President Obama will clarify his health care reform principles before a joint session of Congress Wednesday, and a number of White House officials have come forward to suggest that the public option will not be among them. If that’s the case, it will devastate the large segment of the reform community that regards the public option as one of the most crucial elements of legislation.
“The question is what’s he gonna do in a week,” says Richard Kirsch, campaign director for Health Care for America Now. “He’s giving his address next Wednesday. We have to see what the President says.”
HCAN is an umbrella group for dozens of influential liberal interest groups supporting reform.
“A lot of people will be disappointed if he doesn’t continue to show his commitment [to the public option], but hopefully he will,” Kirsch tells me.
His remarks indicate that if the President does not at least continue to articulate his personal preference for a public option, he’ll be crossing a line.
“You win by rallying your supporters and convincing the middle,” Kirsch says. “You don’t win by disappointing your supporters and confusing the middle.”
Amid today’s controversy, Obama’s political arm Organizing for America is continuing to push for a public option. So isn’t the White House sending (at best) mixed messages about the public option?
“White Houses have a history of floating trial balloons,” Kirsch adds. “What will really matter is what the president says Wednesday.”
