Obama: It’s time to act on health care, with or without the GOP / LJWorld.comNoam N. Levey and Janet Hook - Tribune Washington BureauWashington  Making an impassioned demand for swift action on health care, President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on Congress to vote on sweeping legislation “in the next few weeks,” even if that requires Democrats to move forward without Republican support.“I believe the United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform,” Obama said Wednesday from the East Room of the White House.“We have debated this issue thoroughly, not just for a year, but for decades. Reform has already passed the House with a majority. It has already passed the Senate with a supermajority of 60 votes. ... Now is the time to make a decision.”Obama made clear Wednesday that he would back reconciliation to advance health care, citing its use by past Republican Congresses to overhaul welfare in the mid-’90s and to pass two large tax cuts in the first years of the last Bush administration.It doesn’t promise to be easy. Senior Democrats on Capitol Hill will not finish writing the reconciliation package until next week at the earliest, according to senior congressional aides.For the strategy to work, the package will have to address a host of concerns that House Democrats have with the Senate bill.Party leaders have largely agreed to scale back a new tax on high-end “Cadillac” health plans, to gradually close the coverage gap in Medicare’s Part D drug benefit and to boost assistance to low- and moderate-income Americans who will be required to buy insurance.Dear Leader was saying the same thing months ago. Somebody needs to reboot his teleprompter.
