WASHINGTON: American anger at the cost of propping up the
US economy will not force President Barack Obama to row back on his
ambitious health care reform plans, the White House said
Sunday.
On the defensive after Saturday saw the first big anti-Obama
protests since he became president in January, White House
spokesman Robert Gibbs conceded that Americans were angry, but said
it was mostly about big spending.
"I think people are upset because on Monday we celebrate the
anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse that caused a financial
catastrophe unlike anything we've ever seen," said Gibbs.
The stunning implosion of the US investment bank over the weekend
of September 13-14, 2008 has come to mark the beginning of a crisis
that reshaped the financial sector and deeply scarred the global
economy.
"We've had to do some extraordinary things... to rescue the
financial system, to ensure that our domestic auto industry didn't
go out of business, and to stimulate the economy. That certainly
cost a lot of money, but it's something that we had to do," said
Gibbs.
Saturday's protests saw tens of thousands take to the streets of
Washington to attack Obama over his big spending and big
government, but Gibbs insisted the president would not be deflected
from his top domestic priority of overhauling the broken health
care system.
"I think what the American people want most of all... is for
Washington to put aside the game playing and start to begin to
solve the very big problems that our country faces," he told CNN
television.
"I know that's what the president believes he was elected to do.
And I think it would be a good start to deal with health
care."
Obama has vowed to pass legislation by the end of the year that
would spread coverage to America's 46 million uninsured by making
insurance obligatory and affordable for all.
Republicans jump on the US$900-billion price tag, which Obama
claims he can make up in savings, and stoke fears that a mooted
public option would lead to a federal takeover of health care -
anathema to many Americans who abhor the idea of big
government.
Obama, who has been criticised for waiting too long to go on the
offensive after an August of feisty town hall meetings during which
angry Republican-led opposition received almost blanket media
coverage, is now hitting back hard.
In an interview with CBS, aired on Sunday but recorded on Friday,
Obama accused some Republicans of cynically trying to kill off his
flagship domestic policy just to cripple his young
administration.
He said that regardless of their efforts he had enough support to
pass a far-reaching overhaul of a system that leaked money like a
sieve and left tens of millions Americans uninsured.
"I think right now you've got just a political environment where
there are those in the Republican party who think the best thing to
do is just to kill reform, that that will be good politics," he
blasted.
For those criticising the expense of his plans, Obama said there
was no way to get a handle on the budget without tackling the
inefficiencies of the US$2-trillion health care system - which
represents some 15 per cent of America's GDP.
"The problem I've got is that the only way I can get medium and
long-term federal spending under control is if we do something
about health care."
On Monday, the president will switch his attention squarely back to
the economy with a major speech in New York in which he is expected
to defend his spending policies by claiming they helped stave off a
second Great Depression.
As well as his US$787-billion stimulus plan, Obama invested
hundreds of billions of dollars bailing out the indebted financial
sector, unveiled mortgage rescue plans and took steps to loosen the
flow of credit.
Aides said the president's address at the Federal Hall would
refocus attention and issue a call for action on financial,
regulatory and structural problems still dogging the slowly
reviving economy.
Officials predict a possible return to economic growth in the
United States in the third quarter this year, a moment that would
mark a political milestone for the administration.
Obama's New York address will come a week before he hosts the Group
of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, where global economic powers will try
to agree a strategy to head off future financial
crises.
