President Obama has signed a bill into law that raises the federal debt limit to $14.3 trillion, the White House said Friday.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced the signing, which had been expected. Without the $1.9-trillion increase, the government faced the possibility of defaulting on its bills.

The measure, approved by both chambers of Congress, also establishes a statutory pay-as-you-go procedure that requires that new nonemergency legislation affecting tax revenue or mandatory spending not increase the federal deficit.

-- Michael Muskal
twitter.com/LATimesmuskal

President Obama will head west next week to campaign for two Democratic senators facing a tough reelection.

Obama will travel to Denver on Thursday to campaign for Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Ken Salazar after Salazar was nominated by Obama to serve as Interior secretary.

Obama will then head to Las Vegas, where he'll hold events Friday with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Despite Reid's leadership position in the Senate, the Nevada senator is facing increasingly difficult reelection prospects.

-- Associated Press

In case you haven't noticed, there is a serious anti-incumbent fervor afoot as midterm congressional elections approach.

It's as strong as it has been in 16 years, the Pew Research Center reported Friday.

It's as strong as it was in 2006 -- when Republicans suffered a "thumpin''' in the midterm elections -- and as strong as it was in 1994, when the "Contract with America'' was signed. The difference this year: Neither major political party enjoys a real high level of public support heading into the 2010 elections.

Read more in the Swamp.

-- Mark Silva

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a 12-member congressional delegation to Haiti on Friday to assess ways to aid the recovery from a devastating earthquake.

Pelosi said the five senators and seven representatives would examine reconstruction efforts and consider long-term assistance for Haiti.

Sen. George LeMieux of Florida is the sole Republican in the group. Other participants include Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Health Committee; House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.); House Transportation Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.).

Pelosi said they would meet with Haitian President Rene Preval and visit aid distribution sites, medical facilities and U.S. military personnel.

Congress has already taken several steps to help, including providing emergency aid to Americans evacuating the country and allowing taxpayers who donate to Haiti relief by the end of February to declare it on their 2009 tax returns.

-- Associated Press

A six-car red line train derailed Friday morning near the Farragut North station in downtown Washington.  

Metro spokeswoman Bessy Guevara said there were no reported injuries. Guevara said that according to a preliminary report, the front wheels of the train's first car slipped off just after 10 a.m.

Guevara said authorities were at the scene trying to get passengers off the train.

Police have blocked K Street near the station. Emergency vehicles are rushing in from all directions.

Friday's incident follows a Metro transit train crash in June that killed nine people and injured many others when a train slammed into the rear of another that was stopped on the tracks.

-- Associated Press

Former President Clinton returned home Friday after a successful procedure to unblock a coronary artery.

In a statement from the Clinton Foundation, counselor Douglas Band said the former president was released from New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia and was in excellent health.

Clinton thanked the doctors and nurses who treated him Thursday and the “many people who extended their best wishes to him for a quick recovery,” Band said. Clinton “looks forward in the days ahead to getting back to the work of his foundation, and to Haiti relief and recovery efforts."

Clinton, 63, has a history of heart problems and in 2004 had quadruple heart bypass surgery. The latest incident followed several trips to Haiti to spearhead relief efforts.

Clinton’s wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, arrived at the hospital Thursday evening, joining daughter Chelsea. Secretary Clinton will delay a trip to Mideast by a day.

-- Michael Muskal
twitter.com/LATimesmuskal

Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek reelection after eight terms in Congress, saying his life is “taking a new direction” months after the death of his father and mentor, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

The Rhode Island Democrat taped a message announcing his decision to be aired on the state's television stations Sunday night. The Associated Press viewed the message Thursday ahead of the announcement.

“Now having spent two decades in politics, my life is taking a new direction, and I will not be a candidate for reelection this year,” Kennedy says.

The decision comes less than a month after a stunning upset by Republican Scott Brown in the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat his father held for almost half a century. Last week, as Brown was sworn in, Patrick Kennedy called Brown's candidacy a “joke” and predicted the new senator would betray his union supporters.

Kennedy did not give a reason for his decision to leave office, but he began the message by saying it had been a difficult few years for many people, then segued into the death of his father.

“Illness took the life of my most cherished mentor and confidant, my ultimate source of spirit and strength,” he said, as a black-and-white photo of him as a boy sailing with his father appeared on the screen. “From the countless lives he lifted, to the American promise he helped shape, my father taught me that politics at its very core was about serving others.”

-- Associated Press

Former President Clinton showed no evidence of a heart attack and his prognosis is excellent after a procedure Thursday to insert two stents in a coronary artery that had become blocked, said his cardiologist Dr. Alan Schwartz.

