National health spending accounts for the largest share of the U.S. economy since federal auditors began tracking the data in 1960, according to a new report authored by the Office of the Actuary, an independent auditing body at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and published online by the journal Health Affairs.

Some lobbyists are spending less time stalking members of Congress and more time reaching out to government bureaucrats as federal agencies regain some lost authority over spending. Howard Marlowe, who represents a number of towns, cities and universities, said his firm has sought and won more government grants over the past two years than it had in the previous 25.

Congress approved a record $1.9 trillion debt ceiling increase Thursday together with Democratic-backed legislation to reinstate “pay-go” rules credited with helping to rein in deficits in the 1990s. Final passage took two highly partisan House votes, but the end product was something of a coup for the embattled leadership cheered on by a flash from their past: former President Bill Clinton.

No wonder people think Washington is broken. On a day when the Dow may dip below 10,000 and the unemployment rate drops to “only” 9.7 percent, the Senate is struggling to agree to the smallest bore jobs bill. The House just raised the debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion on a pure party line vote, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is talking about piecemeal approach to jobs, realizing that a massive jobs package has little shot in this political environment.

President Barack Obama is running into resistance from congressional Democrats over several key economic proposals — blunting the party’s ability to send a clear message to middle-class voters that Democrats feel their pain. Obama has run into friction from fellow Democrats over plans to freeze some federal spending, to use bailout funds for small-business lending and to limit the reach of big banks. And Obama’s call for a jobs bill left Senate leaders pledging a vote as early as Monday — but offering no details of what a measure might include or how much it would cost.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) on Thursday placed a blanket hold on all of President Barack Obama’s nominees before the Senate, according to his spokesman. Shelby’s holds mean that the Senate cannot vote on a nominee unless the hold is broken using a cloture vote that requires 60 senators or if the senator lifts the hold. A spokeswoman for Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) office said that regardless of his concern, Shelby should not put a hold on more than 70 nominees over a parochial issue.

The revised version of the Google Books settlement with publishers and authors still does not address the Department of Justice’s antitrust concerns with the deal. In its much-anticipated opinion submitted tonight to the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York, Justice said that, despite the good faith efforts of the parties involved, copyright and antitrust issues still remain. “The amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement: it is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation,” the department said.

The White House and congressional leaders are sending contradictory signals on scrapping the Pentagon’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. While President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) agree the Clinton-era law should be repealed, it remains unclear whether that will happen this year or next. And if it doesn’t happen this year, changing the law will be far more difficult in 2011, when there are likely to be fewer Democrats in Congress.

Senate Democrats are dangling tax provisions favored by the GOP in hopes of building bipartisan support for a jobs bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to unveil by Monday. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the panel’s ranking Republican, are working on a tax package that would serve as the main vehicle of jobs legislation.

President Barack Obama on Thursday promised that he would one day be a passenger on a high-speed train connecting Orlando with Tampa. “I’m going to come back down here and ride on it,” he said, his words often drowned out by a boisterous crowd attending a town-hall meeting on the campus of the University of Tampa.The project was one of 13 involving 31 states that Obama announced would receive a total of $8 billion in federal-stimulus funds for fast trains. The Central Florida plan got $1.25 billion — nearly half of what state officials requested for it.