Events

Reuters - Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle pledged on Thursday to aggressively pursue healthcare reform and restore confidence in federal health agencies as he made his case to become President-elect Barack Obama's health secretary.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama urged Congress Thursday to work with him "day and night, on weekends if necessary" to approve the largest taxpayer-funded stimulus ever, warning in almost apocalyptic terms that a dire economic future was certain without it.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama's proposed tax cuts ran into opposition Thursday from senators in his own party who said they wouldn't do much to stimulate the economy or create jobs. Senators from both parties agreed that Congress should do something to stimulate the economy. But Democratic senators emerging from a private meeting of the Senate Finance Committee criticized business and individual tax cuts in Obama's stimulus plan.

AP - Tom Daschle told former Senate colleagues on Thursday that as health secretary he would learn from Bill Clinton's failed attempt to overhaul health care, an effort criticized as too long, secretive and hard to understand.