As President Barack Obama begins a second term, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) offered candid observations on the president’s leadership style, noting that Obama was willing to risk his presidency to pass health care reform.

During an interview with KSNV, an NBC affiliate in Las Vegas, Reid reflected on Obama’s struggle to pass the Affordable Care Act, one of the signature accomplishments of his first term.

“That thing was dead a few times,” Reid said of the proposal, which sparked controversy from the moment it was introduced in 2009. The president said, “Harry, we’ve got to get this done. If I lose the presidency, if I’m not reelected and I get this done, that’s okay with me,” Reid said.

Obama’s commitment to health care reform, despite the political risk, was based on his belief that the U.S. shouldn’t remain the only industrialized nation without a health care plan for its people, Reid added.

But Obama’s early focus on comprehensive reforms was not without its consequences. Reid conceded that in the pursuit of a wide array of issues, the Democratic majority in Congress failed to effectively herald its accomplishments.

“We were so overwhelmed and busy trying to do things that we didn’t do a good job touting what we had done,” Reid said.

Now, Obama must contend with a second consecutive House Republican majority as he seeks to craft his legacy in a second term. Reid made it clear that Obama considers debt a serious issue, but accused Tea Party Republicans of damaging legislative productivity.

Reid said Obama’s aversion to repeated showdowns in Washington provides insight into how he might legislate over the next four years.

“He doesn’t like confrontation,” Reid said. “He does everything he can to avoid it. But you push him so far and he won’t be pushed any more than that.

“There’s just a limit to what he can put up with,” Reid added.

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  • 1912

    Former President Theodore Roosevelt champions national health insurance as he unsuccessfully tries to ride his progressive Bull Moose Party back to the White House. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

  • 1935

    President Franklin D. Roosevelt favors creating national health insurance amid the Great Depression but decides to push for Social Security first. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

  • 1942

    Roosevelt establishes wage and price controls during World War II. Businesses can’t attract workers with higher pay so they compete through added benefits, including health insurance, which grows into a workplace perk. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

  • 1945

    President Harry Truman calls on Congress to create a national insurance program for those who pay voluntary fees. The American Medical Association denounces the idea as “socialized medicine” and it goes nowhere. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

  • 1960

    John F. Kennedy makes health care a major campaign issue but as president can’t get a plan for the elderly through Congress. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

  • 1965

    President Lyndon B. Johnson’s legendary arm-twisting and a Congress dominated by his fellow Democrats lead to creation of two landmark government health programs: Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

  • 1974

    President Richard Nixon wants to require employers to cover their workers and create federal subsidies to help everyone else buy private insurance. The Watergate scandal intervenes. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

  • 1976

    President Jimmy Carter pushes a mandatory national health plan, but economic recession helps push it aside. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

  • 1986

    President Ronald Reagan signs COBRA, a requirement that employers let former workers stay on the company health plan for 18 months after leaving a job, with workers bearing the cost. (MIKE SARGENT/AFP/Getty Images)

  • 1988

    Congress expands Medicare by adding a prescription drug benefit and catastrophic care coverage. It doesn’t last long. Barraged by protests from older Americans upset about paying a tax to finance the additional coverage, Congress repeals the law the next year. (TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)

  • 1993

    President Bill Clinton puts first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in charge of developing what becomes a 1,300-page plan for universal coverage. It requires businesses to cover their workers and mandates that everyone have health insurance. The plan meets Republican opposition, divides Democrats and comes under a firestorm of lobbying from businesses and the health care industry. It dies in the Senate. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

  • 1997

    Clinton signs bipartisan legislation creating a state-federal program to provide coverage for millions of children in families of modest means whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid. (JAMAL A. WILSON/AFP/Getty Images)

  • 2003

    President George W. Bush persuades Congress to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare in a major expansion of the program for older people. (STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images)

  • 2008

    Hillary Rodham Clinton promotes a sweeping health care plan in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. She loses to Obama, who has a less comprehensive plan. (PAUL RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

  • 2009

    President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress spend an intense year ironing out legislation to require most companies to cover their workers; mandate that everyone have coverage or pay a fine; require insurance companies to accept all comers, regardless of any pre-existing conditions; and assist people who can’t afford insurance. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

  • 2010

    With no Republican support, Congress passes the measure, designed to extend health care coverage to more than 30 million uninsured people. Republican opponents scorned the law as “Obamacare.” (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

  • 2012

    On a campaign tour in the Midwest, Obama himself embraces the term “Obamacare” and says the law shows “I do care.” (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)