Obama goes back on offensive for jobs, health reform

President Barack Obama, two days after signaling retreat on a massive health care overhaul, discounted the small-bore approach Friday and pledged to press for ambitious changes despite running into "a bit of a buzz saw" of opposition.

Even as the president sought to bring the public and nervous Democrats back on board, a leading member of his party suggested Congress slow it down on health care, a sign of eroding political will in the wake of Tuesday's Republican election upset in Massachusetts.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who ushered the overhaul legislation through the Senate's health committee last year after the death of his friend, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, said Obama and lawmakers could "maybe take a breather for a month, six weeks."

"Maybe we do need to take this time. Look, it didn't work, this process," Dodd said, adding that Obama's leadership was needed to get things back on track.

The president didn't offer a specific prescription for moving forward Friday, but he did deliver a full-throated defense of his signature domestic issue, which threatens to stall in Congress after Massachusetts voters denied Democrats their filibuster-proof Senate majority.

Just a week ago, the health legislation had appeared on the cusp of passage after Obama threw himself into marathon negotiations with congressional leaders to work out differences between the House and Senate bills.

"There are things that have to get done. This is our best chance to do it. We can't keep on putting this off," Obama said Friday at a town hall meeting in Elyria, Ohio. He warned the crowd that spiraling medical costs threaten to bankrupt them and the country unless Congress acts.

"I am not going to walk away just because it's hard," the president said.

In his remarks, Obama seemed to pull back from a suggestion he made on Wednesday that lawmakers unite behind the elements of the legislation everyone can agree on. He said that approach presented problems because some of the popular ideas, such as new requirements on insurance companies, couldn't be done without getting many more people insured.

"A lot of these insurance reforms are connected to some other things we have to do to make sure that everybody has some access to coverage," he said. For example, insurers wouldn't be able to end a practice such as denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions unless more people were covered.