Now six months in office, President Barack Obama remains almost as popular as ever, but when it comes to his administration’s economic initiatives, from the stimulus package to Wall Street bailouts, not so much.
Wednesday night, following several days of a full court press on the need for healthcare reform, the president held his fourth primetime press conference to make the case to the American public on the urgency of changing the nation’s healthcare system. Specifically he needed to answer the question, “What’s in these reforms for me?â€
He began by linking the need for a system overhaul to the nation’s growing deficit. Obama also emphasized that reform will benefit those who are currently insured but at risk of losing their coverage if they lose their jobs.
“Let me be clear: if we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit. If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket,†Obama said. “If we do not act, 14,000 Americans will continue to lose their health insurance every single day. These are the consequences of inaction. These are the stakes of the debate we’re having right now.â€
He tried to reassure the public that they will be able to keep their doctors and coverage and said that “that health reform not be paid for on the backs of middle-class families.â€
Although the president was very straightforward about what he believes are the adverse economic ramifications of doing nothing, he was less so when asked by reporters such questions as what sorts of sacrifices people will have to make in terms of what gets covered and who will pay for it.
How exactly reform will be paid for is perhaps the biggest question of all and the president answered it by saying, “What I’ve said is that there may be a number of different ways to raise money. I put forward what I thought was the best proposal, which was to
limit the deductions, the itemized deductions, for the wealthiest Americans.†The problem with that response, however, is that lawmakers on Capitol Hill are extremely unlikely to support such an idea and have, in fact, already rejected it.But the president did suggest that he could support a proposal from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that would impose a surtax on the wealthiest Americans.
Obama also addressed the need for a public option by pointing to record profits recently reported by insurance companies at a time when ordinary Americans are being “hammered†by asking some questions of his own.
“What’s the constraint on that? How can you ensure that those costs aren’t being passed onto employers or passed onto employees, the American people, ordinary middle-class families, in a way that over time is going to make them broke?†he asked. His solution is a public option to compete with private insurers.
Lawmakers are currently in the midst of intense debate over
how best to reform healthcare and may not meet the president’s deadline to pass legislation before they leave Washington for the August recess. An informal poll of more than half of the Congressional Black Caucus members on Wednesday found that several are uncertain whether it will be possible. Reps. Robert Scott of Virginia and G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina said that it was more important to “get it right†than to meet a deadline.Some people believe that not getting this legislation passed could be a defining moment that will reshape the rest of Obama’s presidency by emboldening Republicans who have strongly opposed Democratic-led proposals.
Initially, said Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, “Once they feel like they’ve got a foothold, they’ll fee free to attack him and the time he takes fending that off is time and energy that could be used to move forward and get things done. I think it would be hurtful.â€
Alabama Rep. Artur Davis has a different view. “The public wants to know
one thing and that is when this economy is going to turn around. They’re going to judge his presidency next year before the midterms based on what happens on the economy and if it turns around, he’ll get credit for that,†said Davis.Interestingly, the biggest news of the night centered on race rather than healthcare when Obama was asked about the arrest last week of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates.
“… I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact,†said Obama.