Greg Sargent is reporting that the message from the White House to congressional staff is that Obama will recommit to real reform tonight.
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told Capitol Hill staffers on a private briefing call that in his speech tonight, Obama will leave no doubt that his commitment to addressing health care is as strong right now as it was in his September speech, a White House official tells me.
The official also said Pfeiffer told Hill staff that Obama will offer “additional details.”
“We’re going to let the President’s words speak for themselves,” is the message Pfeiffer delivered to Hill staff, according to the official. “There will be additional details that he will share tonight, and he will make it clear that his commitment to addressing this challenge in a comprehensive way is as strong today as it was when he stood in the same spot in September to address the nation on health care.”
The devil will be in those additional details, whether he'll get into the specifics of how Congress should proceed. The House has said loud and clear that they are ready, as long as the Senate agrees to meet them halfway. Rank and file Dems on both sides of the Hill have grumbled over the past week that direction from the White House has been lacking. That could change tonight, but the best news out of these hints from Pfeiffer is that Obama won't be calling for scaled down reform and will urge Congress to move forward on real reform. We won't know until tonight, but the indications so far are encouraging.