James Sikes made a panicky call to emergency services, saying his Toyota Prius was speeding out of control on a San Diego freeway. His account is now increasingly under scrutiny

It sounded like a motorist's worst nightmare: a Californian estate agent, James Sikes, made headlines around the world last week when he recounted how his Toyota Prius went out of control on a San Diego freeway, reaching a speed of up to 94mph until a highway patrol officer guided him to safety.

Sikes's account is now under scrutiny as experts puzzle over technical discrepancies and details emerge of his colourful financial history.

Sikes became the face of Toyota's safety crisis as a flustered, white-haired 61-year-old, when he went public with his story and a recording was released of his panicky voice telling an emergency operator: "My car won't slow down!"

His ordeal appeared to be the latest, most dramatic, in a string of incidents involving faulty accelerators that has led Toyota to recall more than 8m cars around the world. But after extensive tests, the US government's national highway traffic safety administration today revealed it had not found anything wrong with the 2008 blue hybrid car.

"So far, we have not been able to find anything to explain the incident that Mr Sikes reported," the agency said. "We would caution people that our work continues and we may never know exactly what happened with this car."

Toyota has dismissed Sikes's story, saying its own tests found the car's accelerator and backup safety system worked. It stopped short of saying Sikes had staged a hoax, but said yesterday that his account did not square with a series of tests it conducted on the petrol-electric hybrid.

Toyota said its testing found Sikes had rapidly pressed the accelerator and brakes back and forth more than 250 times.

A spokesman, Mike Michels, told a press conference: "We have no opinion on his account, what he's been saying, other than that the scenario is not consistent with the technical findings."

Meanwhile, public records have revealed that Sikes has a troubled financial past. In 2006, he appeared on a television game show called The Big Spin and won $55,000. But two years later he filed for personal bankruptcy, citing debts of $115,000 on 16 credit cards.

Darrell Issa, a Californian congressman on the house oversight committee,, expressed reservations about the incident, saying that some cases of faulty vehicles arose from driver error, while others could be perpetrated by people seeking "notoriety". Issa said the government's test result "doesn't mean it didn't happen. But let's understand, it doesn't mean it did happen."

After weaving around cars and lorries, Sikes's high-speed journey came to an end when a highway patrol officer guided him through an emergency braking procedure and then positioned his patrol car in front of the Prius to slow it down.

Sikes's lawyer, John Gomez, dismissed doubts, saying that his client is not suing Toyota and has declined television appearances. Gomez added that the highway patrol officer could smell burning brakes and saw the car's brake light on.

"There's a ghost in the machine," Gomez told the Los Angeles Times, adding that Toyota has made little progress in pinpointing problems with other runaway cars. "No one is able to replicate it or identify it."

Sikes's wife, Patty, pleaded with reporters to leave the couple alone, saying they had received death threats.

"Our careers are ruined and life is just not good anymore," she said.

• Toyota
• Motoring
• Road transport
• Automotive industry

Media conservatives have falsely characterized a legislative proposal reportedly being considered to finalize health care reform in the House as unprecedented, undemocratic, and unconstitutional. But the rule in question is an accepted part of House procedure, and Congress repeatedly used the rule under GOP leadership, according to a former GOP staff director of the House Rules Committee.

Politico: House leaders considering "self-executing rule" to finalize health care reform. A March 9 Politico article reported that Democratic House "leaders have discussed the possibility of using the House Rules Committee to avoid an actual vote on the Senate's bill, according to leadership aides. They would do this by writing what's called a 'self-executing rule,' meaning the Senate bill would be attached to a package of fixes being negotiated between the two chambers -- without an actual vote on the Senate's legislation."

CRS: "Self-executing rules may stipulate that a discrete policy proposal is deemed to have passed the House." In a 2006 report, as Time's Karen Tumulty pointed out, the Congressional Research Service defined the self-executing rule as part of the House rulemaking process:

Starting about twenty-five years ago, in response to developments such as increased partisanship and uncertainty with respect to how long or controversial the amendment process on the floor might be, the Rules Committee began to issue more procedurally imaginative and complex rules.

Definition of "Self-Executing" Rule. One of the newer types is called a "self-executing" rule; it embodies a "two-for-one" procedure. This means that when the House adopts a rule it also simultaneously agrees to dispose of a separate matter, which is specified in the rule itself. For instance, self-executing rules may stipulate that a discrete policy proposal is deemed to have passed the House and been incorporated in the bill to be taken up. The effect: neither in the House nor in the Committee of the Whole will lawmakers have an opportunity to amend or to vote separately on the "self-executed" provision. It was automatically agreed to when the House passed the rule.

Self-executing rules require a vote. The CRS report makes clear that passage of a rule by the House is required for the "self-executed" provision to be adopted. Don Wolfensberger, former chief of staff for the House Rules Committee under Republicans, stated in a 2006 Roll Call column: "Almost every major bill must obtain a special rule, or resolution, from the Rules Committee permitting immediate floor consideration. The resolution also specifies the amount of general debate time and what amendments will be allowed. A special rule also may contain other bells, whistles, gizmos and gadgets.One of these optional attachments is a self-executing provision, which decrees a specified amendment to have been adopted upon the rule's passage [Emphasis added]. In other words, once the House adopts the special rule it effectively has adopted the amendment before the bill has even been called up for consideration [Emphasis added]."

Wolfensberger: Republicans "set new records" for using self-executing rule. Also in his 2006 Roll Call column, Wolfensberger stated that the Republican Party "set new records" for its use of the self-executing rule:

Self-executing rules began innocently enough in the 1970s as a way of making technical corrections to bills. But, as the House became more partisan in the 1980s, the majority leadership was empowered by its caucus to take all necessary steps to pass the party's bills. This included a Rules Committee that was used more creatively to devise procedures to all but guarantee policy success. The self-executing rule was one such device to make substantive changes in legislation while ensuring majority passage.

When Republicans were in the minority, they railed against self-executing rules as being anti-deliberative because they undermined and perverted the work of committees and also prevented the House from having a separate debate and vote on the majority's preferred changes. From the 95th to 98th Congresses (1977-84), there were only eight self-executing rules making up just 1 percent of the 857 total rules granted. However, in Speaker Tip O'Neill's (D-Mass.) final term in the 99th Congress, there were 20 self-executing rules (12 percent). In Rep. Jim Wright's (D-Texas) only full term as Speaker, in the 100th Congress, there were 18 self-executing rules (17 percent). They reached a high point of 30 under Speaker Tom Foley (D-Wash.) during the final Democratic Congress, the 103rd, for 22 percent of all rules.

When Republicans took power in 1995, they soon lost their aversion to self-executing rules and proceeded to set new records under Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). There were 38 and 52 self-executing rules in the 104th and 105th Congresses (1995-1998), making up 25 percent and 35 percent of all rules, respectively. Under Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) there were 40, 42 and 30 self-executing rules in the 106th, 107th and 108th Congresses (22 percent, 37 percent and 22 percent, respectively). Thus far in the 109th Congress, self-executing rules make up about 16 percent of all rules.

