Impressions on Selling the Health Bill

Last night the President did a press conference to push his health care plan where his most effective answer was unrelated to his topic. At times he was extremely defensive. At others he was downright incoherent. I watched it on CSPAN. If the only input I had on this issue were the press conference - I would be sure that the President would lose on this issue.

I thought his answer on Henry Louis Gates, although I know nothing on the case in question, was on point.

Right after the press conference CSPAN covered a short press conference of the minority leaders of the house and senate. You can tell who is in the minority - no mikes for the reporters - but their comments were actually pretty good. Both Senator McConnel and Minority Leader Boehner think they are on the offensive. And even without being able to hear the reporter's questions they were pretty good at getting their points out. So the second impression was that the President is on the defensive.

Finally, there were two short press availabilities by the Chair of the Finance Committee (Max Baucus) and Kent Conrad. The Senate has appointed a six member committee to work on the health care issue. Baucus came out of meetings and said that they were working hard on the issues involved and that while the President was not going to get a bill in August, the working group was thinking through the issues. He was gracious toward the President's exuberance but also respectful of using the process to craft legislation. Conrad, who is not one of my favorite members, was also pretty good. From those snippets I got the distinct impression that the Senate might come up with a bill that makes sense.

In the end from my perspective the President's plan is in trouble and at least as it was proposed by the administration it should be. One of the best parts of the policy process, when it works however, is that sometimes it works because of the efforts of people like Baucus and Conrad.

In 1986 the Tax Reform Act was made possible because of the the inside work of a couple of senators like Packwood and staffers like Bill Diefendorfer. President Reagan's contribution to the process was to understand that the president is best in setting large goals and then letting the process work. From my perspective, Obama's role at this point is now too involved in the details. That could make the whole thing fail. Is it 1991 or 1986. If the President wants to win on this he should go back and look at how Reagan did it with the TRA.