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Obama Admits Health Care Overhaul May Die on Hill
WASHINGTON - After insisting for a year that failure was not an option, President Barack Obama is now acknowledging his health care overhaul may die in Congress.
US President Barack Obama delivers remarks at DNC fundraising reception in Washington. Obama Thursday sharply warned lawmakers, including those in his Democratic Party, that they must answer to voters if they balk at passing his long-delayed health reforms. (AFP/Yuri Gripas) His remarks at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser Thursday night sounded contradictory at times, complicating congressional leaders' effort to revive health care legislation as Democrats hunger for guidance from the White House. Even while saying he still wanted to get the job done, Obama counseled going slow, and bowed to new political realities. Democrats no longer command a filibuster-proof Senate majority, and voters and lawmakers are far more concerned with jobs and the economy than with enacting sweeping and expensive changes to the health system.
"I think it's very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then let's go ahead and make a decision," Obama said Thursday night.
"And it may be that ... if Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not," the president said. "And that's how democracy works. There will be elections coming up and they'll be able to make a determination and register their concerns one way or the other during election time."
It seemed to be a shift in tone for the issue Obama campaigned on and made the centerpiece of his domestic agenda last year.
"Here's the key, is to not let the moment slip away," Obama also said.
Sweeping health legislation to extend medical coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans passed both chambers of Congress last year and was on the verge of completion before Republican Scott Brown's upset victory in a Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election last month. Brown was sworn in Thursday, giving Republicans 41 votes, enough to block the initiatives of the Democratic majority.
Now the health legislation hangs in limbo. Lawmakers are looking to Obama for a path forward, but he has not publicly offered specifics. His signals have been mixed. At the DNC event he said Republicans should be part of the process - something they've shown little interest in and that would doubtlessly drag out a legislative effort that many rank-and-file Democrats want to end quickly. The health care bill has become unpopular with the public and a political drag for lawmakers.
"The next step is what I announced at the State of the Union, which is to call on our Republican friends to present their ideas. What I'd like to do is have a meeting whereby I'm sitting with the Republicans, sitting with the Democrats, sitting with health care experts, and let's just go through these bills. ... And then I think that we've got to go ahead and move forward on a vote," Obama said Thursday.
"But as I said at the State of the Union, I think we should be very deliberate, take our time. We're going to be moving a jobs package forward over the next several weeks; that's the thing that's most urgent right now in the minds of Americans all across the country."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Friday that there is no meeting set yet for the president to talk over health care strategy with Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
"There's nothing on the block on this right now," he said. "But I think this just goes to the president continuing to want to hear ideas."
Bipartisan congressional leaders are planning to join Obama at the White House on Tuesday, but Gibbs reiterated that the meeting will be centered on how to create jobs and boost the economy.
Obama had also said Thursday night that "we've got to move forward on a vote" on health care. When asked what the president meant by that, Gibbs said only that White House officials are "still working with Capitol Hill on the best way forward."
Obama's comments came just hours after he met Thursday afternoon with Democratic congressional leaders, but the discussion focused mostly on jobs, and the leaders emerged with no announcement about a path ahead for health care. Rank-and-file Democrats are eager for them to settle on one by the end of next week, after which lawmakers will return to their states and districts for a weeklong recess where they'll likely face questions from voters on the issue.
Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, said Friday that the White House has not requested a sit-down on health care with Republicans.
"The president wants to start over on health care? Sen. McConnell's been saying that for months," said Stewart.
Associated Press Writers Charles Babington and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.
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97 Comments so far
Show AllIf Obama's corporate welfare program disguised as health care reform (also called Obamacare) fails, the American people will have dodged a bullet that would have been extremely devastating to US health care and the US economy.
Financial industry reform and health care reform are the two most critical domestic issues of this decade. If the "any bill is better than no bill" mentality continues among many electeds and many neoliberals, the US economy will spiral downward.
How about we "reform" the Empire too.
Indeed raydelcamino!
