2
Sep
2009
Honorable About Face on Health Care?
What is the president going to say next week in his joint session of Congress to salvage his health care reform legislation? He’s expected to royally anger the left wing of his party by announcing that he’ll ask Congress to abandon the public option. But is that really going to rally the rest of the nation behind it? Doubtful.
Perhaps the effectiveness of next week’s address will be found in an unexpected about face. Wouldn’t it really be a “game on!” situation if President Obama said, “I don’t care that Middle America doesn’t trust me; I don’t care that independents and moderates are sorry they voted for me. I believe that every single person living in this country – legally or illegally – is entitled to government-funded health care. And that’s why I’m directing Congress to ram through not only a public plan but something as close to single payer as we can possibly get away with.”
The Democrats would never get something so radical enacted. Obama would be a one-term president for sure. Republicans would dominate in the 2010 and 2012 elections. But at least the country would finally have a president with chutzpah enough to admit publicly what most of us already know he truly wants and let the chips fall where they may. That kind of about face might be his most honorable act since entering national public life.