KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Mike McCarthy never put a whole lot of stock in a perfect season, except as a means of gaining home-field advantage and setting the Green Bay Packers up for another Super Bowl run.
Well, they still have a chance to earn home-field advantage.
The perfect season? That's history.
Kyle Orton threw for 299 yards to outduel Aaron Rodgers, and the Kansas City Chiefs rallied behind interim coach Romeo Crennel for a shocking 19-14 victory on Sunday that ended the Packers' 19-game winning streak. It was their first loss since Dec. 19, 2010, at New England.
"I personally always viewed the undefeated season as, really, just gravy," McCarthy said. "The goal was to get home-field advantage and win the Super Bowl. That's what we discussed.
"We were fortunate enough to be in the position to possibly achieve the undefeated season," he added, "but we still have the primary goal in front of us, and that's to get home-field advantage."
Green Bay, playing without leading receiver Greg Jennings and top rusher James Starks because of injuries, can wrap up the No. 1 seed in their final two games against Chicago and Detroit. But the Packers no longer have the pressure of becoming the second team in NFL history to win a Super Bowl with a perfect record, or extending the second-longest winning streak in league history.
"I think our goal ultimate goal is to win a Super Bowl. The next step is getting that number one seed in the playoffs," Rodgers said. "We've got a home playoff game — we've got a bye secured."
Rodgers was 17 of 35 for 235 yards and a touchdown, and he also scampered 8 yards for another touchdown with 2:12 left in the game. But the Packers (13-1) were unable to recover the onside kick, and Kansas City picked up a couple of first downs to secure the victory.
"They had a good game plan," Rodgers said. "You have to give them credit."
Ryan Succop kicked four field goals for Kansas City (6-8), which had lost five of its last six games and fired coach Todd Haley last Monday. Jackie Battle added a short touchdown plunge with 4:53 left in the game, points that came in handy when Rodgers led one last scoring drive.
"Everybody had marked it off as a win for the Packers, but those guys in the locker room, they're football players," Crennel said. "They decided they were not going to lay down, they were not going to give up, so they went out and played a tremendous game."
Neither team looked all that tremendous in the first half.
Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson was hit twice with offensive pass interference, Rodgers was harassed by the Chiefs' weak pass rush, and Green Bay wound up making five first downs.
One of them came when Kansas City's Jeremy Horne ran into Packers punter Tim Masthay, giving them 15 free yards. The Chiefs tried to give Green Bay another gift later on the drive when Mason Crosby missed a 59-yard field goal attempt but Kansas City had 12 men on the field.
With another chance from 54 yards, the normally reliable Crosby still pushed the kick right.
Rodgers finished the half 6 of 17 for 59 yards, with a handful of drops between wide receiver Donald Driver and tight end Jermichael Finley. In fact, things were going so badly for Green Bay that at one point it ran out of the wildcat despite having one of the best quarterbacks in the game.
The Chiefs were still clinging to a 6-0 lead when Rodgers finally hit down field, finding Finley over top the coverage for a 41-yard gain. Three plays later, the Packers' star quarterback hit Driver in the corner of the end zone for a 7-6 lead with 8:04 left in the third quarter.

Kansas City answered when Orton hit his own tight end, Leonard Pope, for a career-long 38-yard catch. Jon Baldwin added a 17-yard grab to set up Succop's 46-yard, go-ahead field goal.

The Packers moved into field-goal range on their ensuing drive, but rather than have Crosby attempt a 56-yard kick in the same direction he had already missed, McCarthy elected to go for it on fourth-and-9. Rodgers' pass fell incomplete and the Chiefs took over.

They needed seven plays to cover 59 yards, but had to settle for another field goal and a 12-7 lead. It was the third time the Chiefs drove inside the 5 and had six total points to show for it.

They got seven on their next trip, though.

With first-and-goal at the 5, Thomas Jones managed to gain a yard and Le'Ron McClain bulled ahead for three more, setting up third down from just outside the goal line. Battle took the carry over the right side and powered into the end zone, giving the woeful Kansas City offense its highest-scoring game since the Chiefs beat San Diego in overtime in late October.

The Packers marched down field in the closing minutes, and Rodgers showed his moxie by scampering around the end for a touchdown that made it 19-14, but that was as close as they got.

Green Bay came into the game averaging nearly 36 points, but was held to its lowest total since beating the Chicago Bears 10-3 in Week 17 last year. The Packers needed to win that game to make the playoffs, and wound up riding the momentum to a Super Bowl victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

All that momentum finally came to an end against the most unlikely of scenarios.

"We set the tone on both sides of the ball," Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson said. "This is the great thing about football. You can't always look at the records, because you've got grown men out there who are all getting paid. You don't have to be better on paper.

