"If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo...it will break him."

President Barack Obama slaps back at health care critics at hospital
BY Michael Mcauliff
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Tuesday, July 21st 2009, 1:47 AM

Applewhite/AP
President Barack Obama talks about his plan for health care reform following a roundtable discussion with health care providers Monday.

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WASHINGTON - President Obama opened fire at "political" opponents of health care reform Monday, ripping a Republican senator who predicted the commander in chief is facing his "Waterloo."

Speaking to conservatives late last week, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) declared if conservatives can stall until Congress goes on vacation for most of August, health care reform - and Obama - will be dead in the water.

"If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo," DeMint said. "It will break him."

Obama recycled that line Monday at a Washington children's hospital, holding it up as an example of opponents putting partisanship before public health.

"This isn't about me. This isn't about politics," Obama said. "This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses and breaking America's economy."

Republicans say the health care proposals working through Congress will raise taxes on small businesses, kill jobs and create a government-run, rationed medical system.

Obama argues exactly the opposite and claims the system is already rationing care, killing jobs and hurting business.

"Over the past decade, premiums have doubled in America; out-of-pocket costs have shot up by a third; deductibles have continued to climb," he said, adding that it's "special interests" like insurance companies and executives that "have reaped windfall profits."

The escalating rhetoric came as an ABC News/Washington Post poll found the country getting worried about health reform, with just 49% trusting Obama on the issue. That's down from an earlier high of 57%.

Obama himself remains popular, with a 59% approval rating.

But Republicans smell blood in the health care waters, and DeMint was quick to fire back at Obama, linking his health care push to the economic stimulus, which is becoming less and less popular.

"The last time the President made grand promises and demanded passage of a bill before it could be reviewed, we ended up with the colossal stimulus failure and unemployment near 10%," DeMint said.

"Now the President wants Americans to trust him again, but he can't back up the utopian promises he's making," DeMint added, contending the GOP just wants to go slow to get it right.

"There is no one in this debate advocating that we do nothing despite the President's constant straw man arguments," he said.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele echoed DeMint, but declined to say if there was a moral component to covering 46 million uninsured Americans, suggesting it is about politics.

"I don't know if that's a consideration for politicians, versus a pastor," Steele said. "What I do know is that it is important and imperative that the politicians, the political leadership, get it right."

The House of Representatives has released its version of the plan, but the Senate has only done half of its - with the half that pays for reform still on the operating table of the Senate Finance Committee.

With time running short, the White House has softened its position that health care must be done before Congress goes on vacation next month.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said it can still get done by then, and Obama put some teeth in that. "We can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care," he said. "Not this time. Not now."

mmcauliff@nydailynews.com