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With a fresh sense of urgency, President Barack Obama and Congressional Democratic leaders pressed wavering rank-and-file lawmakers to back his health care overhaul, determined to give the party something to show voters in the midterm elections.

Obama was set to head to northeast Ohio on Monday with a final sales pitch for health care legislation that the top Democratic vote-counter in the House said still lacked the necessary votes to pass. Obama’s top political adviser, David Axelrod, said he was “absolutely confident” the measure would pass during a make-or-break week that already saw the president delay his trip to Indonesia, Australia and Guam.

On Capitol Hill, the House Budget Committee was set to vote on legislation, one of the final steps in the Democrats’ more than yearlong quest to get a bill to the president. The panel posted a placeholder bill on its Web site late Sunday that said the goal is “to provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending.”

Lawmakers were expected to fill out the details, including the
overall cost.

Taking a new position, Axelrod said the White House only objects to state-specific arrangements, such as an increase in Medicaid funding for Nebraska, ridiculed as the “Cornhusker Kickback.” That’s being cut, but provisions that could affect more than one state are OK, Axelrod said.

That means deals sought by senators from Montana and Connecticut would be fine – even though Gibbs last week singled them out as items Obama wanted removed. There was resistance, however, from two committee chairman, Democratic Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, and the White House has apparently backed down.

Meanwhile, the White House tried to increase public pressure on Congress to pass the legislation. Obama planned to visit Strongsville, Ohio, home of cancer patient Natoma Canfield, who wrote the president she gave up her health insurance after it rose to $8,500 a year. Obama repeatedly has cited that letter from a self-employed cleaning worker who lives in the Cleveland suburb to illustrate the urgency of the massive overhaul.

The House GOP leader, Ohio Rep. John Boehner, acknowledged Republicans alone can’t stop the measure but pledged to do “everything we can to make it difficult for them, if not impossible, to pass the bill.” Republicans believe they may get help from Democrats facing tough re-election campaigns.