Obama encourages lawmakers on health care

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama, insistent that health-care legislation will still clear Congress, urged lawmakers strongly Friday to write stiffer cost-cutting provisions into the bills taking shape slowly in the House and Senate.

“What we want to do is force the Congress to make sure that they are acting” on recommendations lawmakers receive to hold down Medicare and Medicaid spending, the president said, rather than allowing reports to sit unused on a shelf.

He spoke from the White House, near the end of a week of tumult for the legislation atop his domestic agenda.

“Now is certainly not the time to lose heart,” he declared.

A few hours earlier, two House committees approved their portions of the sweeping health-care bill over Republican objections.

That left one more panel to act, but conservative Democrats were rebelling, demanding additional measures to hold down skyrocketing costs.

Given the complexities, as well as fresh calls for delay in the Senate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., opened the door to pushing off a vote past the early August time line she and Obama laid out weeks ago.

Whatever the difficulties, she predicted legislation would pass that will transform the nation’s health care system, extending coverage to millions who lack it while slowing the growth in costs generally. “It is really historic. It’s transformation. It’s momentous,” she told reporters at a news conference.

If anything, Obama tried to pro- ject even more confidence.

Ticking off a list of accomplishments to date, he said, “We are going to get this done. We will reform health care. It will happen this year. I’m absolutely convinced of that.”

Without the overhaul, he said, “no one’s health insurance is going to be secure, because you’re going to continue to see premiums going up at astronomical rates.”

Obama’s call for additional steps to hold down costs came one day after the head of the Congressional Budget Office told Congress the legislation taking shape so far would fail to accomplish that.

Those remarks by Douglas Elmendorf produced fresh criticism from Republicans and gave pause to Democrats, as well.

In letters to Pelosi as well as key committee chairman, administration budget director Peter Orszag called for additional steps to ensure the bill “rewards quality, restrains unnecessary costs and provides better care to more Americans.”