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U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi are pursuing a bipartisan deal to spare physicians from recurring Medicare pay cuts, but the two leaders face a familiar conundrum: how to pay for it. Hundreds of thousands of doctors who participate in traditional Medicare face a 21 percent cut in their reimbursements on April 1. The cut is part of a 1990s cost-saving initiative for the government health care program, which today serves 54 million elderly and disabled people. (Cornwall, 3/18)

An uncharacteristic joint effort by House Speaker John Boehner and his usual nemesis, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, to resolve a gnawing problem about how Medicare pays doctors underscores the political victories each sees in finally sweeping the issue off the deck — if they can. Boehner, R-Ohio, has taken the unusual step of working with Pelosi toward a compromise he can offer Republican lawmakers. (3/19)