rssObama Goes All In for Health Reform Passage
Wednesday, March 03, 2010 at 3:18 pm
- 10 Comments
If anyone doubted the willingness of the White House to stick its neck out for health care reform this year, President Obama likely put those questions to rest this afternoon. Speaking at the White House to promote his newly tweaked reform proposal, the president rejected the Republicans’ “tinker around the edges” approach, instead calling on lawmakers to hold a vote on comprehensive reform “in the next few weeks.”
“Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform,” Obama said, vowing, “I will do everything in my power to make the case for reform.”
Other highlights:
1) A Call for Reconciliation: Pointing to past legislation that has been enacted using the budget reconciliation approach — including the sweeping Bush tax cuts — Obama argued that health care reform “deserves the same kind of up or down vote.”
2) Rejection of Single Payer Health Care: Supporters of a Medicare-for-all-style system of reform have complained that such a proposal has rarely been mentioned throughout the debate. They can’t make that claim anymore, though neither will they like the attention Obama gave single-payer Wednesday. “In America,” the president said, “it would be neither practical nor realistic.”
3) Comprehensive vs. Piecemeal Reform: Republicans, behind Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), have argued that “Congress doesn’t do comprehensive well.” They’ve been pushing for Democrats to scrap their comprehensive proposal in favor of smaller, more incremental reform steps — a strategy that Obama rejected outright. “The insurance reforms rest on everybody having access to coverage,” he said. “Health reform only works if you take care of all of these problems at once.”
4) Funding: Covering 30+ million uninsured folks will cost money, Obama conceded. But the additional costs — which he estimates to be $100 billion per year — can largely be covered using funds the country already spends on health care (roughly $2.3 trillion annually). “The bottom line is [that] our proposal is paid for,” he said.
5) The Enthusiasm Factor: Liberals have been all over Obama for what many viewed as a tepid approach to health reform in the last year. He let Congress draft the bills, they say, and he hasn’t nearly used the bully pulpit to sell his message that health reform is not just a moral concern but an economic necessity. His actions in recent weeks indicate that he’s ready to get more aggressive. And his promise to do “everything in my power” to pass reform this year is sure to light a fire under at least some moderate Democrats who have been wary that they’ve been left dangling in the wind.
“I do not know how this plays out politically, but I know that it’s right,” Obama concluded. “Let’s get it done.”
Waiting now for the GOP attacks.
10 Comments
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 4:34 pm
Hopefully Obama will continue to be tough and get this thing passed so we can move on and start working on other things and I can rest easy about my Blue Cross premiums going up another 39%!
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 5:20 pm
There'll be plenty of time to tinker around the edges with this bill and plenty of need, too. But only *after* the main bill is passed.
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 5:24 pm
Go ahead and ignore the will of the people Obama, your party will suffer the wrath of the voters in November, because of your incompetence in running our country, conservatism is coming back stronger every month. We will overcome and stop this horrid slide into Marxism
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 5:58 pm
The public option polls at over 75 percent and health care reform in general is very popular. We already have socialized medicine-Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and socialized pensions for the elderly, poor, disabled, unemployed, since the 1930s. What exactly are you right wing weenies complaining about Obama for? Ike, Reagan, Bush I, Nixon, they were all there and did nothing to stop it.
Why are you all in such a hurry to go back the Robber Baron days or the depths of the Great Depression? Why is that your “good old days?”
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 7:12 pm
The only reference to your 75 percent number I could find during a search was from a poll that was taken back mid 2009. Could not find any Poll taken recently showing that. Here are links to some recent poll results
http://www.pollingreport.com/health.htm
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/…
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/…
http://www.gallup.com/poll/126191/Americans-Til…
There are plenty of other links to be had, but these sum up public opinion now not last summer.
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 9:34 pm
Hopefully Obama will continue to be tough and get this thing passed so we can move on and start working on other things and I can rest easy about my Blue Cross premiums going up another 39%!
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 10:20 pm
There'll be plenty of time to tinker around the edges with this bill and plenty of need, too. But only *after* the main bill is passed.
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 10:24 pm
Go ahead and ignore the will of the people Obama, your party will suffer the wrath of the voters in November, because of your incompetence in running our country, conservatism is coming back stronger every month. We will overcome and stop this horrid slide into Marxism
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 10:58 pm
The public option polls at over 75 percent and health care reform in general is very popular. We already have socialized medicine-Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and socialized pensions for the elderly, poor, disabled, unemployed, since the 1930s. What exactly are you right wing weenies complaining about Obama for? Ike, Reagan, Bush I, Nixon, they were all there and did nothing to stop it.
Why are you all in such a hurry to go back the Robber Baron days or the depths of the Great Depression? Why is that your “good old days?”
Comment posted March 4, 2010 @ 12:12 am
The only reference to your 75 percent number I could find during a search was from a poll that was taken back mid 2009. Could not find any Poll taken recently showing that. Here are links to some recent poll results
http://www.pollingreport.com/health.htm
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/…
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/…
http://www.gallup.com/poll/126191/Americans-Til…
There are plenty of other links to be had, but these sum up public opinion now not last summer.
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