Obama Suggests Flexibility on Health Care Timing, But Not Much

Is President Obama wavering on that August deadline that he's given Congress on health care reform? As recently as this weekend, Peter Orszag, Obama’s top economic adviser, had repeated Obama’s long-held position that he wanted a bill before Congress went home for their summer recess. But Obama noticeably did not repeat that deadline in remarks he made today on health care reform. In an interview tonight, PBS’s Jim Lehrer asked Obama point blank if he was “backing off” the August deadline. “I want this done now,” Obama replied. “If there are no deadlines, nothing gets done in this town… If someone comes to me and says, it’s basically done; it’s going to spill over by a few days or a week, you know, that’s different.” Obama insisted he’s still confident he’ll get a bill by the August recess. Lehrer also asked Obama about his sliding poll numbers, particularly on health care reform. George W. Bush often shrugged off poll numbers, suggesting he never even read them. Not Obama, who says he’s focusing on his overall approval rating—59 percent, according to the Washington Post/ABC News poll. “I feel pretty good about the fact that our polls have held up under extraordinarily difficult circumstances,” Obama told Lehrer. “I think we may have set a very high bar for ourselves. Normally at 59 percent, folks would say, ‘We’ll take it.’”