On April 26 [2006], the Rules Committee served up the mother of all self-executing rules for the lobby/ethics reform bill. The committee hit the trifecta with not one, not two, but three self-executing provisions in the same special rule.

Limbaugh calls rule a "twisted scheme" to "bend the rules." During the March 11 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh stated that Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) proposed using the self-executing rule to finalize health care reform legislation. Limbaugh said: "So, the scheme -- the twisted scheme by which the Democrat leaders plan to bend the rules to ram Obama's legislation through Congress now has a name: the Slaughter solution."

Doocy: "They can pass the health care bill without actually voting on it." During the March 11 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy stated that "the "Slaughter solution" rule would declare that the House deems the Senate version to have been passed by the House, and then House members would then have to vote on whether or not to accept the rule. So, by passing that rule, then they can pass the health care bill without actually voting on it. That is crazy."

Hannity: Democrats' "latest solution: Don't vote at all." During the March 11 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity stated (via the Nexis database), "The desperation among Democrats to pass this health care bill has reached new heights. Now they lacked the votes in the House to jam this bill through. So their latest solution: Don't vote at all. Now that's what House rules chairwoman Louise Slaughter is proposing. Now she wants to create a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed and once and for all by passing a minor bill that makes corrections to the Senate bill."

Fox Nation asks: "Should Rep. Slaughter be expelled from Congress?" On March 12, Fox Nation displayed the following graphic on its webpage:

Big Government: Slaughter's rule is "violating the Constitution." A March 11 post on Andrew Breitbart's Big Government website stated, "The Slaughter Solution has one very large obstacle -- the Constitution Article I, Section 7," and that "if this Congress continues down this path of violating the Constitution, the 'people' will have a viable case, class-action or otherwise, in the US courts because it is going to be extremely difficult for a judge to ignore that the 111th Democrat-Progressive led Congress violated Article I, Section 7 to the most obscene extent."

Jim Hoft: "Democrats will use the unconstitutional 'Slaughter Rule.' " In a March 14 post on his Gateway Pundit blog, Jim Hoft stated, "Democratic leader Rep. Chris Van Hollen admitted today on FOX News Sunday that democrats will use the unconstitutional 'Slaughter Rule' to ram their pro-abortion nationalized health care bill through Congress. Democrats announced this tactic last week. They will pass the bill without voting on it. They will take over one-sixth of the US economy without even voting on it."

Hot Air: House is using self-executing rule "for the first time in U.S. history." A March 14 Hot Air blog post stated, "We're hours away from Slaughter revealing the strategy and Democrats have no other mechanism to pass a bill other than using an extra-Constitutional procedure. They don't have the votes to pass the Senate Bill, so they are -- for the first time in U.S. history -- about to rule that they actually passed a bill they never voted on."

Malkin calls Rep. Slaughter a "Constitution-butcher." On March 13, Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin displayed the following graphic on her website:

Body of MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland was discovered at his home after staff failed to rouse him

Police and doctors are investigating the death of a Labour MP whose body was found at his home today.

Dr Ashok Kumar, 53, had been working as normal, with major commitments as parliamentary private secretary to Hilary Benn, the environment secretary. He was also campaigning for Corus steelworkers' jobs in his Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency. His body was found after anxious staff failed to rouse him by phone and called emergency services, who broke into his home.

The prime minister, Gordon Brown, led tributes to the former research scientist's 14-year Commons career, saying: "He was a tenacious campaigner for his constituents and a warm and incredibly generous man." The former prime minister Tony Blair, a fellow north-east MP before his retirement, said: "Ashok was a dedicated MP, with a determination to serve the community he was from."

Cleveland police said Kumar's death was not being treated as suspicious but remained unexplained. The MP had a majority of 8,000 in 2005, but there will be no byelection because of the proximity of the general election.

Kumar was single and lived alone, but had talked recently to neighbours. He was born in India and moved to Britain to study at Imperial College in London, before moving to Teesside as a senior researcher for British Steel.

His Commons work included advocacy of humanism and opposition to faith schools, but he principally campaigned on behalf of Teesside's declining heavy industry. He first entered parliament for Langbaurgh, also on the Tees south bank, in 1991, when he became the fifth Asian-origin MP since the end of the second world war. He lost the seat the following year, but returned to win the redrawn constituency in New Labour's landslide in 1997.

Police said paramedics had declared him dead at the scene and that relatives had been informed. Benn said: "It is very hard to believe that Ashok is no longer with us. He was a pioneer, a doughty fighter for his constituents and a Labour man through and through, who cared deeply for others. He was also fearless in pursuit of what he saw as right."

The death was announced to the Commons by the Speaker John Bercow, who said: "Ashok was a most assiduous member, much respected by the House."

Meanwhile, the MP for one of Labour's most marginal seats announced today she would not defend her 37-vote majority at the election. Laura Moffatt's decision gives party workers in Crawley, east Sussex, just weeks to find a new candidate.

Labour's national executive committee will draw up shortlists for her and Kumar's seats, as well as Blackpool North and Fleetwood, where Joan Humble announced her retirement late last month.

• Labour
• House of Commons
• Hilary Benn

United States determined to persuade Israel into substantive peace talks with Palestinians, Obama administration source says

President Barack Obama and the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, are on a collision course today in a row described by a senior Israeli diplomat as the worst crisis between the two countries for more than three decades.

An Obama administration source told the Guardian that the White House and US state department are intent on pushing Israel into substantive peace talks with the Palestinians and will not shy away this time as they did when the last effort ended in embarrassing failure in September.

"No one gets anywhere by accusing each other. We are hoping to lay the foundations for negotiations," the source said. In order to get negotiations under way, the US is demanding that Netanyahu cancel or freeze plans to build 1,600 planned Jewish homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem. But Netanyahu, speaking at a meeting of his own Likud party, showed no signs of backing down. "The building in Jerusalem, and in all other places, will continue in the same way as has been customary over the last 42 years," he said.

The Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, in a weekend telephone call to other Israeli diplomats, expressed alarm about the extent of the confrontation.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted the normally cool Oren, an academic-turned diplomat, as saying: "Israel's ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975 ... a crisis of historic proportions."

Oren was called to the state department last week in a rare rebuke for a diplomat from a country the US normally regards as one of its strongest allies.

The crisis began last week when the US vice-president, Joe Biden, travelled to Israel in the hope of securing a start to the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. But his hopes were dashed when Israel announced the new construction in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian cabinet reiterated today that it will not enter into talks while such construction is planned.

The White House has steadily built up the heat on Israel over the last few days, with the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, berating Netanyahu in a 45-minute call on Friday and David Axelrod, the chief White House adviser, describing Israeli behaviour as an insult yesterday.

