Obama postpones Asia trip to focus on health care

Washington | Fri, 03/19/2010 7:25 AM

President Barack Obama has postponed his trip to Asia until June so he can stay in Washington for a possible Sunday vote on his health care overhaul.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday the president is disappointed and regrets having to delay his visits to Indonesia and Australia but has told the leaders of those nations that health care is a crucial priority.

"The president believes right now, the place for him to be is in Washington seeing this through," Gibbs said.

Obama had already delayed the trip to Indonesia and Australia, pushing back a Thursday departure until Sunday so he could help Democrats in Congress rally last-minute votes for the plan.

White House staff had tried to find a way to push the trip back another few days, but by Thursday morning, it was clear the only way the president could still travel to Australia and Indonesia was if he left early Sunday afternoon. With the House likely to hold a vote on the health care bill sometime Sunday, Gibbs said, "very little padding remained."

Obama made the final decision to delay the trip during a brief Oval Office meeting Thursday morning with top aides, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and national security adviser James Jones.

House Democrats believe they are on track to vote Sunday on a $940 billion health care bill that will expand coverage to millions. If the bill passes, the Senate will begin considering changes to the bill next week.

Democratic lawmakers welcomed the president's decision to stay in town.

Said the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, "He wants to be here for the history."

"He may have to twist some arms," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat. "He may have to talk to some people. His personal presence helps."

The president's trip had originally been scheduled to coincide with his daughters' spring break from school. After the first delay, the White House announced the president's family would no longer accompany him overseas and the president's trip would be shortened by a day as aides sought to tamp down criticism that he was taking a family vacation as the health care debate reached its crucial final stages.

The trip to Indonesia was to be a homecoming of sorts for the president, who spent four years in the world's largest Muslim country as a boy when his mother married an Indonesian man. A statue of Obama as a 10-year-old boy has been erected at the elementary school he attended.

Obama also had been scheduled to deliver his first address to the Muslim world since his historic speech in Cairo last year and had been scheduled to meet with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Obama was to address Australia's parliament and meet with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, with whom he shares a close relationship on the issues of climate change and the war in Afghanistan.

Rudd spoke with Obama early Friday morning Australian time, and said the president told him he was looking forward to having "a more relaxed visit" to Australia in June, rather than the 24-hour stop that had been planned for next week. Rudd, who has had his own issues with a problematic Senate, told Obama he sympathizes with his battle over health care reform.

Other U.S. officials have dropped plans to visit Australia and Indonesia this year. Defense Secretary Robert Gates canceled visits to both Australia and Indonesia in January, so that he could remain in Washington for coordination of the U.S. military response to the earthquake in Haiti. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton canceled a trip to Australia at the same time, also because of the earthquake.

Gates and Clinton had planned to attend an annual summit with their Australian counterparts that is a diplomatic priority for Australia, a close ally and a steadfast troop contributor to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the time of the cancellations, Gates and Clinton said the Australia summit would be rescheduled.