Exclusive: Pelosi Says Dems Have 'Very Good Chance' to Retake House

ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told ABC News in an exclusive interview that Democrats "have a very good chance of winning the House" majority in the 2012 elections, pointing to Medicare as the key issue that could propel her party back into control of the lower chamber of Congress.

"We just take it, as I say to the members, one day, one good day, one good week, one good month, one good quarter at a time," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

Asked directly whether she thinks she will be elected speaker again, Pelosi pointed to 63 congressional districts that President Obama carried in 2008 that are now held by Republicans.  House Democrats need to win just 24 of those seats to regain control of the House.

"It takes a strong message...which enables us to have the mobilization at grass-roots level," Pelosi said. "I was talking about the M's: message, mobilization, the money to get the message out, and management -- management of the campaign by the candidates so that it can be effective."

"What we're about is policy," she added.  "What we want is to change the view that the Republicans have that it is OK to abolish Medicare [and] to make seniors pay more for less while we give tax breaks to big oil. That's not a formula that I think works for the middle class."

Pelosi said that cuts to seniors' benefits are "absolutely" off the table in the ongoing deficit reduction negotiations, but suggested that Congress could improve Medicare by working to eliminate fraud and also by giving the Secretary of Health and Human Services unilateral authority to negotiate for lower prices for the endangered entitlement program.

"When you talk about Medicare, the first thing I would do if I ruled the world would be to allow the secretary of HHS to negotiate for lower prices.  That would save tens of billions of dollars," Pelosi said.  "The last place we need to go -- we don't ever have to go there -- is to what the Republicans are doing: Eliminate Medicare [and] make seniors pay more for less as you give tax breaks to big oil and say that's how we have to reduce the deficit.  We don't subscribe to that."

Pelosi said the election in 2012 "is not about Paul Ryan [the architect of the Republicans' budget and Medicare proposals].  It is about the Republicans in Congress."

"I wish we could change the minds of Republicans on abolishing Medicare," she said.  "The public is going to have to help us do that either before the election or at the time of the election."

"If the Republicans are convinced of that over the next 18 months, that they will change their mind on it, then that is less of an issue in the campaign," she said.  "We'd rather solve the problem than have the issue.  But we are determined to fight for the issue."

After a said-to-be tense meeting between Republicans and President Obama at the White House Wednesday, Ryan took to the airwaves to again assert his plan does not abolish Medicare, and again warn the president and key Democrats to stop "demagoguing" the Medicare issue.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

How is Sarah Palin Paying for Bus Tour?

ABC News(NEW YORK) -- The former governor of Alaska got a little testy with ABC News Wednesday when asked how she was financing her "One Nation Tour" through the Northeast.

During a stopover at the Statue of Liberty, Sarah Palin responded that she was paying for the tour through her political action committee website, SarahPAC, and that the bus in which she and her family are riding is "our own personal motor home that we've had in Alaska."

Palin, who was Republican John McCain's running mate in the 2008 national election, became visibly annoyed when asked how much the tour has cost during it first four days.

She told ABC News, "Check SarahPAC.com.  I don't know why in the world you would ask a question like that.  I'm just thinking about America and our foundations and our freedoms and our opportunities.  Why would you ask something..."

When told she often speaks about how much the federal government is spending, Palin responded, "What does our economy have to do with how much we're -- I'm not asking you to pay for a penny of this trip."

A check of SarahPAC.com revealed nothing about how much the trip is costing or how much Palin's supporters have donated so she and her family can travel.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Nancy Pelosi, House Dems Cool on Anthony Weiner Twitter 'Prank'

Bill Clark/Roll Call via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Rep. Anthony Weiner first insisted he was the victim of a hacker, then days later a prankster, when a lewd photo of a man's crotch was posted publicly to his Twitter account Friday. But he doesn't have many colleagues -- who presumably face similar risks from operating social media accounts -- rallying to his side as the scandal plays out.

"I'm a late-comer to the issue, but I'm sure, I have confidence in Anthony Weiner that if an investigation is in order that will take place," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told ABC News on Wednesday.

Rep. Steve Israel, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, would only say Weiner has taken "appropriate steps" to address the alleged prank, when asked about the situation by reporters. "He got a lawyer" and "I think he should listen carefully to what his lawyers say," he said.