The US wants Israel not only to backtrack on the East Jerusalem building plans but to enter into talks with the Palestinians on substantive issues and not just talks about talks, as Israel wants. Washington also wants Israel to make gestures towards the Palestinians, such as releasing Palestinian prisoners and withdrawing more Israeli forces from Palestinian territory. The US special envoy to Israel and the Palestinian territories, the former senator George Mitchell, is to visit Israel this week in the hope of hearing that Israel will bow to at least some of the US demands.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address a meeting in Washington early next week of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the powerful Israeli lobbying group. The US does not yet know whether he will attend in person or make a televised address.

The Israeli prime minister faces the problem of whether to offer the US a concession, such as a short freeze on house-building in East Jerusalem, a move that might lead to the break-up of his coalition government. Clinton will address the Aipac conference in person, a potentially dramatic occasion if she opts to repeat her calls for Netanyahu to back down.

Yesterday Aipac issued a statement critical of the Obama administration and today embarked on an intensive lobbying exercise to secure the backing of Jewish or strong Israeli-supporting members of Congress.

The more liberal Jewish lobbying organisation, J Street, said the US should use the crisis to push for peace talks. Its executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, said: "Too much time has already been lost in getting the two sides into negotiations. We must not lose further time allowing a single development, as objectionable as it may be, to derail progress."

The US magazine Foreign Policy posted a report on its website yesterdaythat in January top US commanders briefed the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, that US failure to stop Israel continuing with settlement building on the West Bank damaged US relations with the Arab world. Judith Kipper, a Middle East specialist at the Washington-based Institute of World Affairs, said there had long been a divergence between the US and Israel over various issues and a recognition of this fact was overdue.

She did not expect the US to threaten to withhold financial or military aid or intelligence and that going public was sufficient as a big stick.

Paul Scham, an academic at Washington's Middle East Institute, said: "What is interesting is that US has chosen to make a big deal of it. The reason for doing this is, it seems, to be ready to pull out some version of the peace offensive Obama has been promising for a year. Hopefully, it will not die down as it did last year."

• US politics
• US foreign policy
• Israel
• United States
• Palestinian territories
• Obama administration
• Binyamin Netanyahu
• Barack Obama

In recent weeks, conservative media have promoted a number of myths and falsehoods about the possible use of the budget reconciliation process to finalize passage of health care reform.

On Fox News' Special Report, host Bret Baier said that the Senate process of reconciliation "was once called the nuclear option" and aired clips of what he claimed were Democrats criticizing the nuclear option "when Republicans were using it." Fox News hosts and guests have repeatedly pushed the falsehood that the term "nuclear option" refers to the budget reconciliation process. The Fox Nation and Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, Dick Morris, Bret Baier, and Bill Sammon have all falsely compared reconciliation to the "nuclear option."

Fact: "Nuclear option" was coined by GOP to describe a process to change Senate filibuster rules. The term "nuclear option" was coined by former Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), one of the leading advocates of a 2005 proposal to change the Senate rules on filibusters for judicial nominations. After Republican strategists deemed the term a political liability, Republican senators began to attribute it to Democrats. As Media Matters for America noted, at the time, many in the news media followed suit, repeating the Republicans' false attribution of the term to the Democrats.

The Washington Post published a March 2 op-ed by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in which he claimed: "This use of reconciliation to jam through this legislation, against the will of the American people, would be unprecedented in scope. And the havoc wrought would threaten our system of checks and balances, corrode the legislative process, degrade our system of government and damage the prospects of bipartisanship."

Fact: Reconciliation requires majority vote. The U.S. House Committee on Rules defines the budget reconciliation process as requiring a majority of both houses for passage. From the Rules Committee:

Once a reconciliation bill is passed in the House and Senate, members of each body meet to work out their differences. A majority of the conferees on each panel must agree on a single version of the bill before it can be brought back to the full House and Senate for a vote on final passage. Approval of the conference agreement on the reconciliation legislation must be by a majority vote of both Houses.

In a National Review Online column titled "Unprecedented," the Heritage Foundation's Michael Franc referred to reconciliation as "an arcane budgetary procedure." In a February 23 editorial, The Washington Examiner accused Democrats of "running a Washington con game" in considering the use of reconciliation to pass health reform, asserting that the process is "an arcane legislative magic act." Additionally, in a February 23 article reporting that centrist Democrats were weighing the implications of using reconciliation to pass health care reform, Politico claimed that Republicans may be able to convince voters that the procedure "is an end-run around the normal legislative process."

Fact: Reconciliation is part of congressional budget process. The budget reconciliation process is defined by the U.S. House Committee on Rules as "part of the congressional budget process... utilized when Congress issues directives to legislate policy changes in mandatory spending (entitlements) or revenue programs (tax laws) to achieve the goals in spending and revenue contemplated by the budget resolution."

Republicans repeatedly used reconciliation to pass Bush's agenda. Republicans used the budget reconciliation process to pass President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts as well as the 2005 "Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act." The Senate also used the procedure to pass a bill containing a provision that would have permitted oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (The final version of that bill that Bush signed did not contain the provision on drilling.)

In a February 25 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Bill Frist claimed: "Using the budget reconciliation procedure to pass health-care reform would be unprecedented because Congress has never used it to adopt major, substantive policy change." In his February 25 Washington Post column, George Will suggested Democrats were "misusing" reconciliation for trying to pass health care legislation. Will wrote: "The summit's predictable failure will be a pretext for trying to ram health legislation through the Senate by misusing 'reconciliation,' which prevents filibusters."

Fact: Reconciliation has repeatedly been used to reform health care. On February 24, NPR noted that many "major changes to health care laws" were passed via reconciliation. Additionally, during a February 24 broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition, correspondent Julie Rovner quoted George Washington University health policy professor Sara Rosenbaum saying: "In fact, the way in which virtually all of health reform, with very, very limited exceptions, has happened over the past 30 years has been the reconciliation process."

Congress used reconciliation to pass Medicare Advantage and SCHIP. As part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, enacted through the reconciliation process, Congress -- which was controlled by the Republicans at the time -- created the "Medicare+Choice Program," currently known as Medicare Advantage or Medicare Part C. The program allows seniors to enroll in HMO-type plans rather than the traditional Medicare fee-for-service plan. The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), was also passed through reconciliation as part of the Balanced Budget Act. It provides federal matching funds to expand health coverage to children in low-income families who are not eligible for Medicaid.

Congress used reconciliation to pass COBRA. As part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, Congress gave "workers and their families who lose their health benefits the right to choose to continue group health benefits provided by their group health plan for limited periods of time under certain circumstances."

Congress used reconciliation to pass Patient Self-Determination Act. As part of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1990, Congress passed the Patient Self-Determination Act, which requires hospitals, nursing homes, HMOs, and other organizations that participate in Medicare or Medicaid to provide information about advance directives and patients' decision-making rights.

