First Edition: February 17, 2010

Today's headlines reflect more chatter about President Obama's upcoming health summit, as well as talk about budget deficits, the COBRA extension and party gridlock.

Health On The Hill - February 16, 2010 Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey and Eric Pianin of the Fiscal Times talk with the Kaiser Family Foundation's Jackie Judd about recent events on Capitol Hill. For instance, President Obama has scheduled a bipartisan summit for Feb. 25 to discuss ways to pass health care overhaul legislation this year. On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders in both chambers are trying to resolve differences between House and Senate-passed health care bills and make progress on the issue once lawmakers return from the President's Day recess. Read the transcript.

GOP Sees Possible Upside In Health Care Summit
Congressional Republicans see a chance for political gain in President Barack Obama's televised health care summit next week, even though the president will be running the show (The Associated Press/Washington Post).

White House Insists Healthcare Summit No Trap The purpose of the Obama administration's upcoming summit on healthcare is to find solutions to issues like soaring insurance premiums, not score political points against the Republicans, the White House insisted on Tuesday (Reuters/The Washington Post).

Health Groups Hiked Political Giving In '09 Pharmacists, optometrists and groups representing an array of medical specialists boosted their political giving in 2009, as Congress worked on health care legislation that would dramatically reshape their industry, a review of new campaign-finance reports shows (USA Today).

Party Gridlock In Washington Feeds New Fear Of A Debt Crisis After decades of warnings that budgetary profligacy, escalating health care costs and an aging population would lead to a day of fiscal reckoning, economists and the nation's foreign creditors say that moment is approaching faster than expected, hastened by a deep recession that cost trillions of dollars in lost tax revenues and higher spending for safety-net programs (The New York Times).

Alan Simpson And Erskine Bowles To Lead Panel On Reducing U.S. Budget Deficits The annual gap between spending and tax collections is expected to approach $1.6 trillion this year. At more than 10 percent of the overall economy, it would be the largest budget gap since the end of World War II. While deficits are projected to decline as the economy recovers from recession, they are projected to soar again by the end of this decade as retiring baby boomers tap into the entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare (The Washington Post).

Pay-Go Gets Passed, Then It Gets Bypassed Democratic leaders said extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA healthcare benefits should be emergency spending that isn't subject to the pay-as-you-go statute, which requires new non-discretionary spending to be offset with spending cuts or tax increases (The Hill).