Obama Brings Passion to Health Care Reform

After months of missed opportunities, tense town hall meetings, and an American public with too little information on what a health care overhaul would look like, President Obama today brought the freshly finished plan from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus straight to the people.

The President has accomplished a media grab that will confound his opponents for weeks.

Just as chances for significant health care reform were flat lining and Obama could not get a break, the White House announced upcoming speeches on the economy.

The news was all economic as President Obama lulled the media into coverage of his speech on the anniversary of the Lehman bankruptcy and the ailing economy. At the same time, the Senate Finance Committee finished a health care plan, outlined with force by none other than President Barack Obama in a speech to labor unions in Ohio on Tuesday.

This is the speech the public has been waiting for. Speaking Tuesday, Obama's tone brought the passion, commitment, and force of the campaign trail to health care legislation. That is not to say that Obama has not tried, but with legislation now tangible, the discussion is finally real.

Granted, President Obama was talking to the base, so the audience was receptive, and vocally so. But the milestone is significant still: Obama has legislation he will champion. He will bring the energy and power he showed voters on the stump to this health care legislation.

Obama talked about the public option, clarifying it, but not tying himself to it. "Let me be clear. ... This would just be an option. No one would be forced to choose it," the President said. He went on to explain that the public option would offer more choices, and put pressure on private insurers to make policies better. This furthers the soft implication of last week's address to Congress, when he offered support for the public option, but did not make it a centerpiece of his message. The message appears to be that House and Senate Democrats can negotiate the public option. But Obama is not holding out for it, and he won't let the issue bring the legislation down.

The speech is not an endpoint but a starting point. This weekend, the President will do the Sunday hat trick (Face the Nation, Meet the Press, and This Week with George Stephanopoulos, plus interviews for CNN and Univision). On Monday, he will be appearing on Letterman.

During the campaign, Obama was often criticized for not reacting quickly enough to his opponents, from Senator Clinton to Senator McCain. Then, as now, he chose to pull his punches and wait until the time was right. Then, as now, the strategy appears to have worked.

Comments

[exmate]

When are we going to look at the French model for health care? The World Health Organization has ranked French health care # 1 (USA # 37) because the: French doctors, health Insurance companies and the French people themselves all like it. Life expectancy, infant mortality, unecessary deaths , and unnecessary hospitalizations are all better than elsewhere. All that at a per capita cost 1/2 of that of the USA. Who says we cannot afford health care reform? If the French can do it, so can we. In our own country the goverment runs the VA health care system and Medicare both of which are liked by their participants. Who says the goverment cannot do as well as private enterprise?

[Awake-and-Sing]

A speech is just words.

This President has to be judged by his actions. When the windy rhetoric has blown away, the words and actions of this President tell us that he already sold out his campaign promises on health care just as he backstabbed the gay community on DADT and DOMA.

The Obamaniacs are in reverie over a speech. But a speech is just words. He didn't even draw a line in the sand for a robust public option in name.

Don't be fooled by a good speech. I almost expected the President to launch into song, "We've got trouble, right here in river city..."

[mdial75]

If there is no public option to balance the individual mandate, the Green party candidates will receive my energy and donations in the next election cycles.

[JiminNC]

Does every teabagger you know have these numbers? I think the insurance lobbies forgot to include them in the Pravda talking points - must have been an oversight:
----------­----------­----
$156,000,000 (156 BILLION) has been doled out in research grants by the NIH since 1999. These grants go to Higher Education, Research Institutes, Independent Hospital, Domestic Non-Profits, and Domestic FOR-PROFITS. We (including you terribly angry taxpayers) have paid a significant portion of the cost for every major advance, every new drug and every doctor’s education in the system. Interestingly enough, this number ramps up after Bush takes office, nearly doubling from 1999 to 2008. Meanwhile, these companies are socializing risk and privatizing profit. They would not have the drugs and technologies to sell us without our money up front.

http://report.nih.gov/funded_organizations/index.aspx NIH

Taxpayers' medical research grants to Domestic FOR PROFIT organizations:
5.892 Billion Dollars

Taxpayers' medical research grants to Research Institutes:
14.9 Billion Dollars

Taxpayers' medical research grants to Higher Education:
119 BILLION Dollars

Healthcare is a Human Right

[robbep]

Have you read the bill? It is horrible and hopefully it wont be passed into law. Obama has botched this so badly and now just wants to sign something to say he did something. Forcing working people and taxpayors to buy healthcare from insurance companies is not reform it is extortion. I dont care how eloquent Obama is on the subject his healthcare reform is an assault on working families.

[Moose49]

I generally agree with everything you write about President Obama, but Max Baucus? He has been an utter disaster, needlessly delaying the process for months, negotiating with clowns who were never going to back health care reform, and ultimately producing a bill that no one likes -- legislation without a public option to hold down costs and keep the insurance companies honest, and without enough subsidies to make health insurance premiums affordable for tens of millions of those who will now be required to purchase it.