Obama calls for talks with GOP on health care, then vote by Congress

February 4, 2010
CNN News

President Obama said Democratic leaders in the House and Senate were working out differences in bills already passed.

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama called Thursday for high-level talks with Republicans on a Democratic health care bill, then putting the resulting legislation to a vote in Congress.

"If Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, after all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not," Obama said. "That's how democracy works."
Obama's comments were the first clear signal from the White House or Democrats in Congress on how they would proceed on a top legislative priority after losing their 60-seat supermajority in the Senate.

Republican Scott Brown was sworn as the new U.S. senator from Massachusetts earlier Thursday, leaving the Democrats one vote shy of being able to overcome filibusters of health care reform and other major initiatives.

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