headquarters in Langley, Va., was to explain that 'the reforms' Mr. Negroponte will put in place 'will actually help the C.I.A. do its job better.'"

Meanwhile, Bush "is trying to shore up the electoral prospects of two Republican lawmakers who are getting heat over his plan to overhaul Social Security," AP reports. "Bush was to appear" Friday "at meetings with mostly hand-picked audiences in the districts of GOP Reps. Mike Ferguson of New Jersey and Chris Chocola of Indiana." (coverage compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, March 4)

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IRAQ
Major U.S. Detention Centers Overflowing
According to senior military officials, "the American military's major detention centers in Iraq have swelled to capacity and are holding more people than ever," the New York Times reports. "The growing detainee population reflects recent changes in how the military has been waging the war and in its policies toward detainees."

In related news, "China accused the United States on Thursday of using a double standard to judge human rights in other countries, adding to a list of nations suggesting that the government that produced the Abu Ghraib prison abuses has no business commenting on what happens elsewhere," the Washington Post reports. "'No country should exclude itself from the international human rights development process or view itself as the incarnation of human rights that can reign over other countries and give orders to the others,' Premier Wen Jiabao's cabinet declared, three days after the State Department criticized China in its annual human rights report." (coverage compiled by NationalJournal.com's Earlybird, March 4)

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