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Obama delays Asia trip to wrap up health care

BY JANET HOOK

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama agreed Friday to postpone a high-profile trip to Asia, signaling his commitment to swift action on his signature health care bill as Democrats in Congress prepared for action next week and expanded the bill's scope to include a popular student aid initiative.

The president's change of travel plans, which will delay his departure overseas from March 18 to March 21, will enable him to remain active in pushing uneasy Democrats toward final approval of his signature domestic policy initiative.

However, it underscored the possibility that Democrats might miss a self-imposed deadline that they hold the first of a series of three critical health care votes next Friday.

"We stand ready to stay as long as it takes to pass a bill," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

In a move that doubles the stakes for Obama, Democrats now are expecting to advance simultaneously another major White House priority -- Obama's drive to overhaul the federal college student-loan program and to increase spending for grants to low-income college students.

Democratic leaders have decided tentatively to add the student aid overhaul to the health care package because it generates additional budget savings and circumvents a possible obstacle in the Senate as they deploy an expedited legislative procedure known as "budget reconciliation."

The Congressional Budget Office has been working to complete its analysis of the health care bill, which Democrats are aiming to keep to a cost of less than $1 trillion over 10 years. The CBO's authoritative report on projected costs and effect is considered crucial to a small group of conservative Democrats who remain uncommitted to supporting the bill.

The move to link the health and education bills is a big boost to prospects for passing the student loan bill, which is opposed vehemently by the banking lobby and faces a filibuster threat. The reconciliation process precludes a filibuster.

Delivering victory on two top domestic priorities could help Democrats respond to critics on both the left and the right that they have done too to deliver on Obama's ambitious agenda.

The risk of linking the issues, some Democrats warn, is that it will distract from their singular focus on getting health care legislation into law and open them to criticism from Republicans that they are larding the bill with unrelated matters that have not been well considered by the Senate.

Obama's proposed overhaul of federal student aid -- which now provides loans both directly from the government and through private lenders who receive federal guarantees and interest subsidies -- calls for eliminating bank subsidies and instead having all loans be made through the government.

Advocates of that approach say it would be more efficient and less expensive, and Obama has proposed channeling most of the savings into increasing Pell Grants, which help the neediest students pay tuition.

The CBO estimates that the Obama plan would produce a net deficit reduction of about $29 billion over five years.

Private lenders have lobbied hard against the plan, arguing that it will cost jobs in their industry, give borrowers less responsive service and disrupt the delivery of financial aid in the transition. Most Republicans agree.

"It's a very bad idea," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "We now have the government running banks, insurance companies, car companies, and they do want to take over the student loan business. I'm not sure the public thinks the current debate is about that issue, and would show again the lengths they are willing to go to have the government expand its tentacles into absolutely everything."

The proposal also has met resistance from some Democrats -- including Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Evan Bayh of Indiana -- who represent states where student-loan processors and banks are big employers. Nelson and Bayh were also swing votes in health care debate whose support.

Party leaders are gambling that few if any Democrat would change their position on the health care bill because of objections to the student loan overhaul.

"Senators have a clear choice here. They can either continue to send tens of billions of dollars in wasteful subsidies to banks -- or they can start to invest that money directly in students," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who is the author of the student aid bill in the House.

Lawmakers are scheduled to break for a two-week Easter recess on March 26, by which time Democratic leaders hope to have completed work on a health overhaul. Democratic hope to begin moving forward next week with a series of committee votes that will precede a vote on the House floor on the health care bill approved by the Senate last year. Party leaders then plan to use the reconciliation process to pass a package of changes sought by House Democrats.

Early next week, Obama will also travel to Ohio for another campaign style visit to Ohio to promote the healthcare overhaul.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the president made the decision to postpone his Asia trip after Democratic congressional leaders said he could help by talking with rank and file lawmakers.

Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., viewed that as a sign of heavy pressure to come on Democratic holdouts.

"We know that they are doing everything within their power to try and twist arms and encourage people to vote for something that is extraordinarily unpopular," Dreier said.