During the February 25 edition of Hannity (accessed via the Nexis database), Fox News contributor Sarah Palin suggested that congressional Democrats plan to "cram through via reconciliation this scheme, this government growth takeover of too many aspects of our health care." She went on to warn about "the risk is this one-sixth of our economy being so controlled and 1/6 of our society being so controlled by government with this takeover of health care." Similarly, Politico published a February 4 op-ed by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) warning that "Democrats may attempt to use reconciliation to short-circuit every senator's right and responsibility to fully debate a measure that will affect one-sixth of our economy." Also, CNN political analyst Gloria Borger asked during the March 12 edition of The Situation Room (accessed via the Nexis database): "[S]hould you pass something that affects one-sixth of the American economy with just a majority vote?"

Fact: Dems say they plan to use reconciliation only to tweak aspects of bills already passed by House and Senate. As the Washington Post's Ezra Klein reported, congressional Democrats are planning to pass "the 11 pages of modifications that President Obama proposed to reconcile the House and Senate bills with each other." From Klein's March 1 blog post:

Second, Democrats are not proposing to create the health-care reform bill in reconciliation. Rather, they're using the process for a much more limited purpose: passing the 11 pages of modifications that President Obama proposed to reconcile the House and Senate bills with each other. This is not a particularly ambitious use of the reconciliation process, and it's certainly not unprecedented. Republicans are arguing otherwise, of course, but the record belies their rhetoric.

The Hill: Reid says Dems "would likely use the budget reconciliation process to pass a series of fixes to the first healthcare bill passed by the Senate." The Hill reported in a February 20 article:

Democrats will finish their health reform efforts within the next two months by using a majority-vote maneuver in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said.

"Reid said that congressional Democrats would likely opt for a procedural tactic in the Senate allowing the upper chamber to make final changes to its healthcare bill with only a simple majority of senators, instead of the 60 it takes to normally end a filibuster.

"I've had many conversations this week with the president, his chief of staff, and Speaker Pelosi," Reid said during an appearance Friday evening on "Face to Face with Jon Ralston" in Nevada. "And we're really trying to move forward on this."

The majority leader said that while Democrats have a number of options, they would likely use the budget reconciliation process to pass a series of fixes to the first healthcare bill passed by the Senate in November. These changes are needed to secure votes for passage of that original Senate bill in the House. "We'll do a relatively small bill to take care of what we've already done," Reid said, affirming that Democrats would use the reconciliation process. "We're going to have that done in the next 60 days."

During the February 25 edition of Fox News' Special Report (accessed via the Nexis database), correspondent Carl Cameron reported that "Republicans demanded Democrats abandon any plans to drive health care through the Senate with only 51 votes under the rarely used legislative maneuver known as budget reconciliation, instead of the normal 60 votes needed to advance major bills."

Fact: Senate already passed health care bill with 60 votes. On December 23, the Senate passed a cloture motion on H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with 60 votes. On December 24, the Senate passed the bill with 60 votes.

Numerous right-wing media figures have promoted video of Obama discussing the difficulty of governing with "50 plus one" votes on legislation to assert that Obama has broken a promise not to pass health care using reconciliation. For instance, during the March 3 edition of his radio show, Glenn Beck said: "New audio for you from Barack Obama saying that we cannot, cannot pass it with a simple majority vote. Health care has to be supermajority, has to be done that way. You can't just slip it by the American people, which they are now saying they're going to do. Yet another broken promise from Barack Obama." Similarly, Jim Hoft posted the video at his Gateway Pundit site and wrote: "But, of course, like everything else Obama promised, this statement came with an expiration date. Today Obama will announce that Democrats will force their unpopular nationalized health care bill through Congress using a simple majority to ram it through."

Fact: Obama didn't "promise" not to pass health care with 50 + 1 votes. In fact, in the video promoted by conservative media figures, Obama said it would be more difficult to govern without broad support, not that he promised not to use reconciliation to pass health care reform. The video shows several clips of Obama on the campaign trail in 2006 and 2007 discussing how he expected to pass health care reform. For example, in a September 2007 speech, Obama says of health care reform, "This is an area where we're going to have to have a 60 percent majority in the Senate and the House in order to actually get a bill to my desk. We're going to have to have a majority to get a bill to my desk that is not just a 50-plus-1 majority." In another clip, Obama discusses how he wanted to campaign in a way that brought more than a "50-plus-1" majority because "you can't govern" after such a victory and predicts that "you can't deliver on health care. We're not going to pass universal health care with a 50-plus-1 strategy." In a 2006 speech, Obama says, "If we want to transform the government, though, that requires a sizable majority." At no point does he "promise" not to use reconciliation in health care reform.

We are just starting to announce the first speakers at the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City on May 24 – 26.

TechCrunch Disrupt is a three-day, single-track conference and startup competition to immerse you in the debate about what’s changing in media and technology right now, what’s causing it and what we need to do about it to survive and thrive in real time. Join 2,000 or so of your closest friends to talk about what’s most important in the collision of technology and media.

Half of the event is a March Madness style startup competition. We’re sorting through hundreds of applications to find the most interesting startups launching this Spring. You’ll see live on stage demos, rapid fire Q&A sessions with expert judges from a variety of backgrounds (product, finance, team building, leadership and more) and highlights from behind the scenes mentoring sessions.

The other half of the event will put leading experts from around the world on stage to talk about the stuff that matters most in technology and media. A few of the speakers and experts are listed below. Keep an eye on the Disrupt Blog and Speaker list for more updates.

Get your ticket here.

Ron Conway
Angel Investor, SV Angel
Ronald Conway has been an active angel investor for over 15 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail. Ron was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top “deal-makers” in 2008 and is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. Ron is Vice Chairman of the UCSF Medical Foundation in SF, Board Member of The Tiger Woods Foundation, and SF Homeless Connect, and on the Benefit Committee of Ronald McDonald House, College Track, and the Blacked Eyed Peas-PeaPod Academy Foundation.

Jack Dorsey
Co-founder and CEO, Square
Software engineer Jack Dorsey is the Co-Founder of Twitter, and was the CEO until October 2008. Dorsey had the original idea for Twitter while still at Odeo, a podcasting startup which was a project of Obvious Corp. He is now the chairman of Twitter. In May 2009, Dorsey announced his latest startup, Square. Square, originally code-named Squirrel, is a mobile payment startup with both an app and a piece of hardware that allows the iPhone to accept credit card payments.

Brad Garlinghouse
President, Internet and Mobile Communications, AOL
Brad Garlinghouse is President, Internet and Mobile Communications at AOL since September 2009. Until 2008 Brad served as SVP of Communications & Communities at Yahoo, which includes the world’s most popular webmail product, Yahoo Mail, Messenger and Groups. During his tenure, Brad has also overseen the primary starting points to the Yahoo network, including Yahoo.com and My Yahoo. Prior to joining Yahoo, Brad served as CEO of Dialpad Communications. Earlier in his career, Brad led VC investments in communications and Internet businesses at @Ventures. He also spent time in leadership roles at @Home Network and SBC Communications.

