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JAKARTA - President Barack Obama has postponed his trip to Asia until June so he can stay in Washington for a possible Sunday vote on his health care overhaul. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday the president is disappointed and regrets having to delay his visits to Indonesia and Australia but has told the leaders of those nations that health care is a crucial priority.
"The president believes right now, the place for him to be is in Washington seeing this through," Gibbs said. Obama had already delayed the trip to Indonesia and Australia, pushing back a Thursday departure until Sunday so he could help Democrats in Congress rally last-minute votes for the plan.
White House staff had tried to find a way to push the trip back another few days, but by Thursday morning, it was clear the only way the president could still travel to Australia and Indonesia was if he left early Sunday afternoon. With the House likely to hold a vote on the health care bill sometime Sunday, Gibbs said, "very little padding remained."
Obama made the final decision to delay the trip during a brief Oval Office meeting Thursday morning with top aides, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and national security adviser James Jones. Democratic lawmakers welcomed the president's decision to stay in town. Said the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, "He wants to be here for the history."
The president's trip had originally been scheduled to coincide with his daughters' spring break from school. After the first delay, the White House announced the president's family would no longer accompany him overseas and the president's trip would be shortened by a day as aides sought to tamp down criticism that he was taking a family vacation as the health care debate reached its crucial final stages.
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