Obama and GOP turn up the heat in health care debate
Even as one poll shows support for his handling of health care now below fifty percent, President Obama told PBS it’s not about him.
“I am proud of the fact that I think this has to be done,” said Obama.
But the President is embracing an increasingly public fight.
On NBC’s Today Show Obama said, “Doing nothing means that you’re going to lose what you have because on the current trajectory, your premiums are going to double again over the next five to ten years.”
Republicans slammed the Obama plan to tackle it in a new ad saying kids would suffer. The GOP printed its strategy to kill the Obama plan in a playbook, a script for critics.
“The Barack Obama experiment with America is a risk our country can’t afford. It’s too much, too fast, too soon,” said RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
The President did praise Senators including Republicans who are working to trim the costs of reform.
“We have about $200 billion hole that we have to plug,” said Senator Charles Grassley.
One option…to tax insurers on what the President calls their Cadillac health plans.
The President is backing off his August deadline for health care plans to pass.
“If somebody comes to me and says, it’s basically done; it’s going to spill over by a few days or a week…you know, that’s different,” said Obama.
The President brushed aside as political GOP claims that a health care defeat would upset the whole Obama agenda.
