Obama Says Health Care Bill Will Happen

After returning from his trip abroad, President Obama has turned up the heat on Congress to get a health care bill done before the August recess. The president met with both Democratic Congressional leaders and "Blue Dog" conservative Democrats in an effort to get the bill back on track.

After announcing his new nominee for Surgeon General (Dr. Regina Benjamin) in a Rose Garden ceremony, the president told Americans, "Don't bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen." He went on to say, "I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone. Inaction is not an option."

The president also ruled out any taxes on people making less than $250,000. He said, "During the campaign I promised health care reform that would control costs, expand coverage and ensure choice and I promised that Americans making $250,000 a year or less would not pay more in taxes. These are promises that we're keeping as reform moves forward."

I believe the president will probably get a health care bill by the August recess. The question is what kind of bill it will be. Will it solve the current problems with health care and also cover the uninsured? Or will it just be a gigantic payday for the private insurance companies and leave an insurance company employee of making our health care decisions.

If it is the latter, then it will all have been in vain. There must be a public health insurance option in the bill, or we'll just be left with a more expensive version of what we already have. And that won't help anyone.

I don't have much (if any) faith in the Senate. I believe the House will pass a fairly good bill with a public insurance option. But there is a good chance that bill will be butchered in the Senate. With a weak Majority Leader and too many "Blue Dogs", the Senate is far more likely to knuckle under to the giant insurance companies.

There's just too much insurance money waiting to flow into campaign chests -- money that can never be matched by ordinary citizens who are the victims of the current system. I hope I'm being too cynical, but I doubt it.