President Obama last night told Congress to calm down, cool off and try one more time on health-care reform.
“Do not walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close,” Obama said in his State of the Union Address.
Obama took a more conciliatory stance than Democratic health hawks on Capitol Hill when he signaled willingness to consider new ideas to add to the massive legislation that passed the Senate and House in different versions.
“As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we’ve proposed,” he said.
“But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors and stop insurance-company abuses, let me know.”
He also admitted reform had become extraordinarily — and perhaps, unnecessarily — difficult for average Americans to understand.
“I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people,” he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who sat behind the president during his address, said earlier that quitting on reform is not an option.
Asked if Congress might abandon legislation in view of policy differences and last week’s Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts, she said, “I don’t see that as a possibility. We will have something.”
Obama drew laughs when he said, “I did not choose to tackle this issue to get some legislative victory under my belt . . . and by now it should be fairly obvious that I didn’t take on health care because it was good politics.”