WASHINGTON President Obama, facing wavering support to overhaul health care, is looking at ways to recapture momentum on his signature domestic initiative, key White House aides said Wednesday."The president is considering all of his options on how to advance the debate and get reform passed. This includes possibly laying out a more specific vision," said one administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Among other things, Obama is contemplating giving a major speech detailing what he would like to see included in health care legislation, senior adviser David Axelrod added.
It's unclear what form such a speech would take. If the president decides to give an address, he could do it from the Oval Office or before a joint session of Congress.
No decisions have been made yet, the official said.
So far, Obama has outlined broad principles for what he would like in health care legislation, but he has left most details to leaders in Congress. Now the dynamic has changed, White House aides said.
"We're entering a new season," Axelrod said. "It's time to synthesize and harmonize these strands and get this done." Watch dueling bus tours in the health care debate »
The new phase is being "driven in part by the actions of some in the GOP," including Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Mike Enzi of Wyoming, the administration official noted.
The official added the White House believes those actions indicate that these two key Republicans, who are part of a bipartisan group negotiating a health care bill, "are essentially walking away from the table."
The official also said that "now is the time to begin to pull together the various strands and solutions from the four bills that have been marked up and other proposals. ... Basically all the cards are on the table."
As momentum to overhaul health care has slowed, Obama has come under growing pressure from liberal activists and leading congressional Democrats to provide more specifics."I think the president needs to step forward," Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said this week, "be more specific, more aggressively fight for a strong health reform bill with a strong public option. I think he's going to do that."
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