White House: Obama Wants To Pass Bill That Meets His Principles

It was a long day of health care discussion for Democrats, and, at the end of it, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer felt it necessary to clarify President Obama's preference for the future of reform.

Posting to the White House blog at 5:45 p.m., Pfeiffer wrote a short entry:

Right now there are a lot of discussions going on about the best path forward. But let's be clear that the President's preference is to pass a bill that meets the principles he laid out months ago: more stability and security for those who have insurance, affordable coverage options for those who don't, and lower costs for families, businesses, and governments.

Earlier in the day, in an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Obama had ruled out the possibility of holding another Senate vote on reform before Republican Scott Brown is seated and signaled willingness to scale back health care reform to pass a bill that focused on its more popular elements of insurance reforms and cost containment.