WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama pushed back hard against Republican critics of his health care overhaul plan Monday, vowing to fight “the politics of the moment” but also giving ground on his tight timetable for passage of legislation.

“We can’t afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care,” Obama said after meeting with doctors, nurses and other health care workers at Children’s National Medical Center. “There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake.”

Without mentioning his critic by name, the president recounted South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint’s comment that stopping Obama’s bid for health care overhaul could be the president’s “Waterloo,” a reference to the site of Napoleon’s bitter defeat.

“This isn’t about me,” Obama responded. “This isn’t about politics. It is about a health care system that is breaking American families.”

‘Politics of the moment’
Striking a more populist tone than in past remarks, the president complained that “health insurance companies and their executives have reaped windfall profits from a broken system.”

He criticized those “fighting reform on behalf of powerful special interests” and others out to put off action for “another day, another year, another decade.

“Let’s fight our way through the politics of the moment,” Obama said. “Let’s pass reform by the end of this year.”

That reflects a shift in his repeated timetable. Obama had said previously that he wanted the House and Senate to vote on legislation before lawmakers leave town for their August recess, with a comprehensive bill for him to sign in October.

Obama spoke after the chairman of the Republican Party called the president’s push for health care overhaul “socialism,” and accused him of conducting a risky experiment that will hurt the economy and force millions to drop their current coverage.

Michael Steele, in remarks at the National Press Club, also said the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and key congressional committee chairmen are part of a “cabal” that wants to implement government-run health care.

“Obama-Pelosi want to start building a colossal, closed health care system where Washington decides. Republicans want and support an open health care system where patients and doctors make the decisions,” Steele said.