"If you're better on that given Sunday, you'll get the win."

Notes: Succop has made 21 consecutive field goals. ... Palko was inactive for Kansas City. ... The Chiefs wound up having the ball for 36:11, while Green Bay had it for 23:49. ... Kansas City won despite going 1 for 5 in the red zone. ... Packers OL Derek Sherrod broke his leg in the fourth quarter. He was playing in place of Bryan Bulaga, who went down with a knee strain.

LOS ANGELES – Many in the largest Korean enclave in the United States took word of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il with disbelief, saying it was a day they thought they'd never see. But when their shock wore off, most in Los Angeles's Koreatown shifted to quiet concern for the future of their native country and its neighbor to the north.
"Kim Jong Il died? You're sure about that? No way! I thought he was going to live forever!" said Brian Shin, a 30-year-old native South Korean as he smoked a cigarette in front of his high-rise apartment building on Wilshire Boulevard. He kept expressing doubts until his wife ran downstairs to tell him it was true.
But while he knew the event was huge, he didn't think it would lead to significant changes.
"Even though he died, I don't think it's a better situation or a better world," Shin said.
News of the death played on almost every television in bars, cafes and pool halls in Koreatown, but the mood was quiet in the densely packed neighborhood west of downtown Los Angeles. Few people looked up from their food and drinks at the news reports.
About 200,000 Koreans live in Los Angeles County. Many live, work and shop in the normally bustling Koreatown, which is filled with upscale malls, Korean barbecue restaurants and banks as well as older shops in strip malls where signs read only in Korean.
Some Koreans migrated to the United States after the Korean War ended in 1953, and many more came from the South to work and study after the U.S. eased its immigration rules in 1965.
Karen Fischer of Tempe, Ariz., who was born in South Korea and has lived in the U.S. for 33 years, said she was concerned Kim's death would have a destabilizing effect on the region. She planned to call her relatives in South Korea to gauge their reaction.
"I have family there — my sisters, brother, nieces and nephews," she said. "It worries me who's going to substitute him."
Daniel Kim, a 20-year old who was playing four-ball billiards at a Koreatown pool hall, said the news was unexpected and somewhat scary.
"The leaders will be changed, but we have no idea how the new one will be," he said.
One of his opponents, 19-year-old Ian Lim, agreed.
"I have to serve military service in Korea so that's kind of my worry," Lim said. "North Korea is kind of insecure now, and they'll have to make some incident to show their people they're on the right track."
Kim's death is a symbolic moment for Korean Americans, said Grace Yoo, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Korean American Coalition. Many of her friends were welcoming the news on Facebook, she said.
Hopefully, the new leader will be "someone who cares about their citizens and sees everyone deserving of life," Yoo said.
Overall, Kim's death is good news, and eventually the North Korean government will also fall, said Kee Whan Ha, a South Korea native who serves as president of the Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council in Los Angeles.
"I'm sure there's a lot of Korean Americans with family living in North Korea. I'm sure they hope to see their families," he said.
___

Associated Press writer Michelle Price in Phoenix contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A mounting U.S. deficit could pose a much greater threat to the survival of President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms than either the Supreme Court or 2012 elections.

Many health experts say innovations in delivering medical care and the creation of state health insurance exchanges for extending coverage to the uninsured are likely to continue in some form even if Obama's 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is struck down or repealed.

But former top healthcare policymakers from Democratic and Republican administrations warn that some of the most promising measures for controlling costs, while improving quality and access to care, could run aground as early as 2013 if a new Congress and administration respond to the fiscal pressures with arbitrary spending cuts.

"If the plan is what's on the table now, which is cut, cut, cut - shift the burden to poor people and taxpayers, take away benefits, take away Medicaid coverage - things will get worse," said Dr. Don Berwick, who left his temporary post as Obama's head of Medicare and Medicaid this month after Republicans blocked his Senate confirmation.

The Affordable Care Act is designed mainly to extend healthcare coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans by expanding Medicaid for the poor and establishing state exchanges where people with low incomes who do not qualify for Medicaid can buy subsidized private insurance.

It also calls for innovations that could guide America's $2.6 trillion healthcare system, the world's most expensive, toward incentives to contain costs.

The law faces fierce Republican opposition and is heading into a period of unprecedented turmoil.

Next spring the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the individual mandate, the law's lynchpin provision that requires all Americans to buy insurance. Months later, voters will deliver another verdict by deciding whether Republicans or Democrats control the White House and Congress.

Current and former healthcare officials have great hopes for changes that reward doctors and other providers for how well patients progress rather than compensating them according to the number of tests and procedures they perform.

