Word: washington
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...brocade couch across from Obama, laying out figures that showed what a sinkhole the country's health-care system has become: the U.S. spends more to get less than just about every other industrialized country. Still, Obama and his team are aware that the more Americans learn about how Washington proposes to cure that system, the more skeptical they are about the whole enterprise. The more the public hears, the less it seems to understand. What Obama and his team also know is that fixing health care has become not only a defining moment for his presidency but also...
...Clarity in describing the challenge is only one test. The hard part is making sure that in transforming a system that is bankrupting the country, Washington doesn't create a new one that does it even faster. Or that in expanding health coverage to the minority of Americans who don't have it, Washington doesn't leave the majority who do have it - and who like what they have - with less. The next 90 days will be particularly treacherous, as Obama's campaign to remake the health system enters its final, make-or-break stretch. The President will need...
...there is also much about how Washington works that hasn't changed. LBJ once said the only way to deal with Congress is "continuously, incessantly and without interruption." To get anything really big done, a President must not only rally public opinion but also keep the legislative machinery turning despite the brakes applied by moneyed interests and public doubts. That is the hard work of governing, and it is very different from campaigning...
...late, Obama seems to have taken some pointers from Johnson. Obama estimates that he is now devoting a third of his time to working to get a health bill passed. On July 22, Obama was struck by Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein's contention in the morning paper that even an imperfect health-reform plan beats the status quo. The President circulated the column to his senior staff, Emanuel recalls, declaring, "This is required reading." And that night at his prime-time news conference, Obama repeated Pearlstein's argument. Top aides say he spends at least two hours...
...With reporting by Sophia Yan / Washington...