Katie Geminder
User Experience and Design Expert
Katie started her career in Seattle, working to produce and publish print and web content for clients including Microsoft, Intel, and Expedia. She joined Amazon as the managing editor of the e-Cards business and led large cross-functional and customer experience initiatives including the Amazon.com Kitchen Store, re-launch of Tab Navigation, Target.com, and the Amazon Services e-Commerce platform. In 2005 Katie moved to work on the Apple Online Store team as a Sr. Manager focused on content and customer experience, collaborating with engineering, marketing, and design teams to improve online shopping for Macs and iPods. Katie joined Facebook in early 2006 and led the product management, design and user experience teams. She played an integral part in launching the News Feed and Mini Feed products, making Facebook available to all users (beyond college and high school), opening up the Facebook Platform to application developers, and the Facebook redesign. In August of 2008 she set out on building a design and consulting business with her co-founder, designer, and husband. She then rejoined Owen Van Natta at Myspace in July of 2009, a job she would leave in February 2010 after Van Natta’s departure.

Charlie Rose
Host, Charlie Rose Show
Charlie Rose is an American television interviewer and journalist. He entered television journalism full-time in 1974, when he became the managing editor of the PBS series Bill Moyers’ International Report. He currently hosts the Charlie Rose Show, where he has developed a reputation as a skilled interviewer.

Brian Sugar, CEO & Publisher, Sugar Inc.
Brian Sugar is the CEO and Publisher of Sugar Inc., the company behind PopSugar. As CEO & Publisher, Brian Sugar sets the overall direction for Sugar Inc. Prior to founding Sugar Inc., Brian served first as Vice President of Marketing then as Vice President & General Manager of 2Wire, Inc.’s media business unit. Before joining 2Wire, Brian was founder and CEO of Sugar Media, a digital media software company, which was acquired by 2Wire in October 2003. Brian was Chief Web Officer at Kmart’s BlueLight.com, Vice President of eCommerce at J.Crew, and a founder of Neptune Interactive, a Washington, DC-based ISP.

Michael Wolf, Board of Directors for Entercom Communications and iAmplify
Michael Wolf currently serves on the boards of Entercom Communications Corporation (NYSE: ETM), the fourth-largest broadcasting company in the United States, and iAmplify.com, a Web-based content publisher and syndication network and the world’s largest selection of expert video and audio downloads. He was formerly the president and former COO of MTV Networks. Michael was a Director of McKinsey & Company and head of its Global Media and Entertainment Practice. Before joining McKinsey in 2001, Wolf was a senior partner with Booz & Company, where he spearheaded its media and entertainment group. Wolf is the author of publications on the subjects of entertainment, economics, non-fiction, e-business strategies and the development of global media. His bestselling book on entertainment economics, The Entertainment Economy: How Media Forces Are Transforming Our Lives was published in the U.S. in 1999 and then globally. He is frequent contributor and op-ed columnist for newspapers, journals and business publications.

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Despite an erroneous headline crossing wire services early this morning, which led blogs and even news services to believe Google had already begun a pullout from China, a Google spokesperson has clarified for Betanews today that no announcement has yet been made about any such pullout.

Declining to speak further on the matter, the spokesperson reiterated an earlier statement, which the spokesperson says remains true as of this moment: "We are in active discussions with the Chinese government. We have also been clear that we will no longer self-censor in China."

The confusion apparently stems from a statement that Google Deputy General Counsel Nicole Wong made to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week, during a hearing on the subject of the alleged attacks on Google and other US online assets last January. Wong told the House, "Google is firm in its decision that it will stop censoring our search results for China. If the option is that we'll shutter our [Google].cn operation and leave the country, we are prepared to do that."

Although earlier statements from the Chinese government appeared to corroborate Google's claims (as well as those made by US State Dept. officials) that it has been in negotiations with Chinese authorities about how to proceed, last week, a vice minister for information denied that talks between China and Google had even begun. In a statement issued through China Daily last Friday, the Information Ministry attempted to "clarify" the contradictory facts by literally stating they coexisted: Google has been, the MIIT now officially states, in direct talks with Chinese authorities, though in an indirect way. (Perhaps this means by e-mail.) No "headway" has been made through these indirect, direct talks, the Ministry added.

Minister Li Yizhong issued what some took to be a threat, until one reads on to the bottom where another self-contradictory clause was added: "If you don't respect Chinese laws, you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and you will bear the consequences," Li began. Then the small print: "If Google chooses to stay, that will be beneficial to China's Internet market and we welcome that," implying that it will be up to the search company whether it stays or goes.

It’s a brand new week, which means it’s time for Mashable’s guide to upcoming social media and web events, parties, and conferences. For more upcoming event listings, check out Mashable’s Events section.

Is your event not on this list? Contact us at least one month before your event and let’s establish a media partnership.

Mashable’s Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.

March 15-16, 2010, London, UK: At Social Media World Forum, learn from social networks, brands, advertisers and analysts. Hear from leading social networks on their strategy, revenue models and how they are approaching the future. Worldwide case studies from global brands and corporations on their use of social media. Examine the current market conditions, future forecasts and predictions from leading analysts. Mention you are a Mashable reader to receive 15% discount.

March 17, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Join SF New Tech, the Bay Area’s largest and longest running monthly tech event, to get an early look at of some of the hottest new tech around. Famous for its sold out events where executives (and the occasional hacker or two) take to the stage to strut their stuff, SF New Tech is *the* place where early adaptors, developers, influnencers, venture capitalists, journalists, bloggers, and regular every-day folks converge to see the latest and greatest technology. Visit sfnewtech.com for details.

March 19, 2010, London, UK: Justmeans’ Social Media and Stakeholder Engagement Conference will bring together the top minds in sustainability, marketing, innovation and technology. This executive forum will explore how technology can enable sustainable business by involving stakeholders in the value creation process and will showcase examples of success and failure in this rapidly evolving market. Use this link for a 10% registration discount.

March 22-23, 2010, Paris, France: At Marketing 2.0 Conference, learn from brands’ social media initiatives, advertisers, researchers and analyst. Hear from leading people in the Social Media business on their strategy, revenue models and how they are approaching the upcoming trends in the Social Mediasphere. Worldwide case studies from global brands and corporations on their use of social media. Examine the current market conditions, future forecasts and predictions from leading researchers. The socialmash2010 discount code gives you €200 off.

March 22-23 & 25-26, 2010, Hong Kong & Singapore: Join us at the Social Media & PR conference. This comprehensive two-day event sees PR practitioners from leading global brands and agencies come together to share about the best practices, pitfalls to avoid, case studies, how-tos, measurement and ethics of social media in PR. See social media’s relevance to both B2B & B2C, discuss how new & traditional PR avenues can be integrated. Register today. Save 10% when you enter ‘Mashable‘ under ‘How did you know about this event’.

