The Senate and the House are back in session and the topic of discussion is mostly on two fronts, health care reform and Afghanistan. However, a new study by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), showing that the stimulus program has helped the economy, has also been a topic of discussion.

Tonight, in a prime time address, President Barack Obama will announce that he will send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.

An official in the George W. Bush administration, Dan Senor, likes the plan. But Congresswoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., says it is an eery echo of Vietnam.

Administration officials say the troops will begin leaving in three years, though there will be no timetable or end date.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has good news on two fronts for President Barack Obama — the first in health care. The CBO said that the health care legislation under consideration in the Senate would decrease health care costs (pdf) for 57 percent of Americans. The decrease would come because of government subsidies.

A CBO report on the stimulus package found that the stimulus helped save or create 600,000 to 1.6 million jobs in the third quarter of 2009. From CBO head Doug Elmendorf’s official blog:

CBO estimates that in the third quarter of calendar year 2009, an additional 600,000 to 1.6 million people were employed in the United States, and real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.2 percent to 3.2 percent higher, than would have been the case in the absence of ARRA. Those ranges are intended to encompass most economists’ views and to reflect the uncertainty involved in such estimates.

Vice President Joe Biden greeted the news warmly, saying in a statement, “the experts have spoken and the debate is no longer whether the Recovery Act is creating and saving jobs, but how we provide even more opportunities to drive growth and support American workers.”

The House will vote this week on a permanent extension of the estate tax, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters. The proposed estate tax would tax estates of over $3.5 million by 45 percent.

Meanwhile, the GOP establishment is at odds with the “tea party” base when it comes to a purity test for funding for Republican candidates from the Republican National Committee.