From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

How much does vacation matter?

Hello again, I'm Arminolny, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,

a daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Members of the Senate and Congress are on summer breaks all over the world, visiting war zones as well as ancient ruins and sunny beaches. The Obama family is going to Martha's Vineyard. But less than half the American workers entitled to vacations are taking their full time. Many say there's just too much to do, or they're afraid of losing their jobs. Whatever

happened to mental health days, doesn't time off help prevent burnout and increase productivity?

Would requiring vacations be a kind of health care reform, in addition to boosting the tourist

economy? On reporter's notebook later on, athletic performance and gender determination.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio

International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John

D. and Catherine T. McArthur

Foundation, and the Skoll Foundation, supporting social entrepreneurs around the world, uncommon heroes

dedicated to the common good. Learn more at Skoll.org. Hello again, Marvin-Aldie, back with To the

Point. Hard as it is to get away from his job, President Obama will be spending

next week on Martha's Vineyard. But most American workers are cutting back on vacations this year.

We'll hear what that could mean for mental and physical health and the economy.

On reporter's notebook, a runner's winning performance raises a difficult question,

is there a definite biological line between males and females?

First, this news update. After his first hundred days, 60% of Americans believed that President Obama would make the right decisions.

Today, that number is 49%. That's according to the latest Washington Post ABC News survey.

Gary Langer is director of polling for ABC News, and it's always good to have you on our program. Thanks, Warren. Is all this due to health care reform? It's not all due to health care reform, but it certainly is a major part of it. The president has other challenges, of course, the economy, the war in Afghanistan, which he's taken on as his own, in which for the first time in our data, more than half of Americans now says it's not worth fighting.

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