Damn, it took a whole month, dropping of poll numbers, vagueness, confusion, miscommunication and out right lies for President Obama to finally say what he wants in the health care bill.
I want to get excited, but right now I am non-chalant. I want health care reform and know that it is needed but I expected the President and Democrats to perform, better yet, EXPLAIN to the American Public why this issue is crucial and needed. That has not happened.
I am glad that President Obama is finally saying something, but this is not how you communicate to the American Public about an issue that is crucial and dear to you, as President Obama has repeated during the campaign.
Well, we ceded the whole month of August to the GOP and their operatives. Hats off, they did a hell of a job in confusing the whole country and scaring the elderly to death. Yes, the elderly in recent polling do not trust Obama's health care reform, probably because they as me don't know what he wants.
And the public option? Sounds like a bunch of mumbo, jumbo to me, in other words he is not totally committed to it (from what I read) and don't expect to hear that absolute from him.
He will insist upon a mechanism to cut costs and increase competition among insurance companies -- and perhaps will even specify a percentage rate -- and he will say that his preferred mechanism remains a government-subsidized public health insurance option, but he will remain agnostic about whether the plan must include a robust public option. Officials won't say whether the president intends to endorse a specific "trigger" mechanism if the competition mechanism fails, but they say he will make it clear that the final bill must contain language that increases competition.
What does that mean? I really hope President Obama comes out in lay man's speak about what he wants in the health care reform bill, not that Washington, D.C., professorial speak. If he does, the regular joes and josettas will walk on by and not pay attention.
Lastly, I agree with Jed over @ Daily Kos:
Purely in political terms, if the White House's goal is to generate enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that sort of approach won't cut it. If they want to excite the base -- and as kos showed earlier, they need to -- then they will need to come out more strongly for a public option, because it is the only mechanism that anybody has proposed that will meet his stated objectives.
Yes, if President Obama comes out with that approach, many will just WALK ON BY. I don't know what is wrong with this White House, are the Obama Adminstration so caught up in D.C. and the bubble that they don't get it? Continuing like this will not help much.
But who am I? I am just an activist that worked her ass off for this campaign to see this shit happen.
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