Transcript: FOXNews Interviews President Obama (11-18-09) with Major Garrett

Read the transcript of Major Garrett's (FOXNews) interview of President Obama:

GARRETT: Very good. Ah, we have a lot of ground to cover, kind of a lightening round nature to this, I’ll have short questions, indulge yourself if you will in short answers. A couple on health care.

Dick Durbin said the new deadline for signing legislation is now State of the Union. Why is that delay acceptable to you? And how upset are you about it?

OBAMA: You know, I want this done as soon as possible; and, I think the American people do. We've had a long debate, but, you know, there's a reason why Health Care hasn't been reformed in forty, fifty, seventy years. It is a big, complicated piece of business. And frankly, Congress is not accustomed lately to doing big complicated pieces of business like this.

We are pushing and prodding as hard as we can. I do think that a lot of the delay has been that the Congressional Budget Office, which scores or determines how much things cost, how much they might save- they’ve been overloaded. And it's taken a lot longer for us to get that, and I think it's entirely appropriate for legislators to say we want to make sure we get final numbers on any piece of legislation before we actually vote on it

GARRETT: So the end of the year? That's going?

OBAMA: Well, no I haven’t given up on it. We're going to keep on pushing as hard as we can to make that happen.

GARRETT: Will you sign legislation on Health Care that includes the Stupak language?

OBAMA: You know, I think that there is a balance to be achieved that is consistent with the Hyde amendment - what existed before we reformed Health Care.

I believe in the basic idea that federal dollars shouldn't pay for abortions. But I also think we shouldn't restrict women's choices, so, I think there's some negotiations going on, not just on the Democratic side, but I think among people of good will on both sides, to see if we can arrive at something that meets that criteria and I'm confident we can do that.

GARRETT: Yes or no, does the Stupak language strike that balance?

OBAMA: Not yet