Facing mounting doubts about health care reform proposals as they become reality – “To be candid with you, I don’t know that he has the votes right now,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said on CNN Sunday, “I think there’s a lot of concern in the Democratic caucus” – President Obama today tried to rekindle some of campaign enthusiasm that swept him into office last November.
Addressing those “here in Washington who've grown accustomed to sky-is-falling prognoses and the certainties that we cannot get this done, I have to repeat and revive an old saying we had from the campaign: ‘Yes, we can,’” the President said Monday morning. “We are going to get this done.”
So why is support slipping ?? Maybe this aspect of the plan:
In the last week, health care reform efforts have been shaken by Congressional Budget Office analyses of draft health care reform bills by Baucus and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., indicating the legislation will cost between $1 and $1.6 trillion dollars over the next ten years, with cost savings and coverage not as ambitious as White House officials are hoping for.
It could also be that Americans are figuring out that promises from Obama should not be taken as, well ..., how do I put this ... promises. Even the spin meisters at the AP are even figuring that out.
White House officials suggest the president's rhetoric shouldn't be taken literally: What Obama really means is that government isn't about to barge in and force people to change insurance.
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MIT's Jonathan Gruber, a leading health economist, said Obama's promise shouldn't be taken as a sign that Americans will be able to keep indefinitely the same coverage they have now.
"With or without reform, that won't be true," said Gruber. "His point is that the government is not going to force you to give up what you have, but that's not to say other circumstances won't make that happen."
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