Obama will leave on his previously planned trip to Indonesia and Australia on March 21 instead of March 18. The news comes after Obama launched a new offensive to sell health care reform to the American people and House Democrats, who have expressed resistance to the bill, over the past two weeks. His efforts to get a bill passed have also lead him to call for an up-or-down vote in Congress, which will not be possible by his original March 18 deadline.
While Democrats are not quite ready to hold a vote, it is good to see the president is finally taking the the health care debate seriously. Had he taken this kind of intuitive and framed the debate in terms of villainizing the health insurance companies from the get-go, he might have avoided this whole mess and checked health care off his agenda last year. But it is good to know the president is back on track and his intensity has matched what a majority of Americans fell in love with during the 2008 election. Every president has a learning curve, and it looks like Obama is no exception.
House Democrats are scheduled to meet this morning to review the status of the nearly $1 trillion reform package. Pelosi announced Thursday she is still waiting on a report from the Congressional Budget Office on the cost of changes to the Senate bill. She also indicated that the House would wait at least a week after the report was released before voting.
Meanwhile, Obama will continue his assault against those opposing health care reform, when he visits Ohio on Monday to address the controversial issue.
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