On Obama's Urging, House Dems To Drop Family Planning From Stimpak

According to the AP, President Obama called Henry Waxman and personally asked that the provision making it easier for states to pay for family planning funding for Medicaid be stricken from the bill.

Though details aren't final, and though Waxman hasn't reacted in public yet, Democrats in the House seem to be ready to concede the point to the White House.

A Democrat familiar with the administration's reasoning said that while Obama and the House still considered it "good policy" and did "save money," it became "an easy target for critics who said it would not help the economy, so better to take it out and keep focus on the bill creating jobs."

The provision will likely return in later legislation.

Republicans who met with Obama this week cited the provision as an unnecessary political sop to pro-choicers in the midst of a stimulus package that Obama hopes to get Republican support for. Right pressure groups like the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family Action have been urging their supporters to pressure conservative Democrats.

Obama's personal lobbying on this issue does several things; it takes some of the pressure off House Democrats for caving. It shows Republicans that he takes (some of) their concerns seriously, even to the point of irritating his own base. And it's a test to see whether his base is willing to give him a pass, as Obama has said that it's important to him that the stimulus package pass with bipartisan support.