Obama May Have To Bide Time on Health Care

(CBS/AP)  After more than a week of tirelessly pressuring Congress to move his top domestic priority, it appears increasingly likely President Barack Obama may have to settle for a fallback strategy on health care overhaul.

Instead of votes in the House and Senate by August, the best Democrats may be able to hope for this summer is action by the full House by the end of the month and some sort of agreement on a bipartisan plan in the Senate before lawmakers head home for vacation.

Not only are Republicans honing their opposition, but some Democrats in both chambers are voicing doubts about moving such complex and costly legislation too quickly.

"No one wants to tell the speaker (Nancy Pelosi) that she's moving too fast and they damn sure don't want to tell the president," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a key committee chairman, told a fellow lawmaker as the two walked into a closed-door meeting Tuesday. The remark was overheard by reporters.

Mr. Obama has scheduled a prime-time news conference Wednesday, expected to focus on health care. It's turning into a major test of his leadership. One Republican senator says if the party can stop Mr. Obama on health care, it will break him.

In an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric on Tuesday, the president insisted on action by lawmakers, even as he conceded some of the criticism was valid. Referring to objections from a group of conservative Democrats in the House, Mr. Obama said, "I think, rightly, a number of these so called Blue Dog Democrats - more conservative Democrats - were concerned that not enough had been done on reducing costs."

Click here to read the full transcript of Katie Couric's interview with President Obama.

Mr. Obama said those issues can be addressed as the legislation keeps moving forward. Congress has already spent years studying and debating the problems in the health care system, he said.

House Democrats put their divisions on display over the details and timing of health care legislation Tuesday. The Democratic leadership juggled complaints from conservatives demanding additional cost savings, first-term lawmakers upset with proposed tax increases and objections from members of the rank-and-file opposed to allowing the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry.

Pelosi, D-Calif., vowed weeks ago that the House would vote by the end of July on legislation to meet two goals established by Mr. Obama. The president wants to extend health coverage to the tens of millions who now lack it, and at the same time restrain the growth in health care costs far into the future. The upfront costs, however, could reach $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

The president also has vowed that the legislation will not swell the deficit, although a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday that the pledge does not apply to an estimated $245 billion to increase fees for doctors serving Medicare patients over the next decade.

Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, said that was because the administration always assumed the money would be spent to avert a scheduled cut of 21 percent in doctor's fees.

At the White House, Mr. Obama and moderate and conservative Democrats verbally agreed on a council of experts to find savings in Medicare, coupled with a mechanism to force Congress to act on the recommendations. The cost curbs may help woo some of the conservatives.

In the Senate, a small, bipartisan group of lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee met behind closed doors, pursuing an elusive agreement. The negotiations, led by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., have taken on new urgency. But it's unclear whether they will produce a breakthrough - or peter out in frustration.

But if talks and posturing go on much longer, passing legislation will become more difficult, according to a former chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan.

"The first 100 days is easy for any administration. The second 100 days are the tradeoffs. The third 100 days, which is after the August recess, people start saying, 'Show me the beef!'" Ken Duberstein told CBS News.

Mr. Obama has spoken in public nearly every day for more than a week on health care, some times more than once. At the same time Republicans have upped the political stakes.

On Monday, Michael Steele, the Republican Party chairman, likened Mr. Obama's proposals on health care to socialism, and said the chief executive wanted to conduct a "risky experiment" that will damage the nation's economy and force millions to lose the coverage they now have.

Last week, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was quoted as telling fellow conservatives: "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

Given the struggle, the polls show slippage for Mr. Obama, although he remains popular. The president is battling the impression if not the reality that his proposal is stalled. In the CBS News interview, Obama recognized that perception.

"There have been so many times, during my political career ... where people have said, 'Boy, this is make or break for Obama,"' he said. "When the stock market went down everybody was saying, 'This is a disaster.' And what I found is that as long as we are making good decisions, thinking always what's ... best for the American people, that, eventually, as long as we're persistent and we're listening to the American people, that things get done."

