WASHINGTON: The passage of health care reforms on Christmas eve by the Senate topped off a year of legislative victories for the Democrats, including a $787 billion economic stimulus and measures to expand government health insurance for poor children and fortify workplace anti-discrimination laws.

The White House and the Democrat-led Congress also managed to push through a defense authorization bill that led to the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and refocused its military strategy on the war in Afghanistan.

According to political observers, the main accomplishment of Congress in 2009 was the massive stimulus package Obama signed into laws in February, less than a month after he took office.

But the $787 billion stimulus package remains a political hot potato, with many undecided whether the flow of cash averted another Great Depression or just drove up record-breaking budget deficits and government debt.

Democrats insist that the spending significantly slowed the recession and initiated recovery, with the stock market rebounding and job losses decreasing from 700,000 in January to 11,000 in November.

But a great deal remains on President Obama’s legislative to-do list for 2010 — beginning with the thorny negotiations needed to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the health care bill. With Democrats in the majority in the House, they managed to muscle through key legislation on climate change, health care and Wall Street regulation, but none of these critical milestones of Obama’s agenda has yet been signed into law.

Democrats, who passed all major bills with little or no Republican support, now must figure out how to settle in-house disputes in early 2010 over issues such as abortion funding and whether to include a government-run insurance option in the final health care bill.

These issues, and others, including the overhaul of Wall Street regulations and climate change are so volatile that some Democrats want to postpone trying to pass these bills until after the 2010 elections in November. But, despite the bruising battle over their proposals to overhaul health care, congressional Democrats have maintained an advantage over their Republican counterparts, according to a new national poll.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday indicates that the majority of Americans, 51 percent, believe that the Democrats’ policies are good for the country, with 46 percent saying that those policies would take the US in the wrong direction.

Fifty-three percent of people questioned in the poll said the Republican’s polices would move the nation in the wrong direction, with 42 percent saying the GOP policies are good for the country.

The numbers for both parties are virtually unchanged since late August.

Finally, for what it’s worth: President Obama may be the most popular man in his administration, but according to the same poll, he’s not the most popular person.

The CNN survey released Wednesday said the president’s poll numbers pale in comparison to the favorable ratings of two women: first lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.