President Calls Senate Delay on Health Care Bill "OK"

President Barack Obama, engaged in an ongoing jawboning campaign to ratchet up support for his health care overhaul plans and to kickstart Congress into taking action, noted yesterday that it’s "OK" that the bill won’t be forthcoming before the August congressional recess, as long as work is always being done. Obama also took the opportunity to vaguely refer to opponents of the new plan as naysayers and skeptics. Noted Obama, "Reform may be coming too soon for some in Washington. But it’s not soon enough for the American people."

Obama took the opportunity to call out some Republican opponents, even though the largest obstacle his plan faces is the Democrats who control both the House and the Senate and who are moving slowly on a bill. Said Obama of the potential delays, "We just heard today that, well, we may not be able to get the bill out of the Senate by the end of August, or the beginning of August. That’s OK. I just want people to keep on working. Just keep working."

Obama also noted that those urging a delay are doing so in order to avoid having to face a difficult vote in the coming months. Said Obama, "Sometimes, delay in Washington occurs because people don’t want to do anything that they think might be controversial. Going to the moon was controversial. But at some point, if we’re going to move this country forward we can’t be afraid to change, especially a system that we know is broken. We’ve got to get it done and we’ve got to get it done soon." In fairness to the president’s critics, very few are urging delay so much as a measured and well-thought out approach to the legislation. It just comes out differently after it’s put through the political translation machine.