US President Barack Obama on Thursday postponed his trip to Indonesia and Australia until June as he attempts to push his historic health care reform bill through Congress. “We greatly regret the delay of the trip,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters, but he added the “passage of health insurance reform is of paramount importance and the president is determined to see this battle through.”
Gibbs said Obama had called Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and would later call Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to tell him he would have to put the trip off to a “later date.”
The president’s spokesman said it was now clear that a House of Representatives vote on health care reform could not now take place until Sunday afternoon at the earliest.
Obama had already delayed his departure by three days until Sunday morning in a bid to finally pilot his top domestic priority to extend health care coverage to some 32 million Americans through Congress. The president believed that his Democratic allies in the House would have enough votes to pass the legislation, Gibbs said.
“I think the president in the calls and meetings he’s having with individual leaders is making great progress,” Gibbs said, adding Obama believed his place was to be in Washington “seeing this through.” Obama had also been due to visit the US Pacific territory of Guam on the trip.
