Research Briefing

Obama Doing More P.R. Events, Setting More Deadlines In Relentless Effort To Get Americans To Accept His Government-Run Health Care Experiment

WHILE AMERICANS HAVE MADE THEMSELVES CLEAR, OBAMA, DEMS DOING “WHATEVER IT TAKES” TO PASS GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE BILL

“More Americans Say They Would Urge Their Congressman To Vote Against President Obama’s Healthcare Overhaul Than For It, According To The Latest Gallup Poll Released Tuesday.” (Michael Muskal, “Americans Remain Divided Over Healthcare Overhaul, Poll Shows,” The Los Angeles Times’s “DC Now” Blog, 3/9/10)

• AP Poll Shows 68 Percent Of Americans Want Dems To Stop Their Partisan Reconciliation Push To Work With Republicans. (Charles Babington, “AP-GfK Poll: Public Wants Elusive Accord On Health,” The Associated Press, 3/9/10)
  
  
• Same Poll Shows 56 Percent Of Americans Want Congress To Start Over Or Stop Altogether. (Charles Babington, “AP-GfK Poll: Public Wants Elusive Accord On Health,” The Associated Press, 3/9/10)

But White House Says Obama Will Do “Whatever It Takes” To Push Bill Through. “White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama will push hard. ‘Whatever it takes to get healthcare done,’ he said. Obama is due to travel to Philadelphia and St. Louis next week to make his case for the overhaul.” (Patricia Zengerle, “Obama Seeks To Push Healthcare To Final Vote,” Reuters, 3/3/10)

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “I Think We Would Do Almost Anything To Pass A Healthcare Bill.” (Mike Soraghan, “Pelosi: 'We Would Do Almost Anything To Pass A Healthcare Bill',” The Hill, 12/10/09)
  
  
• “Pelosi Said Tuesday That People Won’t Appreciate How Great The Democrats’ Health Plan Is Until After It Passes.” (James Hohmann, “Pelosi: People Won't Appreciate Reform Until It Passes,” Politico’s “Live Pulse” Blog, 3/9/10)

SO OBAMA, DEMS TRYING TO WEAR DOWN AMERICANS WITH P.R. EVENT AFTER P.R. EVENT…

MARCH 2010: “Mr. Obama This Week Launched A Battery Of Presidential Visits To States And Districts Where Swing Votes Are To Be Found, Beginning With Missouri …” (Gail Russell Chaddock, “Healthcare Reform: Obama’s March Is Still On,” The Christian Science Monitor, 3/9/10)

• CBS News’ Mark Knoller Tweets: “Obama Travels This Afternoon To St. Charles, MO For His 2nd [Health Care] Speech This Week - His 52nd Health Care Speech Since Taking Office.” (Mark Knoller, Twitter.com, 3/10/10)

FEBRUARY 2010: Obama Had Televised White House Summit To Push Government-Run Health Care. “‘I want to consult closely with our Republican colleagues so, they’re going to be coming into the White House next week,’ the president told CBS News' Katie Couric on Sunday afternoon … The meeting of the bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate will actually be on Thursday, February 25 …  and it will be at the Blair House, across the street from the White House.” (Jake Tapper, “President To Host Bipartisan Health Care Reform Meeting Later This Month,” ABC News’s “Political Punch” Blog, 2/7/10)

OCTOBER 2009: Obama Hosted Government-Run Health Care Event In Rose Garden. “President Obama, seeking to pitch his plan for a health care overhaul as the Senate Finance Committee moves toward a critical vote, invited a group of white-coated doctors to the Rose Garden on Monday, telling them that ‘nobody has more credibility with the American people on this issue than you do….’ Many were members of Doctors for America, a new grassroots organization that has advocated a health care overhaul — and is an outgrowth of Doctors for Obama, which worked to help elect the president.” (Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “White Coats In The Rose Garden, As Obama Rallies Doctors On Health Overhaul,” The New York Times’s “Prescriptions” Blog, 10/5/09)

SEPTEMBER 2009: Obama Did Record-Breaking Five Sunday Show Appearances In One Morning To Push Government-Run Health Care. “It’s going to be awfully hard to avoid President Obama on television this Sunday. The president is going to appear on five Sunday talk shows – five – to press his case for health care, White House officials disclosed. That is a presidential record.” (Adam Nagourney, “Obama Plans Back-To-Back TV Interviews Sunday,” The New York Times’s “The Caucus” Blog, 9/14/10)

SEPTEMBER 2009: Obama Called For Joint Session Of Congress To Push Government-Run Health Care. “President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress on health care reform in prime time on Wednesday, Sept. 9, a senior official tells POLITICO. … Congress technically returns to Washington on Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day. But many members had planned Sept. 9 as their first workday, so Obama is seizing the first moment when he will have maximum impact.” (Mike Allen, “President Obama To Address Congress,” Politico, 9/3/09)

AUGUST 2009: Obama Pushed Government-Run Health Care During Three Town Halls In One Week. “President Barack Obama … will hold three public town hall meetings this week … Obama is scheduled to appear on Tuesday in Portsmouth, N.H. … On Friday, he will hold a town hall meeting in Bozeman, Mont., to discuss the plight of people dropped from their health insurance plans because of an illness. And at a third session on Saturday, in Grand Junction, Colo., Obama will raise the subject of high out-of-pocket costs, such as co-payments and deductibles.” (Anne E. Kornblut, “Obama To Push Health Care Reform In Town Hall Meetings,” The Washington Post, 8/10/09)

