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Senate Democrats voted to move into a representative debate on overhauling the nation’s health care system on Saturday. Key centrists made it clear Sunday that the party is still a long way from convey its promise to provide near-universal health insurance coverage and contain medical costs.

In the face of the prospect of Republican filibusters at every aspect, Democratic leaders can only keep on moving the process if they could deliver the same kind of total unity they obtained in Saturday’s vote to begin debate: Every Democratic senator, plus two independents who caucus with them, supported the key procedural motion.

But several of those senators said they if no major changes are made ,they will not be prepared to support the bill on Sunday. (continue reading…)

This afternoon, President Bush welcomed the president-elect Barack Obama and his wife for Obama’s first trip at the White House. Just a week ago, the two men viewed each other as the personification of political evil. Today, they were new best friends.

Topics included “the need to get the economy back on track,” Gibbs said, and “what’s going on in the auto industry.” The discussion of the auto industry wasn’t limited to any one of the nation’s three largest car makers, he said. “It was a discussion about the broad health of the industry, and they also spoke about the housing industry and foreclosures.”

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino described the sessions as “good, constructive, relaxed and friendly,” while Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said the two men engaged in “a broad discussion about the importance of working together throughout the transition of government in light of the nation’s many critical economic and security challenges.”

They wouldn’t go any further. “Since it was a private meeting,” Perino said, “the White House will decline to comment on specifics,” except to say that Bush “pledged a smooth transition to the next administration.”

Bush allowed Obama to enter the historic office first as they prepared for a private talk about the challenges of leading a nation freighted in this hand-over of power by a crippling economic downturn and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The country’s troubles fall to Obama when he takes office Jan. 20.

At the end of their highly symbolic visit, Bush walked Obama to a waiting black limousine for the trip to the airport and the return flight by jet charter to his transition headquarters in Chicago. His team is working there to put together the next Cabinet and to fill the hundreds of jobs that come open in a change of administrations.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama called former first lady Nancy Reagan on Friday to apologize for making a quip that she held seances in the White House.

Nancy Reagan, wife of 40th President Ronald Reagan, was derided in 1988 when his former chief of staff Donald Regan revealed in a book that the first lady had consulted an astrologer to determine the president’s schedule.

Obama apologized to Reagan “for the careless and offhanded remark,” Obama transition team spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said. “President-elect Barack Obama called Nancy Reagan today to apologize for the careless and off-handed remark he made during today’s press conference,” said Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter.

“The President-elect expressed his admiration and affection for Mrs. Reagan that so many Americans share and they had a warm conversation,” Cutter said in a statement. “they had a warm conversation.”

President-elect Barack Obama’s daughters Malia and Sasha Obama are expecting their new dog that Obama promised them.

His victory conference had it all, President-elect Barack Obama announced that the children had “earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.”

So far, the family has been mum on what type of pooch will get to call 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. home. During his campaign, Obama mentioned that Malia, 10, had decided she wanted a “goldendoodle,” a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle.

The American Kennel Club jumped into the action, running a poll asking what type of dog the Obamas should get. More than 42,000 people voted, with poodles getting the nod.

“The poodle is one of the most versatile and popular dogs,” said Daisy Okas, spokeswoman for the AKC. “They are great pets. They are intelligent, easy to train, really loving, obedient and just all-around great dogs.” (continue reading…)

President-elect Barack Obama has promised broad changes to U.S. health care, pledging to bring health insurance to millions of Americans and to spend $50 billion to take American health records electronic, and he will struggle to find the money to do it.

Polls show more than 80 percent of Americans want health care reform. But even with a Democratic-controlled Congress, Obama, who won a solid victory in Tuesday’s U.S. election and takes power in January, has hard work ahead of him, health experts agree.

If jobs are the next thing to go in the current economic crisis, as many economists are predicting, the number of American’s without health insurance will quickly increase beyond projections.

The statistics bear this out:

45 million Americans have no health insurance.
25 million more have health plans but are considered underinsured because their policies offer only minimal coverage, according to the Commonwealth Fund.
42% of U.S. adults under age 65 are uninsured or underinsured, up from 33% in 2003.
Total spending on health care represented around 16% of the gross domestic product in 2007, and the Congressional Budget Office says spending will rise to a quarter of gross domestic product by 2025.

Obama wants to create a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals and small businesses buy private insurance.

He promised to require health care for all children, and expand Medicaid, the government-run health program for the poor, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program or SCHIP.

Obama has said he would pay for his plan by rolling back President Bush’s tax cuts on people making more than $250,000 a year and keeping the estate tax at 2009 levels, but he has not been more specific. He has not provided a timetable for seeking his proposed reforms and has not said if he would present a comprehensive health care reform package or try for incremental change.