Barack Obama

CEDAR CREEK, Texas – Buoyed by a pair of Nov. 3 gubernatorial victories and signs of increasing voter unease toward Democratic-controlled Washington, top Republicans expressed optimism Thursday that their party was poised to make significant gains in 2010.

After two successive election cycles that left their activists and donors demoralized, the Republican governors gathered here offered the sort of upbeat rhetoric about GOP prospects that has been largely absent since President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election.

While heaping praise on what they said were issued-oriented campaigns from their two new governors-elect, New Jersey’s Chris Christie and Virginia’s Bob McDonnell, Republicans said their comeback was being ushered in by a series of policy excesses by President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress...

Joseph Stubbs, President of the American College of Physicians -- the second largest doctors' group in the country -- confirms that "the supply of doctors just won't be there" for the 30 million new patients Barack Obama wants to cover. Noting that the doctor shortage is "already a catastrophic crisis," Stubbs said that underserved areas in the U.S. currently need almost 17,000 new primary care physicians even before Obama's proposals are enacted.

In the meantime, according to Bloomberg News, a 2009 survey by Merritt Hawkins and Associates, a recruiting and research firm in Irving, Texas, found that "the average waiting time to see a family-medicine doctor in Boston ... is 63 days, the most among the 15 cities" surveyed. By comparison, in Miami, it was only seven days...

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she expects the Senate to pass an overhaul of U.S. health care next month and President Barack Obama prefers taxing high-end medical plans to help pay for the revamp.

“The hope is there will be 60 votes mid-December to pass bills in Senate” before House and Senate leaders get to work on merging their legislation in a conference committee, Sebelius said today at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council conference in Washington. She didn’t say when she thought final legislation would reach President Obama...

BEIJING - As President Barack Obama prepares for his first visit to China, leaders of the unapproved churches there are condemning his administration for indifference to the increasing persecution they are facing.

The latest example of that persecution came Sunday as followers of an unapproved church in Beijing were again forced by the government to find a new place to worship.

Worship in China, governed by the officially atheist Communist Party, is allowed only in state-approved churches, but millions of people belong to unregistered churches that often face official harassment...

Washington (AP) - Three decades of airline deregulation have helped make air travel more accessible to consumers through lower fares.

Now labor unions are questioning whether the industry is paying the price, and the Obama administration is listening.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was holding a forum Thursday to discuss the state of the airline industry, which is mired in a severe economic slump and blamed for using a business model critics say undermines safety.

The industry has suffered repeated shocks in recent years, including the 9/11 terror attacks, the SARS virus, volatile oil prices and the current economic downturn...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official.

In strongly worded classified cables to Washington, Eikenberry said he had misgivings about sending in new troops while there are still so many questions about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Obama is still close to announcing his revamped war strategy -- most likely shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends on Nov. 19...

Washington (CNN) -- Congress will miss President Obama's deadline to enact health care reform by the end of the year, a key Democratic senator said Tuesday.

Illinois' Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, said he hopes, at best, to pass the Senate's version of a health care bill by that time.

If the Senate manages to pass a bill, a congressional conference committee would need to merge the House and Senate proposals into a consensus version requiring final approval from each chamber before moving to Obama's desk to be signed into law.

Durbin's assessment came as former President Clinton made a rare visit to Capitol Hill to discuss the health care issue with Senate Democrats...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In an interview on Monday, President Barack Obama refused to support an amendment in the health care bill that would ban taxpayer funding of abortions. Obama said he didn't want to change the "status quo" on abortion and added there is "more work to do" on the bill.

"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill," Obama told ABC News. "And we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions."

Obama appeared to side with abortion advocates who claim the Stupak amendment in the health care bill somehow changes the current status quo on government abortion funding -- which, under the Hyde amendment and other pro-life provisions is mostly banned...

(CNSNews.com) - Even though President Obama repeatedly has said that the health care bill will not allow federal funding of abortion, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs failed three times on Monday to answer reporters’ questions about whether the president supports an amendment to the bill (an amendment approved by the House on Saturday) that would prohibit federal funds from going to health insurance plans that pay for abortions.

The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.), specifically applies the language of the longstanding Hyde Amendment to the programs that would be created by the health care bill.

The amendment simply says no federal funds can pay for any part of any health insurance plan that covers abortion...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the Palestinians on Monday to resume negotiations with Israel, issuing the call before a meeting with President Barack Obama on the stalled Middle East peace process.

Saying "no Israeli government has been so willing to restrain settlement activity," Netanyahu told a conference of American Jewish leaders: "I say today to (Palestinian President) Mahmoud Abbas ... let us seize the moment to reach a

historic agreement. Let us begin talks immediately."

"My goal is not negotiations for the sake of negotiations. My goal is to achieve a permanent peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians -- and soon," he said...