In a last-minute event at the White House this afternoon, President Obama insisted that “now is not the time to slow down” the push for health care reform. “Now is certainly not the time to lose heart,” Obama said. “Make no mistake, if we step back from this challenge, at this moment, we are consigning our children to a future of skyrocketing premiums and crushing deficits. There’s no argument about that.” It was the fifth day in a row that Obama has gone before cameras to push for an overhaul of the nation’s troubled health care system, but the president today seemed to be on more on defense than on offense.
While Obama has marked some significant victories in the past few days— the Senate HELP committee passed its version of a reform bill on Tuesday and two House committees today approved theirs—a growing number of senators are pushing the White House to allow more time to debate the intricacies of a bill that is inherently complicated. Among the biggest stumbling blocks: How much will reform actually cost and where will the government get the money to pay for it? On Thursday, the head of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office testified on Capitol Hill that the reform bill would actually not to do much to stop the nations skyrocketing budget deficit, as Obama has said. At the White House, Obama pushed back, insisting he wants to a sign a bill that actually will eliminate waste and the slow the growth of health care costs and that he’s "confident" Congress will adopt those proposals.
Yet Obama did not back down from his previously stated timeline, insisting he still wants a bill by the August recess. To not do so, Obama warned, could jeopardize not just the bill’s future but the entire industry. “If we don't get health care reform done now, then no one's health insurance is going to be secure, because you're going to continue to see premiums going up at astronomical rates, out-of-pocket costs going up at astronomical rates, and people who lose their jobs or have a preexisting medical condition or changing their jobs finding themselves in a situation where they cannot get health care,” he said.
It’s quickly becoming all health care all the time at the White House. Administration officials scrapped Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’s usual briefing in favor of letting Obama talk. He had been scheduled to go before reporters at 3:15pm but was 45 minutes late. He spoke for less then ten minutes and took no questions. Shortly afterwards, the White House, via Twitter, the Obama will hold a primetime news conference next Wednesday, where, no doubt, health care will be a leading topic. Call it the bully pulpit: The calculation here is that the only way Obama will win the fight on reform is by using his own political capital and personal popularity to get the bill through. The goal is to get voters on his side, who will in turn put pressure on wavering members of Congress. But with just a few weeks before the recess, is there enough time? Obama again today warned anybody about underestimating him, calling skeptics "badly mistaken." "We are going to get this done," he insisted. "We will reform health care. It will happen this year. I'm absolutely convinced of that."
