“August Is Still The Goal” – With Video

Politico:

White House budget chief Peter Orszag says that administration is still pushing Congress to pass health care legislation before leaving for the August recess.

“We want to get this done by August and we think we can,” said Orzag, on CNN’s State of The Union. “There are those that are advocating delay just as a desperation move to try and kill this.”

“The typical Washington bureaucratic game of if you don’t have a better alternative just delay in hopes that kills something is partly what’s playing out here.”

As progress on the bill has slowed over the past few weeks, moderate Democrats have begun to question the necessity of such a tight deadline.

Last week, a bipartisan group of six senators, sent a letter to Senate leadership asking for more allow more time. And when prodding Congress for a health care bill in speeches on Friday and Saturday, Obama didn’t mention the August deadline.

“I think there’s a lot of progress and discussions are quite accurate,” Orszag said.