It appears Senate Democrats have wised-up and adjusted their expectations to the reality of Senate, where the "Party of No," the Republicans, wields nearly equal power.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nevada) dispensed with elaborate jobs bill negotiations and trimmed the jobs package to four items for which he knows he can get at least a filibuster-preventing 60 votes: a hiring tax break, an increase in highway spending, an extension of the Build America Bonds program, and tax breaks for small businesses, Bloomberg News reported Friday.

Any experienced investor knows that these are not normal times. But they could become truly historic times, if the United States is able to pass universal health care legislation in the the weeks ahead.

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, has crafted a health care bill that would cut the U.S. budget deficit by about $130 billion over 10 years, while extending coverage to up to 94% of Americans, The Associated Press reported Thursday. The bill's estimate cost is $848 billion.

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada and Senate Majority Leader, is weighing increasing the Medicare payroll tax by 0.4 to 0.5 percentage point, as a way to help fund universal health care, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday (subscription required.)

The current employee share of the Medicare tax is 1.45%. Reid's proposal would apply to only those earning more than $250,000 per year, which would conform to President Obama's campaign promise to not raise taxes on individuals earning under $250,000 per year, CNN.com reported Thursday.

Even though it faces an uphill battle in the Senate, look for U.S. Sen. Harry Reid's, D-Nevada, flexible public option to become part of a universal health care bill.

That's because Reid's 'flex-pub' fits the federalist system of governance
(local-state-federal) practiced by the United States in that it enables states to 'opt-out' of the public option, provided they have a state-level plan for universal care and/or are complying with other federal requirements for universal health care coverage.

And, when one thinks about it, politically and operationally, a flex-public option makes a great deal of sense.

On Saturday, President Bush warned that the government must guard against going too far in trying to fix the troubled economy. "If we were to pursue some of the sweeping government solutions that we hear about in Washington, we would make a complicated problem even worse -- and end up hurting far more homeowners than we help."

"Democrats know that wait-and-see is not a responsible strategy for an economy that is teetering on the brink of recession," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "The president continues to convince himself that inaction is the cure-all for the economic problems hurting hardworking Americans." Democrats intend to strengthen the economy with measures dealing with housing, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.

President Bush said the recently passed program of tax rebates should begin to lift the economy in the second quarter of the year and have an even stronger impact in the third quarter. But he urged caution about doing more, particularly about the crisis in the housing market.

American President George Bush announced his new budget spending plan today, and the package came out to a total of $3.1 trillion.

Today's federal budget proposal marks the first time in America's history that a budget plan has been in excess of $3 trillion. Bush claims that his budget is "good" and "solid" and that the passing of this budget will help keep the troubled American economy growing.

All in all, this budget looks to lift government spending by 6% during the fiscal year 2009, and it will probably come to no one's surprise that defense gets a nice little boost from today's budget. Bush is looking to allocate 8.2% of his spending on security, and the budget is looking to stake a $70 billion "placeholder" for war costs during 2009. The Pentagon should be pleased with its figures, as Bush is looking to allocate $515.4 billion its way... the highest allocation since WWII (and represents a 7.5% jump).