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President Barack Obama seemed to fulfill the expectations of his allies, who had two simple requests for him from this speech (posted in full after the jump): Give us a plan, and give us a narrative to sell it in.The plan he described will not surprise anyone who has followed the debate over health care. It contains an individual mandate and a limited employer mandate, subsidies for the poor, a health insurance exchange that includes new regulations to protect consumers, and, yes, a public plan. He targeted his case first for the haves, promising no changes to those with insurance, government or private, and improvements to prevent insurance companies form being capricious with the insured -- better care for those who already have care that's just all right. For the have nots, he promised insurance, even if they didn't want it. It's all defensible, but not remarkable.His discussion of the public option will be sure to prick ears -- throughout the day administration officials set it up as a sacrificial lamb for the slaughter, something the president wants but isn't prepared to veto a bill for. His argument for the plan was small-ball and mainly designed to give him an opportunity to be an equal-opportunity centrist, reminding progressives that a public plan does not health-care reform make (though they might disagree) and taking Republicans to task for making wild claims (though they might not care). Nonetheless, his discussion of the plan keeps the conversation alive, and, for the moment, pushed to the left. On costs, he was very strong, promising a deficit neutral bill that saves money and even putting his money where his mouth is with a "trigger" proposal of his own -- one that will result in spending cuts if savings do not materialize. (A good bet, given the chronic underestimations in health-care savings by government economists.) His argument that the plan costs less than both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, and the Bush tax cuts, should resonate more than perhaps it will among the deficit hawks. But more important than the plan was the narrative. Earlier today, Rep. Tom Perriello said he wanted to hear about a "new capitalism for the common good," and I think the president's words should satisfy him. Obama talked about the need for competition -- especially with the public plan -- and provided an eloquent defense of American liberalism in this paragraph:
You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, and the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter – that at that point we don’t merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.The use of the letter from Sen. Ted Kennedy, was, I thought, well done, and none too crass. He used it to emphasize the bipartisan nature of his speech -- despite the promise that he "will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than improve it," this was a bipartisan speech. It started with Theodore Roosevelt, recalled the McCain campaign and ended with a list of Republican senators who had crossed the aisle before. That may be the one difference between the president and the leadership in Congress: Symbolically and, perhaps seriously, he wants Republican support for this bill. And his allies in Congress know they will not have it, at least not more than a few brave centrists (quite the oxymoron). Sitting in the gallery above the president as he spoke, perhaps the most arresting moment of the speech (besides the soaring oratory at the end) was when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "you lie!" after the president promised his plan would not cover illegal immigrants. From the gasps in the press gallery and the phone calls going on around me now, Wilson may well be the story of the day tomorrow. But for an independent watching Obama's generous speech, the contrast can only work in the president's favor.
--Tim Fernholz
