For the record, I am sick and I feel like … well, never mind. I expect you’ll hear that in this week’s podcast.

Now that the House has passed a health care reform measure, all eyes will be turning back to the Senate to see how much that chamber’s arcane rules add drama and interest to the proceedings there.

If other committees outside the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship are really interested in learning more about small businesses and health insurance, they could save themselves some hassle and simply visit the record of the expert committee here.

Then again, I don’t know how much time anybody has left here, so I doubt there will be that many hearings about small businesses to be had in the near future.

It’s always strange when the economy is doing one set of stuff but people’s perceptions have gone off in the completely opposite direction. The recession has not been officially declared to be over yet but both the housing and manufacturing sector have picked up just enough to be encouraging.

You can see the difference between consumer confidence, small business confidence and CEO confidence. Of that group, it’s the CEOs who are feeling a lot better these days. The rest of us are still waiting on the job market.

Plus, the ARRA and broadband deployment, and this week’s Policy Matters column, in today’s podcast.

For more information:

• Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
• The Conference Board
• National Federation of Independent Business
• House Committee on Small Business