Congress suspends health care debate as crowds rally for

Senators who are negotiating how to overhaul the nation's health care system broke off formal talks Thursday until after the July Fourth holiday, saying that they lack consensus on how to pay for the $1 trillion or more that the changes could cost over the next decade. 

Thousands of their constituents rallied outside the Capitol to show their support for change, and the Obama administration called for action.

Mayela Hernandez brought her family of six from Charlotte, N.C., and explained how a government health program, or public option, would benefit her greatly. - Have you voted in the poll Political situation in the US ? - Hernandez, who makes $280 a week working in a pen factory, has no health insurance.

"It's just too expensive," she said.

At the end of the day, however, three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, which determines funding — who had been seeking common ground for days — issued a three-sentence statement saying that while the issues are "difficult and complex," they have made "progress toward workable solutions."

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By David Lightman and Margaret Talev

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