By now hopefully you’ve seen (or read) President Obama’s speech to Congress on health care. It was a big one, and no doubt the blogosphere and the punditocracy have already weighed in on the thing about 50,000 times already. But I have neither read nor watched a single post-game assessment, as I wanted my own thoughts on the matter to be fresh and unpolluted by the opinions of other influence-peddlers (though I admit it may be mildly polluted by beer, since I went out for a few after the speech–but that’s neither here nor there). So: here’s how I thought the President fared on what I thought were the must-have components for this speech.
(1) Laying the smackdown on the Republicans. Grade: A
Honestly, this was a thing of beauty. The President very forcefully confronted the GOP on three central levels. First, he called out Republicans for perpetuating a whole lot of lies about health care reform. He suggested their antics were a “partisan spectacle” of thinly veiled “scare tactics” and takes on three sticking points on the Right–Palin’s moronic “death panels” claim, concerns about illegal immigration, and the fear of a government takeover of health care–directly and unequivocally. He calls them straight up “lie[s].”
Second, he identified Republican Senators who had a history of working with Ted Kennedy by name: Orrin Hatch, John McCain, and Chuck Grassley. The power of this moment lay in the fact that Obama was essentially saying ‘hey! Remember your good friend, Ted Kennedy? Health care reform was incredibly important to him–so where are you guys now?’ in the most high-profile forum imaginable. Right now the Republican machine is running on autopilot, acting as a petulant spoiler for health care reform, and the party’s elder statesmen and cooler heads have been conspicuously absent from the fray. Obama called them out.
Third, and most impressively, Obama took on the entire conservative ideology, at least in its most radical form. He explicitly defended the notion that sometimes government intervention is both okay and necessary because it has “to help deliver” on the promise “of security and fair play.” And he made clear that right-wingers who think any productive government policy is akin to socialism actively erode the fiber of our nation:
[W]hen 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 – …at that point we don’t merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.
Beautiful.
(2) Making the Moral Case. Grade: B+
The President rattled off a couple of meaty human interest stories related to health care, but he did so in a fairly mechanical way. He mentioned a man who had his chemotherapy halted midway by his insurance company and a woman with breast cancer whose policy was canceled because she “forgot to declare a case of acne.” But he never mentions their names nor delves into their life story. Granted, he had only a limited amount of time–but the sentimental case for health care carries the most punch when it’s couched in the stories of peoples’ lives, rather than just brief anecdotes.
Obama did do a good job of making the broader moral case that our health care system is unconscionable and that “no one should [suffer the struggles of the people mentioned above] in the United States of America.” But still, in terms of focus, the moral thrust of Obama’s argument was primarily about civil discourse, political reconciliation, and policy appropriateness rather than the moral imperative presented by our broken health care system. Clearly, the President thinks that health care reform is the right thing to do–but listening to the speech, he still couldn’t quite move away from stressing its correctness as a policy and its value as a ‘coming together moment’ for America. This is obviously important, but doesn’t quite get to the core of the moral argument for health care reform (nor does the invocation of Ted Kennedy’s legacy which–while powerful and moving–was more about softening up legislators than promoting health care to the public, I think).
(3) Solidifying the policy details. Grade: B
Honestly, there wasn’t much in this speech that was new in terms of policy. He reiterated that existing insurance policies won’t be revoked, that insurance companies will be required to operate more fairly with regards to customers, the need for an individual mandate, the importance of employer pay or play initiatives, and the importance of the health insurance exchange and within it, the public option.
But the President was oddly wishy-washy on the public option. He spent a lot of time talking about how excellent it would be but then said that conservatives shouldn’t worry because only about 5% of people in the U.S. would ever end up with its coverage. The message seemed to be that he’d prefer the public option was included, in health care reform, but that he’s ultimately more concerned that the choice of the exchange is preserved. This is a perfectly reasonable position, but doesn’t do much to clarify the matter for those who have strong feelings about the public option on the Left and the Right. All in all, however, he was solid on the policy (as always) and its presentation, so you can’t complain too much.
Indeed, this was a very solid speech, made all the more powerful by Obama’s poise and presentation skills, which I think crank up its final score to an A-. I think it’s difficult to say that this speech wasn’t a game-changer; at the very least, it reminded Democratic legislators of why they shouldn’t back down on this issue on a variety of levels, and that’s an important achievement at this stage in the process when resolve may begin to waver.
Bonus Reads: Peter Hyman on what he learned from his brain surgery, plus video and reactions from around the web.
Niko Karvounis
Niko Karvounis' writing has appeared in popular publications like Slate, Mother Jones, and AlterNet, as well as specialty journals such as Medicare Patient Management and Theoretical Criminology. His work has been cited by the New York Times, National Journal, The American Prospect, ...
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Robert Dabney says:
This is just sad...I hope it is not your job to fluff for Obama because even on the Daily Kos this would not be considered a good article.
Obama lied in his speech. All of the bills under consideration do include coverage for illegal immigrants. Also without the Hyde amendment added to the bills, they cover abortions. I do not know if you are unaware of the facts or are simply lying as well.
You know why it was not a game changer because most Americans opposed the socialization of medicine and they will not stand for it. Obama was ignored. When CNN sought to poll people on this they had a sample that was 48% Democrats. Do you know why? Because most Americans are sick of Obama and ignored his speech.
Jeff says:
The "couple of meaty human interest stories related to health care" were gross misrepresentations of the facts.
The man had his insurance reinstated and live for 2-3 more years.
The woman's "acne" was called precancerous by the dermatologist. She had left that and other pertient points of her medical history out. She was dropped, because she lied.