HEALTH REFORM: Fired Up and Ready to Go Fix Health Care

Speaking to a big enthusiastic crowd of workers at the AFL-CIO's Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati, President Obama looked to regain the momentum on health reform by recapturing some of the magic his campaign. (Full text here)

"In every debate there comes a time to decide, a time to act," the president said. For health care reform, "[T]hat time is now."

Responding to cries of "Yes we can" with "Yes, we will," the President prepared for what may be the biggest speech of his administration before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.

Laying out the goals of reform, Obama sounded confident in our nation's prospects for achieving them.

"We've never been this close. We've never had such broad agreement on what needs to be done," he said, "And because we're so close to real reform, the special interests are doing what they always do -- trying to scare the American people and preserve the status quo."

He hit back against those who would derail the debate with deceits and misinformation, asking "all those folks who say we're going to pull the plug on Grandma. What's your answer? What's your solution? And you know what? They don't have one. Their answer is to do nothing."

On issues of policy the president  continued to offer his support for a public health insurance option "within the basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs," while leaving the door open for compromise.

What those compromises will be should become clearer, as both Houses of Congress returned to session today from the August Recess. The biggest news so far, comes from the Senate Finance Committee, where Chairman Max Baucus released a "framework for comprehensive health reform." The 18 page document outlines a package of reforms which includes income subsidies up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level and proposes consumer run co-ops in place of a public health insurance option. The total cost of the overhaul comes in at $900 billion  over 10 years. As of Tuesday afternoon, the rest of Baucus's Bipartisan Gang of Six senators negotiating on health reform had reserved judgment on Baucus's proposal, Politico reports.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post details the challenges ahead for House Democrats as they try to keep everyone from Blue Dogs to progressives on board with reform:

They are in almost the exact position they were in when they left the Capitol in late July. Conservatives are still leery of supporting a government-funded, or public, insurance option. Freshman lawmakers from suburban districts remain fearful of increasing taxes for their wealthy constituents to pay for the new measure and await alternatives from moderate Senate Democrats. And progressives, who are demanding the most far-reaching reform since the Great Depression, are still threatening to bring down the legislation if it does not contain a robust version of the public option.

That said, proponents of reform seem optimistic. The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn has an excellent piece explaining why reform survived the August Recess and even conservative Charles Krauthammer, no friend of the administration, thinks we'll "pass some version of health insurance reform." What that something is remains to be seen, but we'll have a better idea after tomorrow night.