Obama’s ‘Slowly, But Surely’ Health Care Strategy

So it looks like we’ll be getting health care reform in a matter of months. That is, if Democrats don’t overplay their hand.

From NY Times:

The Senate Finance Committee chairman, Max Baucus of Montana, described “a sense of inevitability, the sense that, yes, we’re going to pass health reform.” In interviews, senior advisers to the president said the progress on Capitol Hill vindicated Mr. Obama’s strategy of leaving the details up to lawmakers, though they are wary of sounding overconfident. [...]

In the House, where leaders have vowed to pass a bill by Nov. 11, a fight over abortion coverage could still imperil the legislation, and Mr. Obama could lose some votes from liberals upset that the bill includes a weakened “public option,” a government insurance plan to compete with the private sector. Mr. Obama, trying to keep progressives in line, met with them Thursday night in the White House Roosevelt Room.

“He is making the case to them that this isn’t the exact bill you’d write, however, let’s take a step back and look at what we’re about to do here, and what a historic moment this will be,” said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting.

Now, it was my understanding that Obama had let the health care legislation form in the early days, but now they were getting involved with drafting specific legislation. Maybe that’s not the case at this point, but one has to think they’re beginning to get more and more involved.

Here’s the question: Will the more liberal Dems get out of the way and acknowledge the reality that this isn’t going to be exactly what they want, but it’s a hell of lot better than nothing?

(Photo: Getty via Daylife)