"I told him he could be back in the office on Monday," said Schwartz, who performed the procedure after Clinton had complained of repetitive chest discomfort for several days. Speaking at a news conference outside New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, Schwartz said Clinton's condition is part of the "natural history" of his bypass surgery in 2004 and "is not related to anything he did."

"He has really towed the line" in terms of diet and exercise, Schwartz said, adding that the former chief executive's cholesterol numbers have been excellent.

The procedure took about an hour, and Clinton was up and walking around this evening. He is expected to go home Friday. His wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and daughter Chelsea were with him.

 --Geraldine Baum, reporting from New York

President Obama will deliver commencement addresses this spring at the University of Michigan and Virginia's Hampton University.

Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman said in a statement that Obama will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree during commencement on May 1 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

Hampton University President William R. Harvey says that Obama will speak to Hampton graduates on May 9.

An administration official said Thursday that the president would also speak at the commencement of one of the nation's military academies. Obama spoke last year at the U.S. Naval Academy ceremony.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss events that were not yet officially announced.

-- Associated Press

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who learned of her husband’s hospitalization for chest pains while in Washington, D.C., arrived at the New York hospital where he was being treated shortly before 7:30 p.m.

Clinton entered the hospital through a side door and did not stop to speak to reporters who had gathered at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Harlem, where a procedure was underway to insert stents in one of the former president's arteries.

Bill Clinton, 63, was “in good spirits” after the procedure, said Douglas Band, counselor to the former chief executive.

The couple’s daughter, Chelsea, was reported to have arrived earlier at the hospital. Aides to Hillary Clinton said she planned to take a previously scheduled trip to the Persian Gulf starting Friday but could delay it, according to the Associated Press.

--Geraldine Baum reporting from New York

Former President Bill Clinton underwent a balloon angioplasty to clear a clogged coronary artery Thursday at a New York City hospital, and two stents were inserted into the artery to keep it open.

Clinton had been suffering from chest pain, and his cardiologist suspected the blockage and admitted him to New York Presbyterian Hospital for the procedure, which is considered relatively routine.

Clinton was reported to be in good spirits following the procedure, which is performed through a catheter inserted into a blood vessel in the groin, under minimal sedation. Clinton's immediate and long-term prospects are considered to be good.

At least 1.25 million Americans undergo the procedure each year, and the outcomes are generally good. A balloon on the end of the catheter is inflated at the site of the blockage to compact the plaque against the artery walls. Then, using the same catheter, surgeons leave behind a stent — a small, spring-shaped piece of wire that keeps the plaque from expanding again.

When the procedures were first used, the wires were bare and the rate of reclosure of the artery was relatively high. More recently, surgeons have favored so-called drug-eluting stents, which slowly release drugs that help to prevent reclogging.

In 2004, Clinton underwent quadruple bypass surgery to correct four blockages in his arteries. Surgeons used mammary arteries taken from under the breast and veins from the leg to bypass the blocked areas. Bypass was probably chosen then because four sites had to be corrected and because bypasses were then considered more effective than angioplasty.

Apparently, one of the bypasses has itself become clogged, not a highly surprising development considering Clinton’s well-known proclivity for cheeseburgers and other fast foods.

Several questions remain that could affect Clinton’s overall prognosis. The hospital has not yet said whether the angioplasty was performed in one of the bypasses or in his original arteries. If it was in one of the bypasses, it is useful to know whether it was an artery or a vein, said Dr. Michael Lee, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center.

If the stent was placed in the original artery or in the artery that was used for a bypass, statistics suggest there is about a 98% chance that it will remain open a year later, he said. If it was placed in a vein used for a bypass, the odds would be somewhat lower — about 80% to 85%. Also, little data is available about the long-term outcomes for stents placed in veins.

-- Thomas H. Maugh II

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has left Washington and headed to New York to be with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who was hospitalized after feeling chest pains.

But aides to the secretary said she still plans to go ahead with a previously scheduled trip to the Persian Gulf. The trip is to begin Friday afternoon but could be delayed slightly.

Aides to Clinton said Thursday that she left the capital shortly after meeting President Obama at the White House ahead of her trip to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

-- Associated Press

Former President Bill  Clinton was treated for discomfort in his chest and received two stents, his foundation announced on Thursday.

In a statement attributed to Douglas Band, counselor to the president, the foundation said:

"Today President Bill Clinton was admitted to the Columbia Campus of New York Presbyterian Hospital after feeling discomfort in his chest. Following a visit to his cardiologist, he underwent a procedure to place two stents in one of his coronary arteries. President Clinton is in good spirits, and will continue to focus on the work of his Foundation and Haiti's relief and long-term recovery efforts. In 2004, President Clinton underwent a successful quadruple bypass operation to free four blocked arteries.”