For a panel discussion on the subject moderated by Reuters at Harvard School of Public Health, go to: www.ForumHSPH.org

"These reforms really have the potential for a longer term impact on healthcare costs," said Dr. Mark McClellan, who oversaw Medicare, Medicaid and the Food and Drug Administration under President George W. Bush.

GAINING MOMENTUM

Some innovations, like "bundled payments," set cost targets for specific conditions that teams of doctors must meet. Others reward healthcare providers for keeping patients healthy or for delivering successful outcomes while saving money.

The innovations were already taking hold in the private market before Obama signed the healthcare bill into law in March 2010.

Their momentum has gained pace sharply across the United States as a result of the law's efforts to apply them to Medicare and Medicaid, which combined spend about $900 billion annually to provide care to 100 million beneficiaries.

The year-old Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has about two dozen innovation models that it intends to develop with private partners over the next few years.

Experts say innovations in delivering care are durable because they offer providers a way to cope with growing cost pressure from employers who sponsor health insurance and from government agencies forced to cut spending.

"This is a response to market realities, not just reformist interests," said Don Moran, a Washington-based healthcare consultant who served in President Ronald Reagan'

WASHINGTON – Republican president hopeful Newt Gingrich doubled down on his criticism of federal judges and the Supreme Court as chief rival Mitt Romney defended his record against likely Democratic attacks.
With close to two weeks before GOP voters start choosing their nominee, Gingrich is courting the conservative primary voters he will need to win in Iowa and sustain his campaign against Romney, whose superior organization and pile of cash has him seeming ever more confident as he looks ahead to the general election.
"There is steady encroachment of secularism through the courts to redefine America as a nonreligious country and the encroachment of the courts on the president's commander-in-chief powers, which is enormously dangerous," Gingrich said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation.
Polls in Iowa and nationally show Gingrich ahead of Romney in the race for the GOP nomination. Gingrich has acknowledged that Romney's repeated attacks have taken a toll on his campaign and is looking to stay at the top.
To do that, Gingrich is focusing on ideology as he courts the Iowa conservatives he needs to win the caucuses and challenge Romney's well-organized campaign in what could become a drawn-out primary.
He has mounted a broad attack on federal judges and the Supreme Court, arguing that they are legislating from the bench and have more control over the country than they should. It's an argument that drew sustained applause during a debate last week in Sioux City, Iowa — and one that could have particular resonance in a state where Republicans fought a protracted battle with state Supreme Court judges over gay marriage.
"The Manchester Union Leader which is a reliably conservative newspaper endorsed me and the Des Moines Register, which is a solidly liberal newspaper did not endorse me," Gingrich said Sunday. "I think that indicates who the conservative in this race is."
The Register, which typically has a left-leaning editorial board, endorsed Romney Saturday night.
The two Republican front-runners for the nomination focused on President Barack Obama and defending their own records in separate TV interviews. It was a shift from recent weeks where the two have attacked each other, trading accusations about each other's' records and the money each has made.
In a rare appearance on a Sunday news program, meanwhile, Romney portrayed himself as the GOP candidate who is best able to defeat Obama next year. Romney defended his years making millions in private business, claiming he'll be able to handle attacks from Democrats who are already trying to paint him as wealthy and out-of-touch. And he argued that his tax proposal is kinder to the middle class and less generous to the rich than the flat tax proposals his rivals — including Gingrich — are backing.
"The president's going to go after me," Romney said on Fox News Sunday. "I'll go after him."
Taken together, the pair has set up a choice for Republican primary voters between a candidate who has struggled to excite the conservative base but emphasizes his appeal to the independents the party will need to win the White House — or the candidate who sounds more conservative.
While Romney and Gingrich were on the East Coast on Sunday, their other rivals were campaigning across Iowa. Texas Gov. Rick Perry continued his bus tour across the state, as did Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum planned two town hall meetings in the conservative western portion of the state.
All were making last-ditch appeals to voters as the campaign for the caucuses enters its final weeks. As candidates met with caucus-goers, their campaigns — and their SuperPAC allies — were planning major ad offensives on TV. Gingrich's campaign is so far planning to spend about $14,000 on ads next week — while his rivals and their allies planned to spend more than $1.3 million promoting themselves or attacking him.
Campaigning will continue into next week, with Gingrich also planning to spend the early part of the week in Iowa. He'll head to New Hampshire Wednesday, where Romney will already be part way through a four-day bus tour. Romney won't return to Iowa until after Christmas.
His confidence increasing, Romney has stepped away from his aggressive attacks on Gingrich in recent days, instead shifting his focus back to Obama — and working to humanize himself on the campaign trail. That focus was on display in Sunday's interview, when Romney spoke emotionally about his wife's struggle with multiple sclerosis.
He said the "toughest time" in his life was standing in the doctor's office waiting for her diagnosis. He said he feared she had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal degenerative nerve condition.
The doctor "did these neurological tests, and then he — and we could see that she had real balance problems and she didn't have feeling in places she should have feeling," Romney said. "And he stepped out of the room, and we stood up and hugged each other, and I said to her, `As long as it's not something fatal, I'm just fine. Look, I'm happy in life as long as I've got my soul mate with me.'"

