Even after the Blue Dog revolt in the House, Obama still tries to save his beloved health care fiasco.

The White House on Monday said that President Obama would consider asking Congress to delay the summer break if he hasn’t seen sufficient progress on healthcare reform by the August recess.

Hours after Obama told reporters that he is “going to get this done,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that it is unlikely legislation will be finalized before the recess.

“Maybe,” said a shrugging Gibbs. “I don’t know.”

He added: “I don’t think anyone was under the illusion the whole process would be wrapped up by the beginning of August.”

Gibbs said the president would, however, like to see a reform bill pass either or both the House and Senate before members leave, and if they do not the president would consider asking the leadership to delay their vacation.

Obama: ‘Don’t bet against us’ on healthcare.

President Obama, fresh off a week overseas that saw his healthcare plan bruised back home, sought Monday to regain momentum to get reform passed by the August recess.

Obama, introducing his nominee to be surgeon general in a Rose Garden ceremony, began by taking on those who think healthcare reform has run off the rails.

“I want to put everyone on notice because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone,” Obama said. “We are going to get this done.”

Doubts began to emerge late last week over whether Congress will meet the president’s deadline of passing healthcare reform legislation through both chambers by the August recess.

Both the House and Senate have struggled to agree on how to pay for the expensive reforms even as they have looked for ways to keep its costs down.

A White House aide confirmed that the president will meet with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) later on Monday. The two men are chairmen of the committees that oversee tax policy and Medicare and Medicaid, and Rangel on Friday proposed a controversial surtax on the wealthy to raise $540 million to pay for healthcare reform.

I am Obama, I Control Your Mind, Vote for Heath Care. Socialism is Goooood.

Michelle Malkin on Your Tarp Dollars At Work. A lesson in how to sue yourself. Huh?!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 2:47 pm and is filed under General Politics, Health Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.