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Obama Calls for Compromise on Health Care

   VOA News 27 February 2010
   US President Barack Obama delivers the weekly address, 27 Feb 2010

Photo: White House/Samantha Appleton

   US President Barack Obama delivers the weekly address, 27 Feb 2010

   U.S.  President  Barack  Obama  says  he is willing to compromise with
   Republicans on a final health-care reform bill.
   But  in  his  weekly  radio  and  internet address Saturday, Mr. Obama
   suggested  the  Democrats  will  try  to  go  ahead  on  their  own if
   Republicans will not join them.
   Mr.  Obama  said  he was "eager and willing" to move forward with both
   parties,  if,  in his words, "the other side is serious" about getting
   reform passed. But he said reform "cannot wait".
   Minority   Republicans   want   lawmakers   to  start  over  with  new
   legislation, while Democrats say there is not time.
   But  Republicans  are not appeased by Mr. Obama's offer to add some of
   their suggestions to the existing legislation.
   In  the Saturday response for the Republican party, Senator Tom Coburn
   said   the   Democrats  were  resorting  to  "procedural  tricks"  and
   "back-room  deals"  to  push through their bill, and said the American
   people want a fresh start.
   Health-care reform has been one of Mr. Obama's top priorities since he
   took  office.  But Democrats suffered a major political defeat earlier
   this  year  when Massachusetts voters elected a Republican to the U.S.
   Senate seat held for decades by Democrat Edward Kennedy.
   That  election  ended  the Democrats' 60-seat supermajority, which had
   allowed  them  to  contain  any  Republican  efforts to delay or block
   legislation.

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