Former New York City Mayor and U.S. Rep. Ed Koch, a Democrat, said of Weiner Wednesday night on NY1, "I think he's in trouble…I think he has a problem."

Weiner, a media-savvy figure who is popular among liberals nationwide, would face reelection in 2012 and a possible bid for New York City mayor in 2013.  How Weiner handles the ongoing controversy could become a factor in future campaigns.

For now, many Democrats on Capitol Hill just want the issue to go away, and some Republicans seem loathe to let Weiner off the hook. 

"I think the American people are sick of seeing their elected officials tied up in scandals like this," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Thusday in an appearance on Fox and Friends.

His advice for Weiner?  "Come clean and clean it up," Cantor said.

Weiner has said he did not send the controversial photo over Twitter on Friday night and that he was "pranked." But he will neither confirm nor deny that the image in question is of him.

"I'm reluctant to say anything definitively about this because I don't know to what extent our system was hacked," Weiner told ABC News. 

Some skeptics have expressed curiosity that Weiner would hesitate to contact the authorities -- as given his position, hacking his accounts would count as a federal crime -- and speculate that's why Weiner has been favoring "hoax" over "hack" in his most recent interviews.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Mitt Romney to Announce White House Bid

James Devaney/WireImage(WASHINGTON) -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will announce Thursday that he's making his bid for the Republican presidential nomination official, declaring, "Barack Obama has failed America."

In excerpts of prepared remarks obtained by ABC News, Romney rails against the president's handling of the struggling economy and vows to shrink the size of the government.

"A few years ago, Americans did something that was, actually, very much the sort of thing Americans like to do: we gave someone new a chance to lead; someone we hadn't known for very long, who didn't have much of a record but promised to lead us to a better place," Romney says in his prepared remarks.  "Now, in the third year of his four-year term, we have more than promises and slogans to go by."

Thursday marks Romney's second campaign for the presidency.  In 2008, Romney withdrew from the race after being overtaken by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Super Tuesday.  McCain got Romney's endorsement and the GOP nomination.

Romney is again being pegged as a GOP frontrunner, much as he was the first time he ran for the White House.  According to the latest Gallup poll, released last week, 17 percent of those voters who lean toward the GOP said they would vote for Romney.  Fifteen percent of those polled said they would cast their ballots for the former GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

For months there has been speculation that Romney had his eyes on the presidency again as he made stops in key swing states, including visits last month to Michigan, South Carolina and Iowa.

And at an event in Las Vegas last month, Romney flexed his fundraising muscles, raking in more than $10 million in a day-long call-a-thon.  In this month alone, Romney is expected to make more than 30 fundraising stops nationwide, according to the National Journal.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

GOP Rep. Stutzman: 'Long Way to Go' on Budget Talks with Obama

Bill Clark/Roll Call(WASHINGTON) -- House Republicans’ meeting at the White House Wednesday failed to produce any breakthroughs on the budget, and participants described a “frosty” and “frank” session that one member of Congress likened to “group therapy.”

On ABC’s Top Line webcast Wednesday, freshman Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., a member of the House Budget Committee, said the meeting was “cordial,” and suggested to him that President Obama is “very serious about the debt.”

But he said the president is still not committing to budget cuts beyond what he’s proposed in the past. And Republicans, for their part, aren’t any more open to new taxes than they’ve been previously.

“He said that he made specific cuts in his budget and has put those on the table. But ultimately there was no discussion about whether, dollar for dollar, how far we’re going to spread this out over the next 10 years,” said Stutzman.

“So there’s a lot of maneuvering. I felt like this was more of a get-to-know-you type of a meeting more than, let’s sit down and negotiate. So we’ve got a long way to go. But I felt that it was a good step, and I appreciated his invitation to us.”

He said there was no progress in negotiations over taxes: “As far as an out-and-out tax increase, there was no discussion about it, because I think House Republicans had made our position clear, that we don’t have a tax problem in Washington, we have a spending problem.”

Stutzman said that “good leadership” would demand that a debt limit increase is agreed to well in advance of early August, when the Treasury Department has said the U.S. would be forced to begin defaulting on debt without congressional action.

