Posted on 09/09/2009 10:38:34 AM PDT by jazusamo
President Barack Obama plans to give a strong endorsement of a public option – or government health-insurance plan – in his remarks to Congress on Wednesday night but will stop short of an ultimatum, leaving wiggle room for negotiation as the bill moves through Congress, according to sources familiar with his remarks.
In a speech meant to reset debate on the centerpiece of his first-term agenda, Obama can be expected to use language similar to his Labor Day remarks in Cincinnati, where he said: “I continue to believe that a public option within that basket of insurance choices will help improve quality and bring down costs."
Anxious to navigate treacherous divides in the Senate, the president will stop short of drawing a line in the sand, as many liberal House Democrats want. He will not demand that a public option must be in any reform bill he signs, the sources said.
Reaching out to Republicans and independents, the president will acknowledge a problem with medical malpractice litigation, suggesting that topic can be included in the debate on an overall reform package.
Obama’s speech will kick off a series of high-profile White House health-care activities, including a presidential rally for health care Saturday in the Midwest.
At the speech, first lady Michelle Obama will be accompanied by ordinary Americans who have suffered from the high cost of health care. The president can be expected to reference some of them in his speech.
Acknowledging a flawed opening strategy, Obama told ABC’s Robin Roberts in an interview aired on “Good Morning America”: “I, out of an effort to give Congress the ability to do their thing and not step on their toes, probably left too much ambiguity out there, which allowed then opponents of reform to come in and to fill up the airwaves with a lot of nonsense ….
“So, the intent of the speech .. is to … make sure that the American people are clear exactly what it is that we are proposing … to make sure that Democrats and Republicans understand that I'm open to new ideas, that we're not being rigid and ideological about this thing, but we do intend to get something done this year. And … to dispel some of the myths and, frankly, silliness that's been floating out there for quite some time.”
Aides say Obama thinks it would be hard to get to true choice and competition without a public option or a fallback to a public option — such as the so-called trigger, which would kick in based on the insurance market.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told NBC’s Meredith Vieira on “Today”: “There can be no reform without adequate choice and competition that allows people to be able to pick and have options. That’s certainly what he’ll say tonight. … The president will outline what he thinks the value of the public option is and why we have to have choice and competition.”
But White House officials privately say they know they don't have the votes in the Senate for a public option. It is clear Obama will gladly compromise on this point, hence the loose language in the speech, allowing for future horse trading.
In a break for the White House, the American Medical Association is endorsing Obama-style health reform, in an “Open Letter to President Obama and Members of Congress,” signed by President J. James Rohback, M.D.
“On behalf of America’s physicians and their patients, we strongly urge you to reach agreement this year on health system reforms,” Rohback writes. “[T]hose who are currently insured, including Medicare patients and those who are uninsured will all benefit from greater security and stability. … We reaffirm our commitment to work with each of you to adopt and implement health system reforms that will benefit all Americans.”
That could undermine Republicans’ plan to have their response, to be aired on all three networks, delivered by a physician. The GOP chose Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, a cardiothoracic surgeon, who said in a statement Tuesday: "As a doctor, I know we must lower costs and improve care, which we can accomplish by focusing on strengthening the doctor-patient relationship and working in a bipartisan way."
The top two Republican leaders -- Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rep. John Boehner of Ohio -- will hold an availability at lunchtime welcoming Obama to the Capitol.
McConnell said yesterday: “At this point, there really should be no doubt where the American people stand: the status quo is not acceptable, but neither are any of the proposals we’ve seen from the White House or Democrats in Congress.”
Dan Pfeiffer, the White House deputy communications director, said: “When the President is done tonight, everyone who listens will understand that his plan has at its core two overriding goals—to bring stability and security to Americans who have insurance today, and affordable coverage to those who don’t. And his plan will bring reforms that will reduce the unsustainable growth in the cost of health care, which has doubled in the last decade and will again, unless we act.”
The White House put on a full-court media press. Gibbs was on all the network and cable morning shows except “Good Morning America,” which had the Obama interview.
White House aides Valerie Jarrett, Melody Barnes, Anita Dunn and Linda Douglass are booked on cable throughout the day. White House senior adviser David Axelrod will tape interviews with the three network evening news anchors.
After the speech, Jarrett and Axelrod will return to the airwaves. And as part of the White House new-media strategy, Communications Director Anita Dunn will go on www.whitehouse.gov right afterward to engage with online viewers through a live video chat, responding to reactions and questions received via Facebook and Twitter.
He’s damned either way he goes. If he goes for what he really wants the Republicans and Blue Dogs and probably others will turn on him. If he goes for what he thinks he can comfortably get, the lefties will turn on him like starving jackals.
It’s his own fault. He doesn’t know how to lead and he hasn’t set up a feasible plan to create a compromise without having all the backlash fall solely on himself.
As they critique it, those who value liberty must keep that fact uppermost in their minds. Else, they will get lost in the technicalities and "issues" of parsing phrases.
The big picture is individual liberty and prosperity for future generations through constitutionally limited power granted to government versus collective subservience to coercive control (tyranny) by government. The first is the successful and authentic idea of America's Founders, and the second is a counterfeit idea which has been tried and has always failed to make the lives of people better.
By his own claim in a campaign speech, "words matter." We must remember that "words" are only vehicles that carry ideas, and even the chosen exercise in semantics being thrown around gives the clue. What is the role of a trigger on a weapon? It is certainly not to cause the weapon not to fire! What a stupid choice of words.
If a person is intent on taking his cargo from Point A to Point B, and finds there are such obstacles to traveling by airplane that he decides, for expediency's sake, to take it by bus instead, except for the time involved, there is no difference in outcome. The cargo still goes from Point A to Point B. Changing the mode of transportation didn't change that fact.
Changing the semantics of the mode of getting the billions (trillions) of dollars involved in health care in America under the control of powerful "people controllers" in Washington, D. C., will not change the outcome and consequences. It will only serve to delay the onset of those consequences.
Calling the vehicle a "public option," a "trigger," a "cooperative," or by any other word should not confuse Americans about the cargo's eventual fate. The Far Left wants to transfer this large percentage of the American economy to the control of the state. Congress, the Senate, and the Administration need to be told "no" in no uncertain terms.
Changing the description is just an exercise in semantics. The destination already has been made clear, and it's not in the direction of liberty.
I don’t believe President Obama cares one way or another if the public supports his vision for America. He is only interested in imposing his will on the American public. It is sad and depressing that a sitting President of the United States is behaving the way President Obama is.
I believe you’re right. He’s finding out the more he tries to snow the people the harder it is to succeed.
I already have tears in my eyes...../s
BTTT!
No in 520 Languages
this public option is a farce...whipsaw back and forth..yes it is ia requirement..no it’s not.
Just vote on the bill already and let the chips fall.
There is suppose to be a Nine Nine Nine site about harry reid..but still isn’t up.
I bet harry reid has been going to that Nine NIne site everyday...lolol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2tG3eFhh68
Wow, so talk which is being puished as clear, definitive and specific will first and foremost, hedge?!
TOTUS must still be on vacation.
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