Video: The First Family In 2009
History will judge President Obama's first year in office by the problems he faced; massive government bailouts, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and reforming health care. But, as Joel Brown reports, the image of the first family also garnered just as many headlines.
Health care: Republicans just say no

by Mark Silva

So it passes.

After nearly a month of debate in the Senate, an overhaul of health-care in America passed early this morning -- by a vote of 60-39.

That hard-fought bloc of 60 votes -- necessary to overcome persistent Republican attempts to block the bill in the Senate -- was won with tough concessions for sponsors of the bill who wanted more out of it. That includes President Barack Obama, who wanted a "public option," a government-run plan for people who cannot find coverage privately. Senate leaders conceded this and more to conservative Democrats and an independent.

Yet the president says he can sign this bill -- once it is reconciled with one that has cleared the House. That bill includes a public option, essential for support in the House, but impossible in the Senate, if the 60 votes are to hold.

So reconciliation -- crafting a bill that both chambers can accept -- is the remaining, and perhaps toughest challenge for the legislation that the president has made his signature domestic priority.

But in the end, it will be a Democratic conference.

In the House, only one Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao of New Orleans, seated in an overwhelmingly Democratic district, has voted for the health-care bill. Many Democrats voted no as well. In the Senate today, 39 Republicans voted no.

In the end, the conference report that clears both chambers -- on an up-or-down vote, without amendment -- will likely be a Democratic product as well. Negotiated by the leaders, approved by the members -- though not necessarily all of them.

In the end, if the bill makes it through conference and a final vote, and with the president's sure signature, the health-reform of 2010 will become known as a Democratic health-care bill.

In the end, the Democrats will rise on its successes, or suffer the consequences of any controversy surrounding the bill -- polls portray the public as wary about it, doubtful that it will help, worried that it will make things worse.

And in the end, the Republicans, for better or worse, will rise with any public resistance to this measure, or suffer the consequences of being the party of no.

Obama: Health Bill Will Make History

In an early Christmas Eve vote, the Senate approved a landmark health care overhaul bill. The Democrats got all the votes they need to pass the measure. Not one Republican voted for the bill. In an NPR interview Wednesday, Obama explained to Julie Rovner why the measure will be historic.