“But you know how this town works, it seems like there’s a lot of accusations,” Stutzman said. “This isn’t just a government shutdown, like we were dealing with in the [continuing resolution]. This is an economic -- there are economic ramifications here if we don’t raise the debt ceiling. But also we have to show the American people and the world that we’re serious about controlling spending.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Could Medicare Threaten to Derail Debt Ceiling, Budget Talks?

Comstock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Medicare has quickly become the chief issue of contention in budget negotiations that could derail talks on raising the U.S. debt ceiling and send the country spiraling into default.

Republicans charge that Democrats are simply demagoguing the issue as a political ploy for the 2012 elections without proposing a concrete plan of their own.

"I just said we got to take on this debt and if we demagogue each other at the leadership level then we're never going to take on our debt," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said of Wednesday's House Republicans' meeting with President Obama, adding that his Medicare proposal has been "mis-described" by the president and Democrats as a "voucher" plan that would strip the elderly of their healthcare.

But Democrats are standing steadfast, and argue that they will not agree to overhauling Medicare the way the House Budget Committee chairman has proposed in his 2012 budget plan.

"We just will not entertain a privatization of Medicare or the end of Medicare. It is non-negotiable for us," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Steve Israel of New York told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday.

"The president will not negotiate the end of Medicare. That's the line we drew," he added. "And I don't think that we're going to be posed with a president who says I agree with the Republican plan to terminate [seniors' healthcare benefits]... and turn it into an insurance company voucher."

Under Ryan's plan, new Medicare beneficiaries in 2022 would be subsidized for their plans instead of having the federal government pay for each service, as is the case currently. The allotment would be based on income.

Americans haven't quite warmed up to the idea yet, polls show.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday found that 58 percent of Americans oppose Ryan's Medicare plan, while only 35 percent support it. Of those polled, 56 percent thought the Republican plan would be bad for senior citizens.

In an ABC News poll released in April, 65 percent of Americans said they opposed changing Medicare to a system in which the government would give older Americans vouchers with which to buy private insurance. Republicans deny that theirs is a voucher-based system.

A poll that month by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that seniors prefer to keep the current system by a margin of 2-to-1. An analysis by the group found that under Ryan's proposal, a typical 65-year-old retiring in 2022 would be expected to devote nearly half of his or her monthly Social Security check toward healthcare costs, more than double what a retiree spends under current Medicare law.

Democrats have seized on such numbers, saying their candidate's historic win in New York's 26th district last month is an indication that Americans have rejected Republicans' Medicare plan.

The independents that brought Republicans to power in the House in 2010 "have a deep sense of buyer's remorse and they're coming back to us," Israel said Wednesday.

Budget negotiations and spending cuts are a key part of the debt-ceiling negotiations that are underway. Republicans say they will not raise the debt ceiling without meaningful cuts. As a signal of their resolve, GOP members voted overwhelmingly against their own bill that would have increased the statutory debt limit without any conditions attached.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said he can stave off a default until Aug. 2, but has warned of an impending fiscal crisis if the limit isn't raised by then. The debt ceiling would need to be raised by roughly $2 trillion.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Exclusive: Weiner Denies Tweeting Lewd Photo, But Is It Him?

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A defiant Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York told ABC News he did not post a lewd photograph to his Twitter account Friday -- but he could not say whether or not the photograph in question is of him.

"I did not send that photo. My system was hacked. I was pranked," Weiner said. "Somebody sent a picture of a weiner from Weiner's account. I've been hearing that joke since I was five."

But is the photograph -- a close-up of a man's underwear -- a photograph of Anthony Weiner?

"I'm reluctant to say anything definitively about this because I don't know to what extent our system was hacked," he said.

Weiner said he has hired a law firm to look into the incident and advise him on whether to notify a law enforcement agency. The firm has also retained a private Internet security company to investigate the circumstances of the hoax further, he said.

"We are going to try to find the source of the photograph," Weiner said, adding that he doesn't know if it was manipulated or something taken off -- or placed on -- his computer system.

When pressed to explain why an alleged incident of computer hacking against a member of Congress shouldn't be reported to authorities, Weiner dismissed the idea as unnecessary.

"You know, we're not treating this like it's a federal offense or a capital offense crime," he said. "It happens hundreds of thousands of time every single day."