Unfortunately, raydelcamino, many of the people who have that "any bill is better than no bill" mentality are the ones who're constantly defending Obama and making excuses for him, no matter what he does, and they're no different than the ones who defended G. W. Bush at every turn, even though they may THINK they are. They don't realize that this attitude can and does spell disaster all around.
Y'know WHY, Mr. Prez? Because while all the buttheads on the hill are trying to find a plan that best serves the insurance CORPORATIONS, 75% of the country wants single-payer. It's the Karma, Dude!
Watch your back and your forked tongue, "O". Dennis is coming.........
"And that's how democracy works."
I think I'll get my lectures on democracy elsewhere.
Good riddance!
I believe Obama was being insincere throughout the presidential campaign, and that he never had any real intention of trying to push for health care reform or the other reforms most voters clearly wanted. I believe that Obama hungered for power but only for the power of a conventional business-as-usual president. The events of the past year would certainly suggest that I am correct. And now after the defeat of the democrat candidate for Senate in Massachusetts suddenly he is returning to populist rhetoric, but who believes him?
Good comment #2. bakunin1 would probably agree with you.
Get over it, folks. See past this two-party illusion which is one-party after all, with slight variations.
O Bomb em' is doing what he was supposed to do...give hope and change speeches for his zealous supporters, but maintaining the status quo and most of the policies of any significance of the former coward-in-chief.
Zillions for the Pentagon psychopaths and the Wall Street shyster class, but zilch for people doing honest work.
"By their works shall ye know them."
OR just(ly) Keep HIS SINGLE-PAYER PROMISE!
Gifted orator BO said, "Here's the key, is to not let the moment slip away."
Shades of Bush.
"Lawmakers are looking to Obama for a path forward, but he has not publicly offered specifics."
BO is not a pathfinder; so far we only have paths of destruction leading all around the world.
"'What I'd like to do is have a meeting whereby I'm sitting with the Republicans, sitting with the Democrats, sitting with health care experts...' ----- White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Friday that there is no meeting set yet..."
"Obama had also said ... that 'we've got to move forward on a vote'... When asked what the president meant by that, Gibbs said only that White House officials are 'still working with Capitol Hill on the best way forward.'"
LOL. No substance whatsoever.
It's a crap bill, never understood why folks like Moveon were pushing it so much either.
The Democratic party coffers were filled up with a lot of dough during the process. In the end, Moveon does very little to ruffle the Democratic party leadership's feathers. The organization acts like a front group to give disenchanted Democrats a place to feel like they can change the party so they remain loyal to the party. Consider all the effort Moveon.org put into the anti-war campaign when Bush was in power. Today an overwhelming majority of the Democrats are still supporting wars and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The wind is out of Moveon's anti-war sails.
The Republicans are not the biggest obstacle to progress. The Democratic Party is
the place where reform goes to die.
Moveon.org is NOT PROGRESSIVE.
They are phony!!!!
"But as I said at the State of the Union, I think we should be very deliberate, take our time."
Yes, and I'll take my sweet time before I vote for any more Democrats, too. They had their chance to enact universal health care for all and they've blown it again.
GDS, Now you're thinking!
It's always, "we don't have enough votes," or hogwash about "blue dog Democrats." Their typical drill when it comes to meaningful legislation of a progressive nature.
Scott Brown. What a cowardly and insidious excuse.
As much as it creeps me out to think that I might have an Inner Grover Norquist, I feel just as pleased and relieved to learn that the No Insurer Left Behind monster is dead as I felt the first time I watched "Fatal Attraction", and Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) drowned in that bathtub!
Good riddance to bad rubbish!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Hey, maybe that's not a bad idea. At least the Republicans can't use it against Obama.
Now how abouts we unite and pressure Obama and Congress to support single payer? We have another opportunity for a fresh new start at reforming health care.
Say what you want about Cheney/Bush. Fact is they had balls. They only had a filibuster proof majority until 2006. They never mentioned it as an obstacle, because they did not recorgnize it as such - because it isn't. Not legally, not legislatively, not politically. It is an insultingly flimsy excuse to do nothing and continue to collect vast sums from the big boys who profit from the disastrous status quo.
