Chat Away: White House Kitchen Garden Fall Harvest

First Lady Michelle Obama embraces President Barack Obama as he surprises her during the White House Kitchen Garden Fall Harvest

Pete Souza: President Obama talks with Debra Eschmeyer, Executive Director of “Let’s Move!”, and former Executive Director of “Let’s Move!” Sam Kass during the fall harvest in the White House Kitchen Garden

Rise and Shine

Happy Sunday everyone, chat away 😉

Have a perfect day you two!

leaves

President Barack Obama leaves the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, November 23, 2010. The President will travel to Kokomo, Indiana as part of the White House to Main Street tour. In the afternoon, Obama and the Vice President Joe Biden will visit the Chrysler Indiana Transmission Plant II where they will take a tour, greet plant workers, and deliver brief remarks.

close to home

President Barack Obama steps out of the home of Paul and Frances Brayshaw for a backyard discussion on health care reform at a private residence September 22, 2010 in Fall Church, Virginia

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Politico: “Dozens of financial grants have been distributed to states and health providers to implement new programs, such as money to fund state-led reviews of insurance premium changes. Employers have gotten money to keep early retirees on their insurance plans. More than a million seniors have gotten $250 checks to help fill the missing ‘doughnut hole’ of prescription drug coverage. A Web portal with insurance options for every ZIP code in the country was put together in mere months. Insurers have been banned from canceling coverage once an insured person gets sick.

“And the Department of Health and Human Services has methodically met a series of early implementation deadlines — even winning praise from some on the other side of the issue. ‘They are working exceedingly hard to understand all the operational issues,’ said Karen Ignagni, president of the group America’s Health Insurance Plans, who credited HHS for ‘making sure that implementation [is] workable.’ ”

Drew Altman, the president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation, told POLITICO: “The politics are as ugly as ever. … On the other hand, the actual implementation of the law — delivering major elements of the law within the tight timetable required under the law — has been going extremely well.”