President calls Owens on health care bill

President Barack Obama called Rep. William L. Owens on Thursday night to see where the freshman Democrat from Plattsburgh stood on the landmark health care reform bill up for consideration Sunday.

Mr. Owens told the president during the cell phone call, which lasted less than 10 minutes, that he won't decide how to vote on the bill until he's done reading it, his spokesman, Sean Magers, said. Mr. Owens also expressed concerns about the accuracy of the Congressional Budget Office's projections on the cost of the bill, which is estimated at $940 billion over a 10-year period.

To read more, visit the Times' "All Politics is Local" blog.