Clinton was described in good spirits.

Clinton underwent a successful quadruple-bypass operation to free four blocked arteries in September 2004.

-- Michael Muskal

Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal

Photo: United Nations special envoy former US president Bill Clinton and special emissaire for UN for Haiti Dr William Pape meet the press February 05, 2010 at the health center GESKIO in Port-au-Prince. Credit: THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty Images

Florida Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart said Thursday he would not seek reelection after nearly two decades in office as one of the country’s most prominent Cuban American politicians and a vocal opponent of Cuba’s communist government.

Diaz-Balart, 55, said he chose not to run again while he remained in a strong position: He has no notable challengers, and Republicans appear likely to gain seats in the House.

Shortly after Thursday’s announcement, his younger brother Mario, a Republican congressman representing the district neighboring his brother’s, said he planned to switch districts and run for the vacated seat, which is home to many of the region’s Cuban exiles.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart said he plans to return to his law practice and continue working for democracy in Cuba, including setting up a nonprofit organization to promote the ideals espoused by his late father, Rafael Diaz-Balart, who helped lead one of the first opposition movements against Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

“I am convinced that in the upcoming chapter of the struggle, I can be more useful to the inevitable change that will soon come to Cuba, to Cuba’s freedom, as a private citizen,” he told reporters at Florida International University’s law school, named for his father.

Diaz-Balart’s father was a one-time friend of Castro and his aunt became Castro’s first wife. But when he was a child, his family fled Cuba for Miami after the Cuban revolution. His brother was born in Florida.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart frequently used his position on the powerful House Rules Committee to negotiate votes for legislation he championed, such as the U.S. embargo of Cuba. He said one of his most important accomplishments was turning the embargo from an executive order into a law only Congress can overturn.

President Obama will meet with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Feb. 18, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Thursday.

“The president looks forward to engaging in a constructive dialogue,” Gibbs told reporters at the beginning of his televised briefing.

The meeting was expected and has already been condemned by China which accuses the Dalai Lama of pushing for Tibetan independence. The Dalai Lama denies he is seeking independence but has advocated for better human rights in Tibet.

Obama had postponed the visit once before, angering some lawmakers and human rights advocates. They argue the meeting was pushed back so that Obama can woo China’s support on nuclear-related issues including North Korea and stronger sanctions against Iran.

 The meeting also comes after the Obama administration recently announced an arms package for Taiwan, another sore point in relations with China which considers it a province and not a sovereign nation.

-- Michael Muskal

President Obama recently made a big thing about the “echo chamber” created by “a slash-and-burn” media and how that had helped poison the Washington political atmosphere.

But the big bullhorn of the media can create as well destroy, as seen in the case of the newest member of the Senate.

According to the latest Gallup poll, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown ranks fourth of 11 possible presidential candidates named by Republicans and like-minded independents as the person they would most like to see as the GOP standard bearer in 2012.

Brown, who has been in the Senate just long enough to have been caught in two huge snowstorms, garnered 4%, a pittance that is about the same as the margin of error of the poll. With so little to show on his national record, the support is certainly name recognition from the blizzard of media attention that came with his surprise win of the Senate seat held for decades by the late Edward Kennedy.

Brown ranked behind two former governors, Massachusetts' Mitt Romney and Alaska’s Sarah Palin, with 14% and 11%, respectively, for the top spots in the GOP race. Seven percent of those surveyed mentioned Sen. John McCain, the 2008 nominee, who is facing a tough re-election bid for his Arizona seat.

But Brown placed on a par with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, each with years of national politics behind them. They culled 3%.

To be sure, the GOP is far from unified right now, facing a conservative, angry anti-incumbent attack from the "tea party" movement. The poll found that 42% said they did not have an opinion on whom they preferred for the GOP spot.

But the poll does have some meaning. Even without naming a possible candidate, registered voters split almost evenly on whether they would back President Obama for another term or would go to any Republican.

Forty-four percent of U.S. registered voters said they were more likely to vote for Obama and 42% picked the Republican candidate. The remaining 14% said they were undecided or would vote for another candidate.

The old political adage is that it takes a candidate to beat a candidate, so the polls will likely shift when a real person – as opposed to a generic Republican – is named to run against Obama.

-- Michael Muskal

The Senate’s bipartisan jobs bill includes a tax break for companies that hire unemployed workers, money for highway construction, relief for private pensions and a one-year extension of the Patriot Act used to combat terrorism.

The bill brought forth for consideration on Thursday would also extend unemployment payments for those whose benefits have run out, as well as subsidies to help the jobless continue paying premiums for health insurance.

While the centerpiece of the measure is a $13-billion payroll tax credit for companies that hire unemployed workers, the bulk of it addresses leftover business the Senate couldn’t get to last year when it was preoccupied by the healthcare debate.

