Health care reform is expected to dominate U.S. headlines for another week as the latest reform push is in Congress. While varying analyses place the odds for passage of the increasingly complicated reform scheme, opposition builds on both the left and the right. President Obama has nonetheless been hard at work pushing the proposals of his party. Yet, in an attempt over the weekend to for the plan, President Obama presented the case for why the legislation he is pushing is unacceptable.
The President, in his weekly address Saturday, sought to reassure members of Congress that there would be aspects of the health insurance overhaul which would occur right away. A very real concern seems to exist among members of Congress that voting public will not experience the expected benefits of reform until sometime after this year. Knowing this, Republicans wisely selected member of Congress and former Democrat Parker Griffith to deliver their response to President Obama’s saturday address. Nonetheless, it was President Obama, in his effort to reassure wavering Democrats, who made the stronger case against the present legislation and approach.
Members of Congress are legitimately concerned with the unpopularity of the health reform bill, and have expressed worries that little of any immediate benefit will come from the legislation in time for the elections this November. To assuage such fears, President Obama in his video address Saturday emphasized the provisions of the legislation set to come into effect upon his signing the bill into law or shortly thereafter. However, the provisions stated are those which happen to be the most popular, or could pass Congress with broad bipartisan support if enacted in a bill on their own.
In other words, to sell the faulty legislation before Congress, the President of the United States listed those broadly popular provisions while strategically glossing over the expense and largesse of his reform plans long term. Behind all of the progressive rhetoric about holding private businesses accountable is the reality that this legislation will not rein in spending, and could drive prices up due to the creation of a big business monopoly. President Obama decried the abuses of private sector bureaucrats, but seems indifferent to the far more consequential government bureaucrats. By mandating that every American above 26 have health insurance, as the present proposal before Congress does, Democrats not only invalidate the claim that they are against imposing their values on others, but also establish a monopoly favoring large, entrenched insurance firms over smaller, and stifle innovation through the imposition of unnecessary new regulations in the process. President Obama in his weekly address that the bill would pay for itself. However, a bill which focused on the popular provisions he said would take effect right away and not not on increasing the role of government and its expenditures substantially would cost far less, and gather far more support.
The benefit to starting over, as some Republicans have proposed, is that it would present a clearer picture of these broad points of agreement. Simply put, if all the current legislation did was bar insurers from dropping the sick, require that coverage be available to those with preexisting conditions, and closed the Medicare “doughnut hole” alluded to in the video adress, then health care reform would pass easily and with Republicans voting with Democrats on this issue. Unfortunately, common sense was the change President Obama sought to bring with him to Washington.
Last 5 posts by James Kane
- A November to Remember - November 8th, 2010
- On hope and fear - October 18th, 2010
- Expecting Different Results - September 12th, 2010
- A glaring omission on Iraq - August 31st, 2010
- Employing a losing strategy - August 7th, 2010