The Repubs are not the enemy of progressive politics in America; they are a clownish, cartoonish pack of cards. The primary enemy of progressive politics in America has its leader in the White House and still has a majority in both houses.
Our President finally saw the light. That is, the voters are seeing red for his failure to focus on their concerns, JOBS.
After Scott Brown's Senate win I've been waiting for him to realize he's going to lose this shooting match if he doesn't do something about job losses. I don't know if the voters will forgive him for his belated election year concern about this "jobless recovery". Those words had been tossed about pretty casually, as if, 'Oh well, other than that, we're doing great and I give myself a B+. Passing the insurance bill would have been an A-.' To me, that was a real slap in the face for every family who had no job to support them. Not just a slap in the face, more like being hit on the head with a hammer.
With his economic wrecking crew, hired directly from Goldman Sachs, and their former loyalties fully intact, I'm sure any job recovery plans will be just about as effective as his bankruptcy plans have been. Such as, depending on goodwill from people who don't have any.
I read that a lot of stimulus money hasn't been spent, and is set to expire in September. The problem being the nearly bankrupt states can't afford the copays. Shades of Bush!
There is the problem for Obama of having to work with surely the most corrupt Congress in history, but since most of them are in his own party he can't talk about that.
But most of all, over and over Obama shows no willingness to really lead. No veto pen. He said no earmarks, but when a bill reached his desk with 8,000 of them, he SIGNED it. His message to Congress: you're the boss.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
The stimulus money is supposed to be spent over the years if I remember. There were plans earlier for another round of economic stimulus and I think that was to recuperate the domestic spending that was reduced. They should be able to address that expiration issue.
I agree with you on Obama's letdown but I don't see a third party on the horizon for this year's midterm elections or any sign of one in 2012. You mentioned about corruption in Congress which I also agree with. I don't expect Congress to be reformed as we would like as long as all the attention is directed at Obama alone. He has been a letdown but even if he didn't want to be, Congress wouldn't let him do what he wanted to do. He used to be for single payer but lost his support for it later. He once said that he would support single payer if he had to reform from scratch. I think Obama is getting too much pressure from the right wingers while the left isn't doing enough to counter pressure it.
"If he were starting from scratch."
Pure BS--certainly you don't buy that excuse?
That was Obama's words but I can't argue with you on that since it's getting harder for me to take his word on what he once said about single payer.
YES he has to do something about job creation, and to accomplish this, he should embrace single payer and end the occupations in the middle east. Its so simple; there would be enough money to get Americans working again and bring about a real recovery with the money we save. However that is not an option with the white house
So lets just have a National Health Care System. Far simpler, and the administrative employees of the our current Intensive Medical Billing System will be a small blip in the unemployment numbers.
No matter how you feel about Obama, one thing is abundantly clear: he has no capacity whatsoever to lead. It is the most obvious sign of his fraudulence. Obama knows only too well how thoroughly rotten, psychotic and perverse the system he serves is. I think he just wanted to get his hands in the world's largest cookie jar for four years. Nothing more than that. If Obama reminds me of anybody, it's Sidney Falco, the cynical and morally bankrupt press agent in the movie "Sweet Smell of Success".
He could do it, he's just been bought. That's why they allowed him to be president to begin with.
I agree; but would say Obama is weak and narcissistic.
Wait.
1.Dem surge in Congress.
2.Dem President elected.
3.Dem "healthcare reform" proposed.
4.Dem "healthcare reform" defeated.
5.(likely) Repub surge in Congress.
Now, where have I read this script before?
Single payer would be a great way to create more jobs. Imagine if companies didn't have the burden of health care for their employees, as well as new companies wanting to start.
Yep. Funny how they weren't exactly trumpeting that from the White House rooftop. Wait, no...not funny at all.