Doctors would get a seven-month reprieve from a 21% cut in Medicare fees required under a 1990s budget law. The law governing the satellite television industry would be updated and farmers would get $1.5 billion for agriculture disaster assistance.

About $31 billion in popular tax breaks that expired at the end of 2009, including an income tax deduction for sales and property taxes and a business tax credit for research and development, would be extended through 2010.

The Obama administration has been pushing hard for a stronger congressional response to the country’s chronically high unemployment rate, which now stands at 9.7% of the labor force. President  Obama has served notice on Republican opponents that he’s willing to accept some of their positions and priorities as long as doing so doesn’t mean he has to give up his.

Senate Majority Leader Harry (D-Nev.) had wanted to vote on the bill before Congress takes a break for Presidents Day next week. But two major snowstorms that have effectively shut down the federal government for much of the week make that unlikely.

The top two senators on the Finance Committee, who released the bill, said in a joint statement that it should be acted on “expeditiously,” but should not be rushed.

 “Any efforts to needlessly delay Senate completion of consideration of this package through partisan means will undermine our goal of timely action in the current economic climate,” said the joint statement by Democrat Max Baucus of Montana and Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa. “Action on the expired provisions is long overdue. Timely action on incentives for economic activity and job creation also is needed.”

Baucus is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and Grassley is the top Republican on the panel.

-- Associated Press

As the number of people seeking first-time unemployment claims fell, the Obama administration released its annual economic report Thursday, a document that praised government efforts to deal with dire  problems that it said had been growing over the previous decade.

The report, which is signed by the president and is sent to Congress, predicts that the nation will likely average 95,000 more jobs each month this year but that the unemployment rate will continue to hover around 10%. The most recent monthly number was 9.7%.

The report also predicts that credit will remain tight, meaning problems for job creation and consumer purchases of big-ticket items, houses and cars. The Obama administration is pushing a jobs-creation package that includes tax cuts and a plan to help local banks with $30 billion in capital so that more lending to small businesses can take place.

The report also praised the $787-billion economic stimulus package, which it said has saved or created about 2 million jobs, a number that Republicans question. The GOP also has problems with the Obama administration often blaming the difficulty of the recovery on the enormity of the problem it inherited from the previous Republican administration.

“I can report that over the past year, this work has begun,” President Obama wrote in the letter accompanying the report. “But to understand where we must go in the next year and beyond, it is important to remember where we began one year ago.”

Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, echoed that theme in her statement. She formally presents the report to Obama.

“The economic challenges facing the nation when President Obama took office were among the greatest in our history,” Romer said. “But as great as the immediate challenges were, our country’s economic problems were also deeper and more long-standing.”

Republicans reacted coolly to the report.

“The Obama administration’s report is full of blame for the policies of years past, praise for its own failed policies of the past year and promises about their ideological agenda to grow government,” House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia stated.

The Senate is weighing a jobs package, and the House has already passed a plan. Estimates of the cost range from $80 billion to $100 billion in the Senate to more than $150 billion in the House version.

The latest – but certainly not the last – round of political skirmishing over the economy came as the Labor Department said that first-time claims for unemployment insurance dropped by 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 440,000.

 The four-week average fell by 1,000 to 468,500, the first drop after three weeks of increases.

-- Michael Muskal

President Obama says he is "completely agnostic'' about options for repairing the federal deficit -- including new taxes on the middle class, which he has pledged to avoid.

As he creates a fiscal commission by executive order to examine and recommend solutions for getting the federal government's balance sheet back in order down the road, the president maintains that "all ideas are on the table.''

Read more at the Swamp.

-- Mark Silva

Wilson died at Memorial Medical Center-Lufkin after having difficulty breathing after attending a meeting in the eastern Texas town where he lived, said hospital spokeswoman Yana Ogletree. Wilson was pronounced dead on arrival, and the preliminary cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest, she said.

Wilson represented Texas' 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House from 1973 to 1996 and was known in Washington as "Good Time Charlie" for his reputation as a hard-drinking womanizer. He once called former congresswoman Pat Schroeder "Babycakes," and tried to take a beauty queen with him on a government trip to Afghanistan.

Wilson, a Democrat, was considered both a progressive and a defense hawk. While his efforts to arm the mujahedeen in the 1980s were a success - spurring a victory that helped speed the downfall of the Soviet Union - he was unable to keep the money flowing after the Soviets left. Afghanistan plunged into chaos, creating an opening eventually filled by the Taliban, which harbored al-Qaida terrorists.

After the Sept. 11 attacks - carried out by al-Qaida terrorists trained in Afghanistan - the U.S. ended up invading the country it had once helped liberate.