White House Disputes Suggestions That Health Care Won’t Be Done This Year

Robert Gibbs
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This afternoon, both senior adviser David Axelrod and press secretary Robert Gibbs maintained that health care reform will be ready to sign by the end of this year — despite suggestions by the Senate majority leader that the bill won’t be ready in time.

“This is going to get to the President’s desk before the end of the year,” Gibbs said on MSNBC.

Axelrod’s comments, made at about the same time on CNN, were more tempered.

“We’re still confident we’re gonna get this done,” Axelrod said. “We want to get it done this year. That is our goal.”

He added that obstacles, including delays in cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, have pushed back the timeline. But he said those obstacles are not “insuperable.”

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested he might not meet the deadline.

“We’re not going to be bound by any timelines,” he said at a news conference.

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