Health Care Slow Fade Or, The Revolt Of The Headline Writers
July 18, 2009
justoneminute.typepad.com
Someone at the WaPo is keeping a candle in the window for Obama's health care reform. Our Saturday is enlivened by a little scuffle amongst the headline writers.
On Google, Twitter, and Memeorandum we can find this headline:
Concerns Over Health-Care Reform's Scope, Price Tag Slow Momentum
However, the links take us to a story with a new headline:
Obama Urges Bolder Action to Shrink Costs
Like any good American I prefer bolder action to hand-wringing about "concerns"; the revised headline is also a space saver, which may be a consideration for the dead tree WaPo. That said, the new headline really does point in a much more Obama-philic direction.
By way of contrast, Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times borders on snarky with his coverage of the latest Obama plea for health care reform:
The president knows his keystone program is in deep trouble and losing momentum. That's why his organization is sending out all those e-mails and organizing local discussion groups to mobilize grassroots support and why he drags the subject into everything he talks about. Why he even dragged it into a speech Thursday night celebrating the NAACP's centennial. And he'll no doubt focus on the same subject in his weekly address tomorrow (Text here as always at 3 a.m. Pacific Saturday).
"Now is not the time to slow down," he pleads.
Which sounds much like winter's successful argument for urgent passage of the economic stimulus bill, whose benefits have yet to appear. We gotta do this now doesn't always work the second time around.
Obama insists Congress get a healthcare reform program drafted before its members leave on....
... Aug. 7 for their next long vacation. Why? Because members may get an earful back home from the 70% of Americans who say they are satisfied with their healthcare plans and the estimated 98% who don't want higher taxes to pay for reforms that benefit others now and maybe them later someday, who knows.
And if Obama doesn't get his beloved healthcare reforms this year when his party has such firm control of both chambers of Congress, 2010 is a midterm election year when such immense spending will be even more controversial and when, historically, the White House party loses members in Congress. (And unemployment rates are predicted to continue rising.)
Trouble in paradise.
Posted by Tom Maguire on July 18, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (94) | TrackBack (0) |
