Thursday, March 12, 2009

Obama confronts Dem skepticism on economic plans

(Yahoo).Confronting misgivings in his own party, President Barack Obama mounted a stout defense of his blueprint to overhaul the national economy Thursday, arguing that delay on health care, energy and education would make "recovery more fragile and our future less secure."

The president's wide-ranging proposals in the midst of economic crisis faced skepticism from both Democrats and Republicans, as senators questioned his long-term budget outlook and the deficits it envisions in the middle of the next decade.

Sen. Kent Conrad, the chairman of the Budget Committee called the track of future deficits "unsustainable" and singled out Obama's proposal for spending $634 billion on health care over the next 10 years.

"Some of us have a real pause about the notion of putting substantially more money into the health care system when we've already got a bloated system," said Conrad, D-N.D.

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"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" (Churchill)