(CNSNews.com) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that the issue of job creation has “permeated” the efforts of congressional Democrats over the past year. Pelosi’s statement stands in stark contrast to a bleak jobs year that saw unemployment rise to over 10 percent.

“The jobs issue has permeated everything, [every] major initiative that we have,” Pelosi said at her weekly press briefing Thursday. The speaker outlined the various proposals that she said had pulled the economy “back from the brink” over the past year.

“With the recovery package, we not only created jobs – about 2 million saved or created with more being rolled out – but pulled us back from the brink of even deeper recession.

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said language in the Senate health care bill to allow tax dollars to go to health plans that cover abortion played a “critical role” in the legislation’s apparent demise, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced on Jan. 21 that there were not enough votes to pass the Senate-version of the bill in the House of Representatives.

At the annual March for Life on Friday, Jan. 22, CNSNews.com asked Pence, “The Senate health care bill, which allowed tax money to go to health care plans which cover abortions is essentially dead, according to Democratic leaders. Do you think the abortion language had anything to do with the bill being dead now?”

“Well, I do believe it did,” Pence answered.

WASHINGTON – Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she lacks the votes to push the Senate's sweeping health overhaul bill through the House, a potentially devastating blow to President Barack Obama's signature issue.

The California Democrat made the comment to reporters Thursday after House Democrats held a closed-door meeting at which participants vented frustration with the massive version of the legislation.

Pelosi said, "In its present form without any changes I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House. ... I don't see the votes for it at this time." Many House Democrats, reeling from their loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat in this week's special election, want the party to pursue a more modest health bill...

Washington (AP) - With congressional negotiators starting to make decisions on a final health overhaul bill, top Democrats are hoping a White House session with President Barack Obama will narrow differences between the House and Senate.

Obama was to meet Wednesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democratic leaders to discuss the massive legislation.

Negotiators from the White House and the two chambers have begun closed-door meetings already and seem likely to abandon a House-approved surtax on the wealthy even as they consider extending the Medicare payroll tax to investment income of high earners, Democratic officials said...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent interview with Newsweek Magazine is creating a stir in the pro-life community.

In the article, the California Democrat -- a professed Catholic -- stated some of her concerns about the church's position on homosexuality and abortion, even though those stances are based strictly on the Bible.

Jim Sedlak of the American Life League reiterates one cannot support abortion and claim to be Catholic "because the Catholic Church has been adamantly against abortion"...

(CNSNews.com) - While Nancy Pelosi is now dodging a request from C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb to open up House-Senate negotiations over the final version of the health-care bill so C-SPAN’s cameras can show them to the public, back in July she pledged she would give the public an “ample amount of time” to read the final bill before brining it to a vote.

At a July 9 press briefing, CNSNews.com’s Nicholas Ballasy asked Pelosi: “Minority Leader Boehner has taken a pledge that he will not vote for a health care bill that he hasn't read, that he hasn't had a chance to read in its entirety or until it's available to the public online for 72 hours. Will you take that pledge--a similar pledge and encourage other members to take it?”

In response, Pelosi did not pledge to post the bill online for 72 hours, but did pledge to give the public “ample time” to get to know the legislation...

A constitutional historian says American courts would have to overturn their last 80 years of jurisprudence to uphold the constitutionality of the healthcare bill in Congress.

Thirteen Republican attorneys general are threatening to file a lawsuit against the Democrats' healthcare bill if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) refuse to remove a provision being called the "Cornhusker Kickback" -- the nearly $100 million Medicaid deal Democratic Senator Ben Nelson secured for his home state of Nebraska. Ostensibly, the deal was in exchange for Nelson's vote -- the 60th of 60 needed -- favoring the legislation. As reported earlier, the senator's decision has angered many Nebraskans.

In a letter sent last week, the 13 attorneys general argue the provision is "constitutionally flawed" and violates the U.S. Constitution's protection against "arbitrary" legislation.

A conservative military watchdog expects a tough fight in Congress if Democratic leaders move forward with a plan to try ending the ban on homosexuals serving in the U.S. military by attaching an amendment to next year's defense authorization bill.

On Wednesday an aide to Congressman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) told The Hill that both the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) back the strategy of using the defense bill to attempt to change the 1993 law which strictly forbids homosexuals from serving in the military. That law has often been confused with Bill Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" directive, which was never approved by Congress...

A spokesman for National Right to Life says the latest attempt by House Democrats to obscure federal abortion funding in their healthcare bill is a "political fig leaf made out of cellophane."

As OneNewsNow reported last week, page 110 of the House healthcare bill (H.R. 3692) authorizes a new federal health insurance program or "public option" to pay for all elective abortions.

Blue Dog Congressman Brad Ellsworth (D-Indiana), an avowed pro-lifer, is sponsoring an amendment he claims would make sure no federal funds in the bill are used to provide abortions.

However, pro-life groups across the country say Ellsworth's proposal is a sham. Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Obama administration are desperately trying to undercut Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) and other pro-lifers who want to pass an amendment barring abortion funding...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has conjured up plenty of old ghosts since launching the health care fight back in July, invoking Democrats who laid the foundation for this year’s push — like Franklin Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.

In a way, those titans came up short. Pelosi owes her current place on the cusp of a historic health care vote Saturday to far more anonymous contemporaries, like New Jersey Rep. Robert Andrews and California Rep. Xavier Becerra, whom Pelosi sent out to get the votes.

The fate of the bill itself rests on the shoulders of a new generation of Democrats whose young careers will be defined, in part, by the votes they cast Saturday — votes sure to be used against many of them in 2010...