Tonight, President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress and urge lawmakers to pass health care reform. Naturally, it will also be an occasion to address the American people and once again explain the core ingredients of the plan. All eyes will be focused on the extent to which Obama makes or does not make the case for the public option, a matter about which the White House has continually sent mixed signals.
By contrast, former Labor Secretary and Huffington Post contributor Robert Reich has been a clear and outspoken supporter of the public option and, in a video that's been bouncing around the Internet this week, Reich states the case for the public option in a very clear and succinct fashion. As many have pointed out, it takes Reich only 70 seconds to fully explain what the public option is and does. (He spend the rest of the video explaining the pernicious effects of health care lobbyists and urging the public to act.) It can be done! It will be interesting to see if Obama is capable of a similar explanation. To my mind, Reich sets the standard.
WATCH:
[via Eric Spiegelman]
PREVIOUSLY, on the HUFFINGTON POST:
Robert Reich: The Snowe Job, and Why a "Trigger" for a Public Option is Nonsense
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