Extended speech may have done more harm than good
Last week, President Obama addressed Congress to push his health care reform plan.
What was originally a 30-minute speech was extended to 45 minutes, but did the longer speech help the President’s plan or hurt it?
When it was revealed the speech would be longer, people thought Obama would be going into more details about his plan. But that didn’t happen.
While he did give an outline of his plan, including some details, only 51 percent of the President’s speech was actually about the specifics of the plan.
The other 49 percent ranged from Republicans and Democrats working together to Ted Kennedy’s dream about health care to the reasons that we need health care reform (surely that has already been expressed enough by members of both parties).
But what exactly was the goal of the President’s speech? Was it to convince Americans that his plan is a good plan? Was it to convince Congressmen his plan is a good plan? Or was it a combination of the two?
If his goal was to convince Americans of his plan, I would say the President did a decent job. He appealed to the emotions of people by giving specific examples of why we need health care reform. He showed this is something he truly believes in and is passionate about.
Both of those had a positive impact on most Americans. Where the President could have improved is in the details.
A lot of Americans are skeptical of change, especially to a system so vital to their lives as health care. A lot of Americans wanted to hear the details of the President’s plan.
Will a public option be included in the plan, or will the President simply push for an insurance cooperative? How will the President enforce his mandate that “individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance”? Where are the areas that the plan will help save money, and what spending cuts will Obama make if he is forced to cut spending?
These are just a few of the details the President should have addressed in his speech if he wanted to ease the worries of Americans.
If his goal was to sway lawmakers to support his plan, he did a very poor job.
The President is most likely going to need at least a few Republicans to support his plan, but while he conceded some points such as malpractice reform, he made more enemies on the Republican side of the isle than friends.
Taking jabs at the Iraq war and George W. Bush’s tax cuts will not help the President win over Republicans and, without the support of some Republicans, I don’t see the President’s plan passing the Senate.
The President needs to take his own advice and stop both the partisanship and taking jabs at Republicans, or he will find himself not signing any significant health care reform bill this year.
