The US Senate fight over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul claimed a foreign policy casualty Wednesday, with Republican tactics forcing the cancellation of a hearing on North Korea. The Senate Armed Services Committee had been scheduled to question senior US military officials -- including the commander of the combined US-UN command in South Korea, General Walter Sharp -- at ...

Republicans are rejoicing and Democrats reeling in the wake of Scott Brown's stunning victory over Martha Coakley in a special Massachusetts Senate election that Brown insists was not simply a referendum on President Barack Obama. Still, Obama grimly faced a need to both regroup ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Affluent investors turned bearish in December as their attention moved from the economy to concerns over health reform and fears the wealthy may be asked to pay more taxes. The Spectrem Group's affluent investor confidence index, which measures sentiment in households with more than $500,000 in investable assets, fell 5 points to -15. Spectrem says ...

WASHINGTON Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could not sleep. It was the night before the final Senate vote on the health care bill. The heavy lifting of assembling 60 votes was done. Only a simple majority was needed. But that fact did not give the Nevada Democrat any peace. He ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate agreed on Wednesday to move up by one hour its vote on final passage of a sweeping healthcare overhaul to 7 a.m. EST (1200 GMT) on Thursday. The move came as senators, anxious to hurry out of town for the Christmas holiday, tried to beat a winter storm developing in the Midwest and ...

While imperfect, a health reform bill before US lawmakers would achieve many of the goals championed by the late senator Edward Kennedy, his widow said Saturday. The "liberal lion" of the Senate, who died in August after losing a battle to brain cancer, believed that "this year the stars -- and competing interests -- were finally aligned to allow our nation to ...

President Barack Obama encouraged fellow Democrats in the US Senate on Sunday to overcome their divisions and pass sweeping health care reform legislation, in a rare closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. The president urged lawmakers to "continue forward on this historic opportunity to provide stability and security for those who have insurance, affordable coverage for those who don't," according ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate began work on a sweeping healthcare overhaul on Monday, with senators on both sides pouncing on findings in a nonpartisan budget report on insurance premiums to bolster their arguments. With the debate expected to last up to three weeks, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid warned senators they would work on weekends if necessary to ...

The US Senate was on Monday to begin debating a massive health care reform bill that is a key priority for President Barack Obama but faces stiff Republican opposition and is plagued by divisions in Democratic ranks. Debate is to begin Monday morning on the measure to overhaul the US health care system, at an estimated cost of 848 billion ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading Democrats on Sunday said they expect Congress to pass a major healthcare reform backed by President Barack Obama, but supporters may have to accept legislation that falls short on some issues. The U.S. Senate on Monday is set to begin debate on the sweeping overhaul of the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system amid growing ...