Will Obama's Health-Care Reform Pitch Resonate?
September 09, 2009
FOXBusiness
When then-presidential candidate Barack Obama needed to distance himself from his controversial former pastor and clarify his views on race in America, he appealed directly to the people.
His speech righted the course of a candidacy that was threatening to come off the rails and solidified his standing as a candidate who was capable of transcending the country’s racial divide.
Wednesday night, President Obama will again look to his oratorical skills to sway public opinion when he speaks before a rare joint session of Congress on healthcare reform.
And while few can doubt the President’s skills as an orator, opinion over whether or not he can refocus the debate that turned against him this summer are decidedly mixed.
“I think the president has really abdicated leadership in this debate and this is his last opportunity to really change the direction of the debate,” said David Merritt of the Center for Health Transformation, a conservative health policy think tank founded by former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. “But if he simply tries to restate what he has already stated, he will fail.”
Merritt said pushing for one comprehensive bill to reform health care dooms the initiative to failure. Only by changing course and shooting for several pieces of smaller legislation can the president succeed.
Richard Kirsch of reform advocacy coalition Health Care for America Now disagrees, and says now is not the time for a new narrative. Kirsch, who is the national campaign manager for the coalition of 1,100 groups that includes organized labor, said he expects the President to be part policy wonk and part inspirational leader in his speech.
“I think he can absolutely succeed. He can remind the country of what’s really at stake here and respond directly to those people trying to scare us with lies and misinformation about health care reform,” Kirsch said. “We have already come further than we ever have in this country in terms of trying to get health care reform passed. Rallying the country around a final push to the end is more important than presenting any new information.”
Reports out of Washington say the President will use the session to finally put details to his plan that he has until now allowed Congress to shape. In the speech, he plans to endorse the so-called public option -- a public health-care plan that would give consumers an alternative to private insurance -- but will stop short of issuing an ultimatum on its inclusion in the final reform plan.
The public option has become the flashpoint of the health-care debate as supporters, which include many Democratic members of Congress, liberal grassroots organizations and organized labor unions, say it is the only way to curb soaring insurance costs. Opponents, including most Republican lawmakers, insurance companies and even some doctors, say it will be far too costly and add more bureaucracy to an already red-tape-laden industry.
The White House has several times clarified its position on the public option at times saying it is not essential to a healthcare package and at others saying it is the only way to achieve true reform.
The line has been drawn and rhetoric from both sides has escalated. In a brief press conference Tuesday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) both came out strongly in favor of the public option.
I believe the public option will be essential to our passing a bill in the House of Representatives,” Pelosi said. “As the president has said he believes the public option is the best way to keep the insurance companies honest.”
But in appearances on FOX News and other programs, Republican lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) have said the option has no support among the GOP. Without it, Republican lawmakers are skeptical it will pass.
“If (the President) supports the public option, I don’t believe you’ll have any Republicans voting for it,” Burton told FOX Business.
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