Obama makes one last push on health care

Stephen Collinson Agence France-Presse

U.S. President Barack Obama launched an impassioned week-long closing campaign on Monday to drive his historic health reforms through Congress at a pivotal moment that may help define his presidency.

Obama left the White House for Ohio and an appearance designed to crank up pressure on lawmakers likely to face a knife-edge vote this week on reform aspirations that have eluded Democratic presidents for decades.

In a speech in Strongsville, Mr. Obama was expected to highlight the plight of a woman who survived cancer, but had to cancel her health insurance when her premiums rose and is now back in hospital after a relapse, fighting for her life.

Intense politicking on health care meanwhile speeded up on Capitol Hill with a key committee expected to consider final legislation and Democratic leaders intensifying their search for votes.

Mr. Obama’s allies must piece together a 216-vote majority in the House of Representatives amid fierce Republican counter-pressure on wavering Democrats who fear a career-ending vote in a volatile election year.

The White House however predicted the House votes would be rounded up, and that Mr. Obama would be on the cusp of a legacy-building victory by the end of the week.

“I think the House will have passed the Senate bill a week from today,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on CBS television’s ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday. But a senior House Democrat, James Clyburn, told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that Democratic leaders in the House did not yet have the votes to move the bill as part of a complicated legislative maneuver also involving the Senate.

“We don’t have them as of this morning, but we’ve been working this thing all weekend, we’ll be working it going into the week,” said the number three Democrat in the House.

Mr. Obama has delayed a trip to Asia by three days, until March 21, in hopes the plan that would extend health coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans could be voted into law and reach his desk for signature before his departure.

But Republicans have vowed to do everything they could to thwart the president, arguing that after a year of bitter debate, the American people have turned against the plan.

“Americans are shouting ‘stop!’ And the Democratic majority in Washington just keeps ignoring them,” said Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner.

“The American people aren’t going to stand for it.”

After investing so much political capital, analysts said failure to pass some type of health reform would be a disaster for Democrats and would call into question their capacity to govern, given their control of the House, Senate and the presidency.

Mr. Obama would also see his credibility compromised and likely struggle to pull together coalitions on climate change, immigration reform and other political battles that lie ahead.

Opposition Republicans unanimously oppose Mr. Obama’s health overhaul plan, saying it would push up medical insurance costs for consumers, expand the government’s reach unnecessarily and add to the country’s skyrocketing debt.

Some House Democrats also say the reform doesn’t go far enough in reining in private insurers. Others want safeguards to ensure the health insurance cannot be used to pay for abortions.

The bill extends health coverage to uninsured Americans and would bar insurance companies from refusing to cover people with preexisting health conditions.

Democrats point to independent analyses that show the plan would lower premiums for most people and reduce the federal budget deficit.

They accuse Republicans of cynically using the health care debate to wound Mr. Obama and his party ahead of midterm congressional elections in November.

The White House and its allies have devised an intricate plan that would have House Democrats pass a Senate version of health reform disliked by many House lawmakers.

Mr. Obama would sign the bill into law before leaving for Asia, and then both chambers would pass ‘fixes’ to the legislation demanded by the House Democrats.

That process, known as ‘reconciliation,’ would let Democrats frustrate Republican filibuster obstruction tactics in the Senate and allow the health care overhaul to be finalized before Congress goes into recess on March 26.

The House Budget Committee was expected to take up a reconciliation bill later Monday, in a session that could pave the way for the legislation to be sent to the full chamber by the end of the week.