Rising Deficit Frames Health Care Debate

Lawmakers said Sunday that President Obama must scale back ambitious plans to overhaul health care because ballooning budget deficits are undermining support for more comprehensive and costly legislation.

As the White House prepares to release worse-than-expected deficit projections this week, even Democrats in Congress said that whatever health care bill emerges this fall will have to cost less than the $1 trillion price tag contemplated earlier this year.

"It's going to have to be significantly less than what we've heard talked about," Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., one of six senators from both parties seeking a bipartisan health care bill, said on CBS' Face the Nation. "We've got to have the deficit reduced as a result of this effort. That is absolutely imperative."

Renewed criticism over the health care proposals pending in Congress comes as lawmakers hear from angry voters at town-hall-style meetings across the country during the August recess. Much of the concern has focused on the proposed government-run insurance program known as the "public option."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said last week that Obama prefers a public option but is "willing to listen" to other ideas if they encourage competition with private insurers and drive down health care costs.

Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, have said a public option will not receive bipartisan support.

Now, the health care debate is being framed by new figures expected Tuesday that will show deficits totaling $9 trillion over the next 10 years, up from the $7 trillion predicted in May, the Associated Press reported, citing White House officials. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the numbers have not been officially announced.

McCain told ABC's This Week that the high deficit "gives people pause about another trillion dollars that would have to be spent to reform health care."

Obama vows that his health care plan will not add to deficit but will lower costs for the government and families. "Without real reform, the burdens on America's families and businesses will continue to multiply," he said in his weekly address Saturday.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who often votes with Democrats, said the administration may need to delay its goal to cover most of the nation's 47 million uninsured. Subsidies to help low-income families buy coverage are the most costly part of the current bills.

"We ... would like to cover every American with health insurance," Lieberman said on CNN's State of the Union. "And I'm afraid we've got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy's out of recession."