Core and Group Health

House Speaker John Boehner says President Barack Obama wants a blank check from Congress to raise the debt ceiling, but that he's not going to get one.

Decrying a "partisan three-ring circus" in the nation's capital, President Barack Obama criticized a newly minted Republican plan to avert an unprecedented government default Monday night and said congressional leaders must produce a compromise that can reach his desk before the Aug. 2 deadline.

Senate Democrats and House Republicans are pushing rival plans to reduce future budget deficits and avert a potential government default next week. Neither plan raises taxes or cuts major benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.

In a fresh challenge to President Barack Obama, House Republicans unveiled reworked legislation Monday to avert a potentially devastating government default in barely a week — but along lines the White House has already rejected.

The White House is getting behind a proposal by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to avert a debt-limit crisis by trimming $2.7 trillion of government spending.

Hospitals, doctors, drug companies, insurers and others with a stake in health care spent more than $750,000 lobbying at the Vermont Statehouse this year as lawmakers debated landmark legislation designed to put Vermont on the road toward universal health insurance.