President Obama addressed Congress two weeks ago on the issue of health care, and on the same day an Associated Press GfK poll showed that the proportion of Americans who strongly approve of the way he is doing his job has fallen from 41% in December to 24% now. And the percentage of people who strongly disapprove of his performance has risen from 6% to 35%.

CNN's Gary Tuchman reports from McAllen, Texas on the city's high cost of health-care.  In the interview Tuchman talks with a Texas physician who blames his colleagues for the high cost of medical care.

A new poll by the Pew Research Center shows more Mexican workers are leaving the U.S. because of the downturn in the economy. Most believe, however, life is better in the United States, the study shows. Close to six-in-ten (57 percent) say that people who move from Mexico enjoy a better life in the U.S., up from 51 percent in 2007.

Sixty-six state legislators have urged the Texas Congressional delegation to oppose the massively-expensive public-option health care proposal of the Obama Administration. 

Senator John Cornyn drew upon a study he requested from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to contend that the Democrats' proposal would add 2.5 million more poor people to Texas' Medicaid rolls and boost state taxpayers' projected Medicaid costs by $20.4 billion over 10 years.

Because of the number of states and their diversity I'm going to aggregate all state and local taxes and express them as a percentage of GDP. This measure of state tax policy truly understates the state and local tax contribution to the tragedy we call the Great Depression, but I'm sure the reader will get the picture. In 1929, state and local taxes were 7.2% of GDP and then rose to 8.5%, 9.7% and 12.3% for the years 1930, '31 and '32 respectively.  The damage caused by high taxation during the Great Depression is the real lesson we should learn.

The equivalent of the health-care debate a few years ago was the battle over the McCain-Feingold law, which was supposed to be the most important political reform in a generation. Instead, technology has already made this law outdated.

In his speech to Congress last week, President Barack Obama attempted to sell a reform agenda by demonizing the private health-insurance industry, which many people love to hate. He opened the attack by asserting: "More and more Americans pay their premiums, only to discover that their insurance company has dropped their coverage when they get sick, or won't pay the full cost of care. It happens every day."  After fact-checking the President, his tales of abuse don't stand scrutiny.

"The thing about the bully pulpit is that Presidents can make the most fantastic claims and it takes days to sort the reality from the myths. So as a public service, let's try to navigate the, er, remarkable Medicare discussion that President Obama delivered on Wednesday. It isn't easy."

In this Washington Post opinion-editorial, Charles Krauthammer explains what happened to bring Obama's popularity down further than that of any new president in polling history save Gerald Ford (post-Nixon pardon)?