NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Arriving in New Orleans, President Obama was all smiles on the tarmac as he greeted Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal.
But later, with Jindal in the audience, Obama chided state Republican leaders who have failed to take advantage of a provision in his health care to expand Medicaid to cover more of the working poor. He said such expansion would benefit 265,000 people in Louisiana.
“So we want to work with everybody, mayor, governor, insurance, whoever it is that wants to work with us here in Louisiana,” he said.
Even those who don’t support the overall law should be able to embrace the Medicaid expansion to help the uninsured, he added.
Don’t count on it, Jindal quickly rebutted. The governor said Louisiana had rejected the expansion because it would cost taxpayers up to $1.7 billion over a decade.
“We will not allow President Obama to bully Louisiana into accepting an expansion of Obamacare,” he said.
A day after apologizing to Americans who are losing health insurance plans despite Obama’s promise they could keep it, the president tried his hand at humor as he invoked another aspect of the health law’s wobbly launch: the error-prone HealthCare.gov website.
“I wanted to go in and fix it myself, but I don’t write code,” he said to scattered laughter.
After his speech, Obama flew to the Miami area, where he raised money for Senate Democrats and for the Democratic National Committee at a trio of high-dollar fundraisers.
Obama’s tone of bipartisanship yielded to the politics of next year’s midterm elections as he told donors gathered in a sprawling, lavish backyard that he believes Republicans blocking his agenda will eventually come around to a more moderate point of view.
But that will only happen if Democrats make clear there will be political consequences if Republicans continue obstructing, Obama said, pointing to a stalled immigration bill as a prime example.
“The only way we can continue to place pressure to get that bill done is by making sure that the other side, or at least that small faction on the other side, understands there’s a price to pay when you don’t act on the basis of the interests of the American people,” Obama said.
