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Opponents - Democrats and Republicans - of President Barack Obama's climate change plan worry that the plan will pass on the costs of cleaner energy to the poor.

Under the President's cap-and-trade plan, industries that release greenhouse gasses can exceed legal pollutant limits by buying emission allowances from the government. Revenue from this plan is expected to generate $647 million, most of which will be used as tax credits to help the poor and middle class bear higher energy expenses.

Opponents of the plan say industries will pass on costs to the customers, and the tax credits will not be enough to compensate for higher energy costs.

President Obama has promised federal financing of stem cell research - something that was blocked by President George W. Bush in 2001.

Private individuals and state governments have been funding stem cell research since the Bush ban, but both state funds and philanthropic donations are in danger of drying up now.

The promise of federal funds will be a relief for scientists engaged in stem cell research. Stem cells can be harvested not just from aborted embryos - which is what made their use controversial - but also from adults, and stem cell research promises hope for diseases from Alzeimer's to cancer and paralysis.

After an factious debate on Tuesday, the Senate finally approved a spending bill of $410 billion for the federal government till September, 62 votes to 35.

All but eight Republicans and three Democrats voted against the bill - voicing concern about the huge rise in government spending.

The bill eliminates the annual cost-of-living increments for members of the Congress for 2010, but a $4,700 increase has already taken effect last January. Members of the Congress now earn $174,000 a year.

President Obama said at a White House forum on healthcare on Thursday that his aim was to reduce the cost of health care to make it affordable to all Americans, give ordinary people flexibility in the choice of their plans, and their choice of a doctor - within this year.

But he was open to any way of achieving this - through the free market, if it was possible, or through government initiative. During the campaign Mr. Obama had said he would establish a public insurance program to compete with private insurers and would require employers to contribute to the cost of coverage for their employees or to the cost of the public plan.

Almost all Republicans, however, still oppose a public plan, and say a government-run plan would end up controlling the whole market.

After running the most technologically advanced election campaign in history, President Obama's team has found out that running a web-savvy government is a different matter altogether.

The president wanted to send out mass emails and text messages about government initiatives, but Macon Phillips, the White House Director of New Media, says there were problems with privacy issues when collecting email addresses and phone numbers, as well the fact that the White House did not have the technology to send mass emails or text messages.

The White House also put up the stimulus legislation on the website, but was forced to restrict comments to 500 characters in the beginning. Later this was upgraded to 5000 characters, but not before lots of people complained.

Phillips says things will improve, but calls for patience.

President Obama plans to aution the credits to emit greenhouse gases to coal and natural gas-burning electric utilities and industrial plants, and use the proceeds for researching and building clean energy sources, and for distribution back to ordinary Americans through the social security system.

But you will probably have to pay more for your electricity - Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers said that electricity rates would have to increase 40% to cover what his company spent for credits ($2 billion). Gasoline, food and travel will also become more expensive as costs are passed on to customers.

In the end, you could end up paying more than what you will gain.

For a man who built his campaign on optimism and the can-do spirit, President Barack Obama's pronouncements on the economy after he took his oath of office on January 20 have been unexpectedly grim. He warned that the damage to the economy might take years to repair, and some of it may be irreparable.

On Tuesday, the president seemed to revive the spirit of 'yes, we can'. In his address to the joint session of the US Congress, he said "We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."

This is more like what FD Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan - effective Presidents during times of crisis - have said: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" and we need to "believe in ourselves."

Hilda Solis from California was confirmed on Tuesday as the Labor Secretary in Barack Obama's cabinet. The Senate voted 80-17 for her, inspite of Republican concernes about her tax records and her association with American Rights-at-Work, a pro-union organization.

Solis' nomination has been plagued by the same tax problems as Tim Geithner, and her husband Sam Sayyad paid an accumulated 16 years of taxes as Solis was being vetted for the post. She has also been outspokenly pro-labor on key issues, which led Republicans to question her impartiality.

As Labor Secretary, Solis will a department whose budgets and authority were scaled down under the Bush administration but are reviving again now.

At the end of his first month of office, Obama still enjoys overwhelming support from Americans for both his economic stimulus program and his efforts to create bipartisan politics.

Both a Washington Post-ABC News poll and a New York Times-CBS News poll showed 68% and 63% of Americans, respectively, approve of Obama and are optimistic about the next four years with him as president.

A similar percentage also said that Republicans oppose the stimulus plan for political and not for policy reasons.

Such approval ratings are rare for politicians. Can Obama use this to his advantage?

President Barack Obama and Senator John McCain agreeed that we don't need any new Marine One helicopters.

At the 'Fiscal Responsibility Summit' at the White House on Monday, McCain held up a program to replace the current Marine One helicopters as a military contract run amok. He pointed out that this would increase the cost to the tax payer from $6.1 billion to $11.2 billion.

The President agreed, and said his present helicopter seemed perfectly adequate to him. “Of course, I’ve never had a helicopter before, you know? Maybe I’ve been deprived and I didn’t know it. But I think it is in example of the procurement process gone amok. And we’re going to have to fix it.”