Posted by
Defend America on Monday, March 15, 2010 12:05:45 PM
Obama heads to Ohio looking for health care votes
By BEN FELLER
(AP)
–
7 hours ago
WASHINGTON — Still seeking votes for his proposed health care
overhaul, President Barack Obama appears ready to reverse his position
and allow unpopular deal-sweetening measures in the hopes of finding
Democratic support for legislation whose future will be decided in
coming days.
Increasingly eager to finish work on his top
domestic priority, Obama was set to head to northeast Ohio on Monday
with a final sales pitch for health care legislation that the top
Democratic vote-counter in the House said lacked support to pass.
Obama's top political adviser, David Axelrod, said he was "absolutely
confident" the measure would pass during a make-or-break week that
already saw the president delay his trip to Indonesia, Australia and
Guam.
"This is the week where we will have this important vote,"
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. "I do think this is the
climactic week for health care reform."
Clinching support,
though, might require Obama to back away from his insistence that
senators purge the legislation of a number of lawmakers' special deals.
Taking
a new position, Axelrod said the White House only objects to
state-specific arrangements, such as an increase in Medicaid funding
for Nebraska, ridiculed as the "Cornhusker Kickback." That's being cut,
but provisions that could affect more than one state are OK, Axelrod
said.
That means deals sought by senators from Montana and
Connecticut would be fine — even though Gibbs last week singled them
out as items Obama wanted removed. There was resistance, however, from
two committee chairman, Democratic Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and
Chris Dodd of Connecticut, and the White House has apparently backed
down.
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