Daily News Channel
President Obama took his push to overhaul health care to a national audience Wednesday night, but he gave little assurance that Congress would agree to a plan before its August recess. With a voice of urgency, Obama said that if nothing is done, health care costs will double in the next decade and more Americans will lose their coverage.
As President Obama prepares to address the nation in a primetime news conference, some sources say Democratic grumbling about his plan for health care is growing louder. One Democratic senator told CNN that some congressional Democrats are “baffled,” and another senior Democratic source told CNN that those members are frustrated that that they’re not getting more specific direction from him on health care. “We appreciate the rhetoric and his willingness to ratchet up the pressure but what most Democrats on the Hill are looking for is for the president to weigh in and make decisions on outstanding issues,” the senior Democratic congressional source said.
As President Obama steps up his push for health care reform, there is a growing effort to stop it, and rising doubts about how Obama is handling the issue. The president said from the first day of his administration that health care was a top domestic priority, and some observers say he’s taking a risk in addressing the nation through a primetime news conference Wednesday with little to show after months of wrangling. Obama and top Democrats are seeking an overhaul to ensure that health insurance is available to the 46 million Americans currently without coverage while preventing costs to both the government and individuals from continuing to climb.
A second round of talks between two disputed governments of Honduras is scheduled to take place Saturday in Costa Rica The outcome of this weekend’s talks, following an unproductive initial mediation last week, could set the tone for how the crisis, now in its third week, will play out, observers say. “If you take too long too resolve this type of issue, the force of the mediation loses clout,” Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said. Deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military-led coup June 28.
Just after midnight on July 16, 1969, Jack King kissed his wife goodbye at their Cocoa Beach, Florida home, jumped in his car, and drove to Dunkin Donuts for a doughnut and a cup of coffee. It was the start of a big day: the launch of a Saturn 5 rocket, lifting man from the face of the Earth to the face of the moon. King, the chief of public information at Kennedy Space Center, would become known that day as the voice of Apollo 11.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney is getting a "bum rap" over reports that he ordered the CIA to withhold information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress, two former U.S. intelligence officials told CNN Monday. According to both officials, any intelligence program of “great sensitivity” is first approved by the White House after a series of meetings
Did the CIA deliberately keep its own director in the dark about a secret program?
When Sonia Sotomayor heads to Capitol Hill for the start of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings on July 13, she’ll find two groups of players awaiting her: the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, who arguably have the easy job to flatter and protect President Obama’s pick , and the panel’s Republicans, whose primary task is to goad her into saying something inflammatory or indiscreet. To that end, the seven Republican Senators have prepared four lines of attack. They will express concern about Sotomayor’s comments that a “wise Latina, with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion” than a judge from a more homogeneous background.
Even as Congress struggles with how to pay for health-care reform, the White House keeps doing it its best to accentuate the positive. Last week, Vice President Joe Biden hosted the country’s three largest hospital trade groups as they announced they will accept $155 billion in Medicare and Medicaid cuts over the next 10 years
June has been rough for President Obama.