After her diagnosis, Ann Romney was concerned that she wouldn't be able to do things that she had in the past. "And I said, `Look, I don't care what the meals are like, you know, I like cold cereal and peanut butter sandwiches,'" Romney said. "We could do fine with that as long as we have each other. And if you think about what makes a difference to you in your life, it's people. Life is all about the people you love."

Gingrich, meanwhile, was relaxed and jovial in his CBS interview with Bob Schieffer. He acknowledged his comeback has exceeded even his own expectations. Earlier this year top campaign aides and consultants resigned en masse and his White House bid was burdened with deep debt.

"As we were sliding down. I thought I could fight my way back up to being in the top three or four," said Gingrich, now a front-runner for the nomination. "But I think positive ideas and positive solutions... have attracted people. I think they like the idea of someone who's determined to be positive."

__

McCaffrey reported from Atlanta.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A tax break for 160 million American workers was in doubt on Monday in the face of strong opposition from Republicans in the House of Representatives who have rejected a two-month extension overwhelmingly approved by the Senate over the weekend.

House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, demanded a fresh round of bargaining with the Democratic-controlled Senate to extend the payroll tax break through the 2012 election year.

Angry Democrats accused him of reneging on a deal brokered by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and his Democratic counterpart Harry Reid. The two eked out a modest two-month extension on Friday after failing to break a deadlock over how to pay for the tax break for a full year.

The Senate passed the measure by 89 votes to 10 on Saturday. The House is set to vote on it on Monday, but the strong opposition of House Republicans means they will most likely try to amend the Senate bill or seek the negotiations demanded by Boehner.

Either way, it will be difficult to settle differences between the two parties with less than two weeks left before the tax break expires. Without congressional action the tax workers pay into the Social Security federal retirement program will rise to 6.2 percent on January 1, from 4.2 percent.

The end-of-year fight, which many had thought had ended with the Senate deal on Friday, will further deepen widespread perceptions of dysfunction in Washington.

"This just adds to the level of frustration with business as usual in Washington, and the general sense around the country that Congress is playing politics with our economic fate," said Scott Anderson, a senior analyst at Wells Fargo.

Public confidence in Congress has plunged to record lows this year after a series of bitter fights between Democrats and Republicans over spending and taxes brought the government to the brink of a shutdown three times and cost the United States its prized AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's.

President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress say continuing the payroll tax break for another year will help spur U.S. the fragile economic recovery.

STICKING POINT

Boehner said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that a two-month extension would create uncertainty for workers and employers at a critical time for the economy.

The biggest sticking point for a year-long extension is how to cover the $120 billion in lost revenue to the Social Security Trust Fund. Republicans are demanding spending cuts to cover the cost and Democrats want to pay for it by closing some tax breaks for the wealthy.

Analysts say House Republicans, who are skeptical about the stimulative impact of the tax cut on the economy and only grudgingly agreed to extend it, are concerned about reopening the issue in an election year. They will be vulnerable to a fresh round of attacks by Democrats that they only favor tax cuts for the wealthy, not for the middle class.

Boehner is a man under pressure. He has to address the concerns of his rank-and-file members while ensuring that a compromise deal is struck before December 31. Failure would mean taxes going up by about $1,000 for the average worker, for which House Republicans would likely be blamed.

"With a few days left before Christmas, there is a little time to renegotiate this," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. "The Republican leadership knows it will be in a politically difficult position if this were to expire at Christmas time and will likely find a solution soon."

Economists have warned that reverting to the higher payroll tax rate would drain stimulus from an economy struggling to add jobs, making it more vulnerable to the spillover effects of likely recession in debt-stricken Europe.

The Senate bill also extends an expiring jobless benefits program for the long-term unemployed and averts a pay cut in January for doctors treating patients in the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly.

It includes a provision demanded by House Republicans that would force Obama to accelerate a decision on TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL oil pipeline project, which is backed by some labor unions but opposed by environmental groups.


In a conference call with House Republicans on Saturday, Boehner painted this as a victory for House Republicans because Obama had strongly opposed efforts to link Keystone with the payroll tax cut. But the "sweetener" was not enough to quell overwhelming opposition to the Senate bill. (Additional reporting by William Schomberg in New York)


(Reporting by David Lawder and Donna Smith; editing by Todd Eastham)