Health Care, Education | featured news

"It's in areas like health care, education and job training," Packer said. "Programs are closing or are being cut, layoffs are happening. It's not just waiting in line a bit longer at the airport."

At dispute is how to provide funding that would prevent a jump in the interest rates for subsidized loans made by the federal government to undergraduate college students. The House of Representatives voted last week to keep the rate from doubling, but funded it by eliminating the Prevention and Public Health Fund that is part of President Obama’s health care law. (The House measure has little chance in the Senate controlled by Democrats.)

Compromises abound, but the current health care/student loan bill would make huge investments in higher education, pouring upwards ...

President Barack Obama's allies rallied around his ambitious budget blueprint as he visited the Capitol on Wednesday, and only hours later a House panel endorsed it, pointing the way for major legislation this year on health care, energy and education.