Insta-thoughts on Health Care speech

A) I was disappointed. I fully expected a be-cloaked Dick Cheney to throw open the doors and openly challenge Obama to a wizard's duel.

B) Obama impressively stole the best of the Republican ideas from Romney and McCain. On top of that, he spoke like a conservative, all about competition, choice, rugged individualism, limited government, etc. Whether he means it or not, the point is his rhetoric was not dripping with liberality. Fascinating. I think congressional Republicans are in a bind. He's talking like them, he took their ideas, and he addressed their crazy attacks. Oh, and his plan seems pretty palatable.

C) I think the major hang up is cost. I don't think they'll find the 900 billion in Medicare that they say they will. The question is whether the public will care about spending an extra 100 billion a year on health care, especially as Iraq and Afghanistan (about 150 billion a year) wind down, and especially as deficits are now in the trillions. What's an extra hundred billion a year when we pass stimuli and economic recovery plans that are 500 billion or more? (Christina pointed out: Is it really that big a deal to add 100 billion to the deficit? Not if the economy recovers...)

D) I liked the Republican response. I was actually surprised at how close it hewed to Obama's plan. At this point, I really think the Republicans are going to deal. They seem so close.

E) Karl Rove represents everything wrong with the Republican party. We happened to catch him talking with Bill O'Reilly after the speech. I typically dislike O'Reilly. But even he found Rove to be petty and stupid. All of Rove's attacks on Obama's plan were minor and technical ("He keeps saying he won't cover illegals but then he uses the 47 million uninsured figure which includes illegals!" Uh, Karl, if the bill says "No illegals" than no illegals). I'm really understanding why the Bush administration seemed so petty and mean-spirited. (For all you hard right-wingers, O'Reilly was actually supportive of a number of planks in the Obama plan. I did not expect that, but I think it was because there are a number of conservative principles in the plan.)

F) I still get moved by the hypothetical example of parents not being able to pay for their children's health problems. That's one of those equality issues that really sticks in my craw. And sure, it might just be an example. Not sure the data on it. But such an inequality is allowable in the current system and that bugs me.