Devildawg15's blog: "Obama's Healthcare Speech"

Wednesday night, President Obama welcomed legislators back to Washington by addressing a joint session of Congress on his grand plan to remake American health care.

The speech came in the wake of what was undoubtedly the most difficult month for proponents of the Left's health care plan, as the American people made their views on this "reform" clear at heated town hall meetings across the country.

In his speech, the President acknowledged that "there remain some
significant details to be ironed out" -- an understatement that drew
chuckles from members of both parties. But while the speech was
heralded by the Left, Heritage Vice President Mike Gonzalez points out
that the President only grazed the surface, skirting substantive
answers to the tough questions about his plan.

Absent, of course, was how exactly all the savings he confidently
predicted would materialize, how exactly the government would prevent employers from dumping all their employees into a government plan and how czars and boards would operate without bureaucrats coming between Americans and their doctors.

Even the President's math was a bit fuzzy. Heritage's J.D. Foster
suggests lawmakers take a very close look at the budget projections
before deciding that the health care plan is really "deficit neutral."

Most notable, perhaps, was the President's failure to dispose of, once
and for all, the "public option" -- the contentious proposal for the
government to offer a health insurance plan to "compete" with private
insurers. One wonders how liberals remain committed to this big-government option even after "town hall protesters by the thousands jeered the concept; poll numbers reflected a small minority of support; [and] study after study showed that millions of Americans would be forced out of their private plans, that it wasn't paid for, and that it would lead to bureaucratic rationing."

President Obama did express a willingness to work with both parties to
address "any legitimate concerns." For example, it was the
first time the President opened the door to medical malpractice
reform. Conservatives have long advocated reforming the legal system to prevent abuses of this system, albeit at the state level. But tort reform is just one of many "legitimate concerns" opponents have.

Congress needs to "step back and start over on
health care" reform. This would require tossing out the public option,
rejecting individual and employer mandates and ditching the tangled
maze of new federal regulations and Medicaid expansion. Lawmakers
should pursue ideas that hold to traditional American principles and
offer real results. Such ideas include: empowering states to
experiment with their own reforms; allowing Americans to purchase
health insurance across state lines; and implementing tax reforms that would allow individuals to purchase the coverage that best suits them and their families.

Unfortunately, the President failed to put any of these ideas on the
table during his speech, indicating that the toughest battles remain
ahead. Now is the time for "more conservatives to talk boldly and
plainly about what we're for," and "what we're dead set against."