March 22-25, 2010, Dallas, TX: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute’s 17th Forum on Social Media for Government: How To Engage Your Employees And Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results, to learn how to capture the power of social media in your organization, along with helpful tools, tips and techniques to get started. Hear practical advice, firsthand, from leading government agencies and organizations such as: Transportation Security Administration; NASA; Microsoft U.S. Public Sector, CDC; GovLoop; Southwest Airlines; National Institutes of Health; U.S. Army Reserve; City of Sugar Land, TX; Missouri River Regional Library; City of Reno, NV; Texas Parks & Wildlife Department; Deloitte Services, LP; GolinHarris; 2ndSix; & Panetta Communications. Mention Mashable when registering to save $200.

March 22-26, New York, NY: Go beyond search at the Search Engine Strategies. Learn the newest trends, strategic action plans, and technology that industry leaders are employing today. Our experts will trace the natural evolution of search exploring topics such as: digital asset optimization, mobile application development, transition from search to discovery and more. SAVE 15% with code MHNY15. Program will focus on cutting edge strategies, tips, and tactics that will be driving search in 2010. Hear from the leading voices in search and digital like Avinash Kaushik, David Meerman Scott, Tim Ash, Ray Comstock and more.

March 23, 2010, San Francisco, CA: Swagapalooza is an experiment in viral media. On March 23rd, the world’s most-followed bloggers, tweeters, and digital influencers will gather to judge five-minute auditions from the creators of the latest, greatest, and most unexpected new products. Are you one of the world’s top bloggers or tweeters? If so you deserve to be begged for your attention and your following. Your taste and discernment make you the perfect judge of these marketers who will come to cajole, beg, and bribe you with more free stuff than you can imagine... Tickets are free for those who qualify.

March 23, 2010, Sacramento, CA: Northern California Social Media Society Launch Party. Join NCSMS in celebrating their launch. Celebrate with cocktails, appetizers and door prizes; learn about the Society and network with other individuals and businesses. The NCSMS provides an opportunity for their members to collaborate with other individuals and advocates as well as continue to grow social media marketing skills and smarts. Whether you want to learn or lead, this is a great opportunity to be part of an organization which is dedicated to the advancement of social media. The event is free to those who register.

March 23-24, 2010, Berlin, Germany: Learn, discuss and explore the challenges and commercial opportunities that exist within the mobile internet ecosystem and make the most of best-practice perspectives over a two day period offering a programme packed with case studies, roundtable discussions, industry snapshots, masterclasses and fishbowl sessions. Significant discount for Mobile Operators, Online/Mobile Communities, and Content providers! Go to iir-mobileinternet.com/mashable for more information.

March 24, 2010, New York, NY: Social Reputation Management: Protecting and Strengthening Your Brand Across the Social Web is a conference that will share the best case studies on how communicators and marketers listen to conversations, monitor and comprehend what is being said, and engage through the social web. The case studies will be followed by moderated interactive roundtables. Use promo code MASH for a discounted rate of $155.

March 24, 2010, Rutherford, NJ: Learn about how you would grow your business, talk to your customers, interact and engage. Social Media will help your business grow, financially and in relation to your customers. Topics include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogging, etc. This workshop is geared for small businesses that want to grow their fanbase and reach potential customers and make your relationships better with by using the social web. Click over to socialbiz324.eventbrite.com to purchase tickets to the event and use the code mashable to save 50%.

March 24-25, 2010, San Francisco, CA: EyeforTravel’s Social Media Strategies for Travel conference goes beyond the ‘what is social media?’ debates (that were so 2008!) and examines the strategic importance of social media to travel brands. The 2 day conference will share leading case studies, hits, tips and advice from top travel companies including JetBlue, Hilton, Virgin America and more. Use the discount MASHABLE to save $100 on the registration fee!

March 25, 2010, Santa Monica, CA: Join us for more rock solid networking with tech geeks, VCs, entrepreneurs and good folks just like you. Schmoozd is an exclusive social mixer bringing together professionals in marketing, advertising, technology, social media and startups. The event is designed to facilitate knowledge sharing, relationship building and deal making. For more information, please visit www.schmoozd.com. Mashable readers get 50% off when registering via this link.

March 25, 2010, Toronto, ON: Join Nick La, creator of the popular blog Web Designer Wall, owner of N.Design Studio, IconDock, and Best Web Gallery for a one-day immersion into WordPress, the world’s most popular publishing platform. If you want to learn how to create your own WordPress themes, understand how to use template tags and conditional tags to format and display the data you want, or how to use WordPress as a content management system, Nick will take you from WordPress Zero to Hero in 7 hours flat.

March 25-26 2010, Atlanta, GA: REtechSouth: The only event in the Southeast that ties cutting edge social media concepts and practices, plus tips and tactics on existing technologies, to the unique challenges of the current real estate market. It’s worth attending just to absorb all the expertise that will be in the room, as real estate’s best and brightest direct their attention towards your needs. Presented by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. Save $29 off registration by using the code Mashable.

March 29, 2010, Portland OR: The social media conference for marketers, Social Fresh is not about concept, but focused purely on case studies from the front lines. Learn what social media can really do for business bottom lines. One day, 35 speakers from companies like Intel, Ford, Comcast, Nike and many more. As well as keynote Peter Shankman. Register now and use coupon code mashable for 15% off.

March 30, 2010, London, UK: The upcoming Hit Me! Social Media and Search event is designed for business owners and entrepreneurs who want to find out the latest practical business advice and information about Social Media and Search. Freshbusinessthinking.com has partnered with Microsoft to deliver this power-packed one day event featuring experts and leading practitioners from the world of social media and search. Stats published by Nielsen show that social media usage has increased by 82% in the last year. The challenge for organisations of all sizes is how to use social media to drive business. Over 1500 delegates have attended our one-day events and the average rating is 8.5 out of 10 – the next one is shaping up to be the best ever with a host of experts on hand to give you the information and advice you need to grow your business online. Mashable readers: get a discount entering promotional code MASHABLE.

March 30-April 1, 2010, San Jose, CA: Become Location Enabled at Where 2.0. Now in its sixth year, Where 2.0 is one of the world’s foremost events dedicated to exploring the emerging technologies in the geospatial industry. At Where 2.0, we expose the tools pushing the boundaries of the location frontier. Join us and meet the people behind the mashups, the people behind the platforms, and the people looking ahead to the future of geospatial. Find out what’s viable now, what’s lurking just below the radar and how to gain a competitive edge. Register now and save 15% at en.oreilly.com/where2010. Use code whr10mash.

