President Obama will not go on his already delayed trip to Indonesia, Australia and Guam this weekend, preferring to stay in Washington to see health care through, the White House said today. 
 
 White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced that Obama will postpone the trip until June and that he phoned the leaders of those nations to express his regret but to say that the health care vote was too important to be out of town. 
 
 “The president is determined to see this battle through,” Gibbs said during the first ever press briefing held in the White House Rose Garden. 
 
 Gibbs cited the timing of the legislative process, and that the final health care bill is being posted online today, starting a 72-hour clock for public comment. That sets the vote at mid-day Sunday at the earliest, and the president had been set to leave Sunday early evening. 
 
 Obama has been having face-to-face discussions with individual wavering House Democrats to help leadership secure 216 votes needed to pass the plan. The White House and Democratic leadership haven’t said when the Senate would be expected to vote on the legislation to send it to Obama’s desk for a signature. 
 
 “This has been a long hard process,” Gibbs said. “The president believes that the House leadership wanting to talk to the full caucus and get a CBO score was the right thing to do.” 
 
 Last Friday the White House announced the trip would be delayed for the health care vote. 
 
 Reporters asked Gibbs why not just push the trip another day or so. The press secretary said the schedulers had already “pulled out what very little padding remained” and they determined it would not be fair for Obama to potentially have to cancel or delay a planned speech to the Australian parliament, among other events. 
 
 Gibbs said Australian and Indonesian leaders told administration aides they understand what Obama has been working toward with health care. 
 
 “It seemed obvious to us that the best course of business was to reschedule. We want to get this done,” Gibbs said. 
 
 Follow every development on health care at our Countdown to Reform wire. ||||| President Barack Obama has canceled two stops on his long-planned trip to Asia because of the partial government shutdown, the White House announced Wednesday. 
 
 Obama is scheduled to leave Saturday night for what was originally a four-nation tour. The White House said Obama will still travel to Indonesia and Brunei, but is calling off the final two stops in Malaysia and the Philippines. 
 
 The shutdown took effect early Tuesday after Congress missed its deadline to fund the government. 
 
 National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said that since Malaysia and the Philippines were "on the back end of the President's upcoming trip, our personnel was not yet in place and we were not able to go forward with planning." 
 
 Hayden added: "The cancellation of this trip is another consequence of the House Republicans forcing a shutdown of the government. This completely avoidable shutdown is setting back our ability to promote U.S. exports and advance U.S. leadership in the largest emerging region in the world." 
 
 The White House said Obama called Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday to inform them of his change in plans and commit to traveling to both countries later in his term. 
 
 "I empathize and understand," Najib said Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur. "If I were in his shoes, I would do the same." 
 
 In Manila, Ricky Carandang, a spokesman for Aquino, also said Obama's decision was understandable, and said the Philippines looks forward to welcoming him "at a more opportune time." 
 
 The trip is part of Obama's broader focus on boosting U.S. economic ties with Asia. Obama twice canceled trips to Asia in 2010, once to stay in Washington for votes on his health care law, and once because of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
– President Obama is postponing his already delayed overseas trip as the health care push nears crunch time. The president wants to be in town for an expected vote this weekend, probably Sunday. He phoned the leaders of Indonesia, Australia, and Guam to let them know the trip's been pushed back to June, says Robert Gibbs. "The president is determined to see this battle through," said the White House press chief. Now that preliminary CBO figures are out—the cost is pegged at $940 billion over the next decade, reports the Washington Post—the health care bill will be posted online later today. A 72-hour period for public comment would set up a vote by mid-day Sunday at the earliest, notes Talking Points Memo.