[smoknmirrors]

Biding one's time is one thing, but "patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it's cowardice.'" So said George Jackson. Bipartisanship is an admirable goal, but adequate affordable health care for all Americans is not the part we should say bye to. Americans, once they understand, will reject the notion of RNC Chairman Steele that all the Republicans are interested in is a system of medical care in which only the doctor and the patient make the decision. They will understand that currently employers restrict employees' choices of insurance plans, and insurance companies restrict patients' choices of physicians and hospitals and treatments and medication, long before the doctor and patient get any input into this process. They will further understand that RNC Chairman Steele wasn't kidding when he said "we will stop at nothing" to make Obama fail on this. The Republican notion of bipartisanship is limited to their providing the sword and the Democrats providing the blood.

[jsd330]

And what makes you think the government plan would be any better, especialy if they are going to try to keep cost down. Employers shop for insurance just like anybody else does, the lowest cost. You have a choice now, if you don't like the plan pay for your own and get what you want. I want to be able to have a choice, not being forced into a government plan, which according to the DEMS 1000 + page bill on page 16 is going to happen.

[Illuminated1]

Its time to separate the sheep from the ram in congress, I've always known there were democratic turncoats in the party.
Let them know in the next election you don't want a double agent representing you in congress.
When healthcare lobbyists knock on the door....don't answer.
The people of the United States have deserved better coverage than they ever got.
Those democrats beginning to wane supporting the health care package should be looked at to see who they have been lobbied from.

Most people don't even know the history of Kaiser health.
It was an attempt to keep word from reaching the press about the work accidents being done in the mines.
In the old era minors were getting killed and injured all the time, and the publicity was not good for Kaiser steel, so they set up an on sight clinics so the word of injury would not get out.
Kaiser was too cheap to protect the minors but smart enough to keep it contained locally.
Have you seen the movie "Sicko" yet? It's been on HBO...
The White House tapes Nixon didn't want you to know about have an appearance....Nixon meeting with his staff with his concerns about not having the public health option. It is mentioned to him that Kaiser would be paying its doctors not to administer healthcare.
The very next day Nixon makes a speech on TV telling america how he wants americans to have the best healthcare possible.

This is all treason to me..

[zeitmin77]

Obama is too arrogant and impatient to bide time for anything.His wife must be quite familiar with this trait of his character.

[pbronson]

O.K. Here it is!

1) Make everybody, I mean everybody, with NO exceptions sign on to the plan. That means the congress would give up their current plan, the unions and ALL other special interest groups give up theirs as well. Now we know it will be read and properly reviewed prior to passage.

2) Have a minimum co-pay per doctor visit, say $ 30. This will eliminate the hang nail /sniffles crowd from jamming up the system. This is out of pocket, excepting the indigent. Make the penalty for frivolous visits a cash penalty. Perhaps allow two violations prior to assessing these, as in instant replay, where you loose a time out.

3) Have a third party evaluate each person for possible life style habits that create a higher degree of risk, and assign a score based on those that would determine premium rate for that particular individual. This would penalize smokers , drug abusers, obese and unfit people who choose to remain that way.

4) Allow people to select from a menu of coverage. Those who select to only be covered for unforeseen and catastrophic occurrences, so be it, they would have a much smaller premium.

5) Provide the GOOD SAMARITAN clause to procedures to eliminate all frivolous litigation that so many law firms thrive on and drive up the costs to others.

6) Provide all emergency and basic health care to those citizens unfortunate enough not to have the ability to pay.

7) Allow everyone to choose his or her own doctor.

If you agree with my outline and proposal, Please e-mail me with your comments and suggestions. I would like to take this to the next step and get it to some concerned people in our congress.

Thanks,

[endurorob]

o_the_potus July 22, 2009 8:17 AM EDT
President Obama needs to field an ad campaign listing everyone who is playing a part in holding up healthcare reform along with how much money they have received from insurance, drug and MD sources.



At the sam etime he can list the how much he has received from unions and how many votes he has received from those that want someone else to pay their way in life. He can also release the budget numbers he is hiding. He can also be honest about how much this plan will cost.