President Barack Obama defended his fiscal year 2010 budget proposal in a meeting Tuesday with Congressional budget committee leaders, saying it makes hard choices but will build health reform to ease the burden on businesses, budgets and families.
The president is calling healthcare reform "one of the investments that will lead to real growth and real prosperity."
According to the White House, Obama told Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.) that his budget "will bring discretionary spending for domestic programs as a share of the economy to its lowest level in nearly half a century" over the next decade. The president said his budget doesn't try to solve every problem, but it doesn't walk away from crucial investments that will ensure a strong economy.
"Because these are no ordinary times, I don't just view this budget document as numbers on a page or a laundry list of programs," he said. "I see it as a economic blueprint for our future – a foundation on which to build a recovery that lasts."
In his budget proposal to Congress last month, Obama asked Congress for $76.8 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services for fiscal year 2010. Some of the funding would come from changes to the way healthcare is provided, with a new emphasis on pay-for-performance for Medicare providers.
Under the president's budget request, Medicare Advantage would be revamped, physicians and hospitals could expect to be paid for performance under Medicare, pharmaceutical companies would face steeper competition from generic drug companies and the government would clamp down on inadvertent and fraudulent overpayments under Medicare. The budget also calls for "comprehensive, but fiscally responsible" reforms to the physician payment formula, moving toward rewarding doctors for efficient quality care.
Obama said he hopes to engage in "a healthy debate going forward" on the budget, and will soon deliver more numbers to Congress that will make the discussion "even tougher" going forward.
He encouraged proposals and improvements from both Democrats and Republicans, but alluded to his impatience with partisan deadlocks.
"If certain aspects of this budget people don't think work, provide us some ideas in terms of what you do," he said. "'Just say no' is the right advice to give your teenagers about drugs. It is not an acceptable response to whatever economic policy is proposed by the other party."
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that senior members of the Obama administration are pressing lawmakers to use a shortcut to move the president's healthcare plans through Congress without Republican votes.
With the use of a "budget reconciliation," Obama could roll his healthcare proposals into a bill that can't be filibustered, requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass, rather than 60. The Senate has 58 Democrat seats in the current Congress.
According to The Washington Post, administration officials said they have not decided whether to use a budget reconciliation. Republicans are outraged at the possibility and some Democrat lawmakers are concerned the move would taint Obama's pledge to restore bipartisan politics to Washington.
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