Given the discussions—the pros and the cons—in both parties following President Obama's healthcare reform speech before Congress last week, he does not appear to be wavering from his vision that the votes for passage of reform legislation are there.
On Sunday night, appearing on the television show "60 Minutes," he said in an interview that he believes that "we will have enough votes to pass not just any healthcare bill, but a good healthcare bill that helps the American people, reduces costs... over the long term [and] controls our deficit. I'm confident that we've got that."
He admitted that he was not getting the collaboration he initially expected from congressional Republicans, but "frankly, I haven't gotten the kind of cooperation I'd like from Republicans generally on a whole range of issues," he said. "I think there're some who see this as a replay of 1993 1994. You know, young president comes in, proposes healthcare. It crashes and burns and then the Republicans use that to win back the House in the subsequent election."
Overall, the Democrats and Congress "are not going to get a better opportunity to solve our healthcare issues than we have right now. And that's why I'm confident that in the end we're going to get this done," he said.
In terms of the Democrats, he said that he thinks "there is a unity about wanting to get this done, and there's 98% agreement [but] there are some areas where there are some differences."
One of the biggest differences remains the public insurance option. Senior White House adviser David Axelrod, speaking earlier on Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation, said President Obama is "not willing to accept" that the public option "is not going to be in the final package" of healthcare legislation.
Axelrod said that Obama "continues to believe it's a good idea" and continues "to advocate it." Overall, he added, he's "not willing to accept that it's not going to be in the final package."
Axelrod said the president "believes that it will add an element of competition where there is none in some places in this country where there's a monopolistic situation with insurance companies."
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), one of the six members of the bipartisan Senate Finance Committee group working in recent weeks to devise a healthcare reform bill, agreed that "Democrats are pretty much unified in the Senate around a plan that brings down costs, because that's the central goal here."
In the proposed framework for Senate Finance Committee's reform legislation released last week, though, the public option was excluded. "I don't think [Obama is] giving up: I think he made a very strong case for his support for a public option as an option," Conrad said.
"But I think he also said, 'Look, I'm open to other ideas.' In fact, he spoke favorably about the cooperative [insurance] approach, which would provide a nonprofit competitor, but would not be government run," Conrad said.
Conrad had proposed the cooperative group approach as an alternative to a public option. "I thought he left the door open to a compromise . . . in order to achieve the result of bringing down cost, expanding coverage, and improving quality."
Conrad, though, turned away from the current legislation pending in the House (HR 3200). "It's not going to pass," Conrad said. He said, "The only thing that has a prospect of passing is what is happening in the Senate" with his Senate Finance panel.
"The proposal that we are developing is fully paid for, bends the cost curve in the right way [and] extends coverage to 94% of the American people," he said. He added the panel, working through the weekend, is "close to an agreement."