White House: Healthcare bill 'will get there' this year

With about 25 legislative days left until Christmas, Peter Orszag, the president's budget director, was asked today whether the White House still expects delivery of a healthcare bill by year's end.

"That's the goal and I think we will get there,'' Orszag said at a conference of political, business and military leaders. "There is some distance left to go, and we will get there, but don't forget how far we have come.''

The nation cannot reduce spending outside of healthcare sufficiently to change the course of deficit spending, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget said this afternoon at the Bloomberg Washington Summit. The healthcare bills in Congress include elements to help "bend that curve,'' he maintained.

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-- Mark Silva