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President Barack Obama - Source: Reuters -
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President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to agree quickly on core
elements of healthcare reform, signalling he might support a
scaled-back overhaul after his Democrats lost a key Senate
seat.
Obama acknowledged that voter anger helped carry Republican Scott
Brown to a stunning victory in Tuesday's Massachusetts election
which has imperiled the president's healthcare effort and the rest
of his legislative agenda.
"People are angry, they are frustrated. Not just because of what's
happened in the last year or two years, but what's happened over
the last eight years," Obama told ABC News on the anniversary of
his first year in office.
Pushed on the defensive, the White House said it may retool its
strategy for selling Obama's agenda while pressing ahead with his
priorities of job creation, climate change and financial regulatory
reform as well as healthcare.
Obama and his aides scrambled to limit the fallout after Brown's
victory which was widely seen as reflecting public anxiety over the
president's policies in the face of double-digit unemployment and a
sluggish recovery.
The election upset sent shudders through Democrats facing tough
races in November's midterm elections, when Republicans hope
weaknesses exposed in the liberal stronghold of Massachusetts will
threaten Democratic control of Congress.
Brown's win deprived Obama's Democrats of a crucial 60th Senate
vote they need to pass the healthcare bill, Obama's top legislative
priority, and push through other big measures.
Obama's aides said they bore some of the blame for the loss of the
Senate seat.
The long, bitter healthcare debate had not played well with the
public, they said.
Obama had faced criticism for emphasizing healthcare too much
instead of focusing firmly on jobs and the economy.
Weighing in a day after the Massachusetts ballot, Obama made clear
he is sticking with his healthcare push but hinted he might give
ground.
The White House stressed, however, Obama was still dedicated to
broad reform.
"I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around
those elements in the package that people agree on," Obama told
ABC.
"We know that we need insurance reform ... We know that we have to
have some form of cost containment," he said.
"And we know that small businesses are going to need help so
that they can provide health insurance for their families. Those
are the core, some of the core elements of this bill."
The election upset also compounded problems confronting Obama on
the one-year anniversary of the day he took office with soaring
rhetoric and hopes for change.
Obama's approval rating has fallen from 70%-plus at his
inauguration to around 50% now, among the lowest of recent
presidents at this stage.
Obama's defence
In the interview, he reminded Americans of the deep economic
problems he inherited and the public animosity toward the previous
administration.
"The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into
office," Obama told ABC.
Aides rejected the notion that the Massachusetts vote was a
mini-referendum on Obama's first year.
White House senior adviser David Axelrod told MSNBC that while the
administration would take into account the message from voters on
healthcare, it's not an option simply to walk away from a problem
that's only going to get worse.
He said the healthcare debate didn't relate to large numbers of the
American people.
"And so it left in people a sense that maybe we weren't focusing
on the main issues of concern in their lives," he said.
After his victory over state Attorney General Martha Coakley,
Brown, a Massachusetts state senator, said he would be the pivotal
41st Republican vote against the healthcare overhaul in the
100-member Senate.
Agenda at risk
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed Democrats
would move forward with healthcare reform.
But some Democrats urged a more cautious approach.
Republicans, who have called Obama's healthcare effort a government
takeover of the system, said the election result proved the issue
should be killed and that Americans opposed the president's big
government policies.
The debate over financial regulation, another Obama priority,
looked set to get even more divisive, with Democrats and
Republicans both trying to tap voter anger.
Ahead of November's elections, Democrats are likely to boost
attacks on banks and Wall Street bonuses, with Republicans working
to delay any bill.
Getting climate change legislation passed this year, especially in
a down economy, was already going to be tough.
Brown's election raises new obstacles.
The House passed a bill last year. Similar legislation has
stalled in the Senate.
But analysts said the loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat would
likely strengthen Obama's resolve to press ahead with popular job
creation measures that Republicans would be reluctant to block.
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