WASHINGTON (AP) — Casting health care overhaul as a legacy for the American people and failure as politically unthinkable, President Barack Obama on Sunday rallied Senate Democrats to deliver on their party’s half-century quest to expand the social safety net by providing access for all.
At the Capitol during a rare Sunday session of the Senate, Obama delivered a closed-door pep talk to the fractious Democratic caucus that lasted about 45 minutes. Deep divisions remain over abortion coverage, but there was hope for compromise on whether the government should directly offer health insurance in competition with private companies.
“They’re going to get it done,” Obama said as he left. He avoided specifics in the meeting with senators and took no questions.
The health care legislation — Obama’s signature domestic policy goal — would provide coverage to more than 30 million additional people over the next decade with a new requirement for nearly everyone to purchase insurance. There would be new marketplaces where people could shop for and compare insurance plans, and lower-income people would get subsidies to help them afford coverage.
The federal-state Medicaid program for the poor would be expanded, and there would be a ban on unpopular insurance company practices such as denying coverage based on medical history.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who had invited Obama, sounded confident.
Republicans “want this to be, as one senator said, President Obama’s Waterloo,” Reid told reporters. “And it’s not going to be.”
White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama thanked lawmakers for their work and encouraged them to move ahead on “this historic opportunity.” Democrats are keenly aware of former President Bill Clinton’s failure to pass health care legislation in 1994, and their repudiation at the polls that November.
Obama said this is “the most significant social legislation in decades — so don’t lose it,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. Obama was accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden and other senior administration officials.
Obama “pledged to work with us in any meaningful way that he can,” Reid told reporters.
Reid has 58 Democrats and two independents in the Democratic caucus. He may be able to get one or two Republican votes, at the most. He is still short of the 60 votes he needs to shut off debate and move to a final up-or-down vote on the bill.
