Numerous reports now suggest that President Obama’s health care speech tonight will include a fairly ringing endorsement of–though not a demand for–a public option. And though from all accounts, Obama’s position on the public option (supportive, but not insistent) will remain unchanged, the development might come as a surprise to those who were paying close attention to the news last week. And, if it’s emphatic enough, it will be a welcome sign to reformers that the public option will fight another day.
On Wednesday, a number White House officials began whispering to members of the White House press corps that the public option was on its way out–a trial balloon that led George Stephanopoulos to ask, “What is “death with dignity” for the public option?”
Ann Compton inferred that the public option was “gone but not forgotten.” Even we noticed that White House Adviser David Axelrod was referring to the public option (and the President’s support for it) in the past tense.
In the ensuing days, though, progressives really turned up the heat on the administration, urging Obama to, at the very least, articulate his support for the public option in his speech. Without at least a modest gesture, they argued, the public option would be as good as dead.
Those advocates seem to have gotten their way. Obama will reportedly make a strong, affirmative case for a public option, and dispel certain falsehoods about the sort of government plan that Congress is considering. According to the Wall Street Journal Obama will make the point that the public option he envisions “will not provide a level of subsidies that give it an unfair advantage over private insurers, according to aides familiar with the speech preparations.”
The question is, how much wiggle room will he leave for himself. By some accounts, quite a bit. But if he leaves reformers with the impression that his personal commitment to a public option remains strong, they’ll be there fighting on its behalf tomorrow, and into next week.
