Obama takes health care show on road
 

With his message falling upon increasingly deaf ears on Capitol Hill, PresidentBarack Obama takes his last-ditchhealth care reform crusade on the road this week to try rally a skeptical public.

The risky political ploy has desperation written all over it.

Obama will speak in Philadelphia Monday and St. Louis Wednesday even as polls shows wavering public support.

Meanwhile, in Washington,Democrats worry that they may no longer have the votes in their own party to pass a bill without help fromRepublicans who are united in opposition.

The strategy now is to try and pass the Senate bill in the House by mustering Democratic votes with a promise that Senators will “fix’ the problems in the legislation down the road.

Some Democrats, however, don’t trust Senators to keep that promise.

“The Senate has given us a lot of reason not to trust them,” says Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania. “There has to be some certainty that the Senate is going to follow through on their part.”

Republicans still want to scrap the existing bills and start over. Obama is unwilling to do that so GOP opposition remains firm.

“The American people are saying to us, stop this job killing health care bill,” Senator Minority Leader Mitch McDonnell said Sunday. “We know it will drive taxes up and that will not be good to help us get out of the recession.”

 
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