I don't know about you but after attending President Obama's primetime press conference tonight, you can make the argument that we still have absolutely no clue what he is willing to accept in a health care reform bill. In terms of paying for it, is he OK with taxing employee health benefits at some level and if so, what is that threshold? Is he OK with some sort of cooperative healthcare program instead of his government run public option? What about abortions as part of a health care reform bill? The list is long. What's his specific plan to hold down health care costs? I understand he wants Congress to write the bill because the President touts the fact that the Executive and the Legislative branches are co-equal but at some point are Americans going to get fed up and just say to Mr. Obama, "Mr. President, you take the lead and start mapping out what you specifically want in the bill." Yes we have broad principles. Blah, blah, blah. We've heard that a million times but what are his specific "lines in the sand" or his non-negotiables? He's not revealing his hand and that may be good beltway politics and it may work in poker but it also may leave Americans a tad confused and a little frustrated.
A couple items caught my attention tonight.
First of all, when asked if he could guarantee that the government would stay out of doctor/patient decisions he basically punted the question. In essence, while he didn't outright say no, by not saying yes, he pretty much answered the question. The perception of Government interfering in health care decisions is a HUGE problem for this White House and the President didn't give anyone reason to be less concerned.
Secondly, the President clearly seems OK with taxing the rich to raise money to pay for healthcare. He seems very open to taxing people making 500,000 or more. This shouldn't shock anybody considering he's on record saying people making over 250,000 need to carry more of the burden.
Finally, the President tried to explain why he's rushing this through but it came up hollow. Saying your setting a deadline to speed Congress up is fine but c'mon. The American people are not dumb. They understand that the longer this goes on and the more time people have to read and dissect hundreds of pages of these bills the more problems may surface and in the end torpedo health care reform. Time is not a friend to this White House. The quicker it passes the better. Also, to make the argument that enough time has been spent on healthcare because it has been debated in Congress for decades is really misleading. The debate may have been going on for a long time but these specific proposals (like a government run option, etc) have not. Plus, there are plenty of new Congressmen and Senators who haven't been in the Senate for 40 years like Ted Kennedy.
A final thought: President Obama is a smart guy. He knows the health care issue very well. Maybe too well. He likes to get into detail when explaining how the system operates. That's all fine and dandy but let's be honest. When you hold a prime time press conference and you're talking to the America people, short and sweet is the way to go. Attention spans are low. While some might like the intellectual firepower on display from this President, most Americans want quick, simple answers to long winded questions by reporters. They don't want long winded answers. Those answers may be riveting intellectually and play well at Harvard law school but after a few sentences you start losing people and confusion can set in. Health care is not an easy subject to explain. The simpler the President keeps it, the better off he'll be.