Obama makes health care case

President Obama responds to questions Wednesday during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP photo)

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WASHINGTON – Six months in office, President Obama sought Wednesday night to rally support for sweeping health care legislation he’s struggling to push through Congress.

He vowed that a federally backed health care system would not balloon the growing national debt and suggested that the overhaul be funded by existing federal programs and Americans who earn more than $1 million a year and would pay extra taxes.

“Health insurance coverage will not add to the deficit over the next decade, and I mean it,” Obama said. “It will be paid for.”

However, Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan, said exact details about how the system would be funded had been sparse.

“The cost of this thing is somewhere between $1 [trillion] and $3 trillion. No one quite knows,” Manzullo said. “He [Obama] takes these giant bills and shoves them through without the American people having ability to understand completely what’s in them.”

Obama has set a midsummer deadline for the House and Senate to act on health care.

Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Barrington, expressed guarded support for Obama’s efforts, referencing the president’s pledge that Americans who want to keep their existing coverage would be able to do so.

“I support the President’s priorities to preserve what works for American families and businesses who are satisfied with the coverage they have, while broadening affordable access for those who don’t have employer-based options, and containing unsustainable cost increases,” Bean said in a written statement to the Northwest Herald.

However, Bean indicated a stipulation in her support.

“I’m looking for measurable achievement of those objectives, with inclusion of prevention and wellness, personal responsibility, and quality health care outcomes,” she said.

Unlike Bean, Manzullo wasn’t as convinced that Americans would be able to preserve their existing coverage under the proposed legislation. He said the bill penalized small businesses that couldn’t afford to offer health care or accident insurance and have payrolls of more than $250,000.

“It slaps an 8 percent payroll penalty onto those employers. Some studies have shown that that would knock thousands or tens of thousands of businesses out of business,” Manzullo said.

If the consequences are high for nearly 50 million Americans who lack insurance, the political impact is huge for Obama, who is putting much of his credibility on the line to gain congressional passage.

His stepped-up public role comes as he faces rising criticism from Republicans, sliding public approval ratings and divisions within his party. Obama acknowledged that many people are uneasy about growing federal budget deficits and the fast-rising government debt.

He defended his decision to set a midsummer deadline for the House and Senate to act on health care, even if it isn’t met.

“I’m rushed because I get letters every day from families that are being clobbered by health care costs, and they ask me can you help,” he said.

The president said he believed it was possible to fund more than two-thirds of the cost of health care legislation by eliminating waste and redirecting federal funds already being spent. The rest must come from higher taxes, he said.

The administration proposed last winter a plan to raise taxes on upper-income wage earners by limiting their ability to claim deductions.

Congress looked unfavorably on the proposal, and Obama said he was open to alternatives – with one notable exception.

“If I see a proposal primarily funded through taxing middle-class families, I’m going to be opposed to it,” he said.

It was not immediately clear whether the president was signaling he would accept at least some higher taxes on middle-class families as the price for winning passage.

As a candidate he vowed repeatedly that no one earning under $250,000 would have higher taxes if he won the White House.