President Barack Obama speaks during a radio interview with Michael Smerconish in the Diplomatic Room at the White House in Washington Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)President Obama said Thursday that Republicans on Capitol Hill had a preset plan to derail his health-care reform plan like they did President Clinton’s, no matter what the terms.
“Republican leaders said, ‘Let’s not give him a victory,’ ” Mr. Obama said on a live radio show from the White House with conservative host Michael Smerconish.
The president called the tactic a “replay” of the situation in 1993 when Republicans helped defeat Mr. Clinton’s first-year goal of achieving universal health care for Americans in part to be more successful in mid-term elections.
“I think some folks are taking a page out of that playbook,” Mr. Obama said.
Mr. Obama also is trying to achieve health-care reform — including insuring nearly 50 million Americans — in his first year and is attempting to get bipartisan support for the legislation now in Congress.
The 20-minute show covered a range of subjects including health care, the war in Afghanistan and the medical release this morning in Scotland of the Lockerbie bomber.
Joseph Weber is a congressional reporter, his first job upon coming to Washington in 1992. Mr. Weber joined The Washington Times in 2002 as a metro desk editor and ran the section for several years, working on such stories as the Virginia Tech massacre, the Supreme Court case on the District’s handgun law, the D.C. snipers and the 2008 presidential ...
By Seth McLaughlin - The Washington Times
By Richard W. Rahn
Budget fantasy won't help us cope with coming fiscal disaster
By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times
If some Arizona lawmakers get their way, George Carlin’s “Seven Words” routine could be updated ...
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times
The FDA has won its two-year fight to shut down an Amish farmer who was ...
By Anthony McCartney - Associated Press
Whitney Houston was under water and apparently unconscious when she was pulled from a Beverly ...
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Communities writers, and sometimes readers, debte the political, economic and social issues of the day.
Children around the globe are too often silent. From victims of abuse - physical, mental, and sexual to those whose lives embrace joy, their stories are many and need to be heard.
Join along as a George Washington University student immerses himself into Madrid’s food, arts, cultural and social life as he quests for total Spanish enculturation.
CPAC 2012
26 Photos
CPAC opens in Washington
29 Photos
State of the District
8 Photos
Police raid Occupy D.C. camp
13 Photos
Potomac Phil makes stuffy debut
11 Photos
Romney wins Florida primary
8 Photos
Police stop Occupy D.C. sleepovers
13 Photos
Exiles want Republicans to free Cuba
21 Photos
