Axelrod: Obama won't walk away from reform
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama will not abandon healthcare reform efforts despite the Massachsetts Senate election of a Republican critic, a top aide said Sunday.
David Axelrod, the chief political adviser to Obama, said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that even though GOP candidate Scott Brown last week won a special election to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Edward Kennedy while vowing to derail healthcare reform efforts, the American people nevertheless want to see reforms.
"The president will not walk away from the American people, will not hand them over to the tender mercies of health insurance companies who take advantage," Axelrod said. "He will not walk away from people with pre-existing conditions. He will not walk away from senior citizens in Medicare."
Axelrod attributed Brown's election partly to allowing "insurance industry propaganda, the propaganda of the opponents" to define what the healthcare reforms are about.
But, he asserted, "the underlying elements of (the Democrats' reforms) are popular and important. And people will never know what's in that bill until we pass it, the president signs it, and they have a whole range of new protections they never had before."
McConnell: Obama needs new direction
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says President Barack Obama needs to "change direction" in his State of the Union speech.
Speaking Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," McConnell said the election of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown in Massachusetts shows that "the American people are saying we want to go in a different direction."
McConnell said he and other Republicans hope "the president will get the message and change direction and we'll get to see that next Wednesday night."
The GOP leader said the Obama administration hasn't "made much progress. We passed a budget that doubles the national debt in five years and triples it in ten, tried to pass energy taxes, tried to pass healthcare taxes.
"What I hope we're going to hear from the president next Wednesday night so an indication that he would like to go in a different direction."
Durbin: Won't start over on healthcare
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Congressional Democrats won't start over with healthcare reform in the wake of a political setback, a senior lawmaker said Sunday.
Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" that while Democrats are "considering our strategy" on mustering enough votes to pass a healthcare reform package in the face of a stinging defeat in last week's special election to fill the Senate seat of the late Edward Kennedy, they're not going to start from scratch as demanded by Republican critics.
"For those who say, start over, let's start at the beginning, let's do a little bit, let's maybe do nothing, some say, I would just tell them, if we do nothing, the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted in seven years. The plan we have before the Senate would extend the life of Medicare for nine more years."
Durbin also rejected assertions that Republicans have been shut out of the process of crafting the healthcare bill.
"We have kept door open," he said. "We waited for months in the hopes of bringing across three Republican senators who expressed an early interest."
No deals in Netanyahu-Mitchell meeting
JERUSALEM, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reported no breakthroughs on resuming Palestinian peace talks after a Sunday meeting with a U.S. envoy.
Netanyahu met for three hours Sunday in Jerusalem with U.S. special Mideast envoy George Mitchell, and told his Cabinet afterward that while Mitchell presented "new and interesting ideas" on resuming the stalled talks, he said Palestinian negotiators must also "express a similar interest in them, for the sake of all those who seek reconciliation in our region," Ynetnews.com reported.
Netanyahu's comments came two days after Mitchell apparently failed to convince Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas back to resumed peace talks.
Israeli Vice Premier Silvan Shalom said earlier Sunday that the Palestinians had come up with "an invention of their own" in not agreeing to negotiations but rather demanding concessions. Shalom told The Jerusalem Post that Israel would make no more such concessions.
Mitchell's meeting with Netanyahu came after a Saturday night encounter with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the latter's Tel Aviv home. A Barak aide told Ynetnews.com after the meeting, "A deadlock (in the negotiations) will lead to another round of violence that will serve (Palestinian militant group) Hamas."
