"After months of insisting he would leave the details to Congress, President Obama has concluded that he must exert greater control over the health care debate and is preparing an intense push for legislation that will include speeches, town-hall-style meetings and much deeper engagement with lawmakers," the New York Times reports.
Obama "has grown concerned that he is losing the debate over certain policy prescriptions he favors, like a government-run insurance plan to compete with the private sector... With Congress beginning a burst of work on the measure, top advisers say, the president is determined to make certain the final bill bears his stamp."
Bloomberg reports that within the next 10 days, Obama "will give details of plans
that White House aides say would pay for the bulk of a new
health-care system."
Obama also made health care the topic of his weekly radio address.
Meanwhile, White House aides must be concerned about the Twitter message sent by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) over the weekend: "Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us"time to deliver" on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND."
Grassley added: "When you are a "hammer" u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL."
Obama "has been working over Grassley hard, so this criticism from him must be very frustrating," First Read notes. "While no one in the White House expects Grassley to be a Republican who will sign on to the entire Obama health-care agenda, they do have hopes he'll be someone Senate Finance Chair Max Baucus can work with to write a bill that can at least bring over a few moderate GOP senators."
Must read: Ezra Klein obtained a Senate Finance Committee memo which sets out the timeline for health care legislation. The goal is to have the bill on President Obama's desk by October 1.
