At Last, Firing Back on Health Reform
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
After a listless summer during which his opponents dominated the health-care debate, President Obama used a dramatic appearance before Congress on Wednesday to seize control of the autumn, the season of decision for the initiative he has turned into the central test of his presidency.
Having avoided specifics in order to give the House and Senate room to legislate, he piled on the details, openly battling the "blizzard of charges and counter-charges," out of which, he said, "confusion has reigned."
It was a speech designed to clear the air by sweeping aside misconceptions about what he was for, reassuring senior citizens about the future of Medicare and insisting that the alternative to reform was a steady deterioration in the coverage Americans enjoy.
He also hit back hard against distortions and outright lies. "Instead of honest debate, we have seen scare tactics," Obama declared. "Too many have used this as an opportunity to score short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long-term challenge."
By joining specifics, a powerful moral argument and an unapologetic defense of government's role in promoting social justice, the president sought to rescue the health-care debate from the mire of a congressional system that has encouraged delay and obstruction. By putting himself on the line, he sought to restore his reputation for political mastery and to rekindle some of the magic he had conjured during a presidential campaign built on the expansive themes of change and hope.
He offered a robust defense of a "public option," which would give the uninsured a government-backed alternative to private coverage. But he insisted that the public option had come to play too large a role in the health-care debate, suggesting he would accept alternatives such as a "trigger," which would bring the option into being only if private insurance companies failed to provide sufficiently affordable policies.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/09/AR2009090902218_pf.html