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

The August recess is finally over.

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

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

After a month of angry town halls all over the country, Congress returns to Washington with its lowest public opinion ratings in 24 years.

Tomorrow night, President Obama will address a joint session on health care reform, promising that he's all fired up and ready to go.

But there's a cold wind blowing from the Republicans

and from Blue Dog and Progressive Democrats. Next up, global warming and finance reform.

What are the prospects for an ambitious agenda in an environment of political hostility?

On reporter's notebook later on, can Afghanistan's election results be believed? 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 and the John

D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation. Hello again, Mormon-Aulney,

back with To the Point. Congress is back after the August recess, faced with the same problems

it failed to address in July. We'll heard about health care, global warming, finance, reform,

and partisan Republicans and divided Democrats. On reporter's notebook, President Amit Karzai

has enough votes, but Afghanistan's

Electoral Complaints Commission has ordered a partial recount of last month's election.

First, this news update, the president's plan for an inspirational back-to-school message,

was initially attacked by some conservatives as a recipe for socialist indoctrination.

Today's speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia contained passages like this.

And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people

...