House ready to kill Medicare savings panel created by Obama health care overhaul

The House is ready to ignore a veto threat and take their latest shot on Tuesday against President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. This time, they want to kill a federal panel that is supposed to find ways to curb Medicare spending.

Members of the Independent Payment Advisory Board have never been appointed. And the panel has never recommended any savings from Medicare, the $600-billion-a-year health care program for the elderly.

Republicans have long targeted the board, saying it would ration care and has too much power.

Democrats note that the health care law that created the panel specifically forbade it from rationing care, imposing new costs on recipients or reducing their benefits. They say the GOP effort is simply another attempt to weaken the health care law.