The health care debate appears to be so intoxicating that even ninth-graders want to discuss the hows and whys of expanding coverage.

During a 20-minute question and answer period with 32 students on Tuesday before his national back to school address at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., President Obama took a query from a student who identified himself as Sean.

Why, Sean asked from what appeared to be a prepared question, does the United States lack universal health care when 36 other countries have such a system?

On the day Cabinet secretaries and public health officials briefed President Obama on strategies for containing H1N1 flu, the National Institutes of Health released alarming but not entirely unexpected findings indicating H1N1 out-competes other seasonal flu viruses, and may be more communicable, too.

University of Maryland researchers who infected ferrets with both H1N1 and other strains of influenza found H1N1 outmuscled the other viruses to become he dominant strain and was transmitted more easily from the infected animals to uninfected ferrets. The good news was researchers found no evidence that the new swine flu combines with other viruses to form the sort of superbug health officials most dread.

"These new data, while preliminary, underscore the need for vaccinating against both seasonal influenza and the 2009 H1N1 influenza this fall and winter," said Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the division of NIH that funded the work.

Absence clearly isn't making hearts grow fonder in the health care debate.

The Obama administration on Monday showed its irritation with remarks Wyoming Republican Sen. Michael B. Enzi made as part of the weekly GOP address on Sunday -- particularly lines about how Democratic proposals in Congress would restrict medical choices and make the nation's "finances sicker without saving you money." Enzi, you'll recall, is part of the "Gang of Six" Senate Finance Committee members who've been meeting for months to craft a bipartisan health plan.

President Obama during recent town hall meetings singled out Enzi as one of a handful of Republicans who's still working constructively to achieve results. But Enzi on Sunday said town hall meetings he's held with constituents revealed widespread anxiety over Obama's efforts to reshape the U.S. health system.

If the Democrats decide to use budget reconciliation rules to try to pass the health care overhaul — a strategy that would allow them to push through the most contentious changes with a simple majority, rather than 60 votes — expect to hear Sen. John McCain of Arizona draw a lot of comparisons to the fight he helped lead four years ago to preserve judicial filibusters.

In 2005, McCain was the Republican co-chair of the “Gang of 14,” a bipartisan group of senators who blocked a Republican plan to stop Democrats from filibustering President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees. The group vowed to vote against any procedural ruling that banned future judicial filibusters, arguing that the ability of the minority party to block objectionable things — even judicial nominations — was crucial to the traditions of the Senate.

Last night, McCain told Sean Hannity that the 60-vote principle was so important to the Senate that he’ll fight the Democratic reconciliation strategy on health care on those grounds — just as he fought the Republican leadership’s plans to end judicial filibusters.

Just five years after assuming his brother's Senate seat at age 30, Edward M. Kennedy helped enact the Medicare and Medicaid programs, beginning a 40-plus year involvement with federal health care issues. Kennedy was so passionate about extending coverage to the uninsured and fortifying the social safety net, that he made then-candidate Barack Obama pledge to make health care a first-tier priority in return for his support -- a promise the president fulfilled by staking much of his first-term agenda on an ambitious and controversial plan to retool the U.S. health care system.

Kennedy's colleagues in Congress -- including Obama's campaign opponent, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain -- have lamented the progressive warrior's absence from the Senate during this year's health care debate and speculated how his presence might have by now helped forged consensus on the broad contours of a plan.

"Had his own health allowed him to fully participate, we would be far closer to consensus today on a path to health care in America," Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., said on Wednesday.

In the hours after Kennedy's death, progressive interest groups wasted little time invoking his legacy, in an effort to rally Congress to enact a sweeping health plan when lawmakers return on Sept. 8.

Kennedy's passing could yet alter the tenor of the debate, now mired in fierce partisan battles over how to pay for an overhaul and what role the government should play in a retooled health insurance market.

With prospects for a bipartisan health care agreement growing slim, the Obama administration is weighing the idea of splitting a health care overhaul into two pieces and passing more contentious provisions -- including those that would create a government-run health plan -- under a congressional procedure known as budget reconciliation that would make them immune to filibuster in the Senate.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to comment on the possibility on Thursday, saying President Obama remains committed to working with Republicans and Democrats on a comprehensive plan. A bipartisan group of six Senate Finance Committee members that has been involved in talks for several months is scheduled to hold a conference call tonight to evaluate next steps.

However, individuals familiar with the administration's thinking say the White House is increasingly comfortable with a strategy that could push some aspects of an overhaul through the Senate without Republican votes. Administration officials began seriously considering the option last month, after the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved a health plan by a party-line 13-10 vote.

So did Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius get taken to the wood shed on the White House grounds for remarks she made Sunday that seemed to imply the Obama administration is ready to ditch the public option in the proposed health care overhaul?

Administration officials on Tuesday stuck to their contention there's been no change in White House policy, and that Sebelius was simply articulating a longstanding desire for any overhaul to bring choice and competition in private insurance markets.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs instead attributed any misunderstanding to media reports that overinterpreted the ex-Kansas governor's remarks, asserting "we've been boringly consistent" on the public option.

The politically sensitive issue of executive pay has provided much fodder for President Obama and Congress during the economic downturn.

The president in early February made a populist-tinged statement about corporate excesses by placing a salary cap on top executives at firms receiving "exceptional assistance" from the government. Congress followed suit days later by quietly slipping language into the economic stimulus package (PL 111-5) that limited bonuses for senior executives at companies that participate in the federal bailout program. Lawmakers have since taken other steps that apply to companies not receiving government aid; before the August recess the House passed a bill that would give shareholders a nonbinding vote on executive pay and allow fregulators to restrict incentive-laden compensation packages if they threaten the health of larger financial institutions.

The scrutiny enters a new phase on Thursday, when seven large companies that received bailout packages will present compensation plans to Kenneth Feinberg, Obama's "special master" on executive compensation.

American International Group Inc., Bank of America, Chrysler LLC, Chrysler Financial Corp., Citigroup Inc., General Motors Corp. and GMAC Inc. will detail how they play to pay their top 25 earners in the coming year. Feinberg's response, due within 60 days of the submissions, will probably influence the pay practices of much of the financial industry.

Well, that was civil.

After a series of flak-filled town hall meetings during which members of Congress were shouted down by voters angry about the proposed health care overhaul, President Obama on Tuesday presided over a gathering in Portsmouth, N.H., that was noteworthy for its lack of drama.

Maybe it was the fact that most of the 1,800 attendees in the Portsmouth High School gym supported Obama's goal of retooling the U.S. health care system. Tickets were distributed by local congressional offices (all in Democratic hands) and by sympathetic groups. The audience applauded broadsides the president fired at insurers. And when Obama asked for a skeptical question, one man responded by asking why Obama doesn't chastise members of Congress more for having access to better care than their contituents.

Other politicians should have it so good.

The White House is weighing in on the question of what's appropriate behavior and what isn't when constituents confront their elected officials about health care in town hall meetings.

Deputy press secretary Bill Burton was asked Monday afternoon about the health rage sweeping the nation and comments by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., casting aspersions on the patriotism of citizens who have shouted down members of Congress at health care forums.

Speaking on Air Force One as the president returned to Washington from the summit with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico in Guadalajara, Burton said President Obama supports "a spirited debate" and "a real vigorous conversation" about health care. "I think there's actually a pretty long tradition of people shouting at politicians in America," Burton said. "So if people want to come and have their concerns and their questions answered, the president thinks that's important."