Gut-check for Obama, Dems on health-care overhaul

WASHINGTON (AP) — Abandoning the health-care overhaul is not an option, a senior White House official said today, after President Barack Obama's top domestic initiative took a devastating hit with the Democratic loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat.

Obama adviser David Axelrod said administration officials will take into account the message voters delivered Tuesday in electing Republican Scott Brown, but declined to go farther.

Questioned about the fate of health care legislation, Axelrod said, "It's not an option simply to walk away from a problem that's only going to get worse."

The stinging loss Tuesday cost Obama the 60-vote Senate majority he was counting on to pass the far-reaching legislation. The outcome splintered the rank and file on how to salvage the bill, energized congressional Republicans and left Obama and the Democrats with fallback options that range from bad to worse.

A leading idea involves persuading House Democrats to pass a Senate bill that many of them have serious problems with. Another alternative calls for Senate Democrats to promise to make changes to the bill later on. Some Democrats said their big hopes would have to be scaled back.