Nancy Pelosi is the one person the President is depending on to deliver the needed House votes for his health reform proposal.  However, Speaker Pelosi is balking at the White House’s latest deadline on health care. “March 18th is a very interesting date,” Pelosi said, referring to the White House’s preferred deadline -- the date President Obama leaves for a foreign trip. “We will take up the bill when we are ready to take up the bill.”

Sounds like yet another arbitrary health care deadline will be missed.  Maybe the president and Congressional Democrats should stop trying to impose their health care experiment on the American people and focus on doing what the American people want, more jobs.  That is one deadline the American public would support them meeting. 

Today, while discussing his proposal for health care reform, President Obama said, “Our proposal is paid for. … Our cost-cutting measures mirror many proposals which produce most people's premiums and brings down our deficit by up to $1 trillion because we are spending our health care dollars more wisely.” (President Obama, “President Obama Speaks on Health Insurance Reform,” 3/8/10)

President Obama may need to do some research because a lot of folks seem to disagree with his assessment of the plan.  David Broder, Dean of the Washington Press Corps, said “While the CBO said that both the House-passed bill and the one Reid has drafted meet Obama’s test by being budget-neutral, every expert I have talked to says that the public has it right. These bills, as they stand, are budget-busters.” That’s right, the bills are budget-busters. (David S. Broder, Op-Ed, “A Budget-Buster In The Making,” The Washington Post, 11/22/09)

Also, The Washington Post Editorial Board drew attention ... more

Last week, President Obama spent 7 hours at his “bi-partisan” health care summit “listening” to ideas about health care reform.  Today, President Obama  even said, “Every idea has been put on the table. Every argument has been made. Everything there is to say about health care has been said and just about everybody has said it.”

Yet, even with so much being said and so many arguments made, President Obama does not seem to have been listening during his so called “bi-partisan” summit or more importantly to the American people.  Today the president said,  “For us to start over now could simply lead to delay that could last for another decade or even more.”

Poll after poll has shown that Americans want the president and Congress to start over on health care.  Republicans repeatedly asked the president to hit the restart button during their “bi-partisan” meeting.  Yet, the President has decided to ignore what the American people want and impose his will on the American public ... more

But what in the Democrats’ health care plan could possibly be popular at this point or any other?

The Democrats’ health care plan would raise premiums, proposes drastic cuts in Medicare and raises taxes on individuals and small businesses.

The President’s version, built upon the Senate Democrats’ plan, piles on more in taxes, proposes more cuts to Medicare and institutes price controls. It is a plan, as described by the WSJ, which “manages to take the worst of both the House and Senate bills and combine them into something more destructive.”

Recent polls have indicated that the American public prefers Congress to start over on health care and pursue an incremental approach. If the Democratic Party needs more proof of the public’s discontent, the recent elections should be warning enough that voters know all they ... more

The U.S. economy is suffering and American families need help.  The U.S. unemployment rate is at 9.7% with real unemployment at 16.5%.  Last month 136,000 workers became discouraged from seeking work, bringing the number of discouraged job seekers to 1.1 million from 734,000 one year ago.

It should probably not come as a surprise then that when asked what their top priority would be if they were president,  52% of voters said it would be "creating a robust economy.” 

So why is the White House and Democratic majority still trying to ram through a government takeover of health care already rejected by the American public?  It’s time for the President and Congress to listen to the American people and start focusing on policy that will create jobs and opportunity for American families.