A Bravura Performance--Obama's Health Care Speech

President Obama did what he had to do in the speech before the Joint Session of Congress. For slightly over an hour, he walked through the details of the health care plan and reminded the audience that the effort at health care reform began with Theodore Roosevelt and has continued to this day without success. He boldly said he would the last President to deal with this issue. "We came here to make the Future."

President Obama adroitly painted the leftist position as the single-payer option and knocked it down to move on to attack the Republican positions. He noted the acrimony this debate has generated and played the adult calling on civility, despite a tough debate. He rightfully blasted the various lies being told about the death panels, socialized medicine, restricting the care for the elderly and all the rubbish that has emerged from the Republicans and their fellowers in the tea parties. He came right out and called them "lies" and promised to call out anyone who misrepresents his program. He was called a "liar" by a Republican from South Carolina for saying the health reform did not pay for illegal immigrants as the Right has argued. And he said from the podium this just wasn't true.

He covered at great length the details of the reform package and promised he would not sign a bill that added a penny to the deficit--too bad in my opinion. But he scored plenty of points calling out the unfunded programs of the Republicans such as the Iraq War, Medicare B and the tax cuts for the wealthy--these got the biggest applause lines. For the Republicans now bemoaning deficits for the first time in over a generation, Obama scored heavily on this point and his sparring with them on the whole issue of what government can and cannot do.

He had moments of great eloquence yet grounded his speech in all the particulars various groups wanted to hear about. The pieces which would hold the insurance companies accountable were welcome news to my ears and I was delighted he brought up the monpolistic practices of health insurance companies in various states with my particular favorite Alabama where Blue-Cross Blue Shield is virtually the only player. Finally, he made the explicit connection between the health insurance exchange proposition and the federal employees' program, which enlarges the risk pool and drives insurance rates down. For instance, if my wife and I bought our current program through the federal employees program it would cost for exactly the same plan one-half the cost. He reiterated the ban against prior conditions and a cap on benefits in both a year and over a lifetime. And he had to speak directly to the seniors because the Republicans have generated support in blocking health care reform by causing concerns among the seniors. He went on to point out that those very people pretending to protect seniors proposed under the Bush Administration to make Medicare a private voucher system. And of course, he emphasized that he would defend Medicare.

The most interesting parts of the speech in my mind was his defense of government and the need for government policy to create security for people who work hard over a lifetime. He cited the creation of Social Security and Medicare--two programs that lacked republican support--as great contributions to America. He painted them as bipartisan achievements even though he knows better. He went on to cite Senator Kennedy's letter released after his death saying that this year would be the year for health care reform. And he movingly defended Kennedy from accusations over liberalism saying the cause of health care reform was a moral one. Much to their obvious displeasure President Obama tied Charles Grasley, Orrin Hatch and John McCain to Senator Kennedy and linked them to several programs which might be considered liberal. His speech clearly put the monkey on the Republicans back.

He made the case that the status quo wouldn't work and is no longer working. He portrayed those resisting reform as fiscally irresponsible--I thought that was a shrewd political move. While leftwing bloggers are expressing their concern about President Obama's bipartisan overtures, I think it creates enormous pressure on them and raises greater political consequences if they don't respond positively. He was just painting them into a corner from which they can't escape.

I share the qualms the left has about his discussion of the public option. But I wonder if he did not rhetorically seem to downplay it to make it less of a red flag. He nonchalantly threw out that only 5% of Americans would choose the public option--that is a helluva lot of people. I thought he was strong in defending the public option but I think he wanted to portray it to the larger audience as something that any insurance company should be able to cope with. Remember Senator Grassley said that health insurance companies would disappear if a public option were adopted. What Obama was doing was deflating the extravagant claims being made about the public option as a rival to the status quo.

In the end, President Obama made the case not only for the urgency of health care reform but also for all the reforms he is proposing. As always, he comes off as the reasonable one. And one wonders also if the pre-emptive hysteria of conservatives and Republicans over his education speech doesn't help him out on this one. Even conservatives are admitting they jumped the gun in criticising a very sensible and inspiring speech for young people. So on such a big issue as health care reform--now that one heard the August hysteria at the townhall parties and today heard what the President believes about the subject--who are you going to believe? It must soon become apparent that the Republican and the Right have serious credibility problems.

That's my take before I heard any commentators. I do recommend as I did during the whole campaign to watch these speeches on C-Span where you are spared the nonsense of the punditocracy. It allows you to hear the speech and make up your own mind unfiltered through the rantings of the talking heads. Again a very strong performance by the President with just enough of the old spirit that got him the office.