Politics

Unplugged: W.H. "Encouraged" Despite Health Care Delay

By Brian Montopoli

July 31, 2009 / 2:29 PM EDT / CBS News

Both the Senate and House are heading into month-long August recess without a health care bill, despite President Obama's call for bills to be passed before the fall.

But White House Spokesman Bill Burton suggested on "Washington Unplugged" Friday that the White House is not disappointed.

"If you look at all the progress that we've made and continue to make, we're very encouraged by what's happened so far," he told John Dickerson.

Burton pointed to action in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate HELP Committee.

"There's a lot of agreement on what we need to do moving forward," he said, adding: "We've got the folks at the table."

Asked why progress is moving slowly, Burton said "this is a very hard thing."

He said the White House and Congress are making "more progress than has been made on health care reform in the last 60 years."

"So we feel good about how much has been done already," Burton said, noting that the AARP and other groups are on board.

After Dickerson noted that the president's poll numbers on health care have slipped despite his aggressive efforts to sell the plan, Burton denied that the White House misread where the American people stand on the issue.

He argued that there is wide agreement about the need for health care reform even if "there's going to be some skepticism" about some the details.

CBS News White House correspondent Chip Reid said there's a good reason the president wanted to get these initial bills passed before the August recess: Because he "wanted momentum" for reform.

Not having a clear plan at this point means there will be "many more pieces that they have to put back together" in the fall, Reid said. With no specific plan it is more difficult for the president to defend his plan, he added.

Reid said the White House will likely focus even more directly on convincing people who already have health insurance that the plan is in their best interest.

"If you don't have them on board, you don't pass health care," he said.

He also said the White House is not terribly concerned about the president's falling poll numbers, since officials expect health care reform to pass and in the process pull those numbers back up.

Watch the full episode above.