Bragging Rights

Obama presses health care as opposition mounts

July 21, 2009

Theo Keith
FNCU intern

President Barack Obama, who rode into office pledging bipartisanship, is now fighting for his trumpeted health care plan against strengthening opposition from several fronts.

Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee postponed its markup session of the health care bill indefinitely after Democrats were unable to get enough of their own members to back the measure. Republicans pounced.

"Mr. President, it's time to scrap this bill," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Let's start over in a bipartisan fashion."

According to Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats, bipartisanship has been lacking from the beginning.

As quickly as the health care debate began, there were questions and confusion. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., put together a plan that would tax employers' health benefits.

That idea soon lost support in both chambers and in the White House. Obama had pledged during the 2008 campaign that he would not raise taxes on those making under $250,000 a year. "That's making it more difficult," said Baucus.

The House then put forward a plan to impose a 5.4 percent surtax on couples making more than $1 million a year. Combined with Obama's plan to roll back the Bush tax cuts in 2011, the top tax rates in many states would be more than 50 percent.

That lost Democrats from wealthy and conservative districts, fearful of another Republican Revolution like the one that came in 1994, after former President Bill Clinton's government-run health care plan failed.

Households earning at least $200,000 represent 14 percent of freshman Democrat Rep. Gerald Connolly's Northern Virginia district, according to the Wall Street Journal. "And they all vote," Connolly told the paper.

In an interview with NBC's 'Today,' Obama did not back away from the surtax. "It's not punishing (the wealthy)," said the president.

But troubles continued to build for Obama.

The health care bill will balloon the national deficit by $239 billion, the Congressional Budget Office has said, rebutting the Obama administration's claims that the House plan would be "deficit-neutral" over the next decade.

Over the weekend, governors from both parties met in Mississippi and voiced concerns the bill would dump new Medicaid obligations on the states, with no additional money to pay for them.

And the Mayo Clinic, which the president has heralded in the past, is now criticizing the House's bill. "The legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite," said officials.

Obama continues to press on, despite a slip in his approval ratings. Once sky-high at 68 percent in March, Obama's poll numbers now show his approval in the mid-50s. On health care, a Washington Post-ABC News poll shows less than 50 percent of those polled support him.

The president has spoken on health care nearly every day for the past week, trying to drum up support and renewing pressure to get a bill on his desk by August.

"If you don't set a deadline in this town, nothing happens," said Obama on NBC's 'Today.'

That has Republicans likening Obama's health care push to his stimulus plan, a $787 billion, partisan bill that Democrats moved through Congress hours after introducing it.

When Obama signed the stimulus in February, his chief economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, said it would have "almost immediate" effects. But the unemployment rate, at 8.1 percent when Obama signed the bill in February, now approaches 10 percent.

Republicans have called out Obama for also trying to push health care through too quickly. The GOP may get its wish, as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., suggested Tuesday that lawmakers may not have the health bill done by Obama's August deadline.

"If we get consensus, we'll do it," said Hoyer.

The Democrat also struck back at Republicans who are more interested in trashing the Democrats' bill instead of bipartisanship.

"They are much more interested in making failure happen," said Hoyer.

© 2009 Fox News Channel University.