April 5, 2010, New York, NY: You need to be a social media specialist. Today’s marketplace demands it. Content, regardless of medium or platform, is regularly created, curated, commented upon and shared by consumers. If you’re not strategizing to maximize the social component, you’re missing prime opportunities. Register for the IAB Social Media Marketplace to gain insights from Federated Media’s John Battelle, MediaLink’s Wenda Harris Millard, Del Monte’s Doug Chavez, Deep Focus’s Ian Schafer, GE’s Andrew Markowitz and more. Use code mashable to save $100.

April 7, 2010, Cincinnati, OH: BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media features 8 great case studies on the best social media programs at large corporations. AT&T, Dell, Duke Energy, General Mills, Hilton, Procter & Gamble, Rogers Communications, and Tyson Foods share case studies in corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal. From GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council. Get $39 off registration by using the code ILoveMashable.

April 7, 2010, New York, NY: Attend the Social Media Advertising Consortium’s April NYC Salon. Join SMAC members for a lively discussion on how brands are organized around social media. A panel of top brands including IBM and PepsiCo, and agencies will share insights, look at best practices, campaign successes and discuss what’s next in measurement and research. Discussion followed by networking, wine & light hors d’oeuvres. The cost is free for SMAC members and $45 for non-members. Mention Mashable when registering to save 10%. Space is limited so register early.

April 7-8, 2010, New York, NY: Strengthen your business with mobile marketing, apps, video, and content at Think Mobile, a conference focused on mobile strategy, marketing, and mobile apps. Learn how to get your brand in front of the right customers, how to handle mobile content, and how to make money in mobile. The full day dedicated to mobile apps will cover building an app team, designing user interfaces, marketing your app, and targeting development for specific platforms. Speakers represent AdMob, Pandora, Nielsen, Bravo, PCMag.com, and more. Register with promo code TMMASH and save 20%!

April 7-9, 2010 Sydney, Australia: ConnectNow is a three day event focusing on the intersection of social media, emerging technologies and enterprise. The first two days is conference, where you’ll learn from international specialists how to leverage off new trends in marketing innovation such as augmented reality, location based services, social search, the real-time web, mobile’s growing dominance and the importance of ’social capital’. Day three is workshop day specifically for non-profits, charities, Government and community groups. Attend ConnectNow and leave equipped with actionable strategies to implement to your business. Register online and email info@connectnow.net.au quoting: Mashablemates to get 10% discount!

April 8-10, 2010, Atlanta, GA: The 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference will bring together more than 1,000 nonprofit leaders, IT innovators, communications gurus, fundraising superstars and nonprofit staffers from all over. You’ll learn the latest trends, practical how-tos, and IT solutions that can optimize your organization’s use of technology and help you meet your mission to create more social good in the world — and you’ll have a good time, to boot. Select “Mashable” from the “How did you hear?” field to receive an $100 discount.

April 9, 2010, London, UK: Natural SEO, a thupr event, aims to resolve some of the myths around SEO. The event brings together people who blog (for themselves or on behalf of others) with tools designed to help them, and experts prepared to share their wisdom. There are discussion streams and the chance to try out some of the software on site in a relaxed, conversational environment. The event is free, but limited to 100 places.

April 12-15, 2010, Santa Clara, CA: The 6th annual MySQL Conference & Expo, presented by O’Reilly Media, brings over 2,000 open source and database enthusiasts together to harness the power of MySQL and celebrate the huge MySQL ecosystem. The O’Reilly MySQL Conference & Expo is a new event that builds on the tradition of past MySQL conferences (previous events were co-presented with MySQL AB and with Sun). This inclusive, innovative event will showcase the full spectrum of the MySQL ecosystem, from global corporations and diverse service vendors to start-ups and grassroots projects. Our growing lineup of speakers, program committee members, and sponsors represent a wide array of some of the most influential companies and projects in the MySQL community. Register now and save an additional 15% at: en.oreilly.com/mysql2010. Use discount code mys10msh.

April 12-15, 2010, Washington, DC: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute’s Forum on Social Media for Recruiting in Government & Defense: Using Web 2.0 Technologies To Attract, Retain, And Engage Top Talent To Become An Employer Of Choice, to learn how to incorporate the power of social media into your organization’s recruiting strategy, along with helpful tools, practical tips and techniques to get started. Hear practical advice, firsthand, from leading government agencies and organizations such as the: Internal Revenue Service; Library of Congress; Booz Allen Hamilton; Sodexo, Inc.; U.S. Air Force; Peace Corps; Arbita, Inc.; Panetta Communications; CollegeRecruiter.com; Bold Interactive; Campbell-Ewald; Brazen Careerist & CampusGov. Mention Mashable when registering to save $200.

April 12-16, 2010, New York, NY: Attend New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), a non-profit movement formed around a single belief: entrepreneurs change the world. The New York Entrepreneur Week movement gives you the opportunity to actively engage the foremost entrepreneurs, investors and dealmakers both in the State and from around the world. Now is the time for entrepreneurs who have the will and drive to prove they can achieve anything, to stand up and come together in New York State for another groundbreaking NYEW event. Receive 75% off with code: Mashable 2010.

April 16-17, 2010, Royal Oak, MI: FutureMidwest, the region’s largest two-day technology and knowledge conference, is aimed at helping professionals successfully add digital strategies to their communications programs. Technology and online tools have dramatically changed the way we do business. FutureMidwest will highlight the effect this transition has had on companies. The conference will feature presentations, group breakout sessions, relationship-building opportunities and influencers who are redefining business in the digital age. For a 50% discount, e-mail your name to hello AT FutureMidwest DOT com with the subject line “It’s Happening Mashable.” Then go to the Web site and register as a student.

April 16-18, 2010 Montreal, Quebec, Canada: The iPhone Boot Camp offers a three day workshop on iPhone and iPad Development, covering basic to advanced features such as web services, database, core location and animation, audio and camera and augmented reality. The workshops are limited to fifteen developers and is a full 24 hours of training. The iPhone Boot Camp is a well established certificate training program that has trained over 200 iPhone developers in dozens of cities since 2008. Our instructors are all developers with several apps in the store and experienced trainers using proven course material. Most developers are able to develop an app for sale in the app store after completing the training. The(...)

On March 14, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posted a new anti-health care reform essay on her Facebook page that contains numerous falsehoods regarding reconciliation, House rules, and "federal funding of abortion."

Palin: Democrats want to use reconciliation to "bypass the regular voting procedure." In a March 14 Facebook post, Palin accused Democrats of trying to "ram through their takeover of our health care system regardless of the consequences" and of being "determined to use the Senate reconciliation process as a parliamentary trick to bypass the regular voting procedure."

Palin: House Democrats are trying to pass health care "without actually voting on it." Palin also accused House Democrats of trying to pass the Senate health care bill without a vote. She said: "The latest twists and turns in the Obamacare drama seem almost surreal. One minute the Democrat [sic] leadership is trying to amend a bill before the president has even signed it into law, and the next minute they're trying to draft a new rule that will allow the House to 'deem' a bill passed without actually voting on it!"

