The stakes are so high and the outcome so uncertain that Obama canceled a trip to Indonesia and Australia to continue lobbying undecided lawmakers with phone calls and invitations to White House meetings. 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.
– 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.