They don't want to connect the dots that way. What the WH seems to be very good at doing is making sure that health care reform is not equated with job creations. And, sadly, when you read comments on that other forum this is what you see. People are now saying that health care reform should have been put on the back burner and jobs considered first. The way I see it you can't have one without the other. This dog-and-pony carnival fest the WH and Congress just engaged in did an incredible amount of damage -- and I think they know and they don't care. This was the plan all along.
You're right about that, Forgiveness, but Obama was the one that kept single-payer off of the table pretty much since the get-go, and we can thank him for that. If that trainwreck of a healthbill that's supposedly going to pass dies on the hill, in either the house OR the Senate, it's all for the better. NO healthcare "reform" bill would be better than that rag of a bill.
Our President, Our Congress, do not seem to be equal to these demanding times. We hope the Spirit that has brought this country thus far has not been weakened by our engagement in the excesses of misology, war and imperialism. There is a time when all bills come due.
-"Democrats no longer command a filibuster-proof Senate majority, and voters and lawmakers are far more concerned with jobs and the economy than with enacting sweeping and expensive changes to the health system"
Gosh darn, no filibuster proof majority! How ever did Bush govern without one of those, Darn! Why, the Democrats would have to ammend the rules in the senate, and nobody apparently remembers where Bush left the rule book.
What a farcical excuse for not doing what needs to be done.
...oh and now you guys are "more concerned" with jobs and the economy? Has it occured to anyone that healthcare and jobs, might, might be, errrr..., related?
...and have you ever wondered how other governments manage to juggle more than one thing at a time? They have what are sometimes called "ministers" or what you might call "secretaries". This novel invention in government allows the government to walk and chew gum at the same time. Apparently the US government, one of the most bloated in the world, isn't able to do this.
Exactly, how did Bush get everything (EVERYTHING) he wanted during 8 years without having anywhere NEAR the number Obama now has in both houses? How? Obama's fraud, that's how.
Democrats are not a real party, all Dem Party Apologists, Lesser Evilists and Kool-aid Drinkers should have their heads examined.
Ardath,
Agreed.
Reader Ardath Bey is correct.
Vote third Party folks! Broach the subject with your friends and family.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
If this government cannot do the work of it's citizens then it must be disbanded and replaced with one that listens to the people, and not the corporations.
The founding fathers demand it.
"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious."
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?"
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
All from Thomas Jefferson
If it dies, Obama and the democrats will have killed it. Then we should all send copies of our medical bills to Rahm Emanuel, Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, Lieberman, and that idiot in Louisianna. When they get a flood of bills--millions of them--maybe it will register that this country is a disgrace; it's nothing but a symbol of greed and self-indulgence. This country is just a bad experiment.
Careful there, before long people who speak out WILL be labeled as terrorists. Mark my words.
bfreisen, most unfortunately, I agree with you. I have long been concerned about the rise of "urban warfare", suspecting that at some point it would be turned on us. That looks more and more likely, as indeed it has been, such as in the Oakland CA dock protests a few years back. And although it did hit the news then, the corporate media is now turning a blind eye to any protests - except by teabaggers.
Hard times ahead.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
You must mean Republican-lite, Bloody Mary Landrieu.
Republican LITE? You're too kind.
Mary is a true red Repug--she just wears Dem's
clothing.
What do we do next, sisters and brothers? It should be obvious by now we DO NOT have representative government in Wash. D.C.
Perhaps each state should "go it alone" for Single Payer health care.
For you Californians, we have S.B.810 on the agenda (the Mark Leno bill), and our Republican Governor said he would veto (again), a Single Payer health care bill.
If you believe all of our citizens should be covered, start promoting and fighting for it, putting pressure on the cowardly Democrats to take on their Republican "opponents" throughout the state in overridding his veto. The time for action is NOW!
Well said !
Thanks. It can be achieved!
Usually it's harder to say no to single payer on a state level compared to national. I was thinking that a better idea might be for cities and counties to come up with their own local single payer, get an agreement on the state level to make a state wide single payer, and then states agree to a national one. I know this might take a while going bottom-up but 60 years of trying to put a national health care reform bill shows that top-bottom won't work.