JUNE 2009: Obama Pushed Government-Run Health Care During An ABC Special At The White House. “President Obama struggled to explain today whether his health care reform proposals would force normal Americans to make sacrifices that wealthier, more powerful people -- like the president himself -- wouldn't face. A special edition of ‘Nightline’ from inside the White House. The probing questions came from two skeptical neurologists during ABC News' special on health care reform, ‘Questions for the President: Prescription for America,’ anchored from the White House by Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson.” (Jake Tapper & Karen Travers, “EXCLUSIVE: President Obama Defends Right To Choose Best Care,” ABC News, 6/24/09)

JUNE 2009: Obama Pushed Government-Run Health Care During A Speech To The American Medical Association. “Amid the push in Washington for health care reform, President Barack Obama will on Monday address delegates to the American Medical Association … The national doctors group represents about a quarter of a million doctors across the country and its support of any effort to cover the more than 46 million uninsured Americans is seen as critical.” (Bruce Japsen, “Obama To Address AMA Delegates In Chicago,” The Chicago Tribune, 6/10/09)

AND TRYING TO WEAR DOWN CONGRESS WITH DEADLINE AFTER DEADLINE

Obama Pushes Deadlines To Force Action From Congress. “Speaking in the Rose Garden Tuesday, President Obama demanded ‘action over inaction’ on health-care reform. But does that action have to happen by Aug. 7? As Obama himself has said, without deadlines, ‘nothing gets done in this town.’ Absent the urgency of a defined timeframe, the House and Senate could well have punted on health care by now. But at the same time, the White House's insistence on a deadline has helped fuel the current, widespread storyline that the reform effort is struggling.” (“Ben Pershing, “Health-Care Deadline A Double-Edged Sword For Obama,” The Washington Post’s “44” Blog, 7/22/09)

• EASTER 2010: House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) Suggests Easter Is The Next Deadline. “Asked when such an approach could be completed, Clyburn replied ‘Time this thing to give people...wrap it up in an Easter basket.’” (Jordan Fabian, “Clyburn Backs Piecemeal Healthcare Approach, Aims To Finish By Easter,” The Hill, 1/22/10)
  
  
• LATE MARCH 2010: But “Harkin Says Dems Will Finish Healthcare By March 27th.” (Michael O’Brien, The Hill, 3/9/10)
  
  
• MID-MARCH 2010: “White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Said Thursday The White House Hopes To See The House Approve The Healthcare Bill By March 18 …” (Michael O’Brien, “White House Sets March 18 Goal For House Vote On Senate Health Bill,” The Hill, 3/4/10)
  
  
• CHRISTMAS 2009: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) Said “We Are Going To Have It To The President, And He Is Going To Sign It, Before Christmas.” (Robert Pear and David Herszenhorn, “Parties Clash On Long-Awaited Day For Health Bill,” The New York Times, 9/22/09)
  
  
• THANKSGIVING 2009: Pelosi Was “Hopeful” There Will Be A Bill By Thanksgiving. “‘We are right on track, and I am hopeful that we will have a bill by Thanksgiving. Others say Christmas. Certainly this year.’ On the public option, Pelosi said, ‘We will have a public option in the House bill as I have said.’ She continued, ‘We are considering several variations, we want to have the one that does the best job.’” (Luke Russert, “Pelosi Predicts Vote By Thanksgiving,” MSNBC’s “First Read” Blog, 10/13/09)
  
  
• MID-OCTOBER 2009: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer Expected A Conference Report Around October. “‘I think that will be discussed over the next three months,’ Hoyer said. ‘I don’t expect us to get a [conference] report out on healthcare much before October, and I think that will be part of the significant debate during that course of time.’” (Jeffrey Young, “Rahm Raises Eyebrows; Obama Repeats Favor Of ‘Public Option’,” The Hill, 7/7/09)
  
  
• COLUMBUS DAY 2009: “Senate Majority Leader Reid Said He Hopes To Begin Debate Oct. 13, When Lawmakers Return After The Columbus Day Holiday.” (Martin Kady II, “The Huddle: All Eyes On Reid,” Politico’s “The Huddle,” 10/5/09)
  
  
• END OF SEPTEMBER 2009: Pelosi Told Her Caucus She Had An End-Of-September Deadline For A Bill. “Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told House Democrats on Wednesday that she hopes to have the final version of the House health care bill by the end of next week, people present said afterward. As the Senate moves forward with its long-awaited mark up of a bill before the Finance Committee, Pelosi is pushing her colleagues in the House to move as soon as possible on health care reform. She told an audience in Philadelphia this week that she’d like to bring the bill to the floor ‘within weeks,’ but her comments to the caucus Wednesday was the first explicit deadline she has given her members - or the public - about her own timeline.” (Patrick O’Connor, “Pelosi ‘Hopes’ To Have A Bill Next Week,” Politico’s “Live Pulse” Blog, 9/23/09)
  
  
• AUGUST RECESS 2009: Clyburn Said August Recess Should Be Postponed. “House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told colleagues during a ‘contentious’ closed-door session Thursday that they should postpone the August break until they pass a sweeping health care reform bill… ‘I think it will affect our standing with the American people if we don’t do this as a party,’ Clyburn said afterward.” (Patrick O’Connor, “Clyburn Says Postpone Recess, Get Bill Done,” Politico, 7/23/09)
  
  
• EARLY AUGUST 2009: Obama Wanted House And Senate To Vote On Proposals By August 8. “President Barack Obama is pushing for an Aug. 8 deadline for the Senate and House to vote on proposals that would reduce medical costs and provide coverage for the nearly 50 million of Americans who are uninsured… ‘We’ll get this done because we’re doing it in a bipartisan way,’ said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. ‘If we can reach a compromise, we can get this done by Aug. 8 or at least get it out of committee by Aug. 8.’” (Douglass Daniel, “Senators Say Compromise Key To Health Care Bill,” The Associated Press, 7/5/09)