Word: recession
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...January, President Barack Obama has made clear that he views this year as the best opportunity in decades to overhaul the nation's ailing health-care system; more recently, he has stressed that he wants the House and Senate to pass their respective bills before their monthlong August recess. That, to say the least, is not going according to plan. The Senate said on July 23 it would not make the deadline, and the House is also looking increasingly unlikely to produce a bill by then. This slows the momentum behind the President's top priority, giving opponents extra time...
...potential cost of health care reform, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada announced on Thursday that he would not meet President Obama's target of passing legislation by early August. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California backed away from the idea of cancelling the August recess. Obama tried his best to stoke a sense of urgency with a publicity campaign that included a televised press conference Wednesday evening. But caution prevailed over the orator's usual magic...
...president's deadline is more vague. "By the end of this year," Obama said after Reid's announcement, adding, "I want it done by this fall." But in Washington there is considerable worry that a month-long recess in the company of constituents worried about trillion-dollar deficits could sap whatever momentum remains for sweeping reform. Obama warned legislators not to lose their steel. "Sometimes delays in Washington occur when people just don't want to do anything that they think might be controversial. You know what? That's not how America has made progress in the past...
...while Obama presses for House and Senate passage of health legislation by the time Congress leaves town for its August recess, congressional leaders say privately that it's going to be all but impossible to meet that deadline. That in and of itself poses a new danger, which is why the White House has been so focused on hurrying along the process: a monthlong break would give opponents ample opportunity to pounce, while lawmakers are at home in their districts. "Right now, we're losing the messaging war," says Senator Chris Dodd, who, in the absence of ailing chairman...
...growing doubts. Douglas Elmendorf, head of the Congressional Budget Office, has testified that the legislation thus far has too little cost containment. Senators of both parties are trying to put the brakes on the President's drive to have bills passed by the House and Senate by the August recess. Republicans are calling it a dangerous "experiment." And even the Mayo Clinic - often cited by Obama as the model of what an efficient, high-quality health-care system should look like - is cautioning on its blog that legislation under consideration in the House "misses the opportunity to help create higher...