President Obama will give a speech on his health care plan in a few days. It's beginning to look like he will cave on one of his central campaign themes: a government insurance plan as a central part of health care reform. He campaigned on the promise of a robust publically funded health insurance plan as a counterweight to the greed and inefficiency of private insurance companies. Without the so called public option, adding 46 million uninsured Americans to the ranks of the privately insured will simply funnel billions more of government subsidy money to the same insurance companies that pay ridiculous bonuses to their top exec's, routinely deny legitimate claims and deny insurance based upon pre-existing conditions, and additionally, pay less than 70 cents of every premium dollar to doctors and hospitals as opposed to Medicare which pays 97 cents of every "premium" dollar out to doctors and hospitals. Now, apparently, that "public option" will go the way of the Edsel, and perhaps the way of Obama's non-existent second term.
President Obama has been an exemplary leader. He has brought disparate segements of the population together by outlining a vision of the possible that captures the imaginations of people to such a degree that they will work to bring that vision into being. That he has done so in Chicago as a community organizer is wonderful. He has yet to demonstrate any leadership as President.
Obama and all the other Democrats elected in 2008 were elected for two reasons: to repair our democracy from the destruction it suffered during the eight Bush/Cheney years, and to bring about universal health care in order to bring the United States into the moral universe of other rich, industrial nations that provide access to health care as a right and not simply as a privilege to the rich. The 2008 election was a clear enunication of the electorate's wishes in the area of universal health care. Democrats, including Obama, promised that they would deliver universal health care if the House, Senate and White House were Democratic. The American electorate did their part. Now it's time for Obama to do his.
The irony of Obama's tactics are tragic. A President's only important function is to outline a vision of the possible, in this case universal health care. He has done so brilliantly during the 2008 campaign. He has energized the Democratic Party, and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that had been pretty much ignored by the Clinton Administration and called traitors by the Bush/Cheney criminal gang.
By abandoning the public option, Obama will dilute his vision of the possible to such an extent that progressives will not feel compelled to work to achieve it. Can he be a leader if no progressives will follow? And the tragedy of Obama's tactical stupidity is that he is diluting his vision to get votes from Republicans who will never support his vision no matter how much Obama eviscerates it in order to get them to do so. They will never follow him. Obama will destroy his Presidency by seeking the votes of Republicans who want to destroy his Presidency. He is making it too easy.
If I were Obama, my speech would last one sentence. "To bring about my vision of universal health care for Americans I ask Congress to amend the law establishing Medicare by deleting the words 'over 65 years of age." That would be leadership. That would re-energize the people who elected Obama and who put Democrats back into the majority in the House and the Senate. And he should remind Republicans that the vast majority of Americans want universal health care, and he should remind the country that it will be the Democratic Party that delivers, just as it was with Social Security, just as it was with Medicare. The Republican Party is the part of obfuscation and the party of privilege. But Obama, in his desire to build bridges to nowhere, will not say that.
Unfortunately, Obama will commit political suicide this week. And the Republicans won't even say thank you.