PRESIDENT BARACK Obama yesterday came close to endorsing a controversial compromise on healthcare put forward by Max Baucus, a leading Democratic centrist, saying the $856 billion (€582 billion) plan met the “broad goals” the White House had been pushing.
But the president, who yesterday gave a record five Sunday morning television interviews – aired almost simultaneously – in an effort to boost his embattled healthcare reforms, left the door open for the more liberal versions that are circulating on Capitol Hill.
“Right now, I’m pleased that, basically, we’ve got 80 per cent agreement [on the outlines of a health package] – we’ve got to really work on that next 20 per cent over the last few weeks,” Mr Obama told CNN.
Mr Baucus’s plan, which the Senate finance committee starts debating tomorrow, would offer subsidies to most of the 47 million Americans without coverage and create a national insurance exchange in which private insurers would be prohibited from denying coverage to anyone on the basis of “pre-existing conditions”, age, race or background.
The plan, which was the fruit of several months of “bipartisan” negotiation although it has no Republican support, would produce a small reduction in the federal deficit over the next decade by cutting costs in the Medicare programme for retirees and imposing a tax on the most expensive “Cadillac” insurance plans.
Yesterday, Mr Obama offered his support for the “Cadillac” option and denied it would break his promise of not imposing new taxes on the US middle classes. Mr Obama said only families with an income of above $250,000 would be subject to tax rises.
Critics of the plan say insurance companies would claw back lost revenues from the new tax by levying higher premiums – a back-door tax increase. Many holders of the “Cadillac” plans are union members. In a testy exchange on ABC’s This Week, Mr Obama challenged the claim it would translate into a tax increase.
“My critics say everything is a tax increase,” he said. “My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual mandate [compulsory insurance for all] but . . .I absolutely reject that notion.”
Mr Obama, who has staked his credibility on getting healthcare reform passed this year, rejected the idea that opponents of the reforms were motivated by racism. Last week, Jimmy Carter, former president, alleged that many people were using healthcare as an outlet to vent their prejudices.
“I’m not saying that race never matters in any of these public debates,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press.
“What I’m saying is this debate that’s taking place is not about race, it’s about people being worried about how our government should operate.”
Mr Obama also said that he wanted to wait to determine the proper strategy for US forces in Afghanistan before considering whether more troops should be sent there.
The top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, is expected to ask for a troop increase in the coming weeks to stem gains by a resurgent Taliban.
Gen McChrystal has finished preparing his request, which some officials expected would include roughly 30,000 new combat troops and trainers, but he has yet to submit it to Washington for consideration.
Defence secretary Robert Gates has said the Pentagon was working with Gen McChrystal on how that request should be made.
Mr Obama said he had not received a request for more troops and that he was still working on the appropriate strategy to ensure that al-Qaeda was not in a position to attack the United States.
“I just want to make sure that everybody understands that you don’t make decisions about resources before you have the strategy ready,” he told ABC.
He told NBC’s Meet the Press it was important for him to exercise scepticism when sending an American in uniform into harm’s way. “Because I’m the one who’s answerable to their parents if they don’t come home. So I have to ask some very hard questions any time I send our troops in.” – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009; additional reporting Reuters)