ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats stand within days if not hours of striking final deals on historic health care legislation after key labor unions won concessions and pledged their support.
“We are on the doorstep of accomplishing something that Washington has been talking about since Teddy Roosevelt was president, and that is reforming health care and health insurance here in America,” Obama told rank-and-file House Democrats on Thursday during a visit to the Capitol complex.
As he spoke, heads of the nation’s leading labor unions were announcing a deal to resolve a highly contentious dispute over Obama’s desire to tax high-cost insurance plans to help pay for the health legislation. Unions had objected strongly, saying union workers ultimately would pay the 40 percent levy, and House Democrats backed the unions. But labor bowed to the White House demands after extracting agreements that would significantly soften the blow of the tax.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said that, assuming the deal and other labor priorities hold, labor will be behind the final bill.