WashPost
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Better late than never. Now that President Obama has finally put a health-care proposal on the table, the Democratic leadership in Congress has only one rational course of action: Pass the thing, and quickly, or risk becoming the loyal minority.
Should the president have done this a year ago? Yes, it would have been nice to know where his bottom line was -- indeed, that he had a bottom line -- given that health-care reform was his top legislative priority. At least some of the pointless drama could have been avoided.
House Democrats might not have dug in their heels over the need for a public option if they knew that, in the end, Obama wouldn't call for one. There might have been less angst over taxing "Cadillac" health plans if everyone knew that Obama, despite his campaign pledge, would ultimately support the idea.
And there might have been less nervousness among Democrats in both the House and Senate if they knew that Obama's plan would include a novel component that sounds like a political winner: giving federal officials the power to curb abusive and unjustified premium hikes by insurance companies. This gives incumbents a much better story to tell when they face the voters this fall.
(More here.)
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