Obama Faults GOP in Health Debate

By JONATHAN WEISMAN and NAFTALI BENDAVID

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama, seeking to rally his base, accused Republican leaders Thursday of trying to block a health-care overhaul from the start and again threw his weight behind a government-run insurance plan.

During a radio call-in show and at a town-hall meeting of supporters, Mr. Obama tacked to the left as Democratic allies inched toward trying to pass a health-care bill on their own.

Bipartisan negotiators on the Senate Finance Committee were set to resume talks Thursday night, and Mr. Obama said he still backed the effort.

On the Michael Smerconish radio show Thursday, the president said: "Early on a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, 'Look, let's not give them a victory and maybe we can have a replay of 1993-94 when Clinton came in. He failed on health care, and then we won in the midterm elections, and we got the majority.'"

It was the most direct shot he has taken at Republican leaders, and it came as the president was trying to reassure liberal activists that his knees weren't buckling, as one supporter suggested.

"I guarantee you," he told the radio show caller, "we are going to get health-care reform done."

In his meeting later with Organizing for America, the president's grass-roots political arm, he told a similarly vexed supporter: "I have no control over what the other side decides is their political strategy. And my obligation to the American people says we're going to get this done one way or another."

Republican leaders responded almost immediately, saying the president had made no effort to engage in bipartisan talks. The last time Republican leaders were invited to the White House for a substantive talk on health care reform was in April, they said.

Associated Press

President Barack Obama speaks during the Organizing for America National Health Care Forum on Thursday.

"Our disagreements with the president and House Democratic leadership are substantive -- period," said Antonia Ferrier, spokeswoman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio).

Mr. Obama also sought to reassure Democratic activists concerned by senior administration officials' conflicting signals over a public plan to compete with private insurers. The plan would be available for individuals and small businesses on a health-care exchange. "There's been a lot of confusion about this, so let me just clarify: I think a public option is important," he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stressed the same point Thursday, telling a news conference in San Francisco: "There's no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option."

The shift in tone by Mr. Obama comes as Senate Democratic aides work on a strategy to break the health-care plan into two parts. One piece, focused on expanding health-care coverage with some cost containment, would be put forward using a parliamentary procedure requiring a simple 51-vote majority in the Senate. The other, covering mainly health insurance regulations, would need 60 votes to overcome an opposition filibuster.

Even as Mr. Obama made the case that Republican leaders never gave his plan a fair chance, Democratic aides said White House officials weren't convinced that Americans would blame Republicans for failing to cooperate on a health-care overhaul.

White House officials say more overtures need to be made to Republicans before the plug is pulled on a bipartisan strategy.

Republicans believe the tide of public opinion has turned in their favor. Few, if any, lawmakers who were solid supporters of the overhaul have reversed course during the August recess. But some, after facing boisterous town-hall meetings, have changed their tone.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D., Mo.), who supports a health overhaul including a public insurance option, told reporters Wednesday that he wanted to "push the reset button" on health-care talks.

Mr. Cleaver continued to support broad changes, spokesman Danny Rotert said, but he has been struck by the strong concerns of his constituents, including more than 500 people who showed up at a "coffee with Cleaver" early in the summer recess.

"It does reflect his visit back to the district and some concern that he is seeing across the spectrum about the health-care plan," Mr. Rotert said. "What he is trying to say, people need to look at this with a fresh set of eyes."

Rep. Dan Boren of Oklahoma, a moderate "Blue Dog" Democrat, has long expressed reservations about the Democrats' plans. But at a recent town meeting he said unequivocally that "I'm not voting for that bill" in its current form.

Democratic leaders remain confident they can push a health bill through the House, but the math is delicate. With a 256-178 majority, and virtually every Republican likely to oppose the bill, roughly 40 defections would doom the legislation.

Write to Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com and Naftali Bendavid at naftali.bendavid@wsj.com