Audit Finds TARP Program Effective 
WASHINGTON — The independent panel that oversees the government’s financial bailout program concluded in a year-end review that, despite flaws and lingering problems, the program “can be credited with stopping an economic panic.”
The Congressional Oversight Panel, which issued the report, was created in October 2008 by the same law that established the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. The panel has often been critical of the Treasury Department’s management of the bailout operation, especially at its start in the Bush administration but also under the Obama administration.
In the latest monthly report released on Wednesday, the panel again criticized the Treasury Department under Secretary Timothy F. Geithner for “failure to articulate clear goals or to provide specific measures of success for the program” as it has morphed over time from rescuing financial institutions to propping up securitization markets, auto manufacturers and home mortgages in danger of default. The panel also described the program’s foreclosure mitigation efforts as inadequate.
Dems agree to drop gov't-run insurance option
WASHINGTON — Democratic senators say they have a tentative deal to drop a government-run insurance option from health care legislation. No further details were immediately available.
But liberals and moderates have been discussing an alternative, including a private insurance arrangement to be supervised by the federal agency that oversees the system through which lawmakers purchase coverage. Additionally, talks centered on opening up Medicare to uninsured Americans beginning at age 55, a significant expansion of the large government health care program that currently serves the over-65 population.
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa told reporters he didn't like the agreement but would support it to the hilt in an attempt to pass health care legislation.
Vote set on abortion amendment; deal in works on public option
Seeking to resolve two contentious issues blocking health-care reform in the Senate, lawmakers began consideration Monday of an amendment to restrict abortion coverage, while Democrats closed in on alternatives to the public-insurance option.
The abortion provision, co-sponsored by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), would bar individuals who receive federal insurance subsidies from purchasing private policies that cover elective abortions. It also would ban coverage under a government plan -- an issue that could become moot if the public option is dropped.
A vote on the abortion amendment is expected Tuesday, and Nelson has warned that he could oppose the health-care bill unless the current Senate language is changed. Nelson's support is crucial: Without him, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) would be one vote short of the 60 needed to pass the measure.
McCaskill: Nixing Health Bill Care Not an Option
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Claire McCaskill said Monday a Senate move to embrace the House's tough anti-abortion language in pending health care legislation ''goes too far'' and must be defeated.
McCaskill said language in the bill now on the Senate floor retains long-standing policy prohibiting federal funds for abortion -- and that's sufficient. The Missouri Democrat told CBS's ''The Early Show'' she believes an amendment by Sen. Ben Evans, D-Neb., ''goes further. You can't use private money in the private market.''
Senate to Confront Abortion in Health Care Debate
Filed at 3:12 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Buoyed by a presidential pep talk and intense rounds of negotiations, Senate Democrats hope to move closer to embracing a major health care bill this week by tackling the nettlesome issue of abortion.
Anti-abortion lawmakers in both parties have insisted that taxpayer funds not be used to pay for abortions in government-run health programs. But some liberals say proposed restrictions go too far by barring federally subsidized health insurance plans from covering abortion even if the procedures were entirely paid for with customers' premiums.
Obama Pushes Democrats on Health Care
WASHINGTON — President Obama exhorted Senate Democrats on Sunday to put aside their differences and seize their moment in history by passing landmark health legislation. But senators said he did not mention sticky issues like abortion or a new government-run insurance plan.
Though Mr. Obama gave them no guidance on the question, Senate Democrats on Sunday intensified their yearlong effort to build consensus around some form of a public insurance plan to compete with private insurers.
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, named 10 senators — five centrists and five liberals — to seek a compromise. Under a leading proposal, the federal Office of Personnel Management would negotiate with insurers to offer one or more national health plans to individuals, families and small businesses. The personnel office has decades of experience arranging health benefits for federal employees, including members of Congress.
Obama urges Dems to pass health care overhaul
WASHINGTON — Casting health care overhaul as a legacy for the American people and failure as politically unthinkable, President Barack Obama on Sunday rallied Senate Democrats to deliver on their party's half-century quest to expand the social safety net by providing access for all.
At the Capitol during a rare Sunday session of the Senate, Obama delivered a closed-door pep talk to the fractious Democratic caucus that lasted about 45 minutes. Deep divisions remain over abortion coverage, but there was hope for compromise on whether the government should directly offer health insurance in competition with private companies.
"They're going to get it done," Obama said as he left. He avoided specifics in the meeting with senators and took no questions.
Obama to Rally Senate Democrats on Health-Care Plan
Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama went to theU.S. Capitol to urge Senate Democrats to agree on healthlegislation as lawmakers struggle to resolve disputes overissues including a proposed government-run insurance plan.
Democrats met throughout yesterday to seek an alternativeto Senate Majority Harry Reid’s plan to create the new nationalprogram to cover the uninsured. Opposition within his partyleaves Reid at risk of falling four votes short of the 60 heneeds to pass the legislation, the most sweeping overhaul of thenation’s health-care system in more than four decades.
The president is expected to tell Democrats this is “apivotal time in the debate” and “we need to pick up the pace alittle,” Reid’s spokesman Jim Manley told reporters in a Senatehallway. Obama’s visit comes as the bill’s backers need a joltto come together, said Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry.
Deals cut with health groups may be at peril
Heading into a make-or-break week, Senate Democratic leaders are struggling to preserve the fragile support of interest groups for an overhaul of the nation's health-care system, even as lawmakers seek to change the carefully crafted provisions that brought the groups on board.
On the floor and behind closed doors, the Senate wrestled Saturday with amendments that would impose additional cost-control requirements on hospitals, doctors and drug companies, squeezing out savings beyond the considerable sums those groups had already volunteered to give up.
Of particular concern to seniors groups is an effort to strengthen a new independent board that would determine the future of Medicare, raising the possibility of cuts much deeper than those envisioned in the $848 billion health-care bill.
Pearl Harbor survivor back for 1st time since war
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — Ed Johann will always remember the sound of planes diving out of the sky to bomb U.S. battleships, the explosions and the screams of sailors. He still recalls the stench of burning oil and flesh.
The 86-year-old retired firefighter is due to return Monday to Pearl Harbor for the first time since World War II to attend a ceremony marking the 68th anniversary of the Japanese attack.
"I really don't know how I'm going to handle it," said Johann, from his home in Oregon. "When I think about it, all I have is unpleasantness. I'm sure it's not like that now."
