American anger at the cost of propping up the US economy will not force President Barack Obama to row back on his ambitious health care reform plans, officials said yesterday.
On the defensive after Saturday saw the first big anti-Obama protests since he became President in January, the White House conceded that Americans were angry, but said it was mostly about big spending.
"I think people are upset because on Monday (today) we celebrate the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse that caused a financial catastrophe unlike anything we've ever seen," said spokesman Robert Gibbs.
"We've had to do some extraordinary things... to rescue the financial system, to ensure that our domestic auto industry didn't go out of business, and to stimulate the economy. That certainly cost a lot of money, but it's something that we had to do."
Mr Gibbs insisted Mr Obama, who is to deliver a major speech on the economy in New York today, would not be deflected from his top domestic priority of overhauling the broken health care system.
"I think what the American people want most of all... is for Washington to put aside the game playing and start to begin to solve the very big problems that our country faces," he told CNN television.
"I know that's what the President believes he was elected to do. And I think it would be a good start to deal with health care." Mr Obama has vowed to pass legislation by the end of the year that would spread coverage to America's 46 million uninsured by making insurance obligatory and affordable for all.
Republicans jump on the $900-billion price tag, which Mr Obama claims he could make up in savings, and stoke fears that a mooted public option would lead to a federal takeover of health care - anathema to many Americans who abhor the idea of big government.
Despite broad Republican opposition, a compromise Bill is being hammered out by a bipartisan team from the Senate finance committee and is expected to be finalised in days. "I believe all of us want to see a bipartisan Bill," said Republican senator Susan Collins, who welcomed Mr Obama's Congress speech but said nothing had fundamentally shifted in the debate.
"I don't know that the speech really changed the dynamic, but I was glad that the President has followed up with some individual meetings and bringing people together," she told CNN.
Mr Obama has been criticised for waiting too long to go on the offensive, allowing Republicans to dominate the airwaves as they seek to defeat his flagship reforms and cripple his young presidency.
As well as his $787-billion stimulus plan, Mr Obama invested hundreds of billions of dollars bailing out the indebted financial sector, unveiled mortgage rescue plans and took steps to loosen the flow of credit. Aides said the President would refocus attention and issue a call for action on financial, regulatory and structural problems still dogging the slowly reviving economy.
Officials predict a possible return to economic growth in the United States in the third quarter this year, a moment that would mark a political milestone for the administration.
Mr Obama's New York address comes a week before he hosts the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, where global economic powers will try to agree a strategy to head off future financial crises.