The President sat down today for an interview with ABC’s George Stephanpolus, and while only a portion of the transcript of the interview has been posted online, I’m not hearing a rallying cry from Obama or seeing evidence that he’s applying pressure to keep House Democrats in line and on track to pass health care reform right away:
I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on. We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up and we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance to their families. Those are the core, some of the core elements of, to this bill.
Move quickly to coalesce?
The President also tells ABC that he is opposed to trying to ram anything through the Senate until Sen.-elect Scott Brown is seated.
David Kurtz
David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.