In an interview broadcast on 60 Minutes tonight, President Obama told CBS journalist Steve Kroft at the White House on Friday that, “I believe that we will have enough votes to pass not just any health care bill, but a good health care bill.”
“I’m confident that we’ve got that,” Obama said.
But of course, it’s still an open question whether even a single GOP Senator will support health care reform, something Obama seemed to acknowledge by telling Kroft, “So far we haven’t gotten much cooperation from Republicans.”
The President suggested that some Republicans may be opposing reform in an effort to recreate the health care reform debacle that hobbled the early years of Bill Clinton’s presidency.
Young president comes in, proposes health care. It crashes and burns and then the Republicans use that to win back the House in the subsequent election. And I think there’s some people who are dusting off that playbook.
“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,” Obama said.
The President said he’s trying to work with Republicans, giving as an example concessions he may be willing to make on tort reform. “That’s not something that’s historically been popular in my party,” he said.
But in the end, Obama said, the buck stops with him. “I’m the one who’s going to be held responsible,” the President said. “So I have every incentive to get this right.”
I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails. That doesn’t work. I intend to be president for a while, and once this bill passes, I own it.
And what of GOP Rep. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson (R-SC)? The president said the Republican’s heckle during Wednesday’s speech to a joint session of Congress was “a surprise,” but noted again that he accepts Wilson’s apology.
“The truth of the matter is that there has been, I think, a coarsening of our political dialogue,” the President said. “I will also say that in the era of 24-hour cable news cycles, that the loudest, shrillest voices get the most attention.”
“Hopefully I will be a good model for the fact that you don’t have to yell and holler to make your point,” Obama said.
Late Update: Here’s the video.
