Back in the White House after a week overseas, US President Barack Obama pressed Democratic leaders to pass healthcare legislation in both houses of Congress before next month and expressed confidence about the ultimate outcome for his top domestic priority.
“Don’t bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen,” a defiant president said, eager to impart fresh momentum after days of delays in the House of Representatives and Senate.
Obama delivered his full-throated promise in a Rose Garden appearance to announce his surgeon general nominee. Later, he met privately with Democratic congressional leaders crucial to the legislation — as well as conservative Democrats who have misgivings.
The leadership’s ambitious timetable for floor votes this summer has slipped.
Unlike other developed countries, the US lacks universal healthcare.
“There was a strong agreement by everyone in the room that we can get a bill done before the start of the August recess,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“Senator Reid intends to take a bill to the floor as quickly as possible,” he said.
That was short of a commitment and left unanswered how quickly the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Democratic Senator Max Baucus, would act — or whether the leadership and White House would step in.
“The urgency barometer is going up,” Baucus said following the White House meeting.
He and a group of senators from both parties are meeting throughout the week to try to finalize a compromise bill, but they have set no deadline.
House Democrats said they were nearly ready to unveil comprehensive legislation and push it through three committees in the coming days. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the full House would act by the end of this month.
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
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