At one point, Weiner suggested he was saving taxpayer money by not calling for an investigation into such a trivial matter.

Weiner also revealed that his Facebook account was simultaneously "hacked" on Friday night, as he suggested in a tweet at the time. Asked if the Facebook hacking included the posting or sending of anything inappropriate, Weiner would not answer.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Mike Huckabee for Vice President? 'Still Open' to Opportunity, He Says

Rick Gershon/Getty Images(LITTLE ROCK, Ark.) -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who bowed out of the presidential race less than a month ago, saying “all the factors say go, but my heart says no,” changed his tune somewhat Wednesday, telling an audience at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Ark. that he hasn’t closed any doors just yet.

Huckabee was responding to questions about whether he would be open to being the 2012 vice-presidential nominee.

"Everything is still open," Huckabee said. "I haven't closed doors because I found out long ago that that's not a smart thing to do. Then you try to figure out how to open them when they come knocking. I'm not looking for anything, I'm content with what I'm doing. That's what I plan to do."

When it comes to running at the top of the ticket, however, Huckabee said he’s "not even thinking about changing" his mind about that.

He also said he wasn’t rushing to endorse any of the current 2012 candidates: "I don't feel any pressure or hurry to do it," he said.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

'Frosty' and 'Frank' Meeting Between President Obama, House GOP

Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- As the dozens of members of the House Republican Conference left the White House where they'd spoken with President Obama about the deficit and job creation, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., had a one-word review of the mood in the meeting. "Frosty is the word," Gingrey said.

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Penn., had a different take -- though he brings some perspective from his previous profession. "I'm a psychologist," Murphy said. "Let me just say it was good for them to talk. Good group therapy."

Murphy said the idea that Democrats and Republicans are talking is good. "We don’t get anywhere by being on opposite sides of Pennsylvania Avenue. Any conversation that keeps going is good."

The meeting, in the East Room of the White House, lasted for one hour and 15 minutes.

"Obviously there are long term disagreements," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "But there is common ground and more common ground to be found to significantly reduce our deficits."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, described it as a "frank conversation" that he thought was "productive."

One House Republican told ABC News that he didn't find the meeting confrontational. "It was people making their points," he said. "A little honesty is not a bad thing."

At the meeting, according to attendees, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, noted that the House GOP has a budget plan, offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., that could be "scored" -- analyzed in detail -- by the Congressional Budget Office. The president does not, Cantor noted.

Pointing to lower-than-expected private sector job numbers in May, Cantor said more needs to be done to encourage job growth and motivate the private sector to create jobs, rather than increasing the size of government with money that we don’t have.

The president agreed that job growth needs to be a priority, saying that he is all for tax reform and happy to work together to achieve it. He noted that cutting taxes is smart to do politically, but the question is whether it is sustainable.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, asked when they can expect to see a White House budget plan in a form that can be scored by CBO. President Obama said he wanted a joint agreement that is score-able.

Healthcare is the driver of our debt right now, Ryan said.  He also described his plan for Medicare reform for the president, saying Democrats were mischaracterizing it. Our program is not a voucher plan, Ryan said, it is premium support -- which he then explained.

Ryan told the president that he is making a sincere attempt to address a problem, and he challenged the president: "Mr. President, the demagoguery only stops if the Leaders stop it."

His fellow House Republicans gave him a standing ovation.

President Obama told Ryan that he read the proposal and has never questioned its sincerity. 

The Ryan proposal obtains its savings not by reducing health costs but by replacing Medicare with a subsidy that doesn't keep up with health care costs as they increase, the president said.  That is a legitimate approach to solving the government's problem, but that does nothing for people who need health care as costs continue to rise.  

The public wants no changes in benefits but they don't want to pay for it, so we all have a challenge with our bases, the president said. The only way we solve it is if we sit in a room and come to some compromises.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Mitt Romney to Hold First Town Hall Meeting Friday

James Devaney/WireImage(WASHINGTON) -- Mitt Romney, who is scheduled to announce his official campaign for presidency Thursday in Stratham, New Hampshire, will also hold a town hall meeting on Friday in the Granite State, ABC News has learned.

The town hall -- the first of Romney's 2012 campaign -- will take place in the morning at the University of New Hampshire's Manchester campus.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio