NPR 2009-07-19

President Obama is trying to build public support for his plan to overhaul 1 the nation’s health care system to help counter the concerns being expressed by some lawmakers including a number of Democrats 3 about how to pay for the proposal.

Mr Obama says the plan would bolster 5, not replace the best elements of the current system.

Michelle and I don’t want anyone telling us who our family doctor should be, and no one should decide that for you, either. Under our proposal, if you like your doctor, you keep your doctor; if you like your current insurance, your keep that insurance. Mr. Obama speaking in his weekly radio and internet address today.

Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona cautioned against trying to get such complex legislation through Congress by the end of next month. That’s the deadline Mr. Obama has set. The president and some democrats insist we must rush this plan through, why? Because the more Americans know about it, the more they oppose it. Something this important needs to be done right rather than done quickly. Kyl gave the Republican’s weekly address.

The President has said he will not sign on to any plan that would increase the federal deficit 6. But the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says the bill now before the House would boost the deficit by 239 billion dollars over the next decade.

The nation’s governors say federal stimulus 7 money they are getting from the plan enacted 8 by Congress earlier this year is helping 9 them weather the most serious budget crisis the States have faced in years.

NPR’s Debbie Elliott reports.

The State Budget crunch 10 is at the forefront of discussions this weekend at the National Governors Association Annual Meeting in Biloxi Mississippi. The group’s chairman Democrat 2 Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania stayed home to cope with a fiscal 11 crisis. But in video taped remarks, he said many states would have been swamped financially without the stimulus. Now the governors are calling for new infrastructure 12 investment. Vermont Republican Jim Douglas is the group’s vice 13 chairman, ”After a century of buildup our roads and bridges are in disrepair; our water infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with our growth, and our electric grid 14 is little different from the one that was envisioned by Tomas Edison more than a century ago.” Douglas says it would cost 2.2 trillion dollars over the next five years to upgrade the nation’s aging infrastructure. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Biloxi Mississippi.

The first major religious festival in Iraq since US troops pulled back from cities in that country has ended largely peacefully. The BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse reports.

The festival is one of the most important dates in the Shiite religious calendar. It’s also the biggest security challenge for the Iraqi authorities since they took over control of the towns and cities from the Americans. Despite a partial curfew and large numbers of soldiers and police on the streets of the capital, a spate 15 of bombings killed 3 pilgrims and wounded more than 30 others on Friday. In 2005 at the same festival rumors 16 of a suicide bomber 17 swept through the crowd, causing a stampede that killed around 1000 people. Gabriel Gatehouse in Bagdad.

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A sheriff in Tennessee says a suspect is being held in the killings 18 of five people in that state and another just across the border in Alabama. Investigators 19 say some of the victims were related.

Tom Watson holds a one-stroke lead heading into the final day of play of the British Open golf tournament at Turnberry in Scotland.

Watson is 18 holes away from achieving what many have considered an impossible feat 20 of a 59-year-old winning a major golf tournament, something that has never been done before. NPR’s Tom Goldman has the story.

Tom Watson continues to defy expectations that a 59-year-old pro 4 30 years passes his golfing prime will end his flirtation 21 with history and fade away. Saturday Watson again played like he intended to replace Julius Boros as the oldest man to win a major title. Boros won the 1968 PGA championship when he was 48. Watson was steady from the start of the 3rd round; he drove the ball long and kept it in the fairway. He adjusted the tricky 22 Turnberry winds and he sank key putts. All part of his game plan he said for the last 2 days of the championship:

“I can afford to make a certain number of bogeys 23. And I have to make up for them with a certain number of birdies. That’s been my game plan, and I’m pretty close to it right now.”

The five-time British Open winner begins Sunday’s final round with one-stroke lead of Australian Mathew Goggin and Englishman Ross Fisher.

Tom Goldman NPR news.

Russian cyclist Serguei Ivanov won today’s stage of the Tour de France. Lance Armstrong did not lose anytime to the overall leader Italy’s Rinaldo Nocentini. But he did drop back a spot in the standings to fourth. A woman who was watching the race was killed when she was struck by a policeman on a motor cycle as she was trying to cross the road.