The recent flurry of socially conservative legislation, on issues ranging from expanding gun rights to placing new restrictions on abortion, comes as Republicans at the national level are eager to refocus attention on economic issues.

House GOP lawmakers are having a hard time making the case that plans to revamp Medicare have broad bipartisan support.

And, on the Senate side, a group of Republicans introduced a bill that would end traditional Medicare and allow seniors to join the insurance plans that are available to members of Congress.

In a brief filed Monday, 43 Senate Republicans said that if the Supreme Court allows the mandate to buy health insurance in the Democrats' health law to stand, then Congress could require Americans to buy almost anything.

Congressional Republicans backed down on Monday from a demand that a payroll tax rollback be paid for with reductions in other programs, clearing the way for an extension of the tax cut for 160 million Americans through 2012. After months of partisan confrontation that left the tax break hanging in ...

Congressional Democratic leaders pan the idea of a stand-alone bill for Medicare physician payments, while Republicans continue to insist on a full-year fix.

Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Mary Agnes Carey reports: "Hospitals have come out swinging against payment cuts to their industry included in the House Republican plan to stop a scheduled Medicare physician payment cut next January. And the House GOP is swinging right back."

Rick Perry releases a new TV spot bashing frontrunner Newt Gingrich and rival Mitt Romney for supporting health care policies similar to those of President Obama, while Newark Mayor Cory Booker focuses on the health law's benefits for young people as he campaigns for the president in New Hampshire.

Proposals to extend payroll tax relief, as well as take steps to prevent a scheduled 30 percent reduction in Medicare physician reimbursements from taking effect in January, are high on the congressional to-do list. A House vote on a doc-fix patch could take place as soon as next week.

In Iowa, the AARP polled 400 past Iowa primary voters on Oct. 17 -18 who said they would attend the Iowa caucuses. The Florida poll, which was similar to the one conducted in Iowa and some other states, involved 500 respondents. Florida has the largest number of retirees in the ...

With eight weeks left before Republicans start voting for a presidential nominee, things could hardly be going better for Mitt Romney. ... Romney, more so than the seven other debate participants, used almost every question as a chance to criticize not his GOP rivals but Obama's record on jobs, health ...

A month into the super committee's term, Senate Republicans are telling K Street that they don't believe the powerful deficit-cutting panel can reach a "grand bargain" agreement, sources familiar with the negotiations say. But the only way that a grand bargain could pass muster with the GOP, the Senate Republican ...