The Daily Five: Obey's Doc; Rattner's New Job

A late afternoon news summary..........all you need to know......a regular feature? We shall see.

1.Bing, bing bing. Dow and S&P down 4.3%; "lowest level since 1997".. ..... President Obama spends part of the day with Axelrod, Favreau, working on budget speech.....he promises to return to "Pay-Go" budgeting as soon as possible. ...  Obama says that Marine One helicopter "seems perfectly adequate" to him; expensive new copters are under review and are example of "procurement process gone amok.".... Democrats say that AARP's Bill Novelli is being pushed by some close to Obama as HHS secretary.....

2. Administration officials, in public and private, say that health care reform and Medicare fixes go hand-in-hand and are the top priority; Social Security reform will be put off. ..... Rahm Emanuel gives help to a seizure victim.....2.  Rep. Obey unveils $410b omnibus appropriations bill to fund government thru 2009; vows to roll back Bush administration spending cuts. ... Governors happy that Obama admin. releases $15b in Medicaid funds....Quadrangle Group's Steven Rattner officially joins Treasury as counselor to the Secretary. He was formerly slated to be "car czar."......Amex is paying cardholders to close their accounts.

3 Henry Blodget says Citigroup is trying to 'screw' the taxpayers....... Which Lieberman do you like better?..... Dark (vacuum) energy may obscure cosmic background radiation to the point where future generations might not be able to detect evidence of Big Bang...

4. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) apologizes for doomsaying w/r/t Justice Ginsburg; he misspells her name in apology. ... New CBS News/New York Times poll out at 6:30 pm ET tonight.....CNN poll says Americans have "high" confidence in President and Congress; very little confidence in Wall Street and auto execs. (Now do you understand why the White House is eager to Santelli-ize the opposition?)

5. Obama announced Elizabeth Jarvis-Shean as research director, ex-CAP VP Daniella Gibbs Leger as director of message events, Dag Vega as director of broadcast media (he's the guy who books for the Sunday shows), Dana E. Singiser as an assisant for legislative affairs, regional communications directors Amy Brundage, Moira Mack Muntz and Gannett Tseggai, Jason Djang as deputy director for video, Corey Ealons as director of African American media outreach, Shin Inoyue as director of specialty media, Jesse Lee as online programs director, Katherine Lyons as deputy director of message events, Luis Miranada as director for Hispanic media, Katie Stanton as "director of citizen participation," Joelle Terry as deputy director of message events, and everyone's favorite press wrangler, Samantha Tubman, as assistant social secretary.