Palin falsely suggests that the Senate bill provides "federal funding for abortion." Palin commended the "Republicans in Congress" and the "Democrats [who] are standing with them" for "holding the line" in opposing health care reform. Palin specifically cited Rep. Bart Stupak as an example of a Democrat who is "holding the line" by saying "he won't vote for the Senate bill if federal funding of abortion is included." Stupak has repeatedly falsely claimed that the Senate bill allows for federal funding of abortion, while the abortion amendment he sponsored in the House bill does not. Stupak has also falsely maintained that his amendment does not go beyond the Hyde Amendment, which currently prohibits the federal funding of abortion, except in cases of life endangerment, rape, or incest.

Fox Nation highlighted Palin's post. Fox Nation posted Palin's Facebook essay and highlighted it with the headline "Palin: 'This is the Final Push!'" From Fox Nation:

Reconciliation process is part of congressional budget process. The budget reconciliation process is defined by the U.S. House Committee on Rules as "part of the congressional budget process ... utilized when Congress issues directives to legislate policy changes in mandatory spending (entitlements) or revenue programs (tax laws) to achieve the goals in spending and revenue contemplated by the budget resolution."

Republicans repeatedly used reconciliation to pass Bush's agenda. Republicans used the budget reconciliation process to pass Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts as well as the 2005 "Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act." The Senate also used the procedure to pass a bill containing a provision that would permit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (The final version of that bill signed by Bush did not contain the provision on drilling.)

Reconciliation has repeatedly been used to reform the health care system. On February 24, NPR noted that many "major changes to health care laws" have passed via reconciliation. These measures include COBRA, which allows laid-off workers to keep their insurance coverage, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program:

On NPR, Rosenbaum stated, "[T]he way in which virtually all of health reform ... has happened over the past 30 years has been the reconciliation process." During the February 24 broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition, health policy correspondent Julie Rovner quoted George Washington University professor Sara Rosenbaum saying: "In fact, the way in which virtually all of health reform, with very, very limited exceptions, has happened over the past 30 years has been the reconciliation process."

Report: House would still have to vote on corrections to the Senate bill. Contrary to Palin's claim that the House would " 'deem' a bill passed without actually voting on it," CongressDaily reported (subscription required) that the rule would require that the "House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version" for passage. From NationalJournal.com's CongressDaily:

House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.

Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.

Senate bill prohibits issuers from using federal funds "for purposes of paying for" abortion. The Senate health care reform bill as passed states that if a "qualified health plan" offered under the health insurance exchange provides coverage of abortion services for which public funding is banned, "the issuer of the plan shall not use any amount attributable" to the subsidies created under the bill "for purposes of paying for such services."

Senate bill establishes a separate premium to segregate funds used to pay for abortions from federal funds. The Senate bill as passed further requires issuers to "collect from each enrollee" in plans that cover abortions a "separate payment" for "an amount equal to the actuarial value of the coverage of" abortion services. This value must be at least $1 per enrollee, per month. All such funds are deposited into a separate account used by the issuer to pay for abortion services; federal funds and the remaining premium payments are used to pay for all other services.

Current law allows for Medicaid to provide coverage for abortions restricted by Hyde by using similar fund segregation. According to a November 1, 2009, study by the Guttmacher Institute, 17 states provide coverage under Medicaid for "all or most medically necessary abortions," not just abortions in cases of life endangerment, rape, and incest. Those states "us[e] their own funds" -- not federal funds -- "to pay" for the procedures. Therefore, in 17 states, Medicaid, a federally subsidized health care program, covers abortions in circumstances in which federal money is prohibited from being spent on abortion.

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
House Democrats release bill for Budget markup Monday  —  House Democrats on Sunday night set into motion what they hope will be the final steps on healthcare reform.  —  The House Budget Committee on Sunday evening released text that will serve as the base legislation for the changes the House will seek to the Senate bill this week.

Karl Rove brought his misinformation tour to Meet the Press by making false claims about the Iraq war and the use of reconciliation to pass health care reform legislation.

From the March 14 edition of NBC's Meet the Press:

TOM BROKAW (guest host): And Mr. Rove, there was also sharp criticism, and justified, from a lot of quarters of the management of the war once you did go to war. The insurgency was more swiftly activated on the part of those Islamics who wanted to fight back. We were not greeted as liberators beyond the first couple of days. We didn't have enough troops to provide internal security. The cost of the war skyrocketed almost from the beginning. There was not a sharing of the oil revenue that a lot of people had promised, including the vice president.

ROVE: Let me correct you. There -- you've put it down a lot of things here. I'll be happy to deal with them serially or together, whichever you like. But for example, on that one, the administration emphatically said this was not about oil. And we thought right from the beginning --

BROKAW: No, no, not about oil, but it was about --

ROVE: Let me finish.

BROKAW: -- how we would share oil revenue and it would help offset the cost of the war.

ROVE: No. No, no. Tom, with all due respect, that was not the policy of our government, that we were going to go into Iraq and take their resource in order to pay for the cost of the war.

BROKAW: But it would be part of the consequence of getting the country stabilized.

ROVE: No. Part of the consequence would be that Saddam Hussein, who used the oil market to manipulate prices and deny supplies to the West, would no longer be in a position to do that. But the suggestion that somehow or another the administration had as its policy, "We're going to go into Iraq and take their resource and pay for the war," is not [unintelligible]

BROKAW: I didn't say that. What I said was that there would be an oil sharing and the revenue from that would help offset the cost of the war. And I didn't stay it was a principal factor, but it was part of the larger scheme.

ROVE: No, with all due respect, we're simply going to disagree on this.

Rumsfeld: "[T]he bulk of the funds for Iraq's reconstruction will come from Iraqis," including "oil revenues." In an October 2, 2003, defined by the U.S. House Committee on Rules as "part of the congressional budget process ... utilized when Congress issues directives to legislate policy changes in mandatory spending (entitlements) or revenue programs (tax laws) to achieve the goals in spending and revenue contemplated by the budget resolution."

Republicans repeatedly used reconciliation to pass Bush's agenda. Republicans used the budget reconciliation process to pass Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts as well as the 2005 "Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act." The Senate also used the procedure to pass a bill containing a provision that would permit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (The final version of that bill signed by Bush did not contain the provision on drilling.)

Reconciliation has repeatedly been used to reform the health care system. On February 24, NPR noted that many "major changes to health care laws" have passed via reconciliation. These measures include COBRA, which allows laid-off workers to keep their insurance coverage, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program:

On NPR, Rosenbaum stated, "[T]he way in which virtually all of health reform ... has happened over the past 30 years has been the reconciliation process." During the February 24 broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition, health policy correspondent Julie Rovner quoted George Washington University professor Sara Rosenbaum saying: "In fact, the way in which virtually all of health reform, with very, very limited exceptions, has happened over the past 30 years has been the reconciliation process."