Obama postpones overseas trip again

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs made the announcement
Thursday at the White House.

“Very clearly the president wants to get this done,” Gibbs
said. “I think any member who’s spoken to him wouldn’t doubt his strong desire
to see this through.”

Obama has been under pressure from Democrats to delay his
trip because of the healthcare debate. The House could vote on a legislative
package on Sunday, setting up final action in the Senate.

{mosads}Obama has been furiously lobbying undecided lawmakers on the
issue, but Democrats still appear to be short the 216 votes they need to clear
their package through the House. Democrats have been wary of having their
president out of the country during any of the critical last hours of the healthcare
debate.

Gibbs said the White House focus “was most immediately on the vote in the House,” but added that it obviously helped to have Obama in Washington for the Senate proceedings.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) suggested Obama’s decision was more about wanting to remain in Washington for the Senate than needing to pull the House across the finish
line on Sunday.

“This is historical,” Pelosi said.  I’m sure he wants to be here for the history.”

Gibbs said the White House scheduling office worked
throughout the night Wednesday looking at different options for delaying the
trip.

But Gibbs said it became obvious to administration officials that postponing
the trip was the only option given the healthcare debate.

Obama had previously delayed the planned trip to Indonesia,
Australia and Guam by three days. He initially was to leave on Thursday, but
delayed the trip to Sunday.

Earlier on
Thursday morning, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he did
not think Obama’s physical presence was needed to help
Democrats lock down the last of their undecided members.

He also said he didn’t think Obama needed to stay in Washington to sign the
reconciliation bill — a procedural step that has to occur before the
Senate can consider that legislation.

“I think the president’s presence helps,” Hoyer said.  “But
needed?  I think the president’s been talking to people, he’s been
working.  And the miracle of communication today is that you can dial
your cell phone anywhere in the world.”

“They’ll get the bill to him within 12 hours,” Hoyer said.  “He’ll sign it anywhere he wants.”

The decision came as Obama and Democrats in Congress touted
a score of the healthcare package by the non-partisan Congressional Budget
Office.

CBO told lawmakers that the health package would cost $940
billion over the next decade, reducing the deficit by $130 billion. It will
reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion in the second decade of the plan’s
implementation, according to those who have seen the score.

That’s a larger deficit reduction than the healthcare measures passed by both
the House and the Senate last year, though the CBO said the current bill would
spend more than those bills.

“That makes this the most significant effort to reduce the
deficit since the balanced budget act of the 1990s,” Obama said in Thursday
morning comments, before the announcement of the delayed trip.

House leaders are planning for a Sunday vote on the
legislation, though that timeframe was originally put in place partly to accommodate
Obama, who was to have left the country on Sunday.

This story was updated at 1:29 p.m.