ProudProgressive

The polls continue the trend I wrote about last week, in showing that a majority of Americans support, “a health insurance plan administered by the federal government that would compete with private health insurers”.

So why is Republican Representative John Boehner still saying things like, “House Republicans want to hear what the president has to say, but after the public outcry this August, it’s clear the American people don’t want a new speech. They want a new plan”? Why is commentator David Brooks writing, “Driven by this general anxiety, and by specific concerns, public opposition to health care reform is now steady and stable. Independents once solidly supported reform. Now they have swung against it…. You can’t pass the most important domestic reform in a generation when the majority of voters think you are on the wrong path”?

And why is the Obama administration continuing to kowtow to the Republicans and conservative Democrats, as exhibited by the following, “”It’s so important to get a deal,” a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid about strategy. “He will do almost anything it takes to get one.”"

It should be clear by now that the Republicans don’t want a deal; they want to block reform. As Senator Enzi, one of the supposed “gang of six” working on a deal in the Senate said recently, “It’s not where I get them to compromise, it’s what I get them to leave out,… If I hadn’t been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care,…”

In Obama’s address to Congress next week, he should stop trying to compromise with people who have no interest in compromising, and encourage Congress to pass a bill of real reform, by reconciliation if necessary.

Tags: Barack Obama, david brooks, health care reform, john boehner, public option, reconciliation, senator enzi