Democratic Party

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday followed up on his threat to block a high-interest loan that could be needed to keep California government running if he and state lawmakers fail to balance the budget soon. The governor revoked the state controller's authority to take out such an emergency loan, a day after saying he was willing to bring state government to a "grinding halt" should budget talks stall. A loan would cost too much, he said, and give lawmakers an excuse to procrastinate.

A moderate assemblyman cut ties with the Democratic Party on Tuesday and became an independent, a move that could throw an unexpected curve into the state's budget fight. Fresno Assemblyman Juan Arambula, who has frequently clashed with Democratic leaders, re-registered as decline-to-state.

Capping weeks of negotiations over how to pay for a healthcare overhaul that could top $1 trillion over the next decade, senior House Democrats have settled on a proposal to cover a significant portion of the cost by raising income taxes on the wealthiest Americans. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Friday that the plan -- which Democrats expect to present in detail Monday -- could generate as much as $540 billion over 10 years.

Inola Henry, an educator, teachers union leader and longtime Democratic Party activist on the local, state and national levels, died July 26 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 66. The cause was a heart attack, according to her son, Carl.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's death leaves a void in the firmament of American politics, one that will be difficult to fill -- not only because the Democratic Party has no understudy ready for his role, but also because Congress has changed so much in the more than four decades of his career. Kennedy was the polestar of old-fashioned Democratic liberalism, the constant point against which much of his party measured itself. "The commitment I seek is not to outworn views but to old values that will never wear out," he told the 1980 Democratic convention.

President Obama and his congressional allies are entering the next phase of their push to overhaul healthcare with lower expectations of what can be accomplished -- but with far greater certainty that significant legislation will be enacted by the end of the year. After a long summer of raucous protests, discouraging poll numbers and unplanned tactical shifts, administration officials and Democratic leaders now are focusing on their two greatest challenges: scaling back the overall cost, and developing alternatives to the government-run insurance option that liberals have championed.

President Obama wades into an intramural fight among Democrats today by attending a high-dollar fundraising dinner for Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), demonstrating an unusual measure of personal commitment in a primary battle whose outcome is far from clear. As leader of his party, Obama had the option of following a more neutral course and staying out of the primary race between Specter and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.). But the White House has opted to double down on its support for Specter, a longtime Republican who switched parties in the spring partly to avoid an anticipated defeat in the GOP primary next year.

Japan's parliament named Yukio Hatoyama prime minister Wednesday, as his party took power for the first time with promises to revive the slumping economy and make Tokyo a more equal partner in its alliance with the United States. The Stanford-educated Hatoyama said he planned to review the American military presence in Japan, where 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed. But he said he wouldn't emphasize that potentially contentious issue in a first meeting with President Obama that could come sometime this month.

Despite months of outward ambivalence about creating a government health insurance plan, the Obama White House has launched a behind-the-scenes campaign to get divided Senate Democrats to take up some version of the idea for a final vote in the coming weeks. President Obama has cited a preference for the so-called public option. But faced with intense criticism over the summer, he strategically expressed openness to health cooperatives and other ways to offer consumers potentially more affordable alternatives to private health plans.

Maneuvering to improve prospects for sweeping healthcare legislation, Senate Democrats hope first to win quick approval for a bill that grants doctors a $247-billion increase in Medicare fees over a decade but raises federal deficits in the process, officials said Wednesday. By creating a two-bill approach, Democrats can contend that the more comprehensive healthcare measure meets President Obama's conditions -- that it will neither add to deficits nor exceed $900 billion in costs over 10 years.