In Ohio, Obama Takes Health Care Delay In Stride
President Obama shrugged off the announcement from Congressional leaders today that his deadline for health care legislation would not be met, claiming that his ultimate deadline has always been to sign a bill this fall.
"If there's not a deadline in Washington, nothing happens. Nothing ever happens," he said. "We may not be able to get the bill out of the Senate by the end of August or the beginning of August. That's okay. I just want people to keep on working."
He attacked the argument that this process was moving to quickly, saying Washington has been debating health care since the days of Harry Truman.
"Reform may be coming too soon for some in Washington. But it's not soon enough for the American people," he said. "We can get this done. We don't shirk from a challenge."
He compared that challenge to the effort to put a man on the moon, accomplished 40 years ago this week.
"There were those at that time who said it was foolish, even impossible. But President Kennedy understood, and the American people set about proving, what this nation was capable of doing when we set our minds to doing it," he said.
During a Q&A at the Cleveland-area high school, Obama was asked again about too much happening too quickly. He revisited the Congressional deadline, saying that the House and Senate could still reconcile differences in the coming months and meet the real deadline.
"Our target date is to get this done by the fall. That's the bottom line," he said.
He also said that even when reform becomes law, "most of these changes would be phased in over several years."
"So it's not as if you're going to wake up tomorrow, and suddenly the health care system's all changed completely," he said. "We are going to phase this in in an intelligent, deliberate way."