Obama Delays Overseas Trip for Health Care Push

1 year ago

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President Obama is delaying his trip to Indonesia, Australia and Guam in order to stay in Washington and keep pressure on Congress to pass health care legislation, the White House announced on Friday morning.

Obama's departure has been pushed back to March 21 from March 18. He will return to Washington on March 26. Obama challenged Congress to vote before he left, but the White House, seeing the self-imposed deadline slip away as Democrats hunt for votes, decided it was better for the president to stick around for a few more days to see if he could close the deal.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said rounding up 216 Democratic votes is a "heavy lift" and having Obama in Washington is seen as crucial.

The trip was not cancelled, the White House said, because these visits are critical to U.S. national security and economic interests.

With the date changes, First Lady Michelle and daughters Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8 decided not to make the trip, which would have been the Obama daughters' first visit to Indonesia, where their father lived as a young boy with his mother and stepfather.

The original dates of travel coincided with the girls' spring vacation; I'm told by the East Wing that the changed dates -- and also the time change of almost a full day -- would not have allowed for enough recovery time for the girls before school started again.

Filed Under: The Daily